Here is a nice little *FREE* pack of high resolution textile images. Consisting of:

Tissue

Polyester Mesh

Flannel

Cardboard

Burlap

Download: Texture Pack 2

Enjoy! Please show off your work here by posting a link of how you are using them.

I’m a big fan of the ocular arts. Every now and then I find a little morsel of “visual crack”: blog.yimmyayo.com.

Be Warned: Some of the content is NSFW. But all is tasty in its own way.

Enjoy.

Clayton Boyer is a wood worker, or a conductor conducting a symphony comprised entirely of the wood section.

He is also a clock designer and a bit of an engineering marvel in my opinion. His clocks are masterpieces that rival convention and inspire oohs and awes.

Bird of paradise

The designs vary from intricate to simple elegance. His designs are also up for grabs. He believes that most anybody can re-create one of his creations by following his plans which he sells through his website.

I am a moderate tinkerer, and my skills at wood working are fine for general carpentry. I know my way around chisels, lathes, hand saws, and a myriad of power tools; I would be dubious at my ability to complete one of his designs.

He even has a section for the über determined, the masochists’ corner. He will only sell you the plans for one of these clocks if you have successfully completed one of his more “basic” designs. So there you have it. A challenge.

If I wasn’t already up to my ears in projects, I would definitely attempt one.

If you are like me and just into admiring and imagining how one of these art pieces would look in your home or office, here is a Youtube link for several of his designs in action.

Clayton Boyer’s clocks in action

There is also a Flickr gallery of some of the completed clocks done by others.

Clocksters completed works on Flickr

Links:
http://www.lisaboyer.com/Claytonsite/Claytonsite1.htm
http://www.flickr.com/photos/lisaboyer/sets/72157622224676987/

Telegraph.co.uk just did an exposé on Lisa Lichtenfels. Her art is unlike any other in that her technique is more akin to a craft or, what I might consider to be what a grandmother might do for her grandchildren, but she has taken her craft and elevated it to a level that can only be compared to a 16th century artisan. She uses silk stockings and padding to create these ultra lifelike sculptures.

When I first saw an up close shot of her sculpture, I imediatly thought of Jim Henson. My instincts weren’t too far off. Here is an excerpt from her online bio:

While working at Disney she developed three-dimensional figurines with posable skeletons for stop-motion animation. Like Judy Jampell’s constructions, they had nylon stocking skins. Lisa left Disney to explore the potential of these techniques, expecting to return to animation in a year or so; but it has now been over twenty-five years, and she is still working in nylon and feels she has only barely begun to realize what is possible in the medium.

Her sculptures are dolls essentially. With an internal skeletal structure, just like the stop motion puppets created for animation. Given from where the origins of her craft stem from, its no surprise that artists and critics would not give her medium the respect it now demands.

I still cherish my first soft sculpture, and it reminds me of the time I showed her to a college professor. He proclaimed it the “worst piece of junk” he had ever critiqued, and chastised me at length for having the gall to present it. I also remember how hurt he was that his words didn’t bother me. How could he have known that all his harsh castigation could possibly achieve was the cementing of a permanent relationship between a new artist and her work? In any case, I can’t say I explored my medium as much as followed where it took me. It has been such an enlightening, enriching, and forgiving journey that I always feel excited in the morning when I go into my studio.

She has come a long way and I can’t wait to see her work in person. And if you happen to be in the New York area, you can see her work at the CFM Gallery, 112 Greene Street, New York, NY 10012.

I just finished up a little pop-art-esk wallpaper. I offer it for free here under the Creative Commons license.

MEAT by Peter Peterson is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 United States License.

She is being called the female version of the infamous English socio-political street artist Banksy. She is Solvieg, a 10 year old girl from the same area as Banksy, Brighton, Sussex. Maybe there is something in the water.

Her raw and simple work doesn’t come across as childish, while her technique has still a long way to evolve and be refined, she has a style that fits right in to today’s style of lowbrow art.

She started at age 8 and, if she keeps it up will be a very lucrative artist in her years to come. She is definitely somebody to watch.

Read the article here: Telegraph.co.uk

Update: Have some good leads on some up-n-coming street artists? Post in the comments.