Bright Surreal Worlds by Cyril Rolando

Each of Cyril Rolando’s graphic illustrations creates it own landscape of wonder, taking your eyes to colorful places buried deep in imagination. He uses a lot of ocean which tends to set each scene on the shore – a dramatic place where land meets water.

In some works the water transforms into something else, becoming dresses and music that add a conceptual component to these bright effortless works.

 

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Cyril Rolando is a 28-year-old digital artist and clinical psychologist living in southern France. He began drawing on his computer in 2004 and is completely self-taught, using only Photoshop CS2 and a Wacom tablet to create these incredible ethereal scenes.

On his DeviantArt page he writes,

“My artistic approach is set between surreal and fantasy style… in one word : Otherworldly… I like the absurdity, the creativity and the enchanting universes, where colors bring more emotions than thousand smiles or a million tears. I am curious of life. I admire the work of the time, the evolution of societies, the change of thoughts, the human revolutions….how drops after drops are born oceans. I choose the pseudo Aquasixio to put together my favorite element with my favorite digit. My characters are often lost children or in quest for their truth (and not THE truth). Their stories are quite sad but the darkness of life is more inspiring than happy and safe people, in my opinion.”

He says he doesn’t consider himself an artist, just a Photoshop user trying to tell a story with a picture, and his fulltime job as a psychologist allows for more distance between him and his work.

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For more of Cyril’s work, see his Tumblr and DeviantArt page.

 

Creatures from El

Ellen June Jewett’s sculptures turn animals even wilder, transforming their bodies into futuristic mini-masterpieces that balance and burst with motion. A cheetah has front legs just a little too long, and uses the extra length for more spring, his hair thickened like tentacles as they fly back in the wind. Wings erupt from the shoulder blades and turn into white tethered plants with their own thick tentacles, and tiny white birds fly alongside. Each creature is given their own set of intricate detail that springs from somewhere organic, revealing trees, leaves, flowers and birds.

It’s an ultramodern world where animals adapt and fuse with other elements. Some border on surreal: an owl with its wings holding dreamcatchers out wide, and a fox with flags strung between its tail and body.

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Ellen is a Canadian artist with a degree in Biological Anthropology and Art Critique. She began sculpting as a child, and her Etsy page reads,

“To Ellen sculpting has always been about life, biological narratives and cultural statements. The tedious hours of labor act as the mysterious foundation from which each sculptures’ personality springs forth…

When working in her studio Ellen enjoys the company of animals and listens to audio books and podcasts. She finds this immersion in thought and ideas helps create the depth of spontaneity in her sculptural narratives.”

These sculptures are a part of Ellen’s series Creatures from El, the project she’s been working on since 2005.

 

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[/zl_mate_code] See more of Ellen June Jewett’s work on her website.

Source: vainamoinenka.tumblr.com

 

6 Spectral Artworks With Faces Erased

Are faces our identities? Are they what make us different, set us apart? If there are seven billion people alive right now, are there any with identical faces? Or do we embody the people who came before us, wearing the face of a great-grandmother or uncle instead of a new one we think is our very own?      These artworks take away the faces, showing people but hiding what makes them identifiable. It makes each figure more universal but also leaves you with an eerie feeling, like they have something to hide for a reason.

Hover for descriptions!

 1. Bernhard Handick, Fine

  Feathers Make Fine

       Birds (2012)

 

[zl_mate_code name=”Green Dynamic” label=”4″ count=”1″ who=”div” text=”Just a black shirt against white, there’s a neck and a hint of chin but his skin blends into the background and his face evaporates in an instant.

All that’s left is the long trunk of a man who’s quickly fading.”]

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[/zl_mate_code] Source: razorshapes.tumblr.com

 

 

2. Thomas Devaux, Les Visages

  et La Main

 

[zl_mate_code name=”Pink Dynamic” label=”1″ count=”1″ who=”div” text=”They looks like sisters, but the one turned away holds her hand to the other’s breast unapologetically. Their faces can be seen, but they’re smudged and the eyes are empty. The woman being touched leans her head back at an angle that’s only slightly crooked, and it’s creepy and mysterious, like she’s somehow disturbed.”]

Les visages et la main

[/zl_mate_code] Source: anitaleocadia.tumblr.com

 

 

3. Clare Elsaesser, So

  Much (2013)

 

[zl_mate_code name=”Orange Dynamic” label=”3″ count=”1″ who=”div” text=”This girl’s nose peeks through so she has a face, but most of the rest of it is masked by flowers.

She stands against a pale blue background with her arms folded and doesn’t seem to notice the clusters of pink petals smothering her figure.”]

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[/zl_mate_code] Source: this isn’t happiness

 

 

4. Delaney Allen, Hidden

     Self (2012)

 

[zl_mate_code name=”Green Dynamic” label=”4″ count=”1″ who=”div” text=”A man standing in the sand faces us head on. We can see everything from his stylish leather shoes to his checkered button-down with the sleeves casually rolled up.

His face is the only part we can’t see – sand streaks across the frame and his head is lost in a cloud of white.”]

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[/zl_mate_code] Source: likeafieldmouse.com

 

 

5. Faceless from The Nightmare   Factory

 

[zl_mate_code name=”Blue Dynamic” label=”2″ count=”1″ who=”div” text=”An archaic looking image in black and white, a man turns his face toward the light and it looks like someone took an eraser to the whole thing.

His face is washed out by the light completely, becoming nothing but empty space.”]

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[/zl_mate_code] Source: thelinktoheaven.tumblr.com

 

 

6. Photography from Kyle

  Thompson

 

[zl_mate_code name=”Pink Dynamic” label=”1″ count=”1″ who=”div” text=”In this conceptual photograph his face is covered by a long white sheet that spirals out towards the frame, lifting his body as the rest of him hangs straight down.”]

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[/zl_mate_code] Source: beautiful decay

 

JD Hancock’s Trip to iPhoneland

These tiny people in their makeshift worlds are just too adorable. What was a rug and an iPhone for us becomes a whole swimming pool on soft green turf for them – people so small they can’t be bigger than a fingernail.

In his series called iPhoneland, Texas photographer JD Hancock has an iPhone set the stage for four miniature scenes of teeny tiny people doing outdoor activities, all set atop artificial green rug grass.  In this world, nature is fluffy and plush and things shine like they have a backlight – kind of like a utopia where we let technology wash over us and suddenly we’re small in comparison. But we don’t care because it’s not the evil kind of technology, it’s the kind that makes life easier and facilitates progress.

 

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JD Hancock started building websites professionally in 1995, and he’s worked at startups as everything from owner and product manager to web designer and customer support. His career in photography has been just as successful and his work has been featured in the New York Times, Forbes, Wired and The Guardian.

You can read more about his life and the fact that he’s an actual cyborg on JD’s website.

 

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[/zl_mate_code]See more from JD Hancock on his Flickr and his website.

Source: Lost at E Minor.

 

Book Sculptures Bringing Stories to Life

Kelly Campbell Berry brings stories to life by turning books into a visualization of what’s within them, creating characters that float before the very text that breathed imagined life into them in the first place. The books open and the centers of their pages are ripped out to create a stage for the dynamic jumbled scenes of collaged settings and characters, whose illustration styles match the style of writing within them. The Wizard of Oz is colorful and young, and The Tales of Shakespeare is reminiscent of the Renaissance and based in realsim. Gulliver’s Travels is the only closed book and the characters seep out of the sides of it like the cover’s illustration is leaking.

The best part about these book sculptures is that they’re for sale at Kelly’s Etsy shop for less than you’d expect, ranging from Arabian Nights at $150 to Peter Pan and Twenty Thousand Leagues Under The Sea at $200.

 

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Kelly said,

“I am truly amazed at the ability some people have to arrange words in such a way that we, the readers, can actually ‘see’ into the imagined world of the writer. We relate, feel, and become invested in the characters so deeply that we are pulled into their world for a brief moment of escape. My book sculptures are my way of showing what the words on the pages create in the imagination of the readers.”

 

 

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See more from Kelly Campbell Berry on Etsy and on her Tumblr.

Source: My Modern Met