Artgonaut

Other Century-Old Illustrations By The Man Who Created BambiYes, we’re talking about the deer in the old animated films. Maurice “Jake” Day, the man behind the now beloved Disney character, was an artist and naturalist that ventured into different projects before creating Bambi. One of them was illustrating a bunch of Tibetan magic tales. From the telling about the meaning of wisdom to the measure of kindness to the cost of the cruelty of arrogance and more, these stories were given more life by the artist in his intricate and detailed artworks.American author Eleanore Myers Jewett showcased these tales and illustrations through her 1992 work, Wonder Tales from Tibet. Jewett obtained these tales that had traveled orally from India to Tibet. At some point, these stories reached the author when a German scholar in 1886 published a pamphlet of these tales. “The element of repetition, the distinctly human characters, the atmosphere of another land and strange people, and the romance of quest these things give to the Wonder Tales from Tibet the appeal to the childhood of all times and all races, which is their reason for having lived so long and traveled so far,” she shared. Learn more about the stories and the beautiful artwork here!Image credit: Maurice Day via The Marginalian

Bringing Juan de Pareja to LifeThe portrait above by 17th-century Spanish artist Diego Velázquez is of his enslaved assistant Juan de Pareja. Without even fine-tuning his brushstrokes, Velázquez captured Pareja's dignity and refinement with a touch of pain in the eyes as well as -or even better than- any photograph could have. Pareja prepared paints and canvasses for Velázquez for decades while becoming an accomplished artist himself. The intriguing portrait was popular among those who saw it, and led to Pareja's manumission, although the agreement predated Pareja's actual freedom by four years. A new exhibition at the Met titled Juan de Pareja, Afro-Hispanic Painter highlights Pareja's life and art, including the masterpiece The Calling of Saint Matthew, into which Pareja inserted a self-portrait. Piecing together Pareja's life story was more difficult than assembling his works. The fame he built in the art world led to tall tales and legends, and his enslaved status led to a lack of documentation. Get a glimpse into the life and work of Juan de Pareja at Atlas Obscura.

Bird Feeder Shaped Like Prometheus Getting TorturedIn Greek mythology, Prometheus, a Titan god, gave the gift of fire to humans in violation of the will of the other gods. As punishment, he was bound to a rock and an eagle ate his liver every day. During the night, his liver regrew and the process began again the next morning.This story inspired Instagram user and classicist @shelley_stans to request a bird feeder that looks like the visiting birds are torturing Prometheus. @Hanadanger responded with her woodworking skills to make this amusing and dark bird feeder. You can see it in gory action in this video.-via Super Punch

The Daring and Funny Ceramics of Chris LockeChris Locke, an artist in Austin, Texas, goes by the online nickname of "Heartless Machine". He's a true master of his craft, as illustrated in this surreal cup that looks like it's hovering in the air. It's held aloft by a special glaze that is so strong that it's load-bearing.

The Beautiful Ambiguity of Space IrisWatch this beautiful abstract video. I recommend seeing it in full-screen mode. Do the images remind you of the iris of the eye? Or are these images of space nebula? The point is that they do look alike, as if there is some great cosmic design that links them together. The movement of the images is mesmerizing, and may make you feel as if you are on some peaceful but mind-expanding theme park ride. Ruslan Khasanov edited together hundreds of high-resolution stills to make the video Space Iris. According to Colossal, he uses the movement and interaction of liquids that don't quite blend, like water, oil, and paint to create his images. The music is an original composition by Fabio Fonda. You can see more of Khasanov's projectsat Behance.  -via Kottke 

AI Generated Cat Art to Promote Original ArtArtificial intelligence algorithms do not create something out of nothing... yet. They use what they learn from the vast repertoire of human knowledge that is fed to them. Algorithms that generate art have caused a mighty controversy in the art world as artists recognize their own work remixed and regurgitated by publicly-available programs such as Midjourney and DALL-E. You can understand the angst an artist feels when their work is plagiarized by a machine that doesn't know any better. The Vienna Tourist Board is harnessing that exact controversy to promote the city's more than 100 art museums. The campaign UnArtificial Art used Midjourney to create AI-generated versions of classic paintings by long-gone artists featuring cats. Cat art is sure to get your attention. The image above shows us two cats, but you can see that it draws inspiration directly from the 1908 painting The Kiss by Gustave Klimt, housed at the Belvedere Museum in Vienna. It's one of many paintings the tourist board generated to entice visitors to go see the originals that inspired them.