Breaking

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PhD sculpture student Jessica Harrison has a grotesquely alluring series of artwork that features delicate women figurines... and their exposed insides.  According to her Facebook Fanpage,  "Each piece is made using one of the mass-produced ceramic figures so familiar as the ornamental clutter filling shelves and gathering dust around the world, revealed and reshaped to show a soft and fleshy interior behind the brittle and fragile skin."

It is hard not to be intrigued by this juxtaposed mix of guts and glamor.

Urban Traps

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Ha!  These Urban Traps cracked me up.  They are fake bear traps filled with all the right bait to catch specific types of New York City dwellers.   Aaron Glazer and his fellow street artists have been setting the traps up around the city.  Above is a Hipster Trap, set up in Williamsburg, complete with PBR, fixie bike chain, and a pair of plastic neon glasses.  Another trap, the Bridge and Tunnel Trap, includes hair gel, spray tan, and a gold chain.

I can't wait to see more.  Tourist Trap please!  Must include foam Statue of Liberty Hat.

Lekki

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If you are one of the many people embracing the back to basics trend or just don't require the anything above a feature phone, consider Lekki.  Lekki is a company that is giving a new life to old school cell phones.  They are selling retro cell phones (yeah, I actually said retro cell phones - feel old now) with fresh paint jobs, turning them into modern fashion statements.  Their line currently includes two favorites from the 90's the Motorola StarTAC and the Nokia 3210.

Noun Project

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The Noun Project is building a free online collection of downloadable symbols.  Their mission is to collect, organize and add to the highly recognizable  symbols that form the world's visual language.  You can currently browse the symbols and download any of them for free to be used however you want.  The Noun Project is also a Kickstarter project, looking to raise money to improve their website by adding new features such as Search or Collections.  Every pledge of $30 or more gets a customized t-shirt featuring up to 3 noun symbols of your choice.

Stupidhead

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Ha!  It is payback time for Portland artist Aruppel.  She is getting her revenge on birds that have attacked her and her friends, through an absolutely brilliant series called "Mean Birds".  She has painted a collection of beautiful acrylic bird portraits, complete with a well deserved bad name they earned through their actions.  So enjoyable!

Prints available at @my ruppel's Etsy Shop.

Here You Go

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So imagine you are walking down the streets of Pittsburgh, it is pouring rain, you are about to become soaking wet... when some kind stranger hands you an umbrella.  A random act of kindness... yes, but there is one string attached.  The umbrella comes with a note that says you are now responsible for paying forward an additional act of kindness. When you are done, you are instructed to share your story via a prepaid postcard.  You can read all the postcards on the Here You Go blog.

My favorite part of this is that most of the postcards are all wet, as if people were inspired to go out and do their good deeds immediately.

Bing Destination Maps

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Why give use plain old google maps to get to your destination, when you could use a Bing Treasure Map,?  Bing Maps now have a whole host of Map Apps including Twitter Maps (because who doesn't want to know what their neighbors are tweeting about), Photosynth Maps (because all things photosynth are wondrous and enjoyable), or the Treasure Map shown above, part of the Destination Maps app (because who doesn't love a hand drawn map, especially one with a big red X on it).

Life Tokens

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Lifetokens is a social messaging concept that blurs the lines between online and offline, analogue and digital.  Token senders select a sentiment and token that expresses their message.  The recipient is sent a physical token with an online link to a personal message. An interesting mix of the tangible and sentimental. The tokens themselves are beautifully designed.  Each token cost $5.

Fiverr

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What would you do for $5?  I'm serious.  You must have at least $5 of skills that other people would want.  If so, take them to Fiverr.  It is a website filled with stuff people would do for a fiver. The creativity behind some of the offerings is priceless (or at least well worth your $5). 

For $5 you could get someone to call your kids and read them a custom bedtime story featuring their friends and pets, OR get someone to write your name on their hand for a week, OR have someone give you an emergency phone call during a bad date. If you have $5 to spend and don't see what you need, just fill out a request and see what happens.

I absolutely adore this site.  It gives me faith in the world. 

Colour of Music

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George Benson is just finishing an exhibit as part of the West Midlands Open 2010 at the Birmingham Art Gallery & Museum.  The series shown was called Colour of Music.  The photographs in the series feature collections of records arranged by colour instead of genre.  The effect is quite beautiful.  In the words of the photographic artist:

"The photographs create a rhythm of colour, light and shade that resonates with its musical content."