MC Escher, Images of Mathematics...

Escher's work covered a variety of subjects throughout his life. His early love of portraits, Roman and Italian landscapes and of nature, eventually gave way to regular division of the plane.. Over 150 colorful and recognizable works testify to Escher's ingenuity and vision. He managed to capture the notion of hyperbolic space on a fixed 2-dimensional plane as well as translating the principles of regular division onto a number of 3-dimensional objects such as spheres, columns and cubes. A number of his prints combine both 2 and 3-dimensional images with startling effect.. His art continues to amaze and wonder millions of people all over the world. In his work we recognize his keen observation of the world around us and the expressions of his own fantasies. . M.C. Escher shows us that reality is wondrous, comprehensible and fascinating.... LINK: Youtube

Georgia Russell: Art created with a Scalpel

Scottish-born, Paris-based Artist Georgia Russell is well-versed in manipulating two-dimensional prints into highly textured images with the aid of a knife. Utilizing the sharp edge of a scalpel, her body of work adds a fleeting layer organic curves and scores that often move in a gesture similar to a feather or fur. What could easily be a superfluous effect offers instead additional emotions and narratives to the prints, fully responding to the movement of the image being captured. Some pieces include two individual prints that have been entangled within one another. A play of solids and voids as well as content and proportions, the wispy creations explore the notion of an unseen network of energetic motions while illustrating the transient quality of a single moment. LINK

World’s First Color Fax Machine – 1946 (Nov, 1947)

This is a pretty remarkable invention for it’s time. A color, plain paper, fax machine from 1946 that used colored pencils to print the output. The resulting image looks a lot like a printout from my first color inkjet printer. Sending a 7×10″ picture in full color took about 15 minutes, which seems pretty damn reasonable. LINK

More information at the link above.

Stop-motion woodblock print videos by Tromarama

"QUOTE" From July 24th through November 7th, the Mori Art Museum in Tokyo will feature the work of Indonesian art trio Tromarama. Tromarama uses animation, stop-motion, woodblock prints, and other crafty things to create these fun music videos. I highly recommend you check it out if you're passing through Tokyo — the museum also has one of the best views of the city. LINK, Via: Youtube

Letterpress Dice Prints

Etsy user Stukenborg arranges dice in letterpresses, rolls ink over them, and makes prints. The popularity of this form of printmaking, which formed the basis of Gutenberg’s press, has grown in the past two decades.

Gallery and Process Photos, Via: DudeCraft | Photo: Stukenborg, Via: Neatorama

Modular 3D-printed Gothic cathedral

Skimbal created this 3D-printable Gothic Cathedral playset -- you can print and add as many segments as you'd like and assemble a church to your specification. As Skimbal notes, "Have you ever wanted a Gothic Cathedral of your very own? Are you intimidated by the centuries long construction schedule, and the punishing job requirements of being a European Bishop during the Dark Ages? Then We Have a Thing For YOU! The Gothic Cathedral Play Set!"

Gothic Cathedral Play Set by Skimbal (Via: Make, Via: Boingboing)

1930s-40s in Color

These vivid color photos from the Great Depression and World War II capture an era generally seen only in black-and-white. Photographers working for the United States Farm Security Administration (FSA) and later the Office of War Information (OWI) created the images between 1939 and 1944.

We invite your tags and comments! Also, more identification information. (The current titles come from the agency's original documentation, which was sometimes incomplete.)

The FSA/OWI pictures depict life in the United States, including Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands, with a focus on rural areas and farm labor, as well as aspects of World War II mobilization, including factories, railroads, aviation training, and women working.

The original images are color transparencies ranging in size from 35 mm. to 4x5 inches. They complement the better-known black-and-white FSA/OWI photographs, made during the same
period.

The Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division preserves
the original photographs and offers the digital copies to ensure their wide availability.

For more information about the collection and to see the approximately 171,000 black-and-white photos, visit: lcweb2.loc.gov/pp/fsacabt.html Via: Flickr

Original blueprints of the Eiffel Tower

At the Eiffel Tower's official web site, you can check out scans of the original blueprints created by Gustave Eiffel in preparation for the 1889 World's Fair. The famous tower in Paris was the source of much controversy (many thought its skeletal design ruined the classical cityscape) and remained the tallest structure in the world until the Chrysler Building in 1930.

[Via: Gizmodo, Via: Boingboing]

Femke Hiemstra print from Pressure Printing

The fine artisans at Pressure Printing have been busy, following up their stunning Ron English piece with this lovely intaglio fine art print from a drawing by Amsterdam-based painter Femke Hiemstra. Femke also has a new book out, Rock Candy, collecting her phantasmagorical fairy tails.

The new piece from Pressure Printing, in a signed/numbered edition of 100, is 8.75" x 12.75" and sells for $150. It's titled "Haniwa." The Pressure Printing blog has terrific photos of the drawing and printmaking process.

Femke Hiemstra's Haniwa, LINK

Stunning Japanese Woodblock Prints

"Susaki and the Jumantsubo Plain near Fukagawa, from One Hundred Famous Views of Edo, by Utagawa Hiroshige [1856-1858]"
Image: Wikimedia

During his life, Utagawa Hiroshige [1797-1858] dominated Japanese landscape printmaking, producing pictures of his travels around the country, and of vistas of the capital in his series One Hundred Famous Views of Edo, which included this print, Susaki and the Jumantsubo Plain near Fukagawa.

Hiroshige was highly creative with his use of composition as can be seen here, with the powerful body of the eagle preparing to dive for its prey framing the top of the image, juxtaposed against the wintry landscape around Edo Bay, seen from a ‘bird’s-eye-view’ perspective. LINK

Wolf Prints

Giclee, MUSEUM QUALITY FINE ART PRINTS
FROM THE ORIGINAL WOLF PAINTINGS
BY WILDLIFE ARTIST

TRUDY LEE ESTES
LINK