A Beginner’s Guide to Gif Artists: Volume 5

When do we get to advance to An Intermediate Guide to Gif Artists, you ask. Not as long as I'm driving this car.

Gordon Magnin

When exploring his website, I noticed Gordon Magnin's bio was filed under "alien farts." At that point, my like for him turned into love. Magnin plays with images of brands and beauty, flipping them from static masterpieces to frantic gifs. Twitching, blinking, vanishing beneath mirrored layers of themselves, Magnin's work infuses his subjects with a needed splash of freaky.

Sophie Alda

Sophie Alda is an illustrator / painter / prop maker based in East London. She's a fan of bold colors, blobby characters, and big noses, and as I write this I'm fighting the urge to call her and propose marriage. Alda's hand-created aesthetic translates over into her gifs, which is something rare and worth celebrating in Gifland. These melty compositions might be better suited to a hot summer day than a chilly winter one, but they're too good to keep filed away.

INSA

INSA makes other gif-makers look lazy. These pieces aren't projections or photo manipulations. No no, these elaborate murals were painted and repainted and photographed in sequence. As gifs, they add a new layer of intrigue to art existing on and off the internet—the permanent murals (gosh, I hope they're permanent) live on in L.A., but their dynamic gif counterparts live online for all the plugged-in world to see.

Skip Hursh

Skip Dolphin Hursh (probably not a real dolphin, but I could be wrong) is one of those midwesterners turned Brooklynites who you would spite for inflicting brain drain on the region if they weren't so delightful. Hursh's vibrant design and animation doesn't dodge bright colors or chunky patterns, so he fits right in with clients like Nickelodeon, Scholastic, and Discover. His "personal explorations into looping animations" have produced gifs like the ones below—dangerously addictive geometric beauties full of implied actions and reactions. Good luck looking away.

Julian Glander 

Julian Glander knows that taking yourself seriously is totally overrated. Why write a complicated artist statement on your bio page when you can quote Carl Sagan and Biggie Smalls? Why have a static portfolio when you can fill your homepage with gifs, regardless of whether the final product was animated? Glander is putting out blazing exuberance full-time, and the world is better for it.

Pinner Palette: Royal Blue

Inky and cold and, better yet, cool. Royal blue just makes so much sense, doesn't it?

By Holly Harrison, Marketing Director and Imaginary Friend

A Writer’s Epitaph: The other ghost story

A person’s epitaph is a big deal, especially for a writer. It’s their last chance to say something meaningful, and for those who don’t get published posthumously, it’s the capstone (literally) of their writing career. For some, it makes sense to pull a quote from something they’ve written for their gravestone; for others, it’s more meaningful to write something original that reflects their personality. So be it beautiful, witty, understated, or self-promoting, here’s what some writers are saying from beyond the grave.

* I would have expected Vonnegut to be one to pull a quote from one of his novels, because he is famous for so many great epitaph-like lines (ex: “So it goes,” or “Everything was beautiful and nothing hurt”). While his gravesite is apparently a mystery, he mentioned in several interviews in the time leading up to his death that this was his desired epitaph.

 

* Tolkien’s epitaph comes from The Tale of Beren and Lúthien, and is also one of the most romantic epitaphs a person could write. Long story short: Beren is mortal, and Lúthien is an elf. To marry Lúthien, Beren goes on a quest to retrieve a fancy stone at the demand of her father. Beren dies in the process, and Lúthien later dies out of grief. The Middle-earth equivalent of Haedes, Mandos, takes pity on the couple, and brings them back to life with the added benefit of immortality. Are you crying yet?

* Until recent years, it was a trend among Wilde fans to plant huge lipstick kisses on his tombstone. The Père Lachaise Cemetery in Paris put a glass wall around the tomb in 2011 to stop the kisses from eroding the stone, but now the glass is the part of Wilde’s grave that is covered in lipstick. While Wilde would have loved to see his tomb covered in smooches, he would no doubt be less pleased to know that vandals have since relieved the male angel carved into the top portion of it of his genitalia. (Wiki pic.)

 

* These four words easily sum up the traditional English lifestyle Doyle adhered to. He played pretentious English sports like cricket and golf, freed innocent men from jail with his investigative skills, and wrote pamphlets in support of the government (which led to his being knighted in 1902). If that’s not enough to convince you that he was a stereotypical English gentleman, his middle name is Ignatius—I mean, how much more English can you get?

* London’s epitaph is taken from Psalm 118:22, and the full line reads, “The stone the builders rejected has become the cornerstone.” While the stone in question is actually a metaphor for Jesus, the out-of-context phrase becomes a clever jab at his own death (lol kidney stones).

* Shelley’s epitaph includes a few lines from Shakespeare’s The Tempest. The mention of “sea-change” in this particular line is a bit of a pun, considering that Shelley’s life ended when he died in a storm at sea at the age of 29. His wife, Mary Shelley, died nearly 30 years later, and was buried with her parents instead of with him.

Heart of Linkspam

Here are ten of the posts that art blogs are sharing/stealing extra lots lately.

01. Thilo Frank's mirrored room
An enclosed room with floor-to-ceiling mirrors and a swing. We dig it, Thilo Frank.

02. NYCB partners with street artists
Highbrow meets lowbrow in this FAILE × New York City Ballet collaboration.

03. Bela Borsodi's "Unconscious Affair"
Real-life models fused with hand-illustrated fashion statements. Bela Borsodi never ceases to amaze.

04. Shattered glass animal sculptures by Marta Klonowska
Sculptor Marta Klonowska captures animals' natural poses in colored glass. Cute. Ouchy.

05. "Honky Kong" by Christian Åslund
A Swedish photographer pays homage to 2D platforming games in the streets of Hong Kong.

06. Where Chefs Eat: A Guide to Chefs' Favourite Restaurants
This international restaurant guide with contributions from 400+ badass chefs was designed by Kobi Benezri.

07. Luciana Novo's polar bear
Inspired by animal head trophies, Luciana Novo created this beautiful plasticine-on-wood polar bear sculpture.

08. Colorful buildings by HENSE
HENSE baptized a church into a new beginning and brought a little (a lotta) color to the local neighborhood.

09. Paper sculptures by Li Hongbo
Li Hongbo glues thousands of sheets of paper together to create flexible compositions that look like porcelain.

10. Richard Jackson's bad, bad dog
It's a giant dog installation peeing on the Orange County Museum of Art. What more do you need to know?

By Holly Harrison, Marketing Director and Nail Painter

Interns Interview Interns: Part Deux

We asked our current interns, Alyssa Bluhm and Ethan Marxhausen, to put on pizza slice costumes and wrestle for our amusement, but they said no. We let them interview each other instead.

 

Alyssa interviews Ethan

1. If you ruled the universe (or at least Earth…or even just America), what would be the first television show you would erase from existence?
New Girl. Any film or TV show that shows Zooey Deschanel in a relationship should be censored for the good of anybody who is not in a relationship with Zooey Deschanel. Or Elementary. If you're gonna rip off a show that's already perfect, only it's from England, you better at least do it well. This is why the world hates us.

2. Are you related to any famous people, or people who did famous things? If yes, how?
My great-uncle was on Letterman once. He invented this thing called the Cosmic Cube, which was a hollow aluminum cube with thickish wires in it. When you turned it around it made a sound like a spaceship from a 60s flick. That's about as close as my family's come to fame, as far as I know.

3. Who were you in a past life?
A tsar. Didn't do so hot. Remember Dr. Zhivago? Got demoted for that.

4. What would be the title of your autobiography?
I Was Told There'd Be Cake.

5. Bill Nye or the Magic School Bus?
Magic School Bus, all the way. Science is boring if there's no threat of death.

6. Do you have a favorite literary device? What is it?
Stream of consciousness. I love the immediacy and the gaps.

7. What would your Animagus be?
Maybe a fly, so I could be on walls and listen to people. But that'd also be risky, because I could get swatted. Maybe a vampire. Could I be a vampire? I wouldn't mind being nocturnal. And then there's all those special powers. Vampire, definitely. But none of that sparkling in the sunlight bullcrap.

8. If you had to spend the day with your 12-year-old self, what would you do together?
I’d tell myself to stop tucking my shirts into my jeans, cuz that looks dumb. Then I'd give myself a list of stocks to invest in. Then I'd say, you know that shirt thing I just told you about? That doesn't mean that if you feel like doing something weird you shouldn't do it. Kid weirdness is directly proportional to adult coolness. Dunno if it's cosmic law, overcompensation, or some other sociological constant, but whatever it is, it's fair. 

Ethan interviews Alyssa

1. Who is your favorite Minnesota-based writer / musician / artist?
Definitely the Andrews Sisters. When I was three years old, their greatest hits was one of the first cassette tapes I ever owned. I don’t know what happened to that tape, but I paid waaay too much for another one on Amazon.com last year. Nostalgia makes me do dumb things.

2. You are suddenly the CEO of Trump Co. What do you do first?
I honestly have no idea what Trump even does, but I would do annoyingly sensible things with my enormous paycheck, like pay off my student loans, and then take my parents out to dinner a million times. Then I would adopt a dog. Actually, several dogs.

3. Which Hollywood actor, living or dead, would you hire as your personal bodyguard?
Daniel Craig! Even though he isn’t actually James Bond, I’m just going to assume he still has the skills. And anyway, he’d be less of a bodyguard and more of a traveling piece of eye candy.

4. How old would a Twinkie have to be before you would refuse to eat it?
I once read something about how Twinkies actually do go bad at a certain point. But considering I’ve never had one (do I default fail at life for that?), I don’t think I’d be too tempted to eat one past its expiration date.

5. What is your favorite punctuation mark?
The interrobang (‽) because, obviously, it has the coolest name.

6. If you could be wildly successful at any professional sport, which would you choose and why?
Competitive napping is a thing, right? (Googles it) Oh, it actually is a thing… Well then, I guess it’s time to go pro!

7. Who wins in a three-way fistfight between Michael Cera, Kristen Stewart, and you?
Michael Cera would chicken out immediately, I know that much. The fight would probably end in a standstill between Kristen Stewart and me, because I think we’re both too apathetic to try to win.

8. You die and get to come back as two animals combined, griffin-style. Which two do you choose?
A bear and a dog. A dear? A bog? Whatever, I’d be so dang cuddly.

Pinner Palette: Pink

I was going to do this whole "salmon is the new pink" thing, but who am I kidding? Pink is and always will be the only pink. Happy Valentine's Day, punks.

By Holly Harrison, Marketing Director and your valentine

Girl with a Pearl Linkspam

I had a helluva time narrowing this list down. These are ten of the most-posted, most-reposted art blog items lately.

01. One-eyed weirdos by Anton Marrast
Russian illustrator Anton Marrast (AKA Grape Frogg) adds another dimension to what he sees.

02. Gravity Defying Photography by Cerise Doucede
You can see the strings in Cerise Doucede's unique photography, but that makes it that much cooler.

03. "Points of Contention" by Jonathan Latiano
Jonathan Latiano knows a thing or two about "explosive" installations. 

04. Eric Standley’s laser cut "stained glass" windows
Eric Standley works with hundreds of layers of colored paper creating intricate laser cut stain glass windows.

05. Thomas Barbéy's old fashioned photo manips
Barbéy brings back a classic surreal quality through carefully planned film-based photographs and selection of negatives.

06. Sculptures by Michael Johansson
The hyper-organized, color-coordinated, Tetris-like sculptures by Michael Johansson are a hit.

07. The Tiebele house decorations of Burkina Faso, Africa
Suddenly, painting your house one solid color just isn't enough.

08. "Trace Heavens" by James Nizam
Holes + sunlight + mirrors + a large format camera = way cool light sculptures by James Nizam.

09. Smart editorial illustrations by John Holcroft
In John Holcroft's work, metaphor abounds and humorous juxtaposition is rampant.

10. Organized Fruits and Vegetables Photographed by Florent Tanet
Florent Tanet plays with food—and with color, scale, and shape—in "A Colorful Winter."

by Holly Harrison, Marketing Director and sleepy bear