James Maybe

Shown above is Coelho, by artist Deveras. “Coelho” is Portuguese for “rabbit” and insanely famous author. This is my pick for The Best of the Best Moleskin Art of 2009.

A pair of large paintings by Morris Molino, titles unknown. You may notice that I flipped the image on the left, which is probably a very bad thing to do. I just thought they made a better couple that way.

Oh look. It’s a dollar sign made out of bullets. How clever! The artist must be making some kind of statement. Humm… I know! It’s about the connection between money and warfare. Do you get it? Do you fucking get it!?

Shown Not Shown above: Joe Gee’s Explorations. Gee has another sculpture with the word “PEACE” spelled out in bullets. Hahahahaha oh the irony!

Another image after the break.

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Shown above is a panel from La Bête à Cinq Doigts (The Beast with Five fingers) by Swiss illustrator and comic book artist Thomas Ott. Click on the link below to view the full sequence.

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by Jaroslaw Kukowski.

Siberian artist Marina Bychkova takes the inherent creepiness of realistic dolls to a whole new level with her tiny porcelain creations. Her “Enchanted Dolls” feature ball-joints and tattoos and anatomically correct private parts.

by Jason Limon.

The impeccably rendered ball-point pen illustrations of Shohei Otomo, aka Hakuchi, play with themes of Japanese history, stereotypes and nationalism. The way he contrasts large dark and white shapes with fine detail reminds me of highly talented, yet largely forgotten illustrator Vint Lawrence. Shown above: おSUSHIさん.

Valerio Carrubba slices open faces and bodies to reveal hyper-realistically depicted innards. Anatomically correct or not, the results are certainly attention grabbing. The details, including lushly rendered backgrounds, are masterfully drawn. No doubt there is some point behind these paintings, waiting to be revealed like the guts of Carrubba’s subjects, but I’m willing to let this be another unsolved mystery. Though far more talented, I’m even tempted to view Valerio as one the many artists who are recognized simply because their style is so clearly recognizable.  Instead I’ll reserve judgment here use the phrase I keep hearing everywhere I go, the deeply meaningless mantra of our time: “It is what it is”.

by Damon Soule.

by Amy Crehore.

Kazuki Takamatsu takes Kara Walker to a whole new level with amazingly suggestive white-on-black figures. Shown above: Mealtime.