Oddity Central |
- 6 Talented Artists Who Paint with Coffee
- Man Completes 5,000 Km Trek Dressed as Stormtrooper
- The Incredible Wire Mesh Portraits of Seung Mo Park
| 6 Talented Artists Who Paint with Coffee Posted: 18 Apr 2012 05:05 AM PDT
We've done several stories of artists painting with mediums like wine and coffee. Coffee paintings in particular, convey the rich brown tones associated with the beverage, which leads to the creation of unique, very beautiful images. So brew yourself a cup of your favorite coffee and join us as we take you through the works of some world-famous coffee painters. Coffee Art Angel Sarkela-Saur and Andrew Saur, together call themselves the Coffee Artists. For over a decade, they have been painting with coffee and have managed to develop a unique technique of layering coffee on the canvas . Their works include paintings of ordinary, everyday objects, portrayed in the rich hues of the coffee bean. Interestingly, a lot of their paintings have coffee cups, pots and beans in them. The two definitely seem to have a thing for the dark beverage.
Godfrey Caleb Godfrey Caleb's story is quite interesting. Just like it happens with most great discoveries, his love for painting with coffee was discovered by accident. He just happened to spill some coffee on card paper and returned to it a while later. While talking on the phone, he absent-mindedly doodled on the dried up coffee paper, and was quite impressed with the results. Soon, the retired architect began to make beautiful paintings landscapes and also portraits with coffee. He says he loves to drink coffee while painting with it, so invariably the brush is sometimes dipped in the wrong mug.
Karen Eland Karen was featured here on OC a few years ago. The talented painter from Tulsa only uses espresso and her art involves recreating some of the most famous paintings in history such as The Last Supper and Starry Night. Thanks to her art, she has been a TV and internet celebrity for a while now. Karen Eland found her passion by accident too, one day when she was painting with regular paints at a coffee shop.
Hong Yi Hong Yi's coffee paintings depart from the conventional forms of art. Her paintings are unique in the sense that the only tools she uses are coffee and a mug. Would you have ever thought that those nasty rings of coffee that mugs leave on the table could ever create beautiful works of art? Hong Yi has done just that, her stunning paintings are made by smudging together Nescafe coffee stains from the bottom of a cup. Her most popular work is the 3ft by 5.5 ft portrait of Taiwanese song-writer Jay Chou.
Sunshine Plata The Filipino artist makes use of instant coffee to painstakingly create paintings of rural landscapes and whimsical scenes. Her paintings stand apart from the rest because the canvas she uses makes sure that the aroma of the coffee isn't lost either. Her technique is to mix different quantities of coffee powder in water, in order to achieve various shades of brown. Interestingly, she started painting with coffee because it was cheaper than regular paint. Sunshine Plata does admit that even though she loves painting with coffee, her preferred beverage is actually tea.
Steven Mikel Steven Mikel is a former chef and currently a part-time painter from Florida. He also works with computers and graphic design. This versatile artist had been dabbling with coffee art for a while before he decided to take it more seriously. His passion for the medium developed because he didn't like to waste leftover coffee. Steven makes various coffee mixtures and reductions to produce different hues, but he won't hesitate to even dip into the cup that he's drinking from, for the sake of art.
6 Talented Artists Who Paint with Coffee was originally posted at OddityCentral.com |
| Man Completes 5,000 Km Trek Dressed as Stormtrooper Posted: 18 Apr 2012 04:07 AM PDT
21-year-old Jacob French hates walking, and yet he completed a 5,000 km trek last year dressed in a stormtrooper costume. The 9-month trek was for the benefit of Starlight Children's Foundation which works for sick children in Australian hospitals. Jacob's journey was all the way from Perth to Sydney, and in the process he went through 7 pairs of shoes and lost 12kg in body weight. He also managed to raise $100,000. Jacob was the one who came up with the idea in the first place. He had donned the stormtrooper costume for the first time during a half marathon in Oct 2010. The experience wasn't very comfortable for him. "The suit was restrictive and got hot while I was running, but the seed was planted for the Troopertrek idea." Since that marathon, Jacob started training more regularly and also acquired a lighter and much more flexible set of armor. Last summer, he made the announcement about his charitable walk, once again dressed like a stormtrooper in order to get attention to the cause. The arduous trek began in July 2011. Jacob walked over 10 hours a day, Monday to Friday, along with a wooden cart around with him containing all his clothes and carrying equipment. The stormtrooper attracted a lot of attention and even received support from passing motorists. The Trooptrek Facebook page has become very popular, with thousands of likes and comments. People find his initiative inspiring and motivational.
French’s adventure certainly benefited the Starlight Children’s Foundation, but it hasn’t changed the stormtrooper’s feelings towards walking. ”I hate walking,” he said, “I do anything to get out of it usually, but I was the one with the idea.” Right before completing his inspiring 5,000 km trek across Australia, Jacob stopped by Sydney’s Children’s Hospital, where he was given a hero’s welcome.
Photos: Facebook via Huffington Post Man Completes 5,000 Km Trek Dressed as Stormtrooper was originally posted at OddityCentral.com |
| The Incredible Wire Mesh Portraits of Seung Mo Park Posted: 18 Apr 2012 12:48 AM PDT
Korean artist Seung Mo Park creates cuts up layers of wire mesh by hand, to create some of the most beautiful large-scale portraits you’ve ever seen. These true sculptural masterpieces are part of Park’s latest series, called Maya. In the past, we’ve featured several extraordinary artists who work with layers to create their art, and Seung Mo Park is right up there with the best of them. Although he uses a projection of the image he’s trying to replicate, as reference, the precision with which he cuts each little piece of wire mesh is nothing short of impressive. Just so you understand the kind of skill required to pull off something like this, it’s important that you know each of his portraits is made up of several layers of wire mesh set a few centimeters apart, each sculpted by hand. The understanding of depth perception and the patience necessary to complete just one of these amazing works of art is simply awe-inspiring.
Seung Mo Park starts off the creative process with a photo session. He then picks out the pictures he wants to recreate and heads to his studio, where he begins clipping away at several wire mesh layers. Using his unearthly sense of depth, the Korean artist is able to cut just enough out of each layer so that when he places them in the final artwork they render a perfect copy of the photograph. Because they are made up of several layers placed within centimeters of each other, his portraits tend to be a few inches thick.
You can check out a video of Seung Mo Park at work, and you can use it as guidance to try making these portraits yourself, but I doubt you’ll get the same results.
via This Is Colossal The Incredible Wire Mesh Portraits of Seung Mo Park was originally posted at OddityCentral.com |
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