I've always thought of knots in wood as a massive pain in the ass. Anyone who's cut a 2x4 with a handsaw or chopped wood for a fire knows a gnarly knot can stop you faster than Scott Stevens.
Enter Guiseppe Penone, the Italian artist who carved into a giant tree trunk and left the knotted parts untouched to reveal a smaller sapling inside. Who knew?
Penone recently had an exhibition at the Art Gallery of Ontario called The Hidden Life Within.
Dalton Ghetti has been carving miniature sculptures out of the wood and graphite of pencils for over 25 years. He will spend years on a single piece and carve everything with a needle and a razor. Pretty awesome work.
This article on him in the NY Times was from '07.
As photos, these shots would be great. As paintings they are awesome. It is really hard not to be impressed by the work of these talented artists.
Check out My Modern Metropolis for more photorealistic paintings and artist credits.
Here are just a few portraits created by Erika Iris Simmons (aka iri5) using nothing but cassette tape ribbon. I love stuff like this in general, but this is particularly great. You can check out more of the Ghost in the Machine on her Flickr page, and it also looks like she's accepting all kinds of donations (tapes, lace & a butterfly net) on her site.
I think my favorite is the Kurt Cobain portrait, but was so happy when I saw Ian Brown in there. Love those Stone Roses.
The more I learn about graffiti art, the more I appreciate it, and my interest in it started with Banksy about 4 years ago. He has a new psuedo-documentary out called Exit Through the Gift Shop, and it looks excellent. It has already been released in select theaters and I can't wait until it makes it to Calgary. Personal side note - when I was living in New York in Soho, my building had a Space Invaders mosaic on it.
This painting has more soldiers than the entire Spanish Civil War. Zing!
Seriously though folks, they do not like you taking pics. Couldn't get a good one but this proves I saw it. Second most favorite Picasso after the Old Guitarist.
