Mobile Habitats

Swarming spheres, pastel icebergs, and wild playscapes. [View this email in your browser]( [Colossal: Art, Design, and Visual Culture]( Lisa Ericson Imagines Fantastical Ecosystems Carried on the Backs of Turtles Portland, Oregon-based artist Lisa Ericson blends her hyperreallist painting style with a vivid imagination, resulting in fantastical combinations of plants and animals. Ericson tends to focus on one specific flora/fauna combination at a time, like hybrid mouserflies or coral fish. Her most recent series, Mobile Habitats, highlights turtles that [support small ecosystems on their shells](. From mossy knolls surrounded by fireflies to gnarled trees leafed with monarchs, each turtle-world evokes a specific time and place. A Panoramic Full Eclipse Composite with Star Trails Captured by Stephane Vetter In this beautifully rendered “little planet” image, photographer Stephane Vetter fuses both night and day captured from a single location at Magone Lake in Oregon during the [August 21st solar eclipse](. The shot required tons of careful planning, and there’s an explanation of how he did it. Winsor & Newton’s True Colors (Sponsor) The colors are bright and vivid – and they’re the same every time. That’s thanks to the careful and deliberate machine precision that goes into testing every Winsor & Newton Professional Acrylic paint. [And with their newly released videos, you can go behind the scenes at their London laboratory]( to see just how they ensure these incredible displays of different shades, again and again. The secret ingredient behind Winsor & Newton’s Professional Acrylic paint is a group of expert chemists, known as ‘Color Men’, along with a set of in-house artists. Together, they research, develop and discover new paints. This expert team effort provides a range of new products as well as quality assurance. When it comes to color, they have it covered – and tested. Read more at [Colossal](. Elements: An Animated Film of Improbable Gallery Installations Composed of Two Billion Shifting Spheres by Maxim Zhestkov Elements, an experimental art film by Maxim Zhestkov, follows more than two billion black and white spheres [through a series of experiments]( within several enclosed spaces. Throughout the film the particles swarm through different white rooms, each labeled with subtle wall text that broadly defines the physics of each animation such as flow, diffusion, and pressure. Monumental Pastel Drawings of Endangered Icebergs by Zaria Forman Zaria Forman creates incredibly [realistic drawings of Antarctica’s icebergs]( producing large pastel works that capture the sculptural beauty of the quickly shrinking forms. This past winter, the artist had the opportunity to be side-by-side with the the towering ice shelfs, observing their magnitude aboard the National Geographic Explorer during a four week art residency. Accumulation: A Dramatic Concentric Tunnel of Light Patterns by Yang Minha New media artist Yang Minha recently completed work on this [dizzying light tunnel]( installed outside the main gate of Le Méridien Seoul in South Korea. Titled Accumulation, the piece is comprised of rotating square panels that display an ongoing sequence of 6 geometric patterns based on six concepts: rise, flow, accumulation, dimension, light, and overlap. Innovative New Playscape Designs by MONSTRUM Appear in Playgrounds Around the World For the last several years, Danish design firm MONSTRUM has constructed wildly [imaginative playscape features]( for playgrounds around the world with an intense focus on both artistic and architectural quality. The playgrounds are designed and built locally in their large studio just outside Copenhagen and then shipped in components to sites around Denmark, Sweden, Russia, and even Dubai. From The Colossal Shop: Calamityware Bowls From the celebrated Calamityware series are new [Omnivore Bowls]( versatile vessels for snacks, meals, traditional cappuccinos, you name it. Artist Don Moyer sneaks clever variations into the traditional proper Blue Willow pattern. Friendly demons and creatures accessorized with wine glasses, forks, plates of cake, chef hats―even heartburn―ring the outside edge. Additional designs decorate the interior of each bowl, including a surprise KABLOOM at the bottom for everyone who finishes their peas and carrots. Now in stock in [The Colossal Shop]( Copyright © 2017 Colossal, all rights reserved. Want to change how you receive these emails? You can [update your preferences]( or [unsubscribe from this list]( [MailChimp Email Marketing](