[CONTEST REMINDER] Win a Skull Brain from Emilio Garcia

This contest has ended. Thanks to everyone who entered with your comments.

Don't forget that you have until 11:59:59 PM Eastern Time Wednesday Dec. 19th to enter our latest giveaway contest for a "Skull Brain" from Emilio Garcia.

[NOTE: If you are reading this on Facebook or Google+, you must go to THE ACTUAL BLOG POST HERE to enter this contest! You CANNOT enter this contest by commenting on Facebook, Twitter, or Google+]

Of course you can always put your own brain to good use by visiting Emilio's Fine Art Shop. You can find the Skull Brain and Jumping Brain there with a variety of options. Thanks again for the chance to free our minds, Emilio!

Aluminum Gear Shifter Skull

A real life metal head graces our site today courtesy of Tom Powell of Ormond Beach. This gear shifter knob is made of 7075 aluminum alloy and is completely carved by knife and hand.

Looks like a nice and solid heavy metal head!

Sinister and shiny, this badass mofo is looking for a thrill and just like Ricky Bobby, he wants to go fast!  Thanks for the great submission, Tom!

"la Paz felicidad amor (peace love happiness)"

Mel Rudgley from Australia's Sydney's Northern Beaches has stopped by again with a 2m high acrylic painting called "la Paz felicidad amor (peace love happiness)" that has been installed over the fireplace at Deck in Dee Why, NSW.

Summer C says:

I can tell from your own "la Paz felicidad amor" that this is a proud day for you to be able to stand in the shadow of something you created.  Thank you once again for sharing your work with us, it is through the coninued support of our loyal readers that we are able to have this site.

Flower and Bow Skull

Natacha Larsen is a 23 year old webintegrator from Denmark. She said, "I have always been fascinated by skulls, and I guess that shows a lot in my drawings."

This drawing reminds me of a vase with a floral arrangement in it. As someone who loves flowers and skulls, this would be a fantastic bouquet to receive. You can see more of Natacha's work on her website and blog.

[CONTEST] Win a Skull Brain from Emilio Garcia

This contest has ended. Thanks to everyone who entered with your comments!

This week's giveaway from Emilio Garcia reminds me of some song lyrics I once heard, "Free your mind and the rest will follow".  By letting the brain take the skull's form he has created the "Skull Brain".  No argument needed for which side is more important, left or right, he shares his entire mind with you in this delightful and anatomically (in)correct work of art.  Never forgetting the true purpose of the skulls we love, to protect the most precious of organs. 

"Emilio Garcia was born in the winter of 1981 near Barcelona, Spain. He has a long career trajectory as freelance art director and visual artist. Since 1999 he has been specializing in motion graphics and multimedia content. His work is published in Taschen Favourite Websites and Web Design Index Books.  Concerned with the digitalization of our society, Emilio saw his culture moving slowly away from the tangible. As reaction to this, he left his multimedia career and embraced the tactile. Drawn to the fascination of plastic, he started a new stage with the Secret Lapo Laboratories, a space for plastic experimentation, where he can give capacity to his artistic restlessness, far away from bits, clicks, databases, and scripts. Out of this desire to make form with his own hands, the Jumping Brain viral was born. " *taken from Emilio's site

Emilio's newest piece is a perfect match for the intelligent group of fans that we have.  The "Skull Brain" takes the gift and makes it the box.  It  replaces the bones with the brains and still maintains the everlasting shape of the casing that we all know.

The entire creation process is documented for viewing on Emilio's Flickr collection.  Be sure to check it out if you want to see how he got from the above to the below.

PRIZE INFO: One (1) Skull Brain measuring 7 x 5.5 x 5 inches resin cast, and comes in the winner's choice of 4 different finishes: PINK: Gloss nitro,  GRAPHITE: Sand textured,  CHROME: Nickel plated, or 24K: Gold plated. 

HOW TO ENTER: Leave a comment below voting for the side of the brain that you feel is more important- Left or Right.  No explanation or argument is required, just a simple left or right will get you entered.  I'm gonna go metaphysical and vote for the inner brain that contains the 3rd all seeing eye, but only I get that vote.  Oh, and Jessica, too.

CONTACT INFO: If you win, we need to contact you. With your comment, please include your email, or make sure your Blogger profile has a working email link for you on it. Entries are only valid with this information.

WHERE TO ENTER: All entries must be made on this blog post, on Skull-A-Day.com. You CANNOT enter this contest by commenting on Facebook, Twitter, or Google+.

CONTEST CLOSES: 11:59:59 PM Eastern Time Wednesday, December 19th.

NUMBER OF WINNERS: One

PRIZE SHIPS: This contest is open to all skull lovers around the world. The minds of the masses must be appeased.

IF YOU DON'T WIN: You can always put your own brain to good use by visiting Emilio's Fine Art Shop.  You can find the Skull Brain and Jumping Brain there with a variety of options.  Thanks again for the chance to free our minds, Emilio!

Skull Illustration

Nadia from the United Kingdom told us: "My illustration is a pen drawing of a skull with candy colour tissue background. Not just skin deep."

 Carnival C says:

When you said candy it made me think of cotton candy, and yes skulls and cotton candy do go well together as demonstrated HERE.  Thank you for sending your illustration to us for sharing.

Skull Tattwosday

We're slinging ink today with a couple of skullacious scars that happen to bear a strong resemblance to art. Driven by needles and crafted with skill....Enjoy!

Jon Goad has some ink afoot at Born This Way Body Arts, in Knoxville, TN.

Jason Sheeler is rockin' some Southern pride all the way from Kuwait.

I love being able to post great tattoos of skulls. It makes me yearn to hear the buzzing of the machine again, leaving yet another artful mark upon my skin. We'd love to show more tattoos of skulls, but please remember that we ask that you be the artist of the piece provided so that we can give proper credit where it's due. Thanks, Jon and Jason!

Strawberry Skull Tarts

Mark Gilliland of Irvington, NY created these skull tarts with his daughter during a recent baking lesson. The tarts are filled with homemade strawberry jam canned by his wife. Mark included a lot of great images to help you all make your own! However, the baking instructions and dough are something you'll need to figure out.

Enjoying one of the finished skull tarts.

It looks like they cut out skull shaped pieces of pastry dough, put them on a cookie sheet, put jam on the bottom dough skull piece, laid a top dough skull piece on top, and pinched the edges to contain the jam.

Using a fork, they pressed it around the edges to seal it. This helps the two dough pieces stick together better and prevents the jam from oozing out the edges.

With a knife, they cut the skull face details into the top layer of dough.

Then, the tarts need to bake. From my years of baking experience, the oven normally needs to be preheated to 365. As for time to cook, that varies depending on the creation. Baked goods with fillings sometimes take longer than non-filled baked goods, like rolls. This is due to the moisture. I suggest watching these bake, until they are golden brown and crispy.

After they were baked, they put them on a cooling rack. Since they have fillings, the tarts will be very hot! This is probably a good time to either make another batch, or clean up your mess.

After the tarts were cool, they put them on plates.

Finally, consume your skull tarts!

Now that I've figured out how to make these, I have a can of Pillsbury pastry dough and some strawberry jam just waiting to be made into tarts. Also, I love that Mark taught his daughter how to bake these. Reminds me of the cooking lessons my husband give my daughter. I cover baking with her.

[BONUS] Passages Academy Skulls

I recently made a visit to Passages Academy in Brooklyn, New York to talk about my original Skull-A-Day project. While it's not unusual for me to speak at schools about art & creativity, this was definitely a unique situation: Passages Academy is a full time educational program for incarcerated and detained teenagers.




I have to admit I wasn't sure what to expect. The building I arrived at looked like a fairly typical school, though it was clear from entering that security was strict. I was quickly introduced to the coordinator for the Non-secure placement students, who explained that, while unlikely, there was the potential of violence and that they have trained staff on hand to deal with it, so if something happened while I was there I should just stay out of the way and not get involved (no problem there!). 

A dozen students were brought in to the room where I had set up my slideshow and there was quite a bit of commotion. After a fair amount of wrangling, the staff got things settled down as much as possible and I got started. At first there was some disruptive behavior (nothing I haven't seen at normal high school presentations, mind you), but then suddenly, after only a few slides, there was dead silence and complete attention from everyone in the room! The only interruptions were for appropriate questions from students clearly eager to know more.

After my 25 minute talk we shifted gears and the staff brought out some random materials and I challenged the students to follow my lead and make a skull of their own. There were no other directions given and again after a bit of noise the group quickly settled into a quiet round of intense art making. As my host Jessica Fenster-Sparber put it, "Students had not been asked to stop talking, jeering, or moving about; they were simply absorbed in the creative experience at hand."

Every single attendee (as well as some of the staff) made an incredible piece of art on the spot. Each was unique and reflected the thoughtful observation of the materials that they were given. Several people made multiple pieces in the time they had available and more than one asked if they could use a marker to autograph their own piece.

 
I was happy to be able to share some inspiration from my own experiences and glad to see that it had an immediate impact on the teens in attendance. 

Thanks to Jessica Fenster-Sparber for coordinating the event and very kindly providing copies of my book Unstuck to all of the students as a means of further inspiration!

*Images of artwork created by Passages Academy students courtesy of Jessica Fenster-Sparber

Sunday Simulacra - Version 6.28

Today's simulacra are drinkable.

Dwayne Keith from Hamilton, Ontario, Canada said: "Had a dance party in the living room a friend spilled rum and cola on the floor to reveal screaming skull."

Sevie Carmona sent us this bubble simulacra floating in a glass.

Coaster C says:

Thank you both for sharing your finds with us.  Liquids are one of the most popular places where simulacra like to hide in our world.

Keep sending those pictures in, we always love seeing what our skull hunters find. Anyone is welcomed to participate, it's fun and it's easy- if you see a simulacra skull, photograph it and send those pictures in to our submissions address with a little something about what it is really and maybe a little about you.

Sabertooth Skull

This acrylic and spray paint on canvas work of art comes from Ashley Montague. Overall size is 48 inches wide by 60 inches tall.

I imagine that this is quite a sight up close in life size.  It carries a mystic quality of perhaps being carried back in time to an ancient realm.  Thanks for the mind trip, Ashley!

[BONUS] Army of The Undead Stock

Just wanted to show off this great new book Army of The Undead Stock by my friend Gary Lockwood AKA Freehand Profit who was inspired in part by Skull-A-Day to start his own MASK365 project. As part of the project he began creating gas masks out of sneakers, which has continued on beyond the project and has now led to this book!

I was honored to be asked to provide an introduction to the book. I was also happy to see Gary's one-of-a-kind sneaker skull included (which he created for Skull Appreciation Day and I'm happy to say is now in my personal collection!).

You can find out more about book (and get your own copy) HERE.

DIY Paper Skull

Artist Lorna Love from New Zealand sent us one of the paper craft skulls she made using a design she  created with inspiration from the Skullmaster's 72. Papercraft Skull.

*You can download your own blank template of her skull design HERE.


Sheepish C says:

It is always wonderful to see what is created through the inspiration of this site.  I adore this self contained design as I can imagine putting a flame-less tea light inside a finished piece to create some spooky ambiance.  Thank you for sharing your design with all of us here and perhaps the next unique papercraft skull we see here will be created with your inspiration in mind.

Pink Skull

Luba Diduch said "This started off as a drawing that I made using a medical illustration book for reference. I used a drawing tablet to do the main drawing, then employed magical digitization tools to 'pinkify' it."

It's neat to know a little about the process of turning a hand drawing into a digital drawing. I like the stitched and "pinkified" qualities of this images. It makes the skull seem like it was broken and stapled back together, while getting dirty along the way.

[BONUS] Student Skulls

One of my favorite things is knowing the positive influence my original Skull-A-Day project has had on young people and I recently had another opportunity to do discover that this week at Douglas S. Freeman high school here in Richmond, Virginia.

At the request of art teacher Rebecca Field and her student teacher Meghan Sadler I gave a talk to a group of art students, many of whom are in the midst of their own daily art project inspired by my own. At the end of my talk I was kindly gifted this lovely collection of skull pieces that they made as part of their projects!

Only one piece didn't make it home with me, a real carved potato!

Skulls by: Charlie, Grace, Mikayla, Marqel, Connor, Karolina, Victoria, Olivia, Rob, Turner, Matthew, Laura, Michael, Everardo, Rachel, Anne, Peyton, Katharine, Carly, and Amy.

Thanks again to the students for their enthusiasm and great questions.

Tchelo's Skulls

Artist Tchelo from Brazil send us a sample of the colorful work he creates.  He said: "I love skulls since I was kid when I played pirate! My style of work is very colorful, I think one of the influences is the tropical country I was born in Brazil and colorful Mexican culture that is very similar and I like a lot. I have develop my artistic work on canvas, ceramic, resin and wood."

Rainforest C says:

Of this sample of your work, I truly enjoy the spay paint can the most, besides having a fez, I find it fascinating to use the empty vessel of something used to create art to actually become art itself.  It seems as if you are completing a magical journey with it.  Thank you for sharing your art with us.

[CONTEST REMINDER] Win a Baby Bones Clothing $100 Gift Voucher

This contest has ended.  Thanks to everyone who entered for the great comments.

Don't forget that you have until 11:59:59 PM Eastern Time TONIGHT  to enter our latest giveaway contest for a $100 gift voucher from Baby Bones Clothing.

[NOTE: If you are reading this on Facebook or Google+, you must go to THE ACTUAL BLOG POST HERE to enter this contest! You CANNOT enter this contest by commenting on Facebook, Twitter, or Google+] 

Of course you don't have to wait for our contest to be over to win. Right now Skull-A-Day readers can receive 10% off by emailing their orders to admin@babybonesclothing.com.au. Quote the keyword "Skull-A-Day" to make sure you get the discount.  Thanks again to Jess and the Baby Bones crew!

"Forest" Skull

This paper mache map skull, appropriately titled "Forest", is courtesy of Kurtiss Lofstrom of Portland, OR.

It's not a good thing when you can't see the forest for the trees, but seeing the forest on the skull is much better. Thanks for the reminder, Kurtiss!

Skull Coin Necklace

Kristin Jacobs created this skull necklace. She said, "I used a coin from Mexico, which I cut, drilled, and antiqued. The coin and chain are vintage and re-purposed."

Art created from recycling is always intriguing. I like how Kristin used the curves of the coin design to compliment the curves of a skull. This is a great example of re-purposing old things into a beautiful piece of wearable artwork.

Skull-A-Day Calendar

Per a fan request I've created a 2013 calendar featuring 12 images from my original Skull-A-Day project!

Get yours through Zazzle today HERE.