15 Mind-Bending Looped GIFs

 

Looped GIFs are like “The Song That Never Ends.”

They visually lead into and out of themselves in a dizzying, mind-blowing way that makes me so excited to be living in this new digital age of art.

GIFs are my new favorite medium because they blend design, graphics, video and fine art together — four things I am learning to appreciate more and more in my everyday life, and four things that come alive in short looped spurts of color.

Plus, the amount of time it takes to create a looped GIF explains why it most definitely deserves its own classification as a new media artform. Welcome to the party, GIFs!

1.  “pulse 6gons rainbow” by 12gon

"pulse 6gons rainbow" by 12gon

 

2.  “drawing a drawing drawing a drawing” by Tim Schreder

"drawing a drawing drawing a drawing" by Tim Schreder

3. “Rocketship 3” by INKAXIS

"Rocketship 3" by INKAXIS

4. by Giorgio Malvone

by Giorgio Malvone

[Tweet ““I dream of painting and then I paint my dream” -Vincent Van Gogh “]

 

5. from Jami / Gemini

from Jami / Gemini

 

6. “Moon” by INKAXIS

"Moon" by INKAXIS

7. “No Wifi.” by Tyler Haywood

"No Wifi." by Tyler Haywood

 

8. “grid lines” by david whyte 

"grid lines" by david whyte

 

9. by Melhores Gifs do Mundo

by Melhores Gifs do Mundo

 

10. “The Eye” by Matthew Stone & Joe Currie

"The Eye" by Matthew Stone & Joe Currie

 

11. by Sam Alexander Mattacott

"fg_TR_01" by Sam Alexander Mattacott

 

12. “Duplicates” by INKAXIS

"Duplicates" by INKAXIS

 

13. “childhood game” by leszczynska

"childhood game" by leszczynska

 

 

14. “Mover” by INKAXIS

"Mover" by INKAXIS

 

15. “Triangles” by INKAXIS

"Triangles" by INKAXIS

 

For endless GIF art, browse Tumblr >>

Real Women: March 11

Art would exist so differently now if we didn’t have women to inspire it. Even sensitive undertones within the harshest paintings calm the piece as a whole. Soft skin, wide eyes, and flowing hair make for an aesthetic image, so portraits of beautiful women done well will always be beautiful. Women and art went hand in hand for the longest time because both largely existed just to look at.

But in a society where the intellectually evolved recognize a woman’s worth, these paintings from the past take on more meaning than a simple pretty picture or pretty person. What about her life is lost to history when just the image of what she looked like survives? If these women were around today, what would they be able to contribute now? How much knowledge did the world miss out on because it took so long for so many groups of people to prove their equality?

Goya. "Portrait of Doña Isabel de Porcel," 1805. Image via Jaded Mandarin.

Goya. “Portrait of Doña Isabel de Porcel,” 1805.
Image via Jaded Mandarin.

Pierre Auguste Renoir. "Julie Manet" also known as "Child with cat," 1887 Oil on canvas.  Image via Mata Mua.

Pierre Auguste Renoir.
“Julie Manet” also known as “Child with cat,” 1887
Oil on canvas.
Image via Mata Mua.

Sir Joshua Reynolds. "Mrs. Susanna Hoare and Child," 1763.  Image via Jaded Mandarin.

Sir Joshua Reynolds. “Mrs. Susanna Hoare and Child,” 1763.
Image via Jaded Mandarin.

Frederick Leighton. “Gulnihal," 1886.  Image via High-Five Anyone?

Frederick Leighton. “Gulnihal,” 1886.
Image via High-Five Anyone?

Charles Cromwell Ingham. Detail from "The Flower Girl," 1846. Image via Jaded Mandarin.

Charles Cromwell Ingham. Detail from “The Flower Girl,” 1846.
Image via Jaded Mandarin.

Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow: January 1

After a while away from blogging and properly celebrating graduating from NYU with a while off, I hope everyone had the happiest of holidays. I spent the past two days moving from New York to Boston where I’ll be writing for artscope magazine in the spring, and so far the quiet and rest from the city have been so so serene.

It’s been snowing here for a while now. Watching the tiny flakes drift down when the wind isn’t blowing them to bits makes for a calm cozy window on the world. Snow globes seem silly compared to the real thing. The weather has forced me to wonder about snow as a medium for creation… Of course it has to be temporary or only captured in photographs like any other kind of landscape or site-specific art. But to me, snow seems more democratic – after all, anyone who’s lived in a snowy place has at least attempted to make their own snowman or snow angel outline, and each one is somehow unique to the hands that packed and molded it.

From Simon Beck’s Facebook page here.

Simon Beck is one of the few people actually considered a “snow artist.” His work has been featured on the Huffington Post and the Daily Mail – large-scale geometric shapes he walks through the snow and photographs from above that make for very impressive frosty designs. He’s from southern England and says he began making the designs “as a bit of fun” in 2004 after he bought an apartment Les Arcs, a ski resort in Savoie, France. Each design requires Beck to walk in the snow for 10 hours, and functions as a creative extension of his career as an orienteering mapmaker. You can read more about what it takes to make these designs in his Q&A on his Facebook page here.

From Simon Beck’s Facebook page.

And in honor of all fun snow can be, enjoy all the snow-art below and have such a beautiful beginning to 2013:

From Randomness of This Guy here.
From Imperfections here.
From Lucia Liliana Tudor here.
From Ben Rogers Blog here.
From Instant Joy here.
From Art Prize here.
From A Different Type of Art here.
From Life Stuff here.

We need stricter gun control laws now: How serene it could be: December 16

It’s hard for me to even mention the horrific tragedy that happened on Friday at an elementary school of all places, but I think it’s really important that we all express how disgusted we are with it so something can actually change this time. I wanted to voice my opinion on the matter, but a Google search of “anti-gun violence paintings” almost made me throw up. This is the saddest, most avoidable event that happens every day in America now. In fact, 15 of the past 24 worst mass shootings in the world over the last 50 years have happened in the United States.

This is an issue that needs to be fixed before more children are put in danger by someone desperate who should not have lawful access to a weapon capable of killing. So I’ve found a selection of artworks to calm our minds and our hearts, because those little children are precious and they deserved to live in a world more like these paintings.

“Open Book,” found here.

In Ezra Klein’s fantastic Washington Post piece about how we can go about making our world safer he writes, “Only with gun violence do we respond to repeated tragedies by saying that mourning is acceptable but discussing how to prevent more tragedies is not. “Too soon,” howl supporters of loose gun laws. But as others have observed, talking about how to stop mass shootings in the aftermath of a string of mass shootings isn’t “too soon.” It’s much too late.” 

Digital art by William J. Thompson, found here.

From Academy Art, found here.

Found on Blogspot here.
From Daily Painters found here.
Ivan Aivazovsky, “Clouds Above a Sea Calm,” 1889, from Wikipaintings found here.

“Looking Back,” digital art found here.

“Calm Sunset” by Leonid Afremov, from Fine Art America, found here

“Kingfisher,” found here.

“Quiet Moment,” by Christopher Clark, found here.

Why haven’t we learned our lesson? War in art: November 20

As rockets and missiles fly over the Middle East for what must be the millionth time, I wanted to present a selection of some of the most well-known representations of war in art. People fighting to kill each other, whether it’s for land or power or misguided searches for weapons of mass destruction, it always ends the same way: there’s a winner and a loser and more people have died unnecessarily in the process.

We should value human life above all else, even above the need to get or keep statehood. There are too many rational voices in the world now for our disagreements to have to end in death, especially the deaths of civilians, people who are in the wrong place at the wrong time and lose their lives because of it. We’ve been depicting war through our art representationally for thousands of years, and although things seem to be getting better now that we can all learn about things so quickly, there’s still way too much hate in this world.

Centauromachy, from the Parthenon metopes, 447-432 BCE

from a class slideshow




The Rape of the Sabine Women, part of the story of Rome’s founding

from a class slideshow


US Civil War, 1861-1865

found here.


Guernica by Pablo Picasso, interpretation of the Spanish Civil War, 1937

found here.

Vietnam War, 1959-1975

found here.

Stay safe through the storm and survive without power: November 1

As an evacuee of Hurricane Sandy myself, I can tell you that trying to live without power is no joke, especially in lower Manhattan where you can’t find anything and nothing works. Restaurants are using their catering gear to supply cash-only takeout and Mud coffee trucks have lines that go around the block.

Storms are scary, mean beasts of nature, especially those dubbed “Frankenstorms.” Sandy was a 900-mile wide storm that killed 110 people, left more than 8 million without power, drown NYC’s subway system and submerged more than 80% of Atlantic City underwater.

But storms bring people together, get rid of politics (or at least push it aside for a bit), and make for some pretty windy, gloomy art that reflects how truly terrible it is to have your home flooded or torn to bits by the wind. Even just living without power in the aftermath is as rough as these artworks make it seem.

“Hurricane, Bahamas” by Winslow Homer, 1898
image found here.

“The Storm” by Edvard Munch, 1893
image found here.
“Ships Running Around in a Storm” by Ludolf Bakhuizen, 1690s
image found here.

“Snow Storm — Steam Boat Off a Harbor’s Mouth Making Signals in Shallow Water” by JMW Turner, 1842
image found here.

“Storm in My Head” by Zdralea Ioana, 2012
image found here.

Everyone still in the affected areas please stay safe, and those lucky enough to be out of Sandy’s path can help by donating to the Red Cross here.