Good morning! #grickledoodle #king #card #surreal #horror #cartoon #art #drawing #funny #humor

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Route 66 Dreams: Classic Cars Across the American Desert

Description

A cinematic visual journey through the mythic atmosphere of Route 66, featuring vintage cars, abandoned gas stations, neon motels, desert highways, red rock landscapes, and golden sunset light. The series blends classic Americana, road trip nostalgia, open-road freedom, and a slightly surreal retro mood, evoking the timeless romance of travel across the American Southwest.

These images were generated by Artificial Intelligence.

Hieu Chau compares his dense, dynamic compositions to his always active mind. Playing with scale and proportion, the Vietnamese artist renders surreal scenes in which flora and fauna converge and figures interact with the outside world as if in a dream. Chau, who was trained as a painter, now works digitally, although his pieces capture the grainy textures and gestures of a physical medium.

The artist recently published a book collecting his projects from the last decade, and you can find explore an archive of these pieces on Instagram.

Do stories and artists like this matter to you? Become a Colossal Member today and support independent arts publishing for as little as $7 per month. The article Surreal Dreams Reign in Hieu Chau’s Digital Illustrations appeared first on Colossal.

Manuel Gual posted a photo:

Route 66 Dreams: Classic Cars Across the American Desert

Description

A cinematic visual journey through the mythic atmosphere of Route 66, featuring vintage cars, abandoned gas stations, neon motels, desert highways, red rock landscapes, and golden sunset light. The series blends classic Americana, road trip nostalgia, open-road freedom, and a slightly surreal retro mood, evoking the timeless romance of travel across the American Southwest.

These images were generated by Artificial Intelligence.

For Olaf Hajek, difference isn’t about opposition but rather about identifying connections. The Berlin-based illustrator renders dense, uncanny compositions that nod to Surrealist icons like Leonora Carrington and Remedios Varo. Nature and culture entwine, and magic and mystery veil each scene. These dreamlike moments of intrigue ask the viewer to suspend preconceived notions and instead, enjoy the allure of the ambiguous.

Hajek is an avid traveler and cultural consumer, offering him a vast repository of images from a variety of sources and locales. Folklore, vernacular traditions, spiritual practices, and natural motifs blend into a distinguishable aesthetic. “What interests me is not so much their differences, but the connections between them—the possibility of developing a universal visual language by bringing diverse influences together. This blending becomes a way of transcending cultural boundaries and revealing something shared and timeless,” he says.

Ambiguity is a central point of Hajek’s practice, emerging technically through superimposed florals and figures, dramatic shifts in scale, and a tension between decay and renewal. Gender and conceptions of masculinity, in particular, are depicted with a sense of softness and fluidity, particularly through symbolic, botanical motifs in vibrant color.

Hajek works in parallel, if not complementary, practices, sketching and painting on paper in a looser, more reflexive manner. “I embrace the unexpected—how colors interact, how forms dissolve into one another, and how compositions evolve organically. Especially in works on paper, intuition plays a central role; they feel more immediate, almost like a direct dialogue with the moment,” he tells Colossal.

Shifting to the canvas, though, requires a clearer vision, and the two approaches are an essential pairing in his practice. “They are part of the same artistic process, which constantly moves between intention and surprise, between structure and freedom,” he says.

Hajek is participating in several upcoming exhibitions, including a group show at Feinkunst Krüger in Hamburg and two solo presentations at Museum Franz Xaver Stahl in Erding and Kaplan Projects in Palma de Mallorca. Until then, find more of his work on Instagram.

Do stories and artists like this matter to you? Become a Colossal Member today and support independent arts publishing for as little as $7 per month. The article Ambiguity Reigns in Olaf Hajek’s Mysterious Illustrations appeared first on Colossal.

“Don’t you think it’s dangerous to blur the distinction between abstraction and reality?” asks actress Olivia Vinall in her role as the Surrealist artist and writer Leonora Carrington (1917-2011). The heady line is one of the standout statements in the new biopic documenting Carrington’s life and work.

Directed by Thor Klein and Lena Vurma and produced by Modern Films, Leonora in the Morning Light opens in 1930s Paris, when the artist was enmeshed in an avant-garde community that included luminaries like Salvador Dalí and André Breton, along with her partner Max Ernst. When World War II begins, Carrington flees to Spain before eventually re-settling in Mexico, perhaps the location most associated with her work.

The film is based on the biographical novel by Elena Poniatowska and comes at a time when Carrington’s oeuvre is in the spotlight, particularly the fantastical work made while she was confined to a psychiatric hospital in Spain which had been lost for 80 years.

Modern Films is also behind the documentary about pioneering artist Hilma af Klint, along with Boom For Real, which chronicles Jean-Michel Basquiat’s teenage years. Leonora in the Morning Light is slated for release on May 29 in the U.K. and Ireland.

Do stories and artists like this matter to you? Become a Colossal Member today and support independent arts publishing for as little as $7 per month. The article A Leonora Carrington Biopic Traces the Surrealist Icon’s Life and Work appeared first on Colossal.

MONTREAL, June 11 — Canada’s culture minister on yesterday introduced legislation that would ban children under 16 from having social media accounts and require AI chatbot services to limit production of harmful content.

The proposed Digital Safety Act makes Canada the latest in a wave of countries cracking down on social media platforms over concerns of harm to children.

“We have seen the very serious consequences that online harms can have...The safety of children cannot be an afterthought,” said Culture Minister Marc Miller in a statement announcing the proposal.

The legislation would ban social media accounts for children under 16 years old, the statement said, adding that there be an exemption “pathway” for companies if they can demonstrate “sufficient safeguards” for children.

Social media services, including adult content platforms, would also face new requirements under the law to “mitigate risks associated with exposure” to various categories of harmful content and apply labels to synthetically generated content.

The eventual regulations would be enforced by a Digital Safety Commission, with possible fines on companies not in compliance of up to three percent of their global revenue or CAD$10 million.

“This legislation will provide a safer environment for young Canadians and empower them to connect in-person, build friendships, focus in school, and learn real-world skills so they can thrive,” Health Minister Marjorie Michel said in a statement.

Sachin Maharaj, an education professor at University of Ottawa, called the proposal “a step towards the right direction,” with a “recognition that social media is associated with behavioral and social issues.”

“Obviously, kids will find their way around” restrictions, he told AFP. “But the real challenge is to change the way the apps work.”

AI rules

In addition to the social media ban, the new law would also regulate increasingly ubiquitous AI chatbots by requiring companies to “mitigate the risk of the chatbot communicating harmful content.”

Companies would also face requirements for transparency around “reporting thresholds in crisis situations,” such as when a user intends to harm themselves or another person.

The issue has been particularly sensitive in Canada following a mass shooting in April that left nine people dead in the small mining town of Tumbler Ridge, including the shooter.

OpenAI has faced intense criticism after it banned the shooter from its platform in June last year over the user’s troubling conversations on ChatGPT, but did not report the account to Canadian police because it said it saw no evidence of an imminent attack.

In December, Australia became the first country in the world to require TikTok, YouTube, Snapchat and other top sites to remove accounts held by under-16s or face heavy fines.

Indonesia began enforcing its own social media ban for users under the age of 16 in March, while several European governments have announced their desire to make similar moves. — AFP

François & Marie posted a photo:

Au centre, une lune de vert tendre irradie comme un fruit suspendu dans un songe. Autour d'elle, le monde se dissout en une douce mélancolie dorée, zébrée de reflets violets et de secrets d'ambre.

Eudaemonius posted a photo:

Manuel Gual posted a photo:

Route 66 Dreams: Classic Cars Across the American Desert

Description

A cinematic visual journey through the mythic atmosphere of Route 66, featuring vintage cars, abandoned gas stations, neon motels, desert highways, red rock landscapes, and golden sunset light. The series blends classic Americana, road trip nostalgia, open-road freedom, and a slightly surreal retro mood, evoking the timeless romance of travel across the American Southwest.

These images were generated by Artificial Intelligence.

hayksenekerimyan posted a photo:

Some moments don't need color to feel alive. Just you, the water, and a mountain watching over it all.