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What did you imagine the future would be like when you were a child? Through their Toyota Dream Car Art Contest, Toyota asked kids around the world to write a letter to their future selves describing what their childhood is like, and draw what kind of car they could imagine driving years down the line.

The children’s creative visions are realized in animated videos that turn fantasy into reality and making dreams come true. Wiran Honthumma of Thailand creates a car that has a bathtub and toys, as well as a place to cook food. It’s a vehicle that helps with her babysitting duties.

See the prize-winning car designs in Toyota’s gallery. The ideas range from cars for the blind to a car that runs on solar energy, and more — the possibilities are endless. This is the magic of art: to show the world as we hope it to be.

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By Christopher on February 11, 2013 • sponsor

U.S.A. (burnt/unburnt) is a 2011 installation by Paris-based artist Claire Fontaine (previously) constructed from thousands of green matches that were inserted into a wall at the Portland Institute for Contemporary Art as part art of “Evidence of Bricks” at the 2011 Time-Based Art Festival. Fontaine has made somewhat of a name for herself with her match installations and flaming geography, most recently completing a similar U.S.A. map at Queens Nails Gallery in San Francisco. Unlike the installation in Portland above, the Queens Nails artwork was actually set on fire, and while it may not have gone exactly as intended, the final post-flame artwork is impressive nonetheless. Photographs above for PICA by Dan Kvitka.

Update: Hyperallergic has the scoop in the latest US Map fire.

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By Christopher on February 11, 2013 • fire   installation   maps   matches   multiples   United States

This blog has seen it’s fair share of pop-up books, and animation using paper, but this might be the first where everything comes together in a single piece. Revolution is an animated short by photographer Chris Turner, paper engineer Helen Friel and animator Jess Deacon that explores the life cycle of a single drop of water through the pages of an elaborate pop-up book. The book contains nine scenes that were animated using 1,000 photographic stills shot over the course of a year. (via faith is torment)

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By Christopher on February 11, 2013 • animation   books   paper   pop-ups   stop motion   water

At long last Colossal is now on Tumblr. I’m still not 100% how I’ll use it but you can expect to see a short excerpt of every post that appears on the main blog as well as other bits of art, design, photography and who knows what else.

Colossal also now has a Vimeo channel, and as always you can follow on Twitter, Pinterest, Facebook, and Google+.

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By Christopher on February 11, 2013 • colossal

Inspired by the forms of animals artist Barbara Franc seeks to capture a sense of motion as she recreates a variety of wildlife from birds to horses using reclaimed materials such as old food tins. Via her artist statement:

I have always been fascinated by the shapes and sculptural forms of animals, they present a never-ending source of inspiration to me. I try to capture a feeling of their movement and presence in my sculpture. For this I use wire and other materials in a way that suggests drawing in three dimensions. This allows me greater freedom to add changes whenever I want during the construction to keep the feeling fluid and to reflect the diversity of movement and form. I increasingly use recycled and discarded materials as I enjoy the challenge of transforming something with a past history into something new and exciting.

You can see much more of her work on her website, and she appears to have a number of works available via Union Gallery. (via junk culture)

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By Christopher on February 11, 2013 • birds   recycling   sculpture

Measuring just 4 x 4 x 8 meters this small, windowless room might normally be considered a claustrophobic nightmare if it were’t lined from floor to ceiling with dozens of mirrors creating a reflective universe that seems to stretch into infinity. Titled “The Phoenix is closer than it appears,” the room was constructed by artist Thilo Frank at the Museum of Modern Art in Aalborg, Denmark. The Matrix-like space also features a swing that allows visitors an opportunity to view hundreds of cloned reflections swinging at all possible angles. I can think of quite a few illicit substances that should probably not be consumed before entering this room. (via designboom, myedol)

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By Christopher on February 9, 2013 • installation   mirrors   swings

Ten years ago Chicago artist and designer Matthew Hoffman decided to print a batch of 100 stickers that read simply “You Are Beautiful” which he gave to friends and colleagues who found the phrase to be inspiring, hopeful, and infectious. Requests for the stickers began to trickle in so Hoffman started selling them in small batches online at You-Are-Beautiful.com. Demand quickly began to swell, so much so that he’s now printed over 500,000 of them. Soon the stickers were accompanied by numerous public art installations in Chicago and eventually the message began appearing around the world on fences, street overpasses, and sidewalks. To celebrate 10 years of ‘You Are Beautiful’ Matt is putting together a book with help from Kickstarter that documents the evolution of the project including photography, stories, and tons of really awesome rewards including his hand-cut wood signs and of course tons of stickers. Join me in helping Matt get this thing off the ground, there’s just three days left.

Update: You Are Beautiful has also partnered with Threadless for a t-shirt design contest.

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By Christopher on February 8, 2013 • Chicago   installation   street art

Using carefully broken shards of colored glass, Polish artist Marta Klonowska assembles translucent animals in life-like proportion and size. Almost all of her sculptures are based on animals found in baroque and romantic paintings by such artists as Peter Paul Rubens or Francisco de Goya next to which they are often displayed. Her work appeared most recently at European Glass Context 2012, and you can see many more images over on lorch + seidel contemporary. (via lustik)

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By Christopher on February 7, 2013 • animals   glass   sculpture