For cat lovers!

A world completely inhabited by cats came across my eyes yesterday. Susan Herbert, a painter who prefers cat models, has repainted a variety of known masterpieces, replacing the original models with cats, in pieces like Da Vinci's Mona Lisa, Marie Antoinette and many more. Some of her publications explore the Middle ages, Impressionism, Shakespearean drama, Western Art like Manet and Michelangelo, and also scenes from classic movies.

Her work has a funny, bizzare feeling about it without the atmosphere of the paintings ever feeling humorous. The cats' facial expressions are very sophisticated and serious most of the time.

What I also love about her, is that she successfully reflects the specific movement, characteristics and techniques of the original artist but its also different at the same time too.

I couldn't find much of a bio of the artist, I only know she herself loves cats and her pet stars in the paintings quite often.

See more of her innovative work at Chris Beetles Gallery.

The story of the lonely monster

This is my new little creation and his adventure in the woods as he described it to me when he got back home from his walk.

" I've been waiting for my imaginary friend today in the park...When he showed up we immediately started playing hide and seek, climbing on the trees and relaxing by the sea! It was such a peaceful day. The birds were singing songs to us and the flowers where laughing with our mischief.

We had all the time to sit down and dream, talk and enjoy the beautiful scents of the woods. Then we were swinging by a broken gate watching the cars pass by as my fur blew in the strong wind . We got the train back eventually after we watched the sun go down.

I hope I will find him tomorrow in the park again..."

If you want to see many more pictures of his adventure checkout my Flickr stream!

Kaleidoscopic eyes

These are the experiments i did this weekend with a 'kaleidoscopic' lens and my camera. The results came out magic! Some experimenting brought out crazy colorful and beautiful patterns and also other more scary and dark compositions. I love the patterns that can be created by the blending of a face and body parts, and the complex patterns that appear from some other objects like Lego, lighting shades, toys, fruits and more!

The set up if you want to experiment too is pretty simple. The 'kaleidoscope' is actually a type of prism mounted inside a piece of recycled cardboard that I aligned with the camera lens, so that when you look through your camera's viewfinder, your subject will appear in a symmetrical, kaleidoscopic pattern!

By changing the distance between the kaleidoscope and camera, as well as playing with the camera's zoom, the patterns shift and change as the light moves through the prism. Just moving the kaleidoscope slightly can produce totally different patterns - there are an infinite number of ways to shoot the same subject! Have fun!

2009 - Last year for Polaroid Instant Film

Happy 2009! The last year for Polaroid Instant film!

Buy it, play around, love it and make the most out of it this new year because the last Polaroid films expire in September 2009...

I fell in love and bought my Polaroid Spirit 600 CL recently in a flea market in Berlin, but haven't taken a lot of pictures yet since the last films available are very expensive, but i can say it's definitely a big loss for all Polaroid lovers. The bright side is that Fuji has released their own instant camera, but unfortunately the film cannot be used for Polaroids.

If you got some time though, share your pictures and stories in Flickr, sign the petitions in savepolaroid.com and enjoy taking pictures!

See also Ten Ways to Love Polaroid Before The Films Runs Out.

Mr Tri

He is Mr Tri, my little new creation. He is a bit mischief and likes jumping on my lego tree... Merry Christmas everybody!

My Fisheye

So as i promised before here are some pictures i've taken with my fisheye...Don't judge me too strict..it's more difficult than i thought, but i keep on trying. At first i started taking pictures without thinking too much (the number one rule of lomography!) but with no sunny weather and my poor skills i ended up with loads of grey boring photos. It's quite rewarding when you finally manage to get a good one though!! So now i keep notes on a sketchbook and doing experiments with the flash, the shutter, the light so that i get to know what worked well end what didnt went so well...keep your eyes here for news of a project that will bring together lomographers in a cool new experience!

Onedotzero Adventures in Motion

It's been a while since it took place but I thought it's worth posting some pictures of the 2008 onedotzero Festival at the BFI in London. I didn't see all the screenings but everything I saw was definately worth the trip. I once again saw Musicotherapie Film which I'd seen in the past at the Pictoplasma Character Animation Festival in 2007, and I'm still wondering why it wasn't on the final DVD collection... one of the funniest animations ever! Worth mention was the work by David O'Reilly, Tokyoplastic (who premiered the first of three animated shorts, "The Praying Machine"), a superb collage animation by Run Wrake, and many other great works by artists from around the globe. Also worth a mention is John Raskin's fantastic "I Met The Walrus"; a continual flow of surreal visualisation, illustrating every word spoken by John Lennon in an impromteu interview with 14 year old Beatle fanatic Jerry Levitan in 1969.

The film Choking Man was also a sweet story with nice little animations by Marina Zurkow. There was a post screening Q&A with director Steve Barron as well as Octavio Gómez who played the film's chronically shy protagonist.

Doodle earth was one of the fun interactive installations. Selected Illustrators have created an animated city film, upon which the public was invited to take a pen and add to the evolution of the city!