Speechless

Sometimes I come across something so jaw-droppingly beautiful, it leaves me speechless (hard to imagine, I know). But seriously--these graphite drawings by cuban artist Jorge López Pardo? I can't. There just are no words to describe the beauty.

López Pardo uses a plane as a symbol of the modern man who undergoes the trials and tribulations of life—struggling with inner dilemmas, from loneliness to one's own personal path. They are artistic portrayals of the plight of man. 

To explain his chosen subject López Pardo says, "A plane has no boundaries—in fact, it’s always breaking them." He also points out their globally recognized form and the multicultural cargo and passengers any given aircraft holds. His message about the contemporary man's internal struggle is a universal one. The artist explains, "The sobriety and the formal synthesis, as well as the vague environments, make these works spaces for a gaze toward the interior, a search that exceeds the limits of the machine and becomes eminently human."

Whoa:

I have a celebrity column in TweetDeck that I don't pay much mind to--every once in a while I'll scan it quickly but I certainly don't check it day in and day out. But in scanning it the other day, I came across a tweet from Neil Patrick Harris (who is awesome, btw. If you're going to follow a celebrity on twitter, follow him):

Ooooh, NPH talking about art? I'm game. Let's go check it out, shall we?

Um, WHOA. Those little dots on the screen? Those are nail heads. And the make up of the image is one single strand of black thread: 

Constellation is an ongoing series of portraits by New York artist Kumi Yamashita known most prominently for her innovative light and shadow sculptures. Each image is constructed from a single unbroken black thread wound through a dense array of galvanized nails mounted on a painted white board, meaning that the darker areas within the portrait are formed solely from the density of the string. Colossal is no stranger to artworks created withthread and nails, but these are certainly some of the most impressive and intricate works I’ve ever seen made using this method.

You guys, go to Kumi Yamashita's website and prepare to be amazed. I am in love with with her "rubbings", portraits created by rubbing their image over the subject's expired credit cards. 

Unbelievable, indeed. Thanks NPH. 

Environmental graphics

My friend Cyndy, of art + interiors fame, represents an artist who takes these gorgeous ariel photos of environmental waste. To see them, you would have no idea; they are so abstract, so beautiful. I can only imagine what they look like blown up to humongous sizes.

I was immediately reminded of J. Henry Fair's images when I came across these: satellite images of Earth taken from 400 miles away. These photos are stunning; some look like satellite imagery, most look like works of art (and let's face it, when else would Bolivian deforestation be considered a work of art?).

From the toxic landscapes of J. Henry Fair's photography, to the beauty of NASA's satellite pictures, either way it makes me appreciate our planet and it's beauty that much more.