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When one looks in the box, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the cat.

Reactor

A blast from the past, via Blake Charlton: using wood or plastic cubes and paint, artist Shawn Smith is creating pixelated sculptures like this one: animals, birds, water, and fire are all given the real-life MS Paint treatment. As trippy as it is to see on the screen (my brain and I have gone back and forth several times about what exactly I’m looking at), it must be even better in person, like those times where you do something stupid and you actually move your hand to hit the “undo” button:

“It’s actually there, dude.”
“Maybe if I hit myself in the side of the head….”
“No, you’re seeing it right. That peacock is made of a bunch of indiviually-painted wooden blocks.”
“You don’t have to explain pixels to me with stupid metaphors, Steve.”
“…you know, maybe hitting yourself will help!”

Check out Shawn’s site for more of his work, including an installation piece with pixelated vultures trashing outdated office equipment.


Megan Messinger still uses Microsoft Paint sometimes.

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Megan Messinger

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