more british awesomeness, art, and now anonymity!

i was recently shown a video portraying artwork by pseudo-anonymous  british graffiti artist banksy, who apparently took over the bristol museum in the uk...and by took over, i mean he basically filled three stories of a building in 36 hours with his work while only a few staff members and the director had knowledge of his plans. banksy's art, which commonly satirizes politics, culture and ethics, is now intermixed with the museum's usual exhibits and separated into rooms by type (installations, paintings and sculptures). for example, one of his paintings was described as having "one of the characters cut out and is instead sitting on the painting's frame, perhaps taking a break from posing." that's awesome! and to get a better idea of what i'm talking about, you should watch this:

so in case you live in bristol and happen to be reading this, which is unlikely, you should go to the bristol museum sometime between now and august 31st to see this sweet exhibit. and in case you don't, let me know so we can go together.

http://www.banksy.co.uk/

suggested by: someone else anonymously awesome (:

james roper: all-around awesome artist...and he's british!

so basically i saw some of this guy's work on another blog, freaked out, went to his website and proceeded to spend a serious amount of time looking through all of his art. he's located in manchester, england (which is sick) and he's only 26 (which is impressive). he just graduated from college for fine art a few years ago and has already had quite a number of shows around europe, as well as being published in 8 different books and magazines.

he draws inspiration from fashion magazines, animation stills, comics, the internet and his own work to create art  that he feels "registers a visual 'peak shift,' a term given to the phenomena of 'neurological attraction' that appears in both humans and animals to an extreme characterization of an object." it's also been suggested as one of the "10 universal laws of art," and while some use the concept for advertising, roper utilizes it to trigger neurological hyperactivity. how stimulating!

not to mention, roper can legitimately do any kind of fine art, and well. he paints, draws, does graphic design, sculpture and film. his concepts are innovative and mind-blowing, and all of his work is super colorful, which makes me want to just fill my future-apartment with his art. no, seriously. this one is definitely my favorite:

the last noteworthy thing you should definitely see is roper's collaboration with robert bailey from 2005, which consists of 3972 images "collected by typing each word from a pocket dictionary into an image search engine and saving the first image to appear. if there were two definitions, the first two images were saved, and so on" (below). what a sick idea. i just wonder how big it was in real life, but i couldn't find any measurements on the website. 

in other words, james roper is awesome.

http://www.jroper.co.uk/

http://jamesroper.blogspot.com/

inspired by: http://blog.freepeople.com/

sophisticated sand art: jim denevan

so basically this guy makes drawings in the sand with sticks, which would sound simple or even dull if they didn't look like this:

while these photos don't even begin to do denevan's work justice, they do illustrate the grandeur of the art seeing as there is, in fact, a tiny person situated in the middle of the designs. supposedly he works up to 7 hours and walks as far as 30 miles to make his work sans any sort of measuring tool. after his pieces are done and photographed, they end up disappearing shortly after as the water washes up on shore. sad? yes. but awesome? totally.

http://www.jimdenevan.com/

channeling the swiss family robinson and all their treehouse glory...

so i came across what can only be described as the coolest website ever, 

and by cool, i mean innovative, unprecedented and just plain awesome. i present to you: http://www.baumraum.de/

and i can honestly say i tried to pick just one treehouse to display, but i'm pretty much obsessed with each and every single one. completely revolutionary, these internationally constructed tree houses come in all shapes and sizes, ranging from locations in the woods of hungary to hills of austria. 

again, they are totally eco-friendly. the result of a research 

project "with the aim of producing a solution to green belt housing issues," these tree homes are comprised of recycled materials and self-sufficient features such as built-in solar energy, wind generating electricity supplies, rainwater collection for washing up and a self cleansing external finish. home-owners can start with one bedroom and simply add modules whenever desired. 

i can only imagine how much these babies cost, but all i can say is that it's probably worth it. if you're a fan of your childhood, the environment, living a minimalist lifestyle or trying something new, the initial expense of these future-savvy abodes would pay-itself off with merely nominal expenditures on utilities.

the only downfall to the website is that it is mostly in another language (german, i think?), but even just looking at the photos is mind-blowing. i'd suggest clicking on the british flag to start and then making your way to "designs" 

and "our projects." you will surely be amused and fascinated for hours. and then, you will fall in love with tree houses and want one for your very own backyard. (:

inspired by: http://www.stylewillsaveus.com/

s'mores bars - uhwoah.

so these girls in my dorm last year started a food blog called Nosh&Tell...and it's kind of really awesome. they usually bake and cook themselves, but occasionally they'll write restaurant reviews from nyc and their hometowns. i have a feeling i'll be borrowing a few of their recipes for my own blog in the future, but this one was just too good to pass up. these s'mores bars look totally ridiculous and they don't sound all that difficult to make either. granted, i haven't exactly tried making them myself, but i will soon enough! if you decide to make them, please let me know how it goes. 

S'mores Bars

From Lovin' from the Oven (adapted to fit a 13x9 inch pan)

3/4 cup of butter (1 1/2 sticks) room temperature

1/2 cup brown sugar

1 cup sugar*

2 large eggs*

2 tsp vanilla extract

2 2/3 cup all purpose flour

2 cups graham cracker crumbs*

2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

3 giant sized milk chocolate bars (I used Hershey's)

1 7.5 oz jar of marshmallow fluff (or more if you want a thicker layer of marshmallow)

*Healthy Swaps: 3/4 cup of sugar as opposed to 1 full cup, egg whites instead of whole eggs (2 egg whites per egg called for), and crushed Low Fat graham crackers for my graham cracker crumbs.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease a 13x9 inch baking pan.

In a large bowl, cream together butter and sugar until light. Beat in egg and vanilla. In a separate medium sized bowl whisk together flour, graham cracker crumbs, baking powder, and salt. Add to butter mixture and mix until combined (use low speed on electric mixer).

Divide dough in half. Press half of the dough into an even layer on the bottom of the prepared pan. Place the chocolate bars in a layer on top of the dough. I fit two giant Hershey bars side by side and then almost all of the third one, I had to take off one column of squares on the third Hershey bar and then laid it next to the other two. Whatever kind you use, if necessary break the chocolate to get it to fit in a single layer over the graham cracker. Spread marshmallow fluff over chocolate layer. Place remaining dough in a single layer on top of the fluff (most easily achieved by flattening the dough with your hands into small square shingles and laying them together). 

Bake for 30-35 minutes until lightly browned. Cool completely before cutting into bars.

-makes around 28 depending how big you cut them.

http://noshandtell.blogspot.com/