Just as we become reflections of our environment, our setting too can become a reflection of our perception. By looking into the studio of an artist we can gain a slight glimpse into the inner workings of their mind. Their…
Expression & Culture
Former Bumfights star went from homelessness to being a property manager, activist and author
BY: TED BARNABY Former “Bumfights” star, Rufus Hannah, has since retired from a life of homelessness and alcoholism to become a property manager, activist, and author. “Bumfights” first aired on the Internet in 2002, a product of Indecline Films—a less…
This Brazilian resort pays all expenses for artists to work on creative projects
BY: SINEAD MULHERN Ask an artist when they are at their most creative. No matter the city or country or discipline they work in, most would say they are at their best when relaxed, mentally clear and in an environment…
Europe’s oldest psychiatric hospital has a gallery to exhibit patients’ art
BY: DANIEL KORN Bethlem Royal Hospital is Europe’s oldest surviving psychiatric hospital, built in London in 1247 as a centre for donations to the Church of Bethlehem before being revamped in 1330 as a hospital. Though the history of mental…
This artist shapes bongs like guns to protest war
Long-time artist and flame-worker Robert Mickelsen has spent the past few years of his life designing impossibly intricate “weapons of peace” for high-class stoner use all over the world. His blown-glass gun replicas are as beautiful as they are functional.…
This artist faked his own death to fight consumerism (Photos)
In 2000, Ben Frost faked his own death. The media instantly reacted harshly, publicly criticizing his stunt as “perverse.” The effect was exactly what he had hoped for; it brought a discussion concerning the role of the artist and how…
8 reasons why Hemingway was the most interesting man in the world
BY: TED BARNABY Ernest Hemingway completed seven novels, six short story collections and two non-fiction works in his lifetime—and three more novels, four short story collections and three non-fiction works that were published after his death. He received the Nobel…
This artist drew self-portraits on 50 different drugs (Photos)
BY: DANIEL KORN Bryan Lewis Saunders is a Tennessee-based performance artist, poet, and illustrator who has drawn at least one self-portrait every day since March 30, 1995. As of now, he has over 8,700 self-portraits, collected in stacks of hardbound…
St. Elmo is an American ghost town decaying in the heart of Colorado
BY: SINEAD MULHERN Deep in the Colorado Rockies is the abandoned mining town of St. Elmo. Old wooden sidewalks creak and dance-halls where sounds of lively music and foot stomping used to flood out onto the streets are now silent,…
These photos show you the dark underbelly of Sao Paulo’s graffiti culture
For many of you who aren’t familiar with the underground graffiti world, it is as much an extreme sport as it is an art. Choque Photos is friends with many graffiti writers and captured some amazing action shots of the…
These mind-bending paintings will snap your perception in two
The beautiful paintings of Canadian artist Robert Gonzales have a way of twisting your perception gently before snapping it in two. There is a blurred boundary between the multiple stories that are told, compelling the viewer to skip back and…
These darkly humorous photos show the reality of being married with kids (Photos)
Susan Copich is a former actress and a mother of two from New York, who has taken a dark but humorous approach to family photography in a series of photos she calls “Domestic Bliss”. “If you’ve met me, I have…
Behind the scenes of the world’s largest fetish convention (Photos)
Each year thousands of people flock to Fetish Con, a sexual wonderland that embraces every desire from S&M, to exhibitionism, to tickling, and verbal humiliation. For 15 years this convention has provided a safe space where amateurs and seasoned kink…
This café lets you play with puppies while you drink your coffee
BY: OLIVER GAYWOOD While cat cafés have been in the public eye for a long time—starting in Taipei in the late ’90s and more recently spreading to Canada—a new trend is sprouting legs in South Korea, which may interest those…
This Japanese festival is entirely centred on a giant iron dick
BY: DANIEL KORN A lot of Western folks find the sexual predilections of Japan a bit odd. Tentacles, maid cafes, a tendency towards animated women who look like sexualized children, and the ever-mythologized (and apparently true) used-panty machine paint a…
This director fights the objectification of women with female-friendly porn
BY: AOIFE RYAN Porn is perhaps one of the biggest, all-consuming conversation dividers of our age. Is it bad, good, healthy, distancing, dangerous, artistic, cheap, domineering, expressive or all of the above? Get a room of varied men and women…
The true identities of these burlesque dancers are not what you would expect (Photos)
With a little makeup someone can become an entirely different person. If you were to guess what a prudish-looking lady with neatly cropped hair and a grey pullover cardigan got up to at night, I doubt you would imagine her…
The reason for this ex-lawyer’s extreme body modification will empower you (photos)
Meet María José Cristerna, also known as “The Vampire Woman.” Don’t let her appearances deceive you though, María is a former lawyer, survivor of domestic abuse, and a mother of four now working as a tattoo artist. Cristerna grew up…
There’s now an Ivy League course for procrastinating on the Internet
BY: AYA TSINTZIRAS “Wasting Time on the Internet” is the name of a class being offered by the English department at the University of Pennsylvania. The course will be three hours long and all in-class communication will take place on…
This model with Down syndrome made history on the runway of New York Fashion Week
BY: KHADIJA KHAN Meet Jamie Brewer. She’s known for her compelling acting roles on American Horror Story. Brewer also has Down syndrome. Recently, Brewer strut her stuff down the catwalk during New York Fashion Week. Not only did she don…