Digitally Printed Ceramics And Porcelain By Alice Mara.

The next time you find yourself eating over the kitchen sink, the stove, dishwasher or washing machine, you may find that you're actually dining on one of Alice Mara's digitally printed ceramic plates.

She takes computer enhanced photographs of the urban landscape and objects and digitally prints them upon slip cast porcelain, ceramics and earthenware. The results are wonderful, witty and unique.

Available for purchase:

Plates (27cm x 27cm):







Matching Coasters:



Mugs:


Buy the above Alice Mara Ceramics here

Hanging People (porcelain tableware):





See the complete collection of her Hanging People tableware printed on fine bone china (and buy it if you like) at the Hidden Art Shop

Other pieces (no longer available for purchase, but of which I have long been a fan):










"My work is about the urban landscape.
Having lived in London most of my life I enjoy walking around the place and taking pictures of buildings that interest me. I recently completed a body of work depicting my local environment, Walthamstow, which involved cataloguing (sic) a nostalgic journey of familiar landmarks.

Using a computer, I enhanced the photographs to give them a fantastical, surreal appeal. I like the viewer to be able to recognise the environment that I choose to decorate the plates with, either through a sense of having visited the place or a general recognition of the London theme.

By placing these images onto plates, I transform the identity, function and value of the plate into a decorative work of art which becomes readable for the viewer." -Alice Mara


above: Alice Mara

In 2003 Alice successfully completed her Masters in Ceramics at the prestigious Royal College of Art. Since then she has shown work at many galleries including Canary Wharf, crafts council and the Richard Denis Gallery.

Ms. Mara has also been awarded the Queensbury Hunt prize for innovative use of ceramics and the Ella Doran prize for best new designer at ELDS.

Alice Mara
Archway Ceramics
410 Haven Mews
23 St Paul's Way
London
E3 4AG

Echoism, Your Left Side Vs. Your Right Side.

Above: one of the subjects in Wolkenstein's photography study of facial asymmetry

Do you have a good side? Most people do. Rarely are faces symmetrical and more often than not, features are misaligned and various facial characteristics make one side of your face appear very different from the other.



I first introduced you to the work of Julian Wolkenstein three years ago. Echoism, a recent project of his, plays with the notion of your own identity as expressed through your features. What do you look like? What are the things that make you look like you? If you are made symmetrical, do you consider yourself more beautiful, less so, or is it just weird? Or is it you at all? Do you have a best side? What is to be said of left and right brain dominance?



The process is a face-to-camera portrait, after which the image is split into a left and a right section, then one side is horizontally flipped and placed against that same side to make up two separate portraits of the right side and left side of a human face.

In photographer Julian Wolkenstein's initial project, the subjects were specifically cast for their individual facial features. They were photographed front to camera and in the same position. They were asked not to express emotions or character.

Below are images from the study:









Echoism is now available for you to try via an online website or with an app you can buy in the itunes app store. If you've got a built in camera on your computer, you can visit the website, have your image immediately taken and upload it to the site.

Echoism.org is a project by artist and photographer Julian Wolkenstein.
via Trendland via Notcot

The Beauty of Breaking Down. Stranded Motorists Photographed By Amy Stein.

above: Amy Stein captures a broken down vehicle and passenger on Route 84, Texas.

Thanks to the New York Times' Wheels section, I have learned about photographer Amy Stein's collection of broken down vehicles and their passengers.

Stranded is a visual documentation of drivers in distress- accompanied by a Google map which documents the images and their whereabouts. Cars with their hoods up, passengers waiting for tow trucks, vehicles abandoned at the side of the road.

Peri, Route 64, Kentucky:

Steven, Route 10, Louisiana:

Walter, Route 90, Louisiana:

Route 14, New Mexico:

Clarence, Route 71, Ohio:

Man Under Overpass, New Jersey Turnpike, New Jersey:

Beth, Outside Tallahassee, Florida:

Car, Route 79, Pennsylvania:

Interstate 15, Cajon Pass, California and Truck Driver, Interstate 10, Florida:

Third Street, Memphis, Tennessee:

Family, New Jersey Turnpike, New Jersey:


“I’m interested in the idea of a breakdown as a sort of existential failing,” she said in a recent e-mail to the New York Times.

Inspired by the government's failed response to the flooding of New Orleans in 2005, she has spent the past 5 plus years driving across American photographing stranded motorists.

Cheerleaders, New Orleans, Louisiana:

Phil, Route 93, Idaho:

Car on Fire, Route 17, New York:

Route 10, Texas:

Courvassi, Interstate 95, Georgia:

Six Flags Park, St. Bernard Parish, Louisiana:

Freddy, Outskirts of Bethlehem, Pennsylvania:


Her Interactive Google Map


These and more photographs from this series can be found on this Google Map that Amy created which documents her travels across the US.



Amy has several other fabulous series of photographs that are most certainly worth checking out at her website.