Urban Decay

THIS has been going around my facebook feed and is fascinating to look at.

Photographer Niki Feijen finds the forgotten places and takes incredible photographs of them. I swear it's like a mix of ghost hunting, historic tour and playing Fallout 3, shifting through the ruins of a destroyed civilization. The photos are incredible, haunting, beautiful and make me BURN with curiousity; why were these places abandoned? What will happen to them? What are the stories behind them? And mostly, I just want to explore them for myself. The website with his work is worth looking at AND he has a book. Which I am buying.

Ugh

My ssuuuuper crappy computer won't let me upload pictures; it keeps crashing the browser so I'm pretty sure I have a virus somewhere. Been having all sorts of problems with it.

Homage to Postproduction - Digital Media I / Art 245 - UNR_Art from Benjamin Poynter on Vimeo.

but for some reason it will let me upload videos. So here's my class project of recent; all of us were to put together a 30 second clip with the idea of post modernism behind it and this is what we came up with. I'm number 2 on the list. Craaaaappp. I have so many friggin' art pieces to shaareee. stupid computer

Okay, ONE more Law post and I'll stop. maybe

I did say I had an obsession with him. It's just THIS ARTIST is just. I don't even have words. All her work is watercolor and is AMAZING. just beautiful. and Law. in watercolor. Aggghhhh. Oh and a warning for BL; she ships LawLu and SmokerLaw but there are plenty of non BL art too.

Kinetic Arts

AAaaall part of my research; today I bring you Benjamin Cowden, he who masters the elements of mechanical kinetics. Can you guess why I love these mechanical wonders? Can you see a theme, hm hm? Like say, something a mad Victorian scientist might have made with gears and bits and a little bit of STEAM!?! Anyhow, I'm writing a short essay on his work.

I wish I could do this kind of intricate, mechanical marvel but my brain can't comprehend. Its probably why I could never get the hang of architecture drawing and why I didn't continue to pursue Interior Design; I have no talent in drawing those kinds of spaces.

But I sure do enjoy other people who can do it. Ahhh, mechanical wonders. Now I have to write a paper.

another short film I found that is brilliant and hilarious. All research for a digital media class I'm taking.

One Piece

Every once in a while I'll find a fandom/character to get fascinated by so today I'm going to share him. I have been a longtime fan of One Piece (on again off again - it is, admittedly a long series). I like the design of his characters and Oda-sensei has the ever important storytelling gift of understanding humanity and writing those characters in a way in which the viewer may relate to them, have empathy for them, and ultimately feel as though they know the characters. That's why the Strawhats are so popular; we know them, suffered with them, laughed with them. One Piece remains an enduring epic work of fantasy for these reasons.

Of the current arcs the story is on is Punk Hazard (we're barely three chapters into Dressrosa so I'm not counting that yet) and the ever epic Trafalgar Law, new fan favorite.

There are obvious reasons for his popularity; his character design is just wonderful, and let's admit it- he's just...pretty.

He has those things that make us interested in him; he's smart, ruthless, a planner, snarky, proud and we don't know what side he falls on. He has been described as a cruel, ruthless pirate of the One Piece world and he is. However, he's shown a surprisingly lenient side for a cutthroat war lord. His tolerance of Luffy (and the fact he saved him for no apparent reason), his warning to everyone that Punk Hazard would be flooded by poisonous gas and anyone left behind would die and in recent chapters his increasing show of his humanity - the first we've seen since the Punk Hazard arc. Surrounded by the influence of Luffy and the Strawhats he's acting like a normal human being. Oda, as always, has managed to create a well rounded interesting character. I want to know more about Trafalgar Law and am super happy that he seems to be appearing within the next two arcs, at least. We may even eventually get a back story for him.

What makes me really, REALLY happy is the fact that his popularity means massive fan works by amazing artists. These are all yanked from Pivix (and credit goes to the artists which I would have posted but I can't translate Japanese so...) That is my recent obsession.

I remember I found this short animated clip some time ago in one of my meandering searches on youtube and was really, really impressed by it. Of course, I love kung fu action so that's probably why. Anyhoo, I should add that parts of this have been censored just a bit because obviously fanservice is in full effect with the design. But its still a fun, short watch.