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      Mammoth Straw Creatures Populate Japanese Farmland in the Annual Wara Art Festival

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      Art
      Food

      #animals
      #farming
      #Japan
      #sculpture
      #straw

      September 13, 2021
      Grace Ebert

      All images courtesy of Wara Art Festival
      If you visit Japan’s Niigata Prefecture during the region’s annual rice harvest, you’re likely to find enormous tarantulas, eagles, and dinosaur-like creatures stalking the bucolic landscape. The towering sculptures are part of the Wara Art Festival, a summertime event that displays massive animals and mythical creations fashioned from the crop’s leftover straw.
      Traditionally, the byproduct is used as livestock feed, for compost that revitalizes the soil, and to craft household goods like zori sandals, although farmers increasingly have found themselves with a surplus as agricultural technology and culture changes. This shift prompted a partnership between the people of the former Iwamuro Village, which is now Nishikan Ward, and Tokyo’s Musashino Art University (known colloquially as Musabi) in 2006. At the time, Department of Science of Design professor Shingo Miyajima suggested that the unused straw be used in a collaborative art project between the university and local farmers, resulting in the first Wara Art Festival in 2008.
      Today, students design the oversized characters—you can see previous year’s creations in this gallery—and artisans from Nishikan Ward construct the wooden armature and thatched bodies. The monumental figures stand as high as 30 feet, looming over the green landscape in a playful celebration of local culture.
      Although the festival paused in 2020 because of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, it’s back for its 13th edition at Uwasekigata Park. This year’s motley cast includes insects, animals, and even legendary monsters like the Amabie, all on view through October 31. (via Hyperallergic)

      #animals
      #farming
      #Japan
      #sculpture
      #straw

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      Innumerable Metal Leaves and Flowers Cloak Intricately Sculpted Animals by Taiichiro Yoshida

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      Art

      #animals
      #butterflies
      #flowers
      #metal
      #sculpture

      September 3, 2021
      Grace Ebert

      “The Dog in the Night Fog”
      Japanese artist Taiichiro Yoshida (previously) continues his surveys into the possibilities of metalsmithing with a new series of elaborately layered sculptures. Spending between two and six months on each work, Yoshida meticulously molds copper, bronze, silver, and other materials by hand, creating countless metallic pieces with intricately impressed textures and edgings. Once wrapped around an armature of a dog, chick, or stuffed teddy bear, the fragile components ripple across the form, or as is the case with “The Dog in the Night Fog,” they appear as dozens of butterflies poised for flight. Explore a larger collection of Yoshida’s wrought sculptures on his site.

      “Shell.” All images © Taiichiro Yoshida, shared with permission
      Detail of “The Dog in the Night Fog”
      “Red chick no. 6”
      “Vessel”
      “Calico”
      “Doppel”
      “Mottled rabbit”

      #animals
      #butterflies
      #flowers
      #metal
      #sculpture

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      Bizarre Wide-Eyed Hybrids Reflect Imagined Landscapes in Naoto Hattori’s Miniature Paintings

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      Art

      #animals
      #miniature
      #painting
      #surreal

      September 3, 2021
      Grace Ebert

      “Green Walk.” All images © Naoto Hattori, shared with permission
      At once adorable and unnervingly surreal, the fantastical creatures rendered by Naoto Hattori (previously) seamlessly meld the myriad textures and colors found in nature into unusual hybrids. They’re often fluffy, equipped with horns in surprising spots, and bear eyes so inordinately large and glassy that they reflect full-scale landscapes. Whether a furry sea horse-like character or a large bulbous head floating mid-air, the figures are musings on Hattori’s experiences. “When I (am) lucid dreaming, I imagine myself as a floating hybrid creature or something in harmony with nature,” he tells Colossal.
      Primarily working in acrylic, the Japanese artist keeps his paintings small in scale, opting for miniature boards that generally don’t stretch more than six inches. He welcomes the technical challenge of such tiny spaces, although the size constraint originally developed when he was diagnosed with severe cervical spondylosis about 10 years ago. “When I tried to draw with my elbows and shoulders, my fingertips became numb and I couldn’t control the brush,” he says. “If it’s about the size of a notebook, I can draw without moving my neck or shoulders… So currently, I’m painting a smaller size that allows me to draw freely with the movements of my wrists and fingertips.”
      Hattori, who recently relocated from New York to his hometown of Yokohama, Japan, will be part of The Blab Show opening at Santa Monica’s CoproGallery on September 11. You can glimpse his process on Instagram, and shop originals and prints on his site.

      “Regeneration 3”
      Left: “Floating.” Right: “Regeneration 2”
      “Mind Pollinator”
      “Lucid Dreamer”
      Left: “Rooster.” Right: “Sing for Joy”
      “Baby Fungus”
      “Inner Sound”

      #animals
      #miniature
      #painting
      #surreal

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      Fragmented Blocks of Color and Texture Overlap in Lui Ferreyra’s Layered Portraits

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      Art
      Illustration

      #animals
      #colored pencil
      #digital
      #drawing
      #portraits

      August 24, 2021
      Grace Ebert

      “Awear Glasses,” digital drawing for Charmant USA. All images Lui Ferreyra, shared with permission
      Curved patches and geometric blocks comprise the layered portraits by Denver-based artist Lui Ferreyra (previously). Working both digitally and with colored pencil on paper, Ferreyra overlaps outlined fragments filled with thin lines to convey shadow and light, creating nuanced portrayals of his subjects. The prismatic works shown here are some of the artist’s more recent personal projects and commissions, which show the development of his distinct style during the last few years, in addition to the contrast he continues to draw between densely composed fields of color and larger expanses of negative space.
      Ferreyra is currently a resident in The Ramble Hotel’s Art Can program, and his illustrations will be on view at the Denver location’s pop-up gallery through September 7. A few prints are available in his shop, and you can follow his work on Instagram.

      “Unfinished Series 1,” digital drawing
      “Marc Maron,” digital drawing
      “Open Hand,” digital drawing
      “Psyche,” color pencil on black paper
      “Rainbow Series 1,” digital drawing
      “Rainbow Series 3,” digital drawing
      “Jasmin,” digital drawing for Scholarship America

      #animals
      #colored pencil
      #digital
      #drawing
      #portraits

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      Colorful Crayon Animals by Herb Williams Illustrate Impacts of the Climate Crisis

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      Art

      #animals
      #climate change
      #crayons
      #sculptures

      August 17, 2021
      Grace Ebert

      Detail of “Phantom Limb(s).” All images by John Brown, © Herb Williams, shared with permission
      Bolstering his ongoing body of work confronting the climate crisis, two new sculptures by Nashville-based artist Herb Williams (previously) address the interconnected impacts of environmental catastrophe and disastrous human consumption from the perspective of animals. A fawn, a pair of narwhals, and a small arctic fox compose the colorful menagerie, with a melting chunk of a glacier, cut branches, and sliced tree trunk completing the crayon-based ecosystems. The artist’s works are particularly timely following the IPCC’s bleak report earlier this month and recent climate-related tragedies, like fires ripping across California and Utah, Greece, and Siberia and a tropical storm that hit Haiti just days after the country was devasted by a 7.2-magnitude earthquake.
      Both of Williams’ pieces rely equally on subject matter and medium to convey the urgency of the issues, as with the bands of color embedded within the fawn’s legs and hunks of wood in “Phantom Limb(s).” Bold, vibrant stripes illustrate the animals’ interpretations of deforestation and the potential for synesthesia, a condition allowing sounds to manifest visually. “The growth rings travel on as a sort of sonar after the tree is cut, and the animals see and hear the ripple effect as the loss is felt throughout the forest,” Williams says.
      Similarly in the tusk-framed piece titled “Adrift,” distinct blocks of color encircle the drifting mass and bottom half of the narwhals’ bodies, showing the enduring effects of environmental disasters “similar to how the bands of sediment are left in homes after floodwaters recede,” he writes. “The bands are in the colors of black (oil spills), red (wildfires), green (irradiated waters from reactor spills), and even gold from luxury billionaire yachts running aground.”
      Williams is currently working on six large-scale sculptures for the Atlanta International Airport, and you can follow his progress on Instagram.

      Detail of “Adrift”
      Detail of “Phantom Limb(s)”
      Detail of “Phantom Limb(s)”
      “Adrift”
      Detail of “Adrift”
      Detail of “Adrift”
      “Phantom Limb(s)”

      #animals
      #climate change
      #crayons
      #sculptures

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      Lifelike Sculptures by Diana Beltrán Herrera Recreate Flora and Fauna in Intricately Cut Paper

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      Art
      Design
      Food
      Illustration

      #animals
      #birds
      #flowers
      #fruit
      #paper
      #plants
      #sculpture

      August 12, 2021
      Grace Ebert

      All images © Diana Beltrán Herrera, shared with permission
      Colombian artist Diana Beltrán Herrera (previously) adds to her growing collection of intricate paper sculptures with new plant and animal life. From her studio in Bristol, the artist and designer recreates lifelike reproductions of turacos, monarchs, and various species with nearly perfect precision. Innumerable fringed strips become feathers, faint scores mimic delicate creases in petals, and layers of bright paper form brilliantly colored plumes, creating a colorful and diverse ecosystem of wildlife from around the world.
      Prints, jigsaw puzzles, and cards are available in Beltrán Herrera’s shop, and you can see more of her recent commissions and personal projects on Behance and Instagram.

      #animals
      #birds
      #flowers
      #fruit
      #paper
      #plants
      #sculpture

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      Precise Replicas Cast Wildlife and Plants as Delightfully Tiny Sculptures

      by

      
      Art
      Craft

      #animals
      #birds
      #clay
      #miniature
      #sculptures

      July 14, 2021
      Grace Ebert

      All images © Fanni Sandor, shared with permission
      Fanni Sandor (previously) melds her background in biology with a decades-long enthusiasm for miniatures by creating an adorable menagerie of minuscule wildlife. Based in Hungary, she sculpts 1:12 scale models of leaping squirrels and multicolor tree frogs from clay and soft fibers and more recently has ventured into larger ecosystems populated by speckled mushrooms, ferns, and the tiniest tulips. Sandor’s biologically accurate models are sold out on Etsy right now, but keep an eye on shop updates by following her on Instagram.

      #animals
      #birds
      #clay
      #miniature
      #sculptures

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      Found Silverware and Scrap Metal Are Welded into Lively Sculptural Creatures by Matt Wilson

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      Art

      #animals
      #birds
      #found objects
      #metal
      #sculpture

      July 2, 2021
      Grace Ebert

      All images © Matt Wilson
      Wide spoons become muscular hind legs, pointed handles fan out into wings, and fork prongs curl around a branch like talons in Matt Wilson’s wildlife assemblages. Using found flatware and other metal objects, the Charleston-based artist (previously) welds sculptural renditions of birds, insects, and other small animals that appear lifelike and primed for movementt. He mounts the metallic sculptures on pieces of driftwood or smooth plaques—many of which are handcrafted by his friend Jacob Kent—that contrast the shining metal with the natural, grainy material.
      Wilson has spent the last few years broadening his practice and working on multiple birds simultaneously, allowing for more cohesive, well-rounded flocks. His next collection launches at 9 a.m. EST on July 9 in his shop, and his works sell quickly so keep an eye on Instagram for early looks at the 100 creatures set for release.

      #animals
      #birds
      #found objects
      #metal
      #sculpture

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