Uploaded March 2016 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
“All of my works involve chance, contextual change, and strict limitations. For this project, the pieces begin as tiny collages from old instructional manuals I have meticulously mined. After sorting through thousands of images, I scan the hundreds of individual components, then create the collages digitally, revamping the colors completely, then have the compositions digitally printed and stretched onto canvas VERY large (adding a few more touch-ups by hand), as the dot gain patterns in the colors are clearly discernible upon viewing. There is only a single tangible canvas for each composition.”
Music: "Floes" by Monokle
“All of my works involve chance, contextual change, and strict limitations. For this project, the pieces begin as tiny collages from old instructional manuals I have meticulously mined. After sorting through thousands of images, I scan the hundreds of individual components, then create the collages digitally, revamping the colors completely, then have the compositions digitally printed and stretched onto canvas VERY large (adding a few more touch-ups by hand), as the dot gain patterns in the colors are clearly discernible upon viewing. There is only a single tangible canvas for each composition.”
Music: "Floes" by Monokle
![Leegan Koo
Leegan was born in Seoul, Korea. He began drawing and painting at a young age by himself. He grew up moving from one metropolitan city to another—Baltimore, Philadelphia, and New York City to name a few—and cultural diversity and experience of dynamic urban life became the major source of his artistic inspiration, along with jazz, hiphop, and graffiti. In 2011, Leegan began to focus on painting cityscapes—a visual manifestation of memories and emotions attached to certain places—and experimented with various styles of realism and surrealism. In 2013, he moved to San Francisco to attend Academy of Art University where he received his first formal art education. In 2014, Leegan moved to Los Angeles and began his career as a freelance artist while working part time for art companies that specialize in producing and printing artworks for clients such as Crate and Barrel, Pottery Barn, and Z Gallery. He currently lives and works as a freelance artist in Bellingham WA.
[from: http://www.leeganart.com/about]
Music: Alio Die Cerulean Facade Leegan Koo](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/mXzyhBrfveM/mqdefault.jpg)
![Takato Yamamoto (Part 2)
Takato Yamamoto (b.1960) is a Japanese painter and manga artist. He is most known for developing a unique style that he termed “Heisei aestheticism”, which blends influences from Japanese ukiyo-e painting with Western gothic art to create dark, but beautiful images. His surrealistic and highly detailed works often explore themes of violence, death and sexuality to create unsettling and highly symbolic imagery.
[from: http://www.muddycolors.com/2019/05/ar...]
What kind of tools and painting materials do you use for drawing?
Drawing the rough sketch I use pencil and mechanical pencils. And I start to draw on paper by pigment-ink or on canvas by an acrylic pigment, etc.
You have so many art works, all very detailed. How long you take to create one piece?
About one week with a small one. It takes one month or more when it is a large one. It rarely happens for it to take several months.
What is your process to create art works?
Day by day the artwork is changed by meeting something and someone and what image stands up into reality, the dream, and the illusion. Even I am expected for the unknown expression world to be created while enjoying those meeting.
Did you decide the concepts and titles for each of your art books by yourself? Those books are designed beautifully. Do you imagine the design for books or have ideas to tell the designer?
Books take about two years to complete. The whole time, I’m thinking and discussing with the planner and the editor of the book. We overview the art works for those two years, and we figured out the theme and title for them. And then we are thinking about the structure of the book. Furthermore I’d add some new art works. About the book design, we also talk and focus the image for the design.
[more at: https://missmementomori.wordpress.com/2014/01/01/amazing-art-by-takato-yamamoto-2/]
Music: Robert Rich The Gate Is Open Takato Yamamoto (Part 2)](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/mkzCzD5lazg/mqdefault.jpg)
![Michael Broad
“My work is deeply rooted in storytelling - exploring visual narratives set in imaginary landscapes. I favor a monochrome palette for its mysterious, dreamlike quality..”
Michael Broad studied illustration at Portsmouth University, earning 1st Class Honours Degree in 1999. He then moved to London to work as a commercial artist and made books in his spare time. One of these books caught the attention of a literary agent and his first publishing contract followed in 2005.
Michael has since written and illustrated over thirty books for children and these have been translated into many languages worldwide. His picture books have been nominated for the Kate Greenaway Medal and the Stockport Schools Book Award, and his fiction has been shortlisted for the Nottingham Childrens Book Award and the Waterstones Childrens Book Prize.
Michael continues to paint alongside book projects and his enduring fascination with stories has fed into a body of work depicting a large cast of characters populating dreamlike landscapes. He has recreated many of these characters as porcelain sculptures.
Michael’s paintings and ceramics reside in private art collections around the world and his work been shown in various exhibitions including the Summer Exhibition at the Royal Academy of Arts.
[from: https://www.michaelbroad.co.uk/about]
Music: Alio Die Electrostatic Forest Michael Broad](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/myBp-NH34yI/mqdefault.jpg)
![H.R. Giger
Hans Ruedi Giger (5 February 1940 – 12 May 2014) was a Swiss artist best known for his airbrushed images that blended human physiques with machines, an art style known as biomechanical. Giger later abandoned airbrush for pastels, markers and ink. He was part of the special effects team that won an Academy Award for the visual design of Ridley Scotts 1979 sci-fi horror film Alien, and was responsible for creating the titular Alien itself. His work is on permanent display at the H.R. Giger Museum in Gruyères, Switzerland. His style has been adapted to many forms of media, including album covers, furniture, tattoos and video games.
Giger was born in 1940 in Chur, the capital city of Graubünden, the largest and easternmost Swiss canton. His father, a pharmacist, viewed art as a breadless profession and strongly encouraged him to enter pharmacy. He moved to Zürich in 1962 where he studied architecture and industrial design at the School of Applied Arts until 1970.
Gigers first success was when H. H. Kunz, co-owner of Switzerlands first poster publishing company, printed and distributed Gigers first posters, beginning in 1969.
Gigers style and thematic execution were influential. He was part of the special effects team that won an Academy Award for Best Achievement in Visual Effects for their design work on the film Alien. His design for the Alien was inspired by his painting Necronom IV and earned him an Oscar in 1980. His books of paintings, particularly Necronomicon and Necronomicon II (1985) and the frequent appearance of his art in Omni magazine contributed to his rise to international prominence. Giger was admitted to the Science Fiction and Fantasy Hall of Fame in 2013. He is also well known for artwork on several music recording albums including Danzig III: How The Gods Kill by Danzig, Brain Salad Surgery by Emerson, Lake & Palmer, Attahk by Magma, Heartwork by Carcass, To Mega Therion by Celtic Frost, Eparistera Daimones and Melana Chasmata by Triptykon, Deborah Harrys KooKoo, Atomic Playboys by Steve Stevens, and Frankenchrist by the Dead Kennedys.
In 1998, Giger acquired the Saint-Germain Castle in Gruyères, Switzerland, which now houses the H.R. Giger Museum, a permanent repository of his work.
Giger started with small ink drawings before progressing to oil paintings. For most of his career, he worked predominantly in airbrush, creating monochromatic canvasses depicting surreal, nightmarish dreamscapes. He also worked with pastels, markers and ink.
Gigers most distinctive stylistic innovation was that of a representation of human bodies and machines in cold, interconnected relationships, which he described as biomechanical. His main influences were painters Dado, Ernst Fuchs, and Salvador Dalí. He was introduced to Dali by painter Robert Venosa. Giger was also influenced by Polish sculptor Stanislaw Szukalski, and by painters Austin Osman Spare and Mati Klarwein, and was a personal friend of Timothy Leary. He studied interior and industrial design at the School of Commercial Art in Zurich from 1962 to 1965, and made his first paintings as art therapy.
Giger directed a number of films, including Swiss Made (1968), Tagtraum (1973), Gigers Necronomicon (1975) and Gigers Alien (1979).
Giger created furniture designs, particularly the Harkonnen Capo Chair for a film of the novel Dune that was to be directed by Alejandro Jodorowsky. Many years later, David Lynch directed the film, using only rough concepts by Giger. Giger had wished to work with Lynch, as he stated in one of his books that Lynchs film Eraserhead was closer than even Gigers own films to realizing his vision.
Gigers art has greatly influenced tattooists and fetishists worldwide. Under a licensing deal Ibanez guitars released an H. R. Giger signature series: the Ibanez ICHRG2, an Ibanez Iceman, features NY City VI, the Ibanez RGTHRG1 has NY City XI printed on it, the S Series SHRG1Z has a metal-coated engraving of Biomechanical Matrix on it, and a 4-string SRX bass, SRXHRG1, has N.Y. City X on it.
Giger is often referred to in popular culture, especially in science fiction and cyberpunk. William Gibson (who wrote an early script for Alien 3) seems particularly fascinated: A minor character in Virtual Light, Lowell, is described as having New York XXIV tattooed across his back, and in Idoru a secondary character, Yamazaki, describes the buildings of nanotech Japan as Giger-esque.
Giger had a relationship with Swiss actress Li Tobler until she died by suicide in 1975. Toblers image appears in many of his paintings. He married Mia Bonzanigo in 1979; they divorced a year and a half later.
Giger lived and worked in Zürich with his second wife, Carmen Maria Scheifele Giger, who is the director of the H.R. Giger Museum.
On 12 May 2014, Giger died in a Zürich hospital after suffering injuries from a fall.
[from: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/H._R._Giger#]
Music: Steve Roach Drift H.R. Giger](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/oXUdHVGLhwI/mqdefault.jpg)
![Daniel Merriam
Born in 1963 in a rural town in Maine, Daniel Merriam taught himself to paint at a very young age. He went on to study mechanical and architectural design at Central Maine Vocational Technical Institute and, while still in school, applied his newfound skills to his family’s design and construction business. Merriam turned to the field of architectural design professionally, where his illustrations received numerous awards, including an Honorary Masters of Human Letters from the University of New England in recognition of the potential social contribution of his work. In 1986, Merriam shifted his focus solely to fine art, and later that year had his first solo exhibition. Since then, his exhibitions throughout the United States and Europe have been lauded and achieved critical acclaim. The hallmark of Merriam’s work is his boundless imagination that weaves together a world that is both fantastic and rooted in the beauty of the Victorian age. His paintings hung next to those of Salvador Dali in a museum show entitled Venus and the Female Intuition, and traveled through Denmark, Sweden and France in 2007 and 2008.
[from: https://www.afanyc.com/daniel-merriam]
Music: Harold Budd Real Dream Of Sails Daniel Merriam](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/obp1VeSnT9A/mqdefault.jpg)
![Andrzej Klimowski (Polish Poster Art)
Andrzej Klimowski was born in London in 1949. His father was an officer in the Polish resistance during the war. He studied at St Martins School of Art, then went to Warsaw to the Academy of Fine Art. He has an international reputation as a poster and book jacket designer, and has experimented with films, political satire and all forms of graphic design. He is senior tutor in illustration at the Royal College of Art in London.
[source:https://www.faber.co.uk/tutors/andrzej-klimowski/]
Music: Harold Budd Little Heart Andrzej Klimowski (Polish Poster Art)](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/pOTGiW9-MTc/mqdefault.jpg)
![Michelle Kingdom
“I create tiny worlds in thread to capture elusive yet persistent inner voices. Literary snippets, memories, personal mythologies, and art historical references inform the imagery; fused together, these influences explore relationships, domesticity and self-perception. Symbolism and allegory lay bare dynamics of aspiration and limitation, expectation and loss, belonging and alienation, truth and illusion.”
[from: https://theinspirationgrid.com/embroidered-illustrations-by-michelle-kingdom/]
My work explores psychological landscapes, tiny worlds in thread that capture elusive, persistent inner voices. Memories, histories, and mythologies collide amid an undercurrent of political turbulence. Entwined, these influences explore power, relationships and self-perception. Opposing dynamics of aspiration and limitation, expectation and loss, belonging and alienation, truth and illusion, are laid bare through symbolism and allegory.
Diminutive scenes are densely compressed into embroidered compositions. While the work acknowledges the luster and lineage inherent in needlework, thread becomes a sketching tool to both honor and undermine its past. Traditional stitches acquiesce to the fragile and expressive, where beauty is paralleled by melancholy.
[from: https://michellekingdom.com/]
Music: Chihei Hatakeyama Ocean To Ocean Michelle Kingdom](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/pbthhEmDkRo/mqdefault.jpg)
![Martin Johnson Heade
Martin Johnson Heade (August 11, 1819 – September 4, 1904) was an American painter known for his salt marsh landscapes, seascapes, and depictions of tropical birds (such as hummingbirds), as well as lotus blossoms and other still lifes. His painting style and subject matter, while derived from the romanticism of the time, are regarded by art historians as a significant departure from those of his peers.
Heade was born in Lumberville, Pennsylvania, the son of a storekeeper. He studied with Edward Hicks, and possibly with Thomas Hicks. His earliest works were produced during the 1840s and were chiefly portraits. He travelled to Europe several times as a young man, became an itinerant artist on American shores, and exhibited in Philadelphia in 1841 and New York in 1843. Friendships with artists of the Hudson River School led to an interest in landscape art. In 1863, he planned to publish a volume of Brazilian hummingbirds and tropical flowers, but the project was eventually abandoned. He travelled to the tropics several times thereafter, and continued to paint birds and flowers.
Heade was not a widely known artist during his lifetime, but his work attracted the notice of scholars, art historians, and collectors during the 1940s. He quickly became recognized as a major American artist. Although often considered a Hudson River School artist, some critics and scholars take exception to this categorization. Heades works are now in major museums and collections. His paintings are occasionally discovered in unlikely places such as garage sales and flea markets.
Heade married and moved to St. Augustine, Florida in 1883. He remained there and continued to paint until his death in 1904. During his later years in St. Augustine, Heade painted numerous still lifes of southern flowers, especially magnolia blossoms laid on velvet. This was a continuation of an interest in still life that Heade had developed since the 1860s. His earlier works in this genre typically depict a display of flowers arranged in an ornate vase of small or medium size on a cloth-covered table. Heade was the only 19th-century American artist to create such an extensive body of work in both still life and landscape. Heade died in St. Augustine in 1904.
[from Wikipedia]
Music: Brian Eno & Harold Budd The Plateaux Of Mirror (Edit) Martin Johnson Heade](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/plU28TPcIjw/mqdefault.jpg)
![David Brayne
David was born in 1954 and studied at Nottingham School of Art, Gloucestershire College of Art and Exeter University. He exhibits regularly at the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition and has been awarded many notable prizes. He was elected to the Royal Watercolour Society in 2001 and recently curated the Poet and The Painter exhibition at Bankside Gallery on Londons South Bank.
There is a poetry of perception expressed in Davids work. His surfaces are chalky dry, reminiscent of early Renaissance frescoes, his colours, while subtly English invariably have a warm vibrant ochre singing out: creating a perfect harmonious palette. He often draws on the wide skies and expansive seas of his Fenland childhood and the hills and coasts of the West Country where he has lived for many years. Landscapes and interiors are both imagined and remembered, figures dissolve into light, land and sea appear blended together in a gentle linear exchange, a lyrical memory.
David mixes his own paint from raw pigments, building up layers of luminous glazes, sometimes working into the surface with pastel and using touches of gold and silver leaf.
[from: http://artodyssey1.blogspot.com/2011/10/david-brayne.html]
Music: Slow Dancing Society The Delicate Sound Of Silence David Brayne](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/ptV5STwrPm4/mqdefault.jpg)
![Rudolf Kurz
Rudolf Kurz originally trained as a medical doctor in his native Germany, switching later to painting as a student at the Art Students League in New York. A well-known muralist, and an author and illustrator, he is a surrealist painter and master etcher.
Rudolf Kurz emigrated to Canada 30 years ago and divides his time between Toronto and the village of MacTier in Muskoka. He creates the etchings using a centuries old printmaking technique, without shortcuts such as photo transfer of an image to a printing plate.
His small, exquisitely detailed prints and offbeat, elegant paintings are inspired by surrealism and the art of Medieval and Renaissance Northern Europe.
[from: https://canadianartjunkie.com/2013/08/07/rudolf-kurz-delicate-but-macabre/]
Music: Alio Die & Mathias Grassow Winds From The Other World Rudolf Kurz](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/q74C3qilZMo/mqdefault.jpg)
![Celine Ranger
Celine Ranger lives and works in the Nantes region. After a childhood and adolescence that revealed her passion for drawing, sculpture and painting, Céline left for Paris to pursue higher studies in applied arts at the Ecole Boulle and then at the Ecole Estienne.
She also studied for several months at the National College of Art and Design in Dublin. She then worked for nearly eight years as a graphic designer in the creative department of various communication agencies.
Painting, as a faithful friend, will always be there to accompany her to the point that she will end up, in response to a visceral necessity, devoting herself totally to her art.
At the end of 2006, she returns to the gallery and history gets carried away… Since then, she has been digging, digging, like an archaeologist, tirelessly questioning, through portraits, the infinite facets of the female soul.
She reveals the ineffable, wandering on the thread of the intimate, plays on its ramifications, its depths, its paradoxes…. Her painting reveals a “mastered”, rich, finely combined, vaporous glazes and subtle interplay of materials…on wood.
[from: https://thewomangallery.com/celine-ranger-born-1972/]
Music: Robert Rich The Sentience of Touch Celine Ranger](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/qUPahf577s4/mqdefault.jpg)