Everyday Situations Take an Amusing Turn in Toon Joosen’s Clever Collages

All images © Toon Joosen, shared with permission

A man mows a field of text, a vacuum cleaner sucks up beachgoers, and kids shield themselves from falling words in the witty collages of Toon Joosen. From his studio in The Netherlands, the artist cuts and splices vintage photos, magazines, postcards, and book pages into clever works that take an ironic and surreal approach to everyday activities. Joosen tends to play with scale and perspective, creating tongue-in-cheek scenarios brimming with nostalgia and humor. He shares dozens of works on Instagram and has prints, buttons, and other goods available on Etsy.

 

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A Scottish Town’s Annual Competition Invites Its Youngest Artists to Design ‘Wonky’ Holiday Lights

All images courtesy of Newburgh Action Group

For more than 20 years, the town of Newburgh in Fife, Scotland, has marked the holiday season with a wonderfully wonky tradition. Each autumn, young residents are invited to submit original sketches of Christmas decorations to a competition, and once a winning design is selected, Blachere Illumination transforms the work into an LED sculpture that’s then displayed throughout the town. The newest light is a salmon nicknamed “Happy Nemo” that sports a red hat, and the menagerie also features a “reinduck,” a cheerful piece of candy in a green wrapper with arms and legs, and a dinosaur with a star on its head.

 

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In Tom Hegen’s Aerial Photos, Swimmers and Loungers Texture Two Florida Beaches with Colorful Patterns

All images © Tom Hegen, shared with permission

As much of the northern hemisphere braces for gray, wintery weather, photographer Tom Hegen (previously) highlights the warm, vibrant oceanside of Florida’s Siesta Key and Miami beaches. Swimmers and sunbathers escaping the rays under colorful umbrellas line the coast and appear as textured, geometric shapes dotting the water and white sandy expanses. The Beach Series juxtaposes the haphazard with the organized, documenting both neat rows of uniform loungers and clusters of people as they congregate along the shoreline.

See all of the sun-soaked photos in Hegen’s collection on Behance, and find prints, posters, and books of his aerial works on his site.

 

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Minimal Paintings by Artist Liz Flores Explore What It Means to Belong

“Fresca y Atrevida (Bold and Outspoken)” (2022), acrylic on canvas, 39 ⅜ x 47 ¼ inches. All images © Liz Flores, courtesy of Vertical Gallery

A new series by Chicago-based artist Liz Flores explores familial roots and community through minimal portraits in a palette of deep, warm colors and neutral tones complemented by blues. In Ni De Aquí, Ni De Allá, which translates to “from neither here nor there,” Flores uses the anonymity and ambiguity of her figures to explore the connections between generations and the human desire to position oneself within an ancestral context. “This work is a direct reaction to the question ‘What are you?’” the artist says. “In the U.S., you don’t always feel like you are American enough. But then at the same time, you may not always feel Latina enough. You live in the in-between.”

Born to a Cuban mother and a Mexican father, Flores describes deepening her understanding of this liminal space during a recent collaboration with The Jaunt, a travel project that sends artists to various locations around the world. She traveled to San Miguel de Allende, Mexico, where she joined her aunt and other family members for the first time without her parents. She explains:

I spent the next few days at their home talking with her about the differences in living in the States vs. Mexico, how the family in the States has changed, and the difficulty in keeping traditions alive. During this conversation, she mentioned how it can feel like you are “ni de aquí, ni de allá” and that became the title and theme of my show. It was a moment that felt like an evolution for me, not just as an artist gaining inspiration but as an adult, making connections with my family members not through my parents but on my own.

That moment followed a trip to Cuba a week earlier to visit her mother’s family when she talked with her cousins about the same feelings of belonging.

 

“Generaciones (Generations)” (2022), acrylic on canvas, 48 x 72 inches

These moments culminate in Flores’ solo show, which is on view through the end of the year at Vertical Gallery in Chicago. Fourteen acrylic paintings center on the artist’s signature color-blocked figures, whose bodies bend and join each other in abstract compositions. Elongated limbs and hand gestures imply movement through clean, graceful lines, and puzzle pieces on the threshold of fitting into place reference broader themes of identity and kinship. Works like “Fresca y Atrevida,” for example, are more personal and reflect Flores’ affinities with Cuban culture by finding a blue zunzuncito, the world’s smallest bird that’s native to the island nation, as it prepares to land on the tip of the woman’s finger.

A few of the prints the artist created with The Jaunt are available on the project’s site, and you can find more of her work on both canvases and walls on Instagram.

 

“Piezas Perdidas (Missing Pieces)” (2022), acrylic on canvas, 30 x 40 inches

“Espejo (Mirror),” (2022), acrylic on canvas, 36 x 48 inches

“Pedazo (Piece)” (2022), acrylic on canvas, 11 x 14 inches

“Sin Barreras #1 (Without Barriers #1)” (2022), acrylic on canvas, 11 x 14 inches

“Sin Barreras #2 (Without Barriers #2)” (2022), acrylic on canvas, 11 x 14 inches

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The ‘Pillars of Creation’ Glow in Remarkable Detail in a Groundbreaking Image from NASA’s James Webb Telescope

“Pillars of Creation.” All images courtesy of NASA, ESA, CSA, and STScI

In a small region within the vast Eagle Nebula—a 6,500 light-year journey from our solar system in the constellation Serpens—the iconic “Pillars of Creation” appear in a ghostly formation. Made of cool hydrogen gas and dust, these incubators for new stars are dense celestial structures that have survived longer than their surroundings. Ultraviolet light from incredibly hot newborn stars gradually erodes the surrounding space and illuminates the ethereal surfaces of the pillars and the streams of gas they emit.

Since July, NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope has released numerous photographs of the cosmos in unprecedented detail. To process this image, scientists combined captures taken with the telescope’s Near-Infrared Camera (NIRCam) and Mid-Infrared Instrument (MIRI), which brought different elements into focus. Near-infrared light emphasizes the stars, including thousands of newly-formed orange spheres that hover around the columns. The saturated hues around the interstellar formations are visible thanks to the mid-infrared contribution, which highlights the diffused orange dust around the top, deep indigo of the densest regions, and bright neutral color of the pillars. Lava-red spots on the upper parts of the spires contain young, embedded stars that will continue to form for millions of years.

See the full 47.59-megapixel photograph on the James Webb website. (via PetaPixel)

 

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Surreal Narratives Energize Karlotta Freier’s Vibrant Dreamlike Illustrations

All images © Karlotta Freier, shared with permission

Brooklyn-based illustrator Karlotta Freier accentuates aspects of the mundane into energetic, surreal compositions. Often working on commissions for larger editorial and advertising projects, she begins with a mood, narrative, or compelling fact that unwinds into vivid, dreamlike scenes with otherworldly elements. Scale and perspective figure largely in her illustrations, which sometimes position people alongside enormous flowers or animals or use landscapes to amplify the minuscule nature of humans in comparison to the vastness of the world.

Prints of Freier’s works are available from The Honey Pump, and you can find more of her personal projects and commissions for brands and publications like Hermès, The New Yorker, and The New York Times on Instagram.

 

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A New Apple Campaign Shines a Light on the Diverse Possibilities of Accessible Tech

In an empowering new ad from Apple, accessibility features of the brand’s products take center stage. Backed by an energizing soundtrack by Australian ensemble Spinifex Gum that puts famed boxer Muhammad Ali’s 1974 “I am the greatest” speech to music, scenes emphasize the features of phones, watches, and computers that allow people with physical disabilities to access myriad creative and life pursuits: a deaf mother is alerted to her child crying, a performer uses his camera to access the stage door, and a man makes various facial expressions to edit photos. Directed by Kim Gehring, “The Greatest” is a stunningly produced campaign that evinces the powers of greater access to technology for all.

 

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