Throwaway Thursday – Art, Photography & Design Around the Internets

[3] Artist Lori Nix [4] specializes in post-apocalyptic dioramas of abandoned scenery in which "public spaces devoted to history and science lie deteriorating and neglected while nature slowly takes them back."

Nix describes her work as “saturated with color and infused with a dark sense of humor.”  The truly amazing thing about her work is that rather than being Photoshop manipulations, they are actual miniaturizations – painstakingly hand-crafted over periods ranging from two to fifteen months.  Click the thumbnail for a larger image or, better yet, go check out the complete slideshow [4].

[5] Russian photographer Sergey Larenkov [6] blends WWII photos of European cities with contemporary versions to create a haunting study of contrast.  With a seamless overlay of colors and and greyscale, Larenkov’s doesn’t just connect old with new, but does so alongside a stark contradiction of visceral wartime imagery and modern excess,  You can click on the thumbnail for a larger version or head over to his LiveJournal page [6] for the complete series.

[7] Ginger Blakley [8] is a Canadian artist whose work is “influenced by her love for nature and the beauty found in old world simplicity.”  Her work vacillates between fantasy and decay giving her pieces a sort of decrepit beauty.  What I find most striking about Blakley’s work is the blend of antique simplcity alongside images of decay and discard.

Blakely has also made available the incredible work done by her father on a series of “fanciful machines” – a gorgeous collection of steampunk-esque vehicles.  Like a set of farming implementations from the imagination of Willy Wonka, his work offers a visceral ingenuity of pre-technological complexity while managing to convey the same sense of decay permeating his daughter’s work.  You can check out more images from each artist here [9].

[10]Finally, I have an image without an artist.  Found on DeMotivation.us [11], this mimicks seventies-era library prints that are still popular in classrooms.  If you’re wondering, the caption translation reads: Books – That is exactly how they work. 

I can’t tell who to credit for this one, but I would run out and buy it in a heartbeat if anyone manages to track down the artist.