Small worlds

Eerie little snow globes and other disturbing miniature scenes of isolation and unrest by Thomas Doyle.

Via Bioephemera.





Enchanted snow globes and island dioramas by Walter Martin and Paloma Muñoz.

Otherworldly installation art

Jason de Caires Taylor is an underwater sculptor, the creator of hauntingly beautiful and extremely eerie sculpture parks located in shallow waters where they can be visited by boaters and divers. Since everything that goes into the sea belongs to the sea, these sculptures are slowly transformed over time, anchoring the formation of new artificial reefs and becoming a kind of zymoglyphic art, a collaboration between the human artist and natural forces. Moving among the still, weathered statues must feel like entering a modern Atlantis.








If you happened to drive by a particular condemned house in Houston in the summer of 2005, you might have seen it falling into a wormhole. Sculptors Dan Havel and Dean Ruck transformed two buildings owned by Art League Houston into this striking work of art for an installation called Inversion. For a short time until the houses' scheduled demolition, visitors could crawl through the tunnel to the other side, and passing drivers could jeopardize traffic safety with some serious rubbernecking.

Some galleries of the project can be found from Art League Houston, Kevin O'Mara, and Designverb.
Via io9.








Michael de Broin is a sculptor whose works typically embody a single concept in a visually striking way. For his outdoor scuplture Superficielle, a large rock which is obscured entirely by mirrors, that concept is the theme of transparency. Io9 picked up on this item as evidence of the development of new invisibility cloaking technology. They might have a point.

Mechanical menageries

French sculptor Edouard Martinet uses scavenged materials to create his metal birds, bugs, and other critters. The resulting figures are surprisingly naturalistic and organic.
Via Bibi's Box.






Cabaret Mechanical Theatre is a traveling collection of automata by contemporary artists. Check out the "Artists" and "Exhibitions" categories for images. Of course, automata are best appreciated in motion: here's an animation of the naughty Honeymoon Bed.








What is it about insects and machines that makes them go together? Insect Lab pushes the concept with its creepy-cool, steampunkish mad science creations that fuse gears and springs to insect specimens, ranging from spiders and scorpions to beetles, dragonflies, and even butterflies. They're even for sale, should you be inclined to acquire one of these exquisite curiosities for your own wunderkammer.
Via Bibi's Box.






These insects are 100% machine, no nature here. And that goes for the dissected resin skulls, mechanical body parts, and other sinister posthuman devices with names like "External Video Eyeware Apparatus" and "Lethal Injection Attack Droid Prototype". That would be The Sculpture of Christopher Conte.
Via Bibi's Box.






Ann P. Smith's Robots don't look quite as ready to take over the world. They're charming, winsome animals, cobbled together from colorful spare parts and set in motion. The site includes videos of a few of the models in action.






More bugs -- the metal insects wrought by Ukrainian artist Andrew Severynko are twisted, hulking monstrosities, alien and menacing. He also sculpts a mean airship.

Octopus love

Ectoplasmosis showcases this alluring glass octopus sculpture available for sale from a home design store. Don't you just want to hold it?
Via Violins and Starships.





100 Girls and 100 Octopuses is a stunning mural made up of 98 individual 8" x 10" paintings. Sensually draped here and there throughout are a hundred each of octopuses and nubile girls, variously chilling out and getting it on. Creepy? Hot? Yes.
Via gatsu gatsu.






If you, too, want to be engulfed by an octopus of your very own, try this Octopus chair, spotted by Geekologie. It's made out of recycled jeans and can be buttoned into different tentacly shapes. Fun?

Paper and fingers

This post has been in the works for some time. There's a lot of beautiful origami art out there that I've been wanting to share. I just recently decided to take origami up myself (so far, I've become great at making tiny waterbombs out of Post-Its), so I had a little more motivation to get going and finish this collection of works by those far more accomplished in the art. Hope you enjoy.

Joseph Wu's Origami Page is a great place to start, with news, articles, instructions, hundreds of links -- oh, and the galleries of Wu's own outstanding creations in categories like fantasy gaming and creatures of myth, including a section of commissioned works used in advertising and illustration, as well as several galleries of works by others.






OrigaMIT is the website of the Massachussetts Institute of Technology's Origami Club, and it includes a nice gallery of members' works. For the best of the best, check out Badass Origami at A.R.T., a collection of works from MIT's fourth annual Student Origami Competition.







There are some more nice models in Origami, another post at A.R.T.






Stones are okay, but people who live in paper houses probably shouldn't throw scissors. The Origami House is a collaborative installation that was created by a team of designers, folders, and paper engineers for the Folding Australia 2005 Convention.






Eric Joisel is a professional Parisian origami artist, and in addition to a gallery of his fantastic works, his site presents very interesting features on the creation process and a nice intro to and history on the art. His highly sculptural pieces tend to the fantastic and in addition to people and very naturalistic animals there are a number of Lord of the Rings characters, gnomes, fairies, and other magical creatures among his subjects.







Origami artist Guspath Go creates intricate and wonderful models of mostly fantastic creatures. He also photographs his own creations with a great eye.







Gilad's Origami Page is the site of prolific folder Gilad Chan, who has folded loads of models from the simple to the splendid. All the models' sources are credited and linked. But wait, there's more! In addition to his own pieces, he has also collected tons of photos of brilliant work from half a dozen origami conventions. It's all there in the huge themed galleries.






Many more artists' galleries, along with some diagrams, artist info, and books for sale are collected at the French site Design in Origami. Some highlights:

Manuel Sirgo Alvarez is an accomplished origami artist with a large gallery of beautiful works, including many wonderfully rendered insects and spiders, and a sizeable number of marine invertebrates.






Lionel Albertino specializes in insects of all descriptions, but his gallery features a few other surprises.





Sometime soon I'll do a follow up and share some good places to get started doing your own origami, with beginning instructions and nice diagrams. For now, enjoy the visual inspiration.