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Did you ever think you’d see hamsters playing musical instruments?

Kerry Skarbakka photographs himself falling from trees, jumping off bridges and in the midst of fires – all in the name of art.

As the Falling Photographer, Kerry has traveled both near and far, searching for suitable locations to document his craft. Many of them are real leaps of faith, with no safety equipment to aid him if things should go wrong. Others, however, are a mere trick of the eye, shot with cleverly hidden climbing gear and cushioned landings. The resulting photographs, however, remain striking.

According to the artist, he first began taking the themed pictures to cope with the helplessness he felt after the 9/11 attacks. He currently has a small collection of 40 different photographs in his roster, all of which have been shown in galleries around the world. His current goal is to shoot enough material to be able to publish a book of his work.

This collection of funny and weird wedding pictures gives us a look at some ‘alternative’ wedding outfits and parties from around the world. I know a few are a joke but worryingly most aren’t.

A fair number of the photos capture some bizarre brides, and I don’t just mean their looks and outfits, I’m talking about their antics. Just take a look and you’ll see what I’m talking about.

(image via: English Russia)

A new video and set of photographs is circulating from St. Petersburg, Russia, where the Parkour movement is gaining a strong foothold among the city’s youth. The video shows a young man jumping from one rooftop to another, with 35 feet of height difference and about 20 feet of space between the buildings.

It’s inspiring mixed feelings from the public and from Parkour enthusiasts. While the stunt was impressive and the stuntman seemed to know what  he was doing, it was incredibly dangerous. But the group featured in the video say that they were trying to raise awareness of the sport and point out the problem of a lack of safe, sanctioned places to practice it.

This Russian news story shows another side of the stunt. The man doing the first jump pulled it off perfectly without any problems, but when a friend tried the same jump he injured his leg. We don’t speak Russian so we’re not sure what the newscaster is saying, but judging from his tone it’s not entirely positive.

Parkour is generally seen as a physically challenging sport that’s somewhat dangerous, but not overly so. This video of Austrian traceur Sacha Hauser shows that Parkour isn’t just about taking the biggest risks and evoking the biggest reactions – it’s also a beautiful, artistic use of the human body’s strength.

Amazing Parkour and Free Running Urban Acrobatics

What if you saw the building walls and other urban obstacles around you not as barriers, but as tempting challenges? Click Here to See More

Hyper-realistic paintings and drawings can make us pause and wonder whether they’re real, but there’s another, even more deceptive, form of super-realistic art that’s been in use since ancient times. Trompe l’oeil means “trick of the eye” in French, and this type of painting definitely lives up to its name. With examples that date as far back as ancient Greece and Pompeii, this deceptively realistic art form features pictures that seem to jump out at the viewer, drawing them into a mysterious, often whimsical world.

(images via: Brown)

The oldest report of a trompe l’oeil painting dates back to ancient Greece. Zeuxis, a very talented painter, challenged Parrhasius to a contest: the artist who painted the more realistic painting would win. Zeuxis’ still-life painting was so realistic that birds came down from the sky to peck at the grapes on the canvas. Satisfied with his obvious victory, Zeuxis told Parrhasius to pull aside a pair of tattered curtains so that Zeuxis could see his rival’s painting behind them. But Parrhasius’ painting wasn’t behind the curtains – it was the curtains. The original piece has been lost to time, but the above trompe l’oeil paintings by Gerard Houckgeest and Adriaen van Der Spelt/Frans van Mieris pay homage to Parrhasius’ deception.

While it sounds very similar to photorealistic painting, trompe l’oeil is slightly different in that it strives to look like an actual three-dimensional object or scene, and photorealistic paintings strive to look like a photograph of an object or scene. Classic trompe l’oeil paintings often took on the form of a hallway, an archway, or an extension of a room. Or, like this public mural from South Carolina artist Blue Sky, they can aim to completely transform an architectural object (here, the side of a building).

In fact, such murals have been used in buildings for thousands of years to give rooms an illusion of more space. Many anecdotes have been told of the hapless visitor who walked into a wall or tried to touch an object, only to find that he was the victim of a trompe l’oeil mural. The incredible piece above, by John Pugh, seems to give a view into another room, complete with a stairway and a woman quietly reading. But in fact, the entire scene is an amazingly realistic painting.

A specific type of trompe l’oeil mural that was very popular during the Renaissance was the ceiling mural. Murals painted in this fashion appeared to greatly increase the area of the room – sometimes even adding artificial architectural elements like domes – while depicting a beautiful religious scene above. The two examples above were both painted by Andrea Pozzo in the 17th century in St. Ignatius’ Church, Rome. Religious ceiling frescoes can still be seen today in many ancient churches in Europe, and contemporary versions can be spotted in some UKn government buildings, theaters and other public places.

Today, illusion paintings don’t have the same artistic admiration they once did, mostly due to our being able to create extremely realistic art through other means. But illusion painting does require a great deal of artistic skill, and some artists are trying to bring the art form back. Some of the most popular modern-day trompe l’oeil pieces are public art, like the amazing 3D chalk pieces seen in streets around the world from artists like Kurt Wenner and Julian Beever.

Trompe l’oeil paintings can also be seen both inside and outside buildings, such as Paris’ Saint-Georges Theatre, above, which was completely transformed by mural painter Dominique Antony. This particular illusion is so masterful that, without a “before” picture, it’s very difficult to tell exactly what the painted elements are. Antony blended artificial architecture into the building’s facade to make it appear newer, brighter and more welcoming.

This mural on the side of a shopping mall in Niagara Falls, New York, is a well-known trompe l’oeil piece that has been fascinating tourists since its creation. The mural, by Eric Grohe, depicts an extremely realistic scene of tourists at Niagara Falls. The illusion leads the eye to believe that it’s not just a flat wall, but an actual walkway out to a viewing platform.

John Pugh is a well-known contemporary UKn trompe l’oeil artist. This mural resides on the side of a building in Honolulu and depicts Queen Lili’uokalani, the last reigning monarch of Hawaii. The giant wave, Queen’s face and surfer are spectacular, but the most amazing part of the painting is evident in a story told by the building’s owner. As the mural was nearing completion, the owner arrived at his building one day to find a group of firemen standing under the painting and laughing. They’d been driving by and stopped to rescue the children on the wall, thinking they’d gotten stuck up there. The children were, of course, part of the mural. This type of trick is a classic part of the playful trompe l’oeil style.

16 3D Graffiti Artists and Street Painters

These amazing artists produce three-dimensional works that trick our sense of perspective and seem 3D despite being painted, drawn or chalked onto flat 2D surfaces. Click Here to See More

I just bumped into budding filmaker Andrew Telling on the street an hour ago and he told me that he had finished his video that he was making about Word To Mother. I just had a look and loved what I saw! This short film explores the creative process of London-based artist, WordToMother and the lead up to his third solo show ‘Lost For Words’ at Stolen Space Gallery.

Audio + Visuals Produced by Andrew Telling