Mycetozoa (still life with porcelain #4), from Hidden Place series. Inspired by Ernst Haeckel’s botanic illustrations, 3D rendering and photography.

Portrait of Ernst Haeckel.

Mycetozoa drawings by Ernst Haeckel.

Untitled (still life with porcelain #2), from Hidden Place series, 3D rendering and photography..

Untitled (still life with porcelain #3), 3D rendering and photography.

3D renderings of various creatures….

Above is an installation piece with secret silent film/animation hiding within.  Inside is a 3D animation on loop based on folktale about two women finding shelter under a whale skull amid the frozen landscape:

Animation below is based on folktale about the origins of snow. Ancient whale left the ocean to die on land.
Air and wind withered away his body until all left was a colossal heart. It wasn’t too long before it too gave away. When it burst open millions of white particles escaped and fell all over the ground.

What a beautiful story about the origins of snow!!

Stanislav Ginzburg is a Brooklyn based artist originally from Orenburg, Russia.  A lot of Stanislav’s artwork is inspired by folktales that deal with nature, strange species, microcosmic organisms, as well as animals which could have been living on earth or not. 

http://www.stanislavginzburg.com

November 14, 2010

Sewing table made from two broken chairs and I suppose, an old surfboard.  Redesigned by Robert Kalin, founder of ETSY.

November 13, 2010

Jerko is an environmental cleanup movement with head-quarters in Gowanus Canal DIY slavaged, solar powered, rainwater harvesting house boat. Jerko the Gowanus Water Vacuum house boat floats up and down the Gowanus Canal, cleaning water through biological filtration.  (Gowanus Canal is one of the most polluted waterways in New York City, if not the world)
Read about Jerko the Gowanus Water Vacuum on Half Nomad:

http://www.halfnomad.com

Photographs of Jerko the Gowanus Water Vacuum were discovered on beautiful blog by photographer Elizabeth Weinberg:

http://www.elizabethweinberg.com

November 11, 2010

Above: Ben Edwards and Juliet Moore

Made from discarded wood from various sources. Sanded and finished with linseed oil, putty and wax.

-http://edwardsmoore.com/

“Suppose every creature is a circle, which exists in this world, how many of them can I draw? This is my life’s work and my challenge… By drawing circles I feel I am alive and existing in the cosmos.” — Hiroyuki Doi

November 08, 2010

Golden leaves and trees full of house sparrows in Prospect Park, Brooklyn.

The Shepherds Way -  photography series by Dima Gomberg

November 04, 2010

I found these beautiful greenhouses made from upcycled old windows on HAUTE NATURE. I recently have seen a bunch of gorgeous old windows in the garbage. ...

October 29, 2010

Pigeons need houses too?

Few decades back in Russia, almost every building courtyard had a pigeon house(pigeon loft / dovecote). There were two near where I used to live in Moscow near Molodezhnaya street.  Why? Pigeons symbolize peace? The need to care for environment and others (bird and non-bird friends)? To be used as messengers during war (haha)? White doves, brown, black and regular gray pigeons were trained to fly around the neighborhood in perfect circles.  I loved watching them flying or sitting in their pigeon lofts.  Today most of pigeon houses in Russia are abandoned or demolished.  Reasons: pigeons spread disease but most importantly care for pigeons asks for money and time. Maybe it’s not cool anymore to have pigeon keeping as a hobby..

“The hobby of pigeon keeping is gaining in popularity in the United States, after having waned within the last 50 years. Both the hobby and commercial aspects of keeping pigeons are thriving in other parts of the world” -Wiki

Read about John Neilko’s flock of 250 pigeons that lives on the roof of the Polonia Democratic Club in Williamsburg, New York - NYMag

October 27, 2010

Yucca Valley portraits by Sue Huang with Pascual Sisto and Fernando Sanchez.

“Yucca Valley Portraits (2006) is a triptych of chromogenic printed portraits shot in Yucca Valley, California. The images capture three actions by the subjects. Each of the subjects throws a large rock into the air and poses as the rock falls. The middle image #2 reveals the mechanics of how the picture is accomplished. The project explores the perceptual dilemma of an unlikely scene and the possibility for collage via performance rather than compositing” - from http://sue.knifeandfork.org

October 26, 2010

New watercolor http://anastasiaugorskaya.com

October 21, 2010

Handmade snowballs made from rubber and seeds by Everyday Design.

Above: Artist David Hammons selling real(100% snow)
snowballs on the streets of New York.

October 18, 2010

Bikes on Driggs Avenue, Williamsburg, Brooklyn, New York

October 14, 2010

‘Whatever’ flower pots are a terracotta pots by brooklyn designer Jason Miller. The pots are made out of clay but are inspired by plastic bottles, metal cans or coffee cups people often use when they do not have a regular flower pot at hand.

http://www.millerstudio.us/

Oak Tree, Spring
2010, C-print, 24 x 36”, edition of 5

Oak Tree, Winter
2010, C-print, 24 x 36”, edition of 5

Sealed and Buried For All Time
2010, C-print, 30 x 40”, edition of 5

Striking photographs by Joshua Citarella. 

October 09, 2010

Nathaniel Lieb’s MFA performance piece Hatchling:

http://www.youtube.com/Lx4pbXTJ0J8

Nathaniel Lieb grew up in Lexington, MA, went to Syracuse University, Brooklyn College and The Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture. The forms in his sculptures/performances suggest natural structures like the mud daubers nests, however they were inspired by the conjoined impulses of measuring/mapping the extent of ones physical reach given a particular stance and the desire to make a sculptural form without having a pre-conceived idea of the finished form, rather responding to the situational relationship between myself the space and the materials. The similarity to nests lies in the similarity of method.  Both are built around the body from the inside out.
Nathaniel uses the cardboard because it is from the waste stream, is cheap (free) and available. “When I am finished with them they can be recycled, I love the way the material handles and looks. It has great tactile and manipulational advantages. I also like the color and textural variations within any given source, from smooth and hard to ribbed and gray. I like that I can tear it for an irregular edge” - Nathaniel.

Mud wasp nest above my door entrance:

October 08, 2010

Tree drawings and sculptures by Roxy Paine.

October 03, 2010

This LED chandelier by Yoon Bahk is made from recycled wine and champagne bottles.  Rescued bottles were hand washed and polished. A unit from single bottle can be hung by itself.  Yoon Bahk believes that green design should be an idea and not a look. 

I found this great design in a book called 1000 New Eco Designs:

September 28, 2010

Sculpture on Governor’s Island, New York.

Unconventional artsy birdhouses made from odd objects and milk crates.  I saw them on Reference Library and fell in love with ever since!

- View more…......

Nature and art in the eyes of Arnar Asgeirsson.

http://www.arnarasgeirsson.com/

September 22, 2010

Pillows from recycled old wool sweaters, jackets or shirts. (Image from Katy Elliott)

Sofa cover from reused jeans fabric. (Image from Design Milk)

September 19, 2010

September 18, 2010

Detail from: A Still Life of Tulips and Other Flowers.
Jacob Marrel
1681, Oil on Canvas

Details from: A Glass of flowers and Orange Twig
Abraham Mignon
1660, Oil on canvas

September 16, 2010

Read Richard Louv talk on the importance of tree houses and climbing trees:

- Last Child in the Woods: Schoolhouse in a Tree

- Richard Louv: Let them climb trees

September 14, 2010

Above: Shelving/vase system displaying thistles, dried plants and exotic flowers.

Daniel Goers is a local Brooklyn designer, architect and artist who has a show right now called Scrap Ecology at Brooklyn coffee shop K-Dog in Lefferts Gardens.  All pieces are made from reclaimed materials except some lighting components. Daniel has been collecting scrap materials and remaking them into beautiful designs and sculptures for some time now. His other great project is in collaboration with artist Jennifer Wong called Birdtown. Fifty birdhouses were built from recycled materials and installed in Fort Greene:

http://myrtleavenuebirdtown.com/

Above: Daniel Goers and Jennifer Wong.

Above: Birdhouse from Birdtown.

Scrap Ecology aims to rearrange the raw materials of our urban and natural environments into objects with new meaning and purpose. These materials include abandoned shipping pallets from Red Hook, wood cutoffs from carpentry projects, recycled packaging, discarded architectural samples, donated plant stems and foraged specimens from Prospect Park and the mountains of Harriman State Park.

http://dgoers.com

Why reclaimed materials?

New York is a great place to find raw materials to build with.  every day the streets are filled with “trash” that can be so much more. But maybe the best reason is that material is free. The reclaimed material also tends to have more character.

Do you enjoy living in New York? Would you if you had an opportunity move somewhere where there are more trees and less garbage?

Of course, New York is a great place to be a designer but my sculptures do hint at the desire to be closer to nature.  I would love to live in a barn in the mountains but in the meantime I will work to bring nature to people’s homes here.

Above: Lamp made from glass jar moss terrariums.

Why do you think using reclaimed materials is popular today? 

It’s just marketing for many people. I like to believe that myself and many other designers simply see some intrinsic value and potential in the waste around us. What was once a shipping pallet can become a hundred new things, so why cut down another tree?  More people come to this realization and the ‘green’ movement will become less about marketing & more a part of the collective conscience.

September 10, 2010

I love this painting by Vija Celmins.

September 09, 2010

There are always many fireflies in Upstate New York and New Jersey during summer.
I always try to photograph fireflies but photos never come out as good as these.

September 04, 2010