just a thought. [street view: amazon basin]

So Google Maps have official added the Amazon Rainforest to Street View.

It appears that all the hours spent praying to Vilcambaba have finally paid off.

REJOICE!

visit the amazon - right here, right now.

samuel branton.

 

Samuel Branton has come to my attention all too recently, but in this short time he's brought considerable joy to my life. And it's all achieved with a coloured pencil! How does he do it?

His is a world of impossibility, erotica and bestial abnormalities - of nonchalant faces in absurd situations.  I guess this is what the world would have looked like if the 19th century had taken place in Candy Land.

It's Nice That article here. 

Samuel Branton's website here.

david thomas smith.

Of all the things Google Earth has done for the planet, it's contribution to art is due a bit of credit. There's been candid street view snaps, interactive mirrored maps and people who comb the globe looking for glitches. The beautiful thing about it all is a sense of non-ownership, of using this collection of readily available, public imagery to create work that steals from the collective visual language - resulting in this an archive of stuff that all looks oh-so-similar, oh-so-familiar, and yet wholly strange, unique and not quite of this world. 

David Thomas Smith pulls together thousands of jpegs to produce these ridiculously intricate large-scale photographs. (I recommend going to his site for a proper look, these highly compressed versions hardly do justice to the originals.)

And while he notes Persian and Afghan rug design has influenced their look, he ultimately sums up his inspiration as  "too much time on the internet". Well, if this is what endless idle hours online looks like then I'm not complaining. 

How many more ways can we rearrange the Google Earth library? We'll wait and see. 

David's website here. 

just a thought. [tim barber]

 

Tim's website here. 

david benjamin sherry.

 

Feeling better about life thanks to David Benjamin Sherry. I always thought mountains looked better in purple.

Oh, and born in Woodstock? no big deal. 

David's website here.

valero doval.

Just one of many a fantastic series from the magical mind of Valero Doval - a man who punctuates his name with hearts [no seriously, he signs off with "(♥_♥)"] and appropriates old maps, prints, and postcards to make wonderful collages. Using the world's abundant surplus of antiquated print matter Valero explores what a little integration of colour and form will do to a landscape. 

There's a definite enthusiasm for geometry and a fondness for eggs going on here. These funny shapes sit like despots in their little courtyards, street corners and factory halls. Doesn't it make you happy? Just look at them all, interacting and enjoying one another. Who says the industrial workhouse was a dreary place? Stop winging, little shoemakers. 

As I've said Doval is a creature of diverse but equally fantastical habits. I would highly recommend Planes to anyone with even a vague interest in the intersection of commercial airlines and black holes.

Valero's website here.