ART: Amazing wood chip artwork by Sergei Bobkov

“It’s not very interesting to do what others can. To create something out of nothing in a completely new way is far more inspiring” - Sergei Bobkov

Sergei Bobkov (55 this year) is an artist who possess a unique technique of creating amazingly lifelike animal sculptures out of Siberian cedar wood chips. Sergei focuses on wildlife creatures and studies their anatomy for months before starting work on his amazing animal sculptures.

Sergei says many people compare his artwork to taxidermy, because most of his artwork looks so much like the animals they replicate. Sergei, however, believes they are as different as light and dark. While taxidermy is all about death, his wood chip art symbolises life.

Sergei Bobkov is a resident of Kozhany, Russia, where he has developed his very own technique that prevents wood chips from falling apart over time. After creating about 100-150 chips from 2-3 inch long cedar branches, Sergei soaks them in water for several days. Thereafter, Bobkov carves the wood chips into any shape he needs with surgical precision.

Sergei has been crafting his amazing wood chip animal sculptures for some time now, but admits that the work really is tedious. Just one of his incredible wooden animal sculptures takes around 6 months to complete. That's not to mentioned that he works at a rate of 10-12 hours a day with no days off. Now that's dedication.

More wood chip animal sculptures by Sergei Bobkov

- uncredited photos by Reuters via Daylife

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HAPPY FRIDAY: Getting naked in the name of Art

THE human body contains every shape found in nature. Some of these shapes may be our internal squishy bits, but the human form has always been of fascination to the art world. Think of all those naked Greek sculptures depicting the human form in all its biological glory. It's also a great excuse to get people naked in the name of art.

The following naked pictures are credited to the IRP Group and illustrate how many shapes can be achieved using cloned, nude humans. More of their work can be found at Visual Art by the Human Body.

Naked Art

Naked Human Sunflower

Naked Human Flowers

Naked Human Peacock

Naked Human Blooming

Naked Human Dandelion

Naked Human Autumn Leaf

Naked Human Bossoms.. Blossoms!

Germination

Naked Human Peppers

Naked Human Frond

Naked Human Flower

Naked Human Rose

Related Art: Human Shapes Video

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STREET ART: Edgar Mueller and other amazing artists

WHEN it comes to 3D street art, there is no greater artist with more street cred than Edgar Mueller. His artworks will convince you that you are about to fall into the depths of the earth and send that near-death tingly feeling shooting up your spine. It's quite eery at times tbh (to be honest).

But there are other street artists out there that try to follow in the master's footsteps. I have huge respect for those who can transform a dull, crumbling wall into something beautifully abstract or surreal. I've also always wondered how skillful artists view the world in general. I can't help but believe that their neurons are somehow wired differently, and that they perceive the world quite differently from us "normal" folk. Perhaps we need to examine their art carefully to better understand their worlds.

Unfortunately I can't say where the following street art originated from. I don't even know who the street artists behind these great works art (apart from one distinguishable Edgar Mueller masterpiece). Who art thou? I received the street art images below via one of those viral emails that's going around like the flu. All trace of their origin has been lost and the street artists themselves were too humble to add their signatures to their works. Yet this shouldn't prevent us from appreciating such amazing street art as this:

Brown-eyed girl

Brown eyed girl

Who you gonna call?

Who you gonna call?

A distinguishable Edgar Mueller masterpiece

A distinguishable Edgar Mueller masterpiece

Slave taking a smoke break

Slave taking a smoke break

Jack Nicholson wants YOU!

Jack Nicholson wants YOU!

The Joker

The Joker

LOVE

L.O.V.E

A lot on your mind

Someone with a lot on their mind

Rainbow Rain

Rainbow Rain

Follow your dreams

Wishy thinking cancelled lol

Related Post: Edgar Mueller Amazing 3D Street Art

See also: Quite Arty

• Tyre Art
• Pencil Art
• A photographic treat
• Amazingly artful pumpkin carvings

PUMPKIN CARVINGS: Halloween’s contribution to art

As the month of the pumpkin draws near once again, you might like to know who went 'all out' last Halloween. It’s hard to decide whether some of these Halloween pumpkin carvings are real or not, but I’ll let you be the judge and decide for yourself.

Does anyone know why the pumpkin is the vegetable of choice for that matter? They sure get great press over Halloween. Does anyone have any pumpkin carving experience? Is it something that anyone with opposable thumbs can do?

Anyway, check out these arty Halloween pumpkin carvings. They are really quite something to behold.

Halloween pumpkin carvings

Happy Halloween!

Did you know that the American version of Halloween Day celebration owes its origin to the ancient (pre-Christian) Druidic fire festival called "Samhain" – an ancient Celtic festival? And that it was Irish and Scottish immigrants who carried versions of the tradition to North America in the 19th-Century? Read more via the link below.

Quite Interesting: The History and Origin of Halloween

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CHALK ART: 3D Street Art that will blow your mind!

THE great Edgar Mueller is a master street artist who uses chalk and the street as his canvas to create the most amazing 3D artworks. Working together with up to five assistants, Mueller paints all day long from sunrise to sunset.

Mueller says his inspiration comes from the British Pavement  Picasso Julian Beever, whose dramatic but more gentle 3D street images have been featured in the Daily Mail and several other British publications.

I wanted to play with positives and negatives to encourage people to think twice about everything they see, says Mueller. I like to think that later, when they return home, they might reflect more on what a frightening scenario it was and say, “wow, that was actually pretty scary" - Edgar Mueller.

It's really difficult to convince your brain that these artworks are on flat surfaces!

Edgar Mueller - Amazing street art

Mueller spent five days, working 12 hours a day, to create this 250 square meter image of the crevasse, which, when viewed from the correct angle, appears to be 3D. He then persuades passers-by to complete the illusion by pretending the gaping hole is real.

The infamous Crevasse by Edgar Mueller.

The artwork above appeared on the East Pier in Dun Laoghaire, Ireland as part of the town's Festival of World Cultures.

"It was a very scary scene, but when people saw it they had great fun playing on it and pretending to fall into the earth" - Edgar Mueller.

Hell Unleashed

Megatron, sponsored by Mountain Dew

Waterfall

3D Frog

Baths

Celebrating Independence Day

Butterfly

Beer

Street Fishing

Circus pole

Big City Life

Eiffel Tower

Greeks

Shark Attack

Nokia promo

The word is world yo

Pretty amazing stuff!

• More Amazing Street Art

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PHOTOGRAPHY: Stunning photos from around the world

THE following photographic treat came to me in an e-mail. It made no mention who the brilliant photographers were that took these photographs, but wow! Below is a collection of stunning seasonal photographs, nature photographs and good old Mother Nature captured on camera.

A photographic treat!

Niagara Falls at night.

Dandelion covered in dew.

Wintery sidewalk.

Sleeping Leopard.

Reflections.

Winter in the Smokies.

Road to Witch Mountain.

Rainbow Bird.

Low clouds over volcano.

Birded Buck.

Golden Oldie.

Autumn stream.

An icey world.

The grand Grand Canyon (I think).

Purple sunset over water.

Is that a racoon up your trousers?

Fish pecked turtle.

A little eerie.

Lost for words.

Simply stunning.

What a photographic treat! Any particular favourites?

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JUNK ART: Rubber sculptors made from old tyres!

WHEN you see on old tyre (or a piece thereof) laying on the road, I'll bet the first thing that comes to mind is "look at that dirty piece of junk laying on the road! It can't possibly serve any purpose to society now that it's no longer attached to the wheel of a car." Right? Well some artists think otherwise. Here's what they make from scraps of discarded black rubber.

From junk to Tyre Art

Sabre Tooth Tyre

The real Michelin Man

Tyre Horse

Tyreger

Tyre spider bot

A rubber ram

A tyred elephant

Tyre - the rubber knight

From junk to tyre art. One man's junk is another man's ... artistic material!

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