Mike Stilkey is an artist from Alta Dena, California, who creates amazing works of art by stacking spine-painted books.

Mike had been drawing on book pages for a very long time, even publishing a book with 100 portraits painted on old book pages, called “100 Portraits”, when he realized it would be a good idea to paint on the book covers themselves.

His plan was to paint the books and then place them all against the wall, but he eventually got it in his mind that painting the book spines would be even better.He wasn’t very impressed with his first work, but when he presented it during the second Artist’s Annual group show, it got quite a lot of attention. Now his book paintings made Mike Stilkey one of the most respected artists of his generation

Photos by Dave Kinsey

via Fecal Face

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These are the famous “fantasy coffins” used by the Ga Tribe, on the coast of Ghana to both mourn and celebrate the death of a beloved family member or friend.

The tradition of burying people in strangely-shaped coffins began roughly 50 years ago when a fisherman was set to rest in a funeral casket shaped like a fish. Ever since then photographers have been buried in camera-shaped coffins, people who like to drink in caskets shaped like beer bottles and avid smokers, you guessed it, in cigarette-like wooden coffins.

Families of the deceased spend enormous amounts of cash on these intricate caskets, sometimes even as much as $600. Sure, that may not seem like a lot to you, but in a country where the average income is somewhere around $50/month that’s a lot of money. The wealthier relatives usually put up  the most part of the sum with the rest of the families providing the rest.

The coffins of the Ga tribe symbolize the essence of the deceased, his profession, a vice or his place in the community.

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Entitled “You Can’t Have Your Cake and Eat It Too”, the chocolate couch was created by Argentinian artist Leandro Erlich for an art-exhibit appropriately named “Let Them Eat Art”.

The chocolaty art-piece was covered in a thick layer of chocolate that not only made it look like a brown leather couch, but also feel like one. All the couch details, including buttons and stitching were made from chocolate.

That chocolate couch looks so real I bet there was someone at the gallery door telling visitors not to sit on it.

via mocoloco

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James Corbett takes used card parts and, using them like pieces in a puzzle, creates amazing steampunk sculptures.

Corbett showed artistic talent ever since he was a little boy. Colleagues at his Redcliff school would always tell him he’d grow up to be an artist. But, at 36 years old James was running a motor wrecking business. That’s when he started welding together a bunch of car parts and awakened the dormant talent inside. In just 18 months he closed his wrecking business and became a full-time artist.

James Corbet says he makes these original sculptures because he can and it would be a shame to waste his God-given talent. The Car Part Sculptor has exhibited his works in galleries all across the world.

via John Davies Gallery

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The Matchstick Eiffel Tower built by Lebanese Tofic Daher was acknowledged by Guinness Book of Records as the largest in the world.

Tofic Daher, a disabled but talented craftsman who spends his days in a wheelchair managed to create the most impressive matchstick replica of France’s most popular landmark. Tofic worked over 2,316 hours on his matchstick masterpiece, over a period of 4 years.

The wooden Eiffel Tower has a base of 190×190, a height of 6.53 meters  and it’s made out of six million matchsticks. To make it even more impressive, Mr. Daher covered his work in 6,240 tiny lamps and 23 flasher lamps. he estimates he spent around $11,000 building the tower.

The world’s largest matchstick Eiffel Tower was unveiled on November 11,  at the City Mall, in Beirut.

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The technological masterpiece on display inside the ASUS headquarters in Peitou, Taiwan, is a tribute to Leonardo da Vinci’s work and represents the company’s pledge to support “any kind of crazy ideas”

The Techno Mona Lisa may not look as detailed as the classic painting, but there’s a good reason for that. As you probably know, ASUS is the world’s biggest motherboard manufacturer in the world and they decided to celebrate that by recreating a famous work of art using motherboard components and computer chips. I’m not sure exactly sure how many motherboards were used in the process, but it’s definitely a fine piece of geek art.

via Wired

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It certainly looks like a dragon biting on this dude’s shoulder, but he doesn’t seem at all alarmed, does he?

That’s probably because the thing on his back is just a backpack. But it’s by far the most awesome backpack I’ve ever seen! Called the Dragon Backpack, this masterpiece was designed by a young artist by the name of Bob Basset, from Kharkov, Ukraine. Be sure to check his website for more cool stuff.

I keep staring at these photos, but I can’t get over how cool this thing looks…

via bookofjoe

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Designed by twin brothers Remigijus and Egidijus Praspaliauskas, the Bread Shoes may not be very practical but they are perfect as wacky gifts.

Every pair is unique and they come in a variety of designs, sizes and bread doughs. Bread Shoes are available for purchase at Da Da Da Studio. Each pair costs 22 euros plus a 5 euro shipping tax. Come on folks, get’em while they’re hot!

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Bernard Pras is considered one of the strangest, most original artists of our generation. He creates art by stacking ordinary objects on a piece of canvas, a process known as anamorphosis.

56-year-old Pras was born in 1952, in the south-west of France and spent his childhood in a toy-store. He later began working as a painter and sculptor of recovered objects. After a short career as an art teacher he came up with a new form of expressing himself some people call “trash-art”.

Starting from a photograph, Bernard Pras creates amazing pieces of art, by adding ordinary objects like used toys, tools, pieces of rubber, or whatever else you can think of. From up-close his works look like nothing more than random stacks of stuff, but from a certain angle and distance, they reveal their true beauty.

Photos by vvdm-gallery

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Nathan Sawaya, a 36-year-old former lawyer has stunned the world with his incredible LEGO artworks.

If giving up a successful career in law that paid a six figure salary, to follow a childhood dream doesn’t spell passion, then I don’t know what does. That’s exactly what Nathan Sawaya did, but he managed to build himself another career brick by brick and now he sells his LEGO masterpieces for thousands of dollars.

Right now, Nathan has an inventory of 1.5 million LEGO bricks to use on his sculptures, at his New York studio and says his largest artwork was made up of about half-a-million bricks. His LEGO works are now as valuable as they are beautiful, selling for more than $10,000 each.

After posting his early work on the internet, Nathan Sawaya started getting orders for his art and realized the huge potential of his work. Now he has even created a piece for Donald Trump. he believes there is nothing he can’t create out of LEGO.

This isn’t the first time Nathan Sawaya’s work has been featured on Oddity Central, we posted some photos of his amazing LEGO cello, a while back.

via Telegraph.co.uk

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Airlines have found an artistic way of attracting clients, by covering tails of their airplanes with gorgeous paintings. Airline Post has come up with a list of the ten coolest painted airplane tails in the world.

10. British Airways – Ethnic Livery

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Stephen Wiltshire, who is autistic,drew in detail a 7 square-mile area of London from his own memory after just a 20 minutes flight with the helicopter over the city.The artist has amazed everyone by drawing hundreds of London’s buildings in exact scale, such as the Swiss Re tower or Canary Wharf  on a 13ft curving canvas in 5 days.

Stephen,actually named as “the human camera”,was diagnosed with autism at the age of three.At that early age he was unable to make himself understood.Some teachers from Queensmill, a school in Fulham for special needs children,forced him to shout “Paper!!!” by taking away his materials and then he managed to develop language skills by learning words related to his work.Now,at the age of 33,Stephen Wiltshire is capable to communicate with others,leading an independent life.

Via DailyMail

The Toilet Seat Waterfall, a bizarre art project made up of thousands of recycled toilet seats, urinals, and sinks, attracts visitors to Foshan, in South China’s Gunagdong Province.

The 100-meter-long, 5-meter-tall Toilet Seat Waterfall was created out of approximately 10,000 toilet accessories, like urinals, toilet seats and sinks. It is a part of a local tradeshow for pottery and porcelain products.

via ImagineChina

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I really don’t get why Hello Kitty is so popular these days, I really don’t, but people keep coming up with various Hello Kitty-themed stuff.

The latest Hello Kitty project comes from designer Jason Mecier, who recreated the popular Japanese character from various Hello Kitty items. Toys, clothes and tons of other accessories come together to form a hideously pink, giant Hello Kitty. Disgusting, but I’m sure there are plenty of girls out there who love it.

via If it’s hip it’s here

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He Wenjun, an artist from China, was recognized by Guinness Book of Records for creating the world’s largest paintbrush.

The artist claims he used the tails of 300 horses to make the 12-foot brush, which weighs 115 lb and almost double that when it is soaked in ink. He Wenjun said it took him a year to make the brush and another year to learn how to control it.

The proud new Guinness record holder took part in a special exhibition in Nanchong, where he displayed his calligraphy talents, using the giant paintbrush.

Photos by CEN via Europics

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