Soulfire Aloft

Art, Design, Photography, Culture, Creative Inspiration, The Green Scene and Everything In Between

[elizahleigh]

Pop Culturized Renaissance Paintings

Costa Rican born artist Marco Battaglini infuses the global melting pot of street culture and popular consumerism in his cheekily modernized reworkings of classically beloved renaissance-period imagery. 

If you have an extra $26,900 to spare, Battaglini's "Back To Nature" is one of the few originals remaining in this series that is still available for purchase.

[elizahleigh]

Creativity is NOT a Talent -- It is a WAY OF OPERATING!

The main difference between individuals who follow a conventional path and those who shine creatively is that the latter embrace a modus operandi that facilitates the flow of natural creativity. Carving time out of your schedule to "play" or be "childlike" for the sole purpose of personal enjoyment lays the foundation for creative evolution!!! 

***Don't get distracted by self doubt.***

http://youtu.be/zGt3-fxOvug

[elizahleigh]

Sharpie-Doodle-Doo Envy

Paris-based illustrator Ugo Gattoni -- who, in the past, has deftly wielded his pen on behalf of the 2012 London Olympics -- has branched out by boosting the curb appeal of a once hum-drum plain white Starley bicycle. 

This glorious ode to the power of the humble black Sharpie (not to mention our culture's firmly rooted enthusiasm for DIY artistic expression) is one of the very best advertisements UK bicycle maker Starley could have come up with for their custom design service...but of course, I'd rather give it a whirl on my own. Wouldn't you?!?

[elizahleigh]

Dopplegangers-R-Us

If you've ever caught a glimpse of a complete stranger in a crowd of thousands and thought quietly to yourself, "Holy Smokes...I'm either hallucinating right now or that person really DOES look exactly like me!" then this photographic project will confirm your suspicions.

If a picture is indeed worth a thousand words, just imagine what type of internal dialogue must have been running around in the heads of François Brunelle's twin-like subjects.

Entitled "I’m Not a Look-Alike!", what makes this array of images especially fascinating is that despite their uncanny resemblance, none of the people are related. In fact, they all met for the very first time SPECIFICALLY for this shoot. 

[elizahleigh]

Wear Your He(art) On Your Neck

Such an ideal way to showcase your own personal artistic portfolio or that of your favorite right brained idols! 

Created by incredibly talented metal artist Ashley Gilreath, this ornate yet infinitely classy sterling silver and bronze stunner was inspired by the photographic artifacts that the artist herself saw while repeatedly climbing her grandparents’ staircase. 

While Gilreath printed miniature photos of her family directly onto the glass rectangles and squares mounted inside of her hand-cast gold/silver toned frames, I can imagine this piece looking equally as gorgeous displaying pop art or pointillism favorites.

Alas, it’s not for sale, so pining away for this unrequited love will just have to do for now….

[elizahleigh]

In Praise Of Functionally Funky Handmade Treasures

Tsocktsarina sells year long subscriptions to her DIY knitted sock kits (consisting of 6 kits as well as a few additional bells and whistles) for the grand total of $250 smackers....so a little over $41.00 per kit or roughly $20.00 per sock.

Once you get past the seemingly expensive purchase price and seriously consider the imagination that went into the uber-clever predatory dandies pictured here (just look at that solitary tear drop of blood!), Tsocktsarina's asking price can be easily justified. 

If you quite fancy the idea of rocking two sharks as they take on your appendages in varying stages of carnivorous gusto, then you'll want to sign up for the Tsock Flock Club (which is the only way that you can slide your tootsies into these toasty bits of wearable, warped art). Enrollment details are outlined in this mindnumbingly long post or simply just cut to the chase by adding your name to Tsocktsarina's mailing list.  

[elizahleigh]

Bathed In Bubbles and Light

A true "artist's artist", Alyssa Monks has paid her creative dues by pursuing an extensive education in painting for the better part of her adult life, including studying abroad at Florence, Italy's prestigious Lorenzo de’Medici and earning a Master of Fine Arts degree at the New York Academy of Art.  

Despite their photographic qualities, Monks' luminous, impossibly realistic images are achieved through the masterful application of oil paints on canvas. I know. WOWWWwww.

There's a good reason why Alyssa has been a countrywide art lecturer and bestowed her paintbrush wielding skills (and talent for realistic human flesh representation) on up-and-coming artist newbies.

This is what genuine artistic talent looks like. Something truly remarkable to aspire to!  

[elizahleigh]

Alternate Worlds Where Lush Earth Landscapes & Masterful Digital Manipulation Collide

Oooooh....what do we have here?!?! Oh, just a few select real world landscapes magically stitched together in order to create lush, fairytale-like, otherworldly microcosms.

Visual artist Catherine Nelson is somewhat of a digital manipulation expert thanks to her days as a movie industry compositor. 

That training likely endowed her with the patience of a saint given the fact that composing just ONE of her many glorious artistic orbs required working in Photoshop for weeks on end in order to properly layer, arrange, reposition, and seamlessly blend hundreds of landscape photos into the final polished compositions found in her gloriously painterly collection. 

[elizahleigh]

Super Fly Lashes For Those With Strong Stomachs

I'm equally repulsed and mesmerized by this Tammy Faye Bakker-esque ode to the clumped mascara look. It takes a slightly warped yet admirably creative mind like Jessica Harrison's to conceive of let alone actually execute such an eco-revolting recycling project (which was the focus of a sculptural art project).

Look verrrrry closely and you'll quickly realize that the lash volume of the unfortunate model photographed above is achieved not through the inept and over zealous application of cheap drug store mascara but rather by hand-gluing spindley little fly legs along the upper and lower lash lines. Silkwood decontamination shower sold separately.

[elizahleigh]

One Small Step For Toucan Sam, One Giant Step For Fruity Loopy Landscapes

Ask the typical American what their favorite food is and they'll likely rattle off a list of edibles that require a complex arsenal of machinery to manufacture. Kellogg's Fruit Loops are a perfect example of what happens when highly refined grain, copious amounts of sugar, artificial colors, and artificial flavors are united in blissed-out saccharine harmony.

In their photo series "Processed Views", Barbara Ciurej and Lindsay Lochman turn the extruded, fluorescent rings (that we all remember oh-so-fondly bobbing up and down amid the pastel-tinted milk inside our cereal bowls) into a partially pulverized Telletubby-like landscape. Toucan Sam would be so proud. 

[elizahleigh]

Be Still My Watercolor Thumping Heart

British Indie band Clock Opera debuted their very first full length studio album Ways To Forget this past spring, and while I know next to nothing about their music, the cover artwork they selected has me utterly entranced. 

Illustrated by the extremely adept Richard Robinson, he regularly gives much-needed oompf to an extensive array of album covers as well as bespoke speakers and iPhone cases.

[elizahleigh]

Tarot Cards Featuring Images Of Musical Icons

Among the forty digitally illustrated tarot cards that Paco Cao created as part of his "Eternal Rest" exhibit -- all featuring fallen musical legends Amy Winehouse, Michael Jackson, Whitney Houston, and Kurt Cobain -- four compositions were specifically inspired by classic paintings spanning the Renaissance and beyond.

Cao reinterpreted Francesco Lattanzio Firmian's self portrait using the iconic visage of the King of Pop (Michael Jackson), a decidedly regal image of Kurt Cobain is modeled after Carlo Bellosio's painting of Andrea Maffei, Amy Winehouse's utterly lady like demeanor tips a hat to the Baroness Anna Trentini, and Whitney Houston takes on Ferdinando Bassi's Count Carlo Coronini Cronberg with assertive yet feminine charm.

[elizahleigh]

Where Candy Floss, Rainbows & Fantasy Collide

Photographer and visual artist Elias Wessel certainly knows how to inject colorful kapow! and fantastical styling into his slick fashion images. 

Perusing his collection is like meandering through a candy store, each image more seductive and attention-grabbing than the next. 

[elizahleigh]

Hunk-a-Hunk-a Burnin' Love?!?

Working as both an executive producer in the film industry and a photographer, French-born Laurent Champoussin is known for his sweeping landscapes (featured in his independently published coffee table books) but it's his quirky, minerally-enhanced "LoveStoned" portraits that are especially intriguing.

You, too, can get a chunky gemstone digitally welded to your face -- just contact the 42 year old artist and he'll craft a customized image according to your personal preferences. 

[elizahleigh]

Delectably Dicey Designs

Chuck Stover is a dice-designing dynamo, straying far far away from the conventionally-shaped card game staple in favor of a wonderfully inventive lineup of botanically-nuanced, steampunky, and otherwise ornately detailed objets d'art.  

Created via Rapid Prototyping 3D Printing company Shapeways, Stover's geeked-out designs are digitally fabricated in resin before they're ultimately cast in various metallics, including gold plate and antique bronze.  

[elizahleigh]

Murray Somerville: Illustrator Extraordinaire

Murray Somerville's quirky and often highly detailed illustration style, which has graced 8 million Beck's beer bottles along with the "Macro Shrub" series of zines, assorted posters and t-shirts, is ushering in the new year via a feline-inspired artistic exhibition (LOLcat: Teh Exhibishun) at London's "The Framer's Gallery". 

[elizahleigh]

Ecce Homo Madness Reaches Fever Pitch

Even if just a few months back you weren't familiar with Elías García Martínez's 120 year old portrait of a frescoed Jesus -- entitled Ecce Homo (or 'Beast Jesus' in popular culture circles) -- everyone and their uncle has caught wind of Cecilia Gimenez's sadly infamous restoration by now, spawning Halloween costumes, Bob Ross nods, a Saturday Night Live sketch, and numerous Photoshopped images (some of which are actually worthy of a chuckle or two).

The much maligned 80-something woman behind the woefully altered fresco -- who has indeed even endured legal threats by Elías García Martínez's heirs -- has clearly rebounded from her artistic debacle now that she's reportedly requesting financial compensation.

After learning that the church where her restored Ecce Homo is being displayed has been raking in juicy admission profits thanks to game tourists, Gimenez wants a piece of the action.

Meanwhile, University of Valencia art restorer Maria Gomez -- who has been given the dubious task of undoing Ecce Homo's current "hairy monkey" visage -- claims that a strategic application of solvents could do the job in a mere seven minutes, much to the dismay of everyone riding the unexpected wave of Gimenez-botched ka-ching....