Author: Sara Barnes

Everyday Life Expressed as Surreal Paintings by Alice Wellinger

Austrian-based artist and illustrator Alice Wellinger finds inspiration in the “troubles of daily life and childhood memories.” To depict these confusing, conflicting, or just plain annoying thoughts and situations, she illustrates them as surreal paintings. The double-exposure effect is common in her work—a portrait of a person, for instance, is fused with faraway landscapes or fractured […]

Spontaneity on the Skin: Sketchbook-Like Tattoos of Bk Tattooer

South Korean Bk Tattooer conveys graceful motion within their body art. Using short layered lines mimic the pages of a carefree sketchbook drawing and seem to float and flutter across the skin. This is thanks to Bk’s collaborative attitude. “Tattoo designs are affected by the clients,” they tell me in an email. “They give me the topic and […]

Delicate Nature Tattoos that Empower by Emily Kaul

Inspired by “the gorgeous and glorious natural world,” Portland-based Emily Kaul became interested in tattooing once she got some ink for her herself. It was during this initial session that “she fully experienced the immense power that this art form could embody.” Kaul later got licensed and created a tattoo studio where her clients could […]

Severed and Split: The Grotesque Graphite Art of Miles Johnston

Artist Miles Johnston has two reoccurring motifs throughout his graphite drawings—division and compartmentalization. The images split his female subjects in two and often leave them faceless as their bodies viscerally spew liquid or are overcome with the likes of insects. They’re haunting with a grotesqueness that makes it impossible to look away—the details are just […]

Hand-Stitched Embroideries Floating on “Disappearing” Fabric

Embroidery is very tactile medium. There’s little, if any, visual tricky that can come from the fuzziness of thread on fabric. Artist Katerina Marchenko pushes this idea to its limit, however, with her stitching on tulle. Stretched tightly across the embroidery hoop, the fabric seems to disappear as the layered thread and beading is all […]

Discovering the Dystopia in Our Selves by Andrew Fairclough

In spring of 2017, Andrew Fairclough, aka Kindred Studio, had his first solo exhibition titled “Total Control” in Sydney, Australia. It featured portraits of men and women whose faces are multiplied, their bodies hollowed out, and heads fused with architecture. “The works,” he writes, “explore themes of introspection, confusion, duality and impulse control viewed through […]

Breaking the Boundaries: An Interview with Tattooer Rit Kit

If you aren’t familiar with the name Rit Kit, you might be acquainted with her tattoos. Last year, her live leaf approach went viral and propelled her into body art stardom. Working directly from nature, there’s simultaneously a beautiful order as well as spontaneity to Rit Kit’s tattoos. Dipping flowers and leaves in stencil ink, […]