Tag: art

Joshua Hoffine’s Persephone

Stefanie Snider

Joshua Hoffine takes the most distinctive horror photos I’ve seen. If you’ve ever come across a horror photo that made your skin prickle, chances are it was one of his. His work explores both childhood fears and those of adults, with everything from the monster under the bed to the killer through the keyhole.

He’s back, with Persephone.

©Joshua Hoffine 2012

Click the photo to visit his blog, and see the behind-the-scenes of the shoot. Or try JoshuaHoffine.com to view his other work, and to purchase prints.

Hitchers

Stefanie Snider


Illustration ©2011-2012 *WolfesClothing

This is the cover art for Hitchers, a book by Will McIntosh. To be honest, I hadn’t heard of the book before, but when I came across this illustration I was immediately interested. It’s one of those pieces that grabs (HAH! GET IT?) your attention right away. The contrast between the eyes of the character, tinged red, against the glowing eyes of the ghost (?) is fantastic. Click on the picture to visit the original source and see it in a larger size.

This kind of art always makes me a little bummed that I can’t draw anything recognizable, and intensely jealous of those who can.

(via Fuck Yeah Illustration)

Mia Mäkilä: Lowbrow and Horror Art

Stefanie Snider

“Picture Pippi Longstocking and swedish movie director Ingmar Bergman having a love child. That’s me.”

Mia Mäkilä is one of those artists that manage to catch you off guard.

I don’t even remember now how I came across her work. I bookmarked it, figuring I might go back if I “had the time.”
Meanwhile, those distorted cartoonish figures have been haunting me. Her work is unique; you can see a piece and instantly know it’s hers. She uses bright comic colours, but the darkness still manages to seep through.

It gives me the most delicious chills.

“Newspaper Freak”, by Mia Mäkilä
Click image to visit her site;
some art contains nudity.

My New Tattoos Part 2

Stefanie Snider

I posted about my new tattoos a couple weeks ago. They’ve healed up beautifully; the colour on the typewriter came out exactly like I wanted.

So! The big healed reveal!

(I forgot to mention: the stars are about ten years old and desperately in need of fixing. I know. And as everyone on the entire internet says, I swear it doesn’t curve like that all the time!)

And…Harriet the Spy! I’ve always been a big reader, and when I was a kid Harriet the Spy was one of my favourite books. She wanted to be a writer, just like me, and I loved the idea of sneaking about looking in windows and learning about people. (Okay, creeping, but let’s not split hairs here.)
Anyway, I’ve told myself for years that I’d get a Harriet tattoo the first time I got published, and I couldn’t be happier.

(I got her on my inner bicep, opposite the typewriter. I’d thought about putting her on my outer shoulder, but I realized she looks somewhat like I do. And I didn’t want to pull a Steve-O.)

Dark Passage

Stefanie Snider

“Urban exploration (often shortened as urbex or UE) is the examination of the normally unseen or off-limits parts of urban areas or industrial facilities.”

Often haunting, urbex photos show the abandoned, the decayed, the forgotten.

Old hospitals. Rusted theme parks.

Empty insane asylums…like those on Dark Passage’s Hospital Hopscotch.

Frightening? Or beautiful?

(Images not reproduced here, per photographer’s request. But check them out on her site, they’re worth the click.)

Devorah Sperber: After the Mona Lisa

Stefanie Snider

As you probably know by now, I have a serious crush on art. My favourite pieces are made by artists who use everyday materials in completely new ways.

Meet Devorah Sperber.

After the Mona Lisa 3

“After the Mona Lisa 3

2010

425 spools of Coats & Clark thread, aluminum ball chain, stainless steel hanging apparatus, clear acrylic viewing sphere, metal stand

30 x 21 inches”

Think that’s incredible? You should see what she does with pipe cleaners.

(via Regretsy)

Judge a Book By Its Cover

Stefanie Snider

I love, love, love pulp covers. Whether they were for comics or cheap paperback novels, the lurid covers spoke of dread and danger. Monsters and shadowy villains lurking around corners hinted at impending doom. I remember reading horror comics that looked like these, and they heavily influenced my tastes in horror.

I mean really, how great are these?

Side note: I specifically remember reading a comic featuring Death menacing a man in his dreams, and it culminated in him waking to find a miniature Death digging a grave in the man’s own chest. Anyone know what I’m talking about?

For countless more vintage and pulp covers, check out Cover Browser, the best website I’d never heard of.

Artists! Bring Out Your Skeletons!

Stefanie Snider

After yesterday’s post I found a video that instantly changed my views on writing, and on being a “new” writer. If you’re an artist, in any form, you need to see this.

More artists need to do this: to reveal, even occasionally, their awkward first attempts. All that we fledglings see are the polished pieces, and it’s reassuring to see proof that once, even the experts kind of…sucked.

Artist Danny Quirk: Self-Dissections – Revealing the Inner Self

Stefanie Snider

“Aspiring to become a medical illustrator, these works were done in my senior year at Pratt Institute. Always having been interested in anatomy/the body, decided to do a series of paintings combining Classical aesthetics with a surreal approach. I plan to work on this series for about another 6 months while I am taking prerequisite courses for graduate school requirements, where I intend to become a medical illustrator.”

-Danny Quirk

"Self Dissection" ©Danny Quirk

Click the painting for more. (One contains artistic female nudity).

Via Fuck Yeah Illustration

Artist Ben Cuevas: Transcending the Material

Stefanie Snider

And I thought I was clever because I’m pretty decent at knitting cables…