In the heat of the New York summer, Gothamist associate editor Rebecca Fishbein and videographer Jessica Leibowitz spent a day in Coney Island, Brooklyn visiting the World of Swimming‘s Mermaid School. The skilled instructors at the school teach the students how to swim like a mermaid, a feat that requires a great deal of core strength, and in doing so, encourage self-confidence and pride. Ummm ok, sure…it’s all fun and games until someone drowns. Merman…Merman! 😉
With his new series of mashups Trump x Magritte, Brazilian artist and illustrator Butcher Billy imagines an improbable encounter between painter René Magritte, the master of Surrealism, and American politician, wanna-be president, and billionaire Donald Trump. Love it! 🙂
Steven Siegel is an American photographer who captured New York from the 1980s in very raw, almost apocalyptic, images. Through his fascinating photographs focused on urban decay, wastelands, and abandoned spaces, Steven Siegel reveals a time when New York City was a much more dangerous and broken-down place – risky, dirty, and chaotic yet somehow had a sense of honesty, openness, and freedom which according to him was lost after 9/11. You can check out all of Steven Siegel’s work on his Flickr account. Amazing stuff! 🙂
We love the amazing creations of Janet Best, an American confectioner and owner of Etsy shop Sugar Bakers Bakery who inserts colourful and edible flower petals, such as blueberry flowers, pansies, and daisies, into her original and bespoke sugar lollipops. Fantastic stuff! 🙂
Stephen Vuillemin: We love the work of American illustrator Stephen Vuillemin, who specialises in funny editorial illustrations and has turned them into awesome animated GIFs. Usually creating illustrations for publications like the New York Times, Bloomberg, and GQ, Stephen Vuillemin brings an extra dimension to his work with this fun batch of animations. Great stuff! 🙂
Rachel Perry: With her Lost In My Life project, American artist and photographer Rachel Perry takes the stage, becoming lost in camouflages composed of various everyday objects. Through these interesting self-portraits, Rachel Perry illustrates our addiction to these objects and the endless organisation, cleaning, and shopping that manages our lives. Fantastic work! 🙂
David Zinn: We love the latest creations by artist David Zinn who mixes street art with chalk and anamorphoses, enhancing the streets with his awesome characters. Having fun playing with perspectives and street elements, David imagines quirky and offbeat urban scenes featuring his cute characters, which are mostly improvised and light-hearted – you can keep track of his latest works by following him on Instagram.
Bobbugs: A prop master for U.S. TV shows, Michael Gump, aka Bobbugs, has created Master of Disguise, an awesome project where he covers himself with assorted colourful objects, such as LEGO, plastic ducks, cotton buds, cookies, paint, lollipops, pens, pizzas, temporary tattoos and so on, filling his instagram with unique and slightly offbeat self-portraits. LOVE it! 🙂
Selfie Spoon: So US breakfast brand Cinnamon Toast Crunch has introduced the ‘Selfie Spoon’, a selfie stick with a spoon handle for taking selfies while eating cereal…WTF?! It seems the manufacturer, General Mills, is also offering a limited number of the devices for free each day, with the purchaser only having to pay shipping costs – yippee! Because we’ve always wanted to see photos of people with crusty sleep in their eyes and breakfast food stuff caught in their teeth first thing in the morning. We weep for the future…
Hueman: We love the beautiful street art creations by American artist Hueman, who divides her time between her studio and the streets of California. Equally at home on a canvas or walls, Hueman creates a subtle mix of abstract and figurative, of beauty and grotesque, always hiding the true meaning of her art between the lines. To view more of Hueman’s amazing work, check out her website. AWESOME! 🙂
