Results tagged “art” from The official blog of Vat19.com

Holy cannoli, I am in love with this TV stand. I feel bad calling it a TV stand, because that sounds so boring and commonplace, and this beauty is neither of those.

This TV Easel (name still doesn't do it justice) is constructed of solid hardwood and is height-adjustable to fit flat-screen televisions from 42" - 60". It's tough to tell from the photo, but there is a shelf on the bottom for your DVD player, cable box, and/or gaming console. It also has locking wheels on the bottom, and could also be used for a mirror or actual artwork. Oh, and the antiqued ebony finish is hand-applied in a four-step process.

So, you know what all this means, right? It's pricey. $995 at Restoration Hardware. Oh if I had $1000 to spare...

Sunprints are seriously magic. All you need to create these unique photographs, also called cyanotypes, are sunlight, light-sensitive paper, water, and whatever object you want to photograph (leaves, coins, flowers, etc). The Sunlight Print Kit includes the light-sensitive paper, instruction/project booklet, templates, and a pen for marking your photographs. Mother Nature will provide the sunlight, water, and your inspiration. Here are a couple examples:

Cool, huh? Now that summer is nearing, this would make a great outdoor activity for kids, as well as adults who just need a fun and creative outlet. And be sure to check out Vat19.com for even more outdoor fun!

Am I missing something? Is there a well-known joke or story that goes along with this sculpture that I'm completely unaware of? Is this some sort of political statement on how we all should get over our differences and just get along? Or maybe a prediction on the future evolution of the trout?

Or is it simply a cowboy ... riding an oversized trout ... that has sprouted wheels?

If so, color me speechless.

As times change, catch phrases, slang, advice, and proverbs (to name just a few things!) are bound to also change.

I recently came across 65 Modern Proverbs by Nikki Farquharson. This book, which I don't think is for sale, is a collection of proverbs that have been modified to fit today's world. For example, the old Friedrich Nietzsche quote "That which does not kill us makes us stronger" had been updated to "That which does not kill us scars us for life". And isn't that the truth? I don't know exactly what meaning she intended (or if I should even think about it so much!), but I can see it in two different ways. Sometimes something happens that totally weakens you and in no way strengthens you. That experience, as they say, has scarred you for life. In another way, it seems like every time someone does something bad, they fall back on a terrible experience they had in their past as an excuse for being a total jackass today.

Another proverb listed in the book that I like is "A C-lister of all trades is an A-lister of none". True that. Would you rather be reallly really awesome at one thing or just OK at a bunch of stuff?

You can see a few more at Nikki's website. So far, I haven't seen a place where you can read all 65 proverbs. There are also phrases that you can read from her project that inspired 65 Modern Proverbs. One last thing you should check out: this poster created out of coded text. It's awesomely detailed. Could you imagine if someone tried to "write" that on an Etch-A-Sketch!?

Halloween is just a few weeks away, so if you are one of those people (I am!) who carve a pumpkin, you better start thinking of what design you are going to do. Carving a pumpkin is tedious, time-consuming, and messy. Nonetheless, I think it is totally worth it when you are done, put a candle inside, and see how cool you made a boring pumpkin look.

If you like to use patterns when carving your pumpkin, this site has some neat (and free!) patterns for all skill levels.

You might find some inspiration from these awesome jack-o-lanterns. I can't say that I have carved pumpkins as creative as some of these....yet! Maybe this year!

Here are four fabulous Flickr finds.

1. Smiley Pumpkin

This looks awesome even when it isn't lit up!

images source: http://www.flickr.com/photos/minipixel/

2. Ampersand Pumpkin

It is such a simple design, but I've never seen an ampersand carved into a pumpkin, so that's cool.

image source: http://www.flickr.com/photos/criana/

That's right, this is a picnic set made out of LEGOs. Most of us probably played with LEGO blocks as a kid. Building a simple house was a pretty cool achievement, and completing one of the special themed kits was even cooler. However, those kits came with step-by-step instructions, so every kid with that kit was doing the same thing as you.

These examples of LEGO art definitely are not what every kid is building. Heck, most adults probably wouldn't even be able to build such realistic and complicated structures.

For more LEGO art, visit the site of Nathan Sawaya. He's the creator of some of the best pieces of LEGO art I've seen. Pencils, baseball and LEGOville Slugger, candy canes, heads, flowers, etc. You name it, I bet he could make if out of LEGO blocks. Genius.



If you don't have the time or skill to make a LEGO masterpiece of your own, there is a company that will do it for you. Brickworkz will take a photo you send in and make a LEGO mosaic out of it. The mosaics can be black and white or color. Either way, they are totally awesome. Who wouldn't love a one-of-a-kind mosaic made entirely out of LEGOs!?


Check out these creative LEGO ads.

Some people find a pregnant woman to be one of the most beautiful sights. It is no surprise that there are lots of options for women to preserve memories of their pregnancy. Just a few ways that a woman can remember her pregnancy include photos with artistic flair and intriguing lighting, belly casts, journals, and belly paintings.

Yes, your pregnant belly can serve as a canvas. It might sound weird, but it's definitely unique and would make for some pretty neat photos. Hang one of these up in your hallway, and it'll get your guests talking.

The set up for this photo is cute. You could paint pretty much anything round on a belly and it'll be neat.

Hopefully that baby grows up tall and can dunk. She looks like she'll be a fun mom.

We all know pretty much any image can be created and altered with Photoshop. Sometimes the image looks so real you don't even have a suspicion it's a fake. The SelfKiss collection is an impressive example of Photoshop magic used to create photos of people kissing themselves.

Pupsam's website is in French, and the translated page isn't so great. But, the general idea seems to be that these photos capture a single moment of a kiss that will never exist, since it is impossible for it to ever happen.

It probably took a lot of time to make the two photos mesh so well together. If you don't have hours of time and you don't have hella Photoshop skills, maybe you could buy yourself a Gorillapod, set the timer on your camera, and make out with a mirror. (I kid, I kid! Please don't actually do that.) For those of you with an identical twin, don't get any incestuous ideas. Gross.

Call it creepy, narcissistic, homosexual, or whatever else if you want. But, after looking past the unusualness, I actually think these photos are creative and intriguing. It's interesting to see differences in posture, facial expression, hand placement, degree of closeness, lips together or apart, tongue in or out, eyes open or shut, clothes on or off, etc.

You can see 27 SelfKiss photos at Pupsam's website. You know you're curious.

We usually don't blatantly promote our products on our blog, but we are so excited about the Doodlebook Picture Frame we couldn't help it. It is a unique gift, but you'll probably also want one for yourself!

The Doodlebook is a 4x6 picture frame that has an 80-page notebook where the frame would be. If you want to create a new "frame", simply tear off the top sheet and start a new one! Decorating possibilities are endless with the Doodlebook, but here's a few ideas to get you started. After all, you've got room for 80 ideas!

• Doodle, of course!
• Label who is in the photo and where it was taken.
• Write quotes, poetry, or song lyrics.
• Play games, such as Tic-Tac-Toe or Hangman.
• Leave love notes.
• Write reminders or To Do lists.
• Create a flip book. Flip books are awesome, so it'll be well worth the work.
• Want to make fun of a bad photo? Let the frame say it.
• Invite your guests to draw or write. Don't allow lame things you'd see on a bathroom stall like "Beth was here".
• Take down phone messages. Just make sure you remember to tell the receiver to check the frame!
• Let the kids color on it and give as a gift for Mom, Dad, Grandma, or Grandpa. If your kids can't contain their masterpieces to a frame, you might want to get them a larger Art Cabinet for display.
• Solve math equations, geek.
• Write down the website from an infomercial.
• Let the kids decorate with stickers. What kid doesn't loooove stickers?

The Doodlebook Picture Frame is available from our website, www.vat19.com for $14.95.

We're not going to say that we're perfect, because we're not. On the other hand, we can't help but get a little disgusted at the "beautifully big" work of Florence Studios. We spotted it on Neatorama a while back, and the terrible mental images have been with us ever since.

Florence Studios has taken a number of famous works of art and distorted them into obese, gurgling mounds of ceramic flesh. Take a look below, as we've compared Botticelli's Venus to Florence Studio's version for the Weight Watcher set.



While the first Venus isn't exactly a babe by modern day standards, I'm almost positive that Venus wasn't meant to have cankles. Plus, the unspoken endorsement of extreme obesity by comparing it to some of the world's greatest works of art is downright disturbing.

What's your take?

An artist named Peter Callesen makes awesome pieces of artwork out of one piece of paper. Some are very meticulously crafted while others are simple, but all look amazing. I would love to have one of the framed ones...they are quite clever. Check out his website to see more examples.

For most people, getting a thread through the eye of a sewing needle is difficult. They'll try and miss, then lick the thread and try and miss a couple more times.

Willard Wigan is not most people. He creates micro sculptured art that can fit inside the eye of a sewing needle and on top of a pinhead, nail, or tip of a pen. These are the tiniest sculptures I have ever seen.

It's almost unbelievable that something so small can have so much detail. But then again, if a human hair can be split 17 times, I guess the eye of a needle can offer lots of room for achievement.

I'm a fan of taking small objects (such as paper clips or Legos) and making big pieces of art out of it. M&M candies come in plenty of colors for an artist to work with.

It just makes sense to make an image of Eminem out of M&Ms. The guy that made this also makes art from pieces of toast, earning him the nickname The Toastman.

October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month, so here's a couple "pink" works of art made from M&Ms. The first one is a M&M bra from a fashion show benefit and the second one was made by a breast cancer survivor who, despite the fact that she dislikes Mars Inc., made this impressive M&M mosaic.

I don't know that I'd call this art, but painting your entire body green shows some M&M appreciation.

In case you developed a habit of eating only brown M&Ms after watching sort M&Ms by color.

Paper clips are tiny and cheap, but they are among my list of favorite office supplies (right after Post-it notes and Sharpie markers). If you thought that paper clips were confined to desks and used just to hold papers together, think again.

Here are some examples of paper clip art that are pretty impressive. There are more examples at this site.

When I took art classes in school, my supply lists included things such as acrylic paint, coal pencils, and a sketch book. Never did those supply lists include puke, an enema, or menstrual fluid.

I understand that art means different things to different people. What is artistic and beautiful to one person is downright ugly and disgusting to another person. Here are some people who use mediums that are generally considered disgusting to create their artwork.

Some guy named Lance makes himself throw up onto canvases and then blows his vomit around with a straw. He uses food coloring instead of paint. Apparently, Lance can store a reserve of vomit in his esophagus. Now that's an awesomely disgusting talent.

Keith Boadwee makes "butthole paintings". He fills up an enema with egg tempura paint and fills himself up. Then he aims himself over the canvas and, ummm, releases.

Vanessa Tiegs uses her menstrual blood instead of paint. How did she collect the blood? With a moon cup throughout 36 periods.

We’re not really sure why, but it seems like there’s a growing movement to put the “fun” back in funerals. Ceremonies themselves are becoming increasingly casual, and people are coming up with more creative ways to commemorate the lives of their loved ones.

Music executive Alexander Bernard Harris was celebrated with a bizarre visitation where he was viewed in his yellow Lamborghini. The recent movie “Undertaking Betty” featured Christopher Walken as a crazy Irish funeral director with a love for the extravagant. His funerals included Spock ears, levitating coffins, and musical theatre.

The most disturbing display that we’ve seen, though, is Ashes to Portraits. Instead of just leaving ashes to lie around gathering dust (can ashes gather dust??), their artist combines the cremains with oil paint to create new works of art. We agree that it can be a positive way to grieve and remember a loved one, and we agree that it’s harmless, but we can’t help feeling like it’s still very, very creepy.