Some great stuff. It’s not too original of an idea, but the execution is what sets it apart from everything else.

⇒ Lightmark | Cenci Goepel and Jens Warnecke (via Design You Trust.)

Some high quality photoshop work at this site.

⇒ Beefactory Retouching Workshop (via Changethought.)

⇒ Silent World by Michael Kenna (via FFFFound!.)

Some more great artwork I’ve seen lately. It’s somewhat bizarre, and some people have described it as creepy as well.

⇒ Josh Keyes (via FFFFound!.)

All I can say is, wow. His photography is so real, it’s just unbelievable.

⇒ Nick Brandt (via Design You Trust.)

This guy’s artwork is just absolutely stunning.

⇒ Vitaly Samarin

There are four different skill sets, or competencies, that I’ve found are essential for creative expression. The first and most important competency is “capturing”—preserving new ideas as they occur to you and doing so without judging them. Your morning pages, Julia, are a perfect example of a capturing technique. There are many ways to capture new ideas. Otto Loewi won a Nobel Prize for work based on an idea about cell biology that he almost failed to capture. He had the idea in his sleep, woke up and scribbled the idea on a pad but found the next morning that he couldn’t read his notes or remember the idea. When the idea turned up in his dreams the following night, he used a better capturing technique: he put on his pants and went straight to his lab!

The second competency is called “challenging”—giving ourselves tough problems to solve. In tough situations, multiple behaviors compete with one another, and their interconnections create new behaviors and ideas. The third area is “broadening.” The more diverse your knowledge, the more interesting the interconnections—so you can boost your creativity simply by learning interesting new things. And the last competency is “surrounding,” which has to do with how you manage your physical and social environments. The more interesting and diverse the things and the people around you, the more interesting your own ideas become.

A great read on how you can systemize the process to increase creativity. A must read for anyone who thinks they aren’t creative.

⇒ How to Unleash Your Creativity (Scientific American)

I love his lighting and his attention to detail. His portraits are super duper sweet too. I wish I could shoot portraits….

⇒ Ryan Schude (via FormFiftyFive.)

⇒ dekr (via http://ffffound.com/image/7004b0d205d7bd524291ceaa4ec83a6a49cce45b.)

His photography is very raw. And quite good.

⇒ Christian Weber (via BOOOOOOOM!)

He’s got a very interesting visual style. Very odd, somewhat morbid. But super cool.

⇒ Joe Vaux (via Design You Trust)

This brings back fond memories of quizbowl.

(via DrawerGeeks)

“Negative to Positive” centers around images of Tracy’s brain from that long-ago scan, on which she has etched thoughts she penned back when she was seeking help—such somewhat cryptic observations as, “Throw stuff out there,” or “Every thought gets a new wrinkle.” Mementos, urgings, shadows of life, these black-and-white images underscore the fragility—and potential—of the human body and its dreams and desires. The scans are mounted in light boxes on the wall.Looking back, Tracy relates, “I wanted to be free; I wanted to use my brain; I wanted to think expansive thoughts. But I realized I wasn’t free, because so many of the ideas in my head were planted there as a child, or each time I walked out to Whole Foods or the gas station. Thoughts that weren’t mine. So I’m freer from that experience. I know what I want.”

For some reason, I’m intrigued by her work. It’s probably because it combines my love of art with my love of the brain. Enjoy

⇒ Lee Tracy’s work at Etsy

⇒ Gray-matter chatter (Time Out Chicago, via Mind Hacks.)