NASA wants to launch your masterpiece into space

Perhaps I'm late to the party but did you know that NASA is opening an art gallery for aliens? In September, the spacecraft OSIRIS-REx will travel to a near-Earth asteroid called Bennu. In hopes of making the minor planet the first extra-terrestrial art gallery known to man, the space agency is inviting the public to submit paintings, sketches, photographs, poems, songs, videos and other forms of creative expression. These works will be encoded on a chip and left in the asteroid's soil.

NASA is accepting submissions until March 20, and artists around the globe can send their works to the OSIRIS-REx Twitter or Instagram accounts using the hashtag #WeTheExplorers. Videos published to YouTube and Vimeo will be accepted as well; just link to your clips in an appropriately tagged tweet. To know more about the technical guidelines, visit the campaign's website. Below are some of my favorites from Twitter.

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Joie de vivre

Emily Powell has made a name for herself with her series of simple, colorful and exuberant paintings. Her passion pours out directly onto the canvas, inspiring the viewer to do something fun. Emily has exhibited with the Royal Society of Art and collaborated with MoMA and British Museum. Whether it's a coastal landscape, a cute animal, or an explosion of florals, her paintings will surely light up your day.

Hand-Painted Movie Posters by Tony Stella

In the 70s and 80s movie theaters in Manila were usually standalone buildings with nice seats and red curtains. To sell tickets, cinemas needed to advertise their offerings. But they did not have the original posters, or the means to print alternatives. So they made their own, commissioning local artists to hand-paint them. I really miss those hand-painted posters and billboards, which conveyed an artistry that was a form of visual hyperbole. But hand-made objects always have a way of returning. In this digital age, people will always look for things made by hand. I recently stumbled across the work of Tony Stella, whose genuinely cool movie posters have caught the eye of film enthusiasts and art lovers worldwide. He likes to work in watercolor and ink wash but sometimes he will make an oil painting, depending on the film. Tony's very active on social media, and his Tumblr blog contains a massive collection of illustrated movie posters that are often better than the original. ...

Artist reuses vintage envelopes to create remarkable biro portraits

Both my brother and I thought of ourselves as artists when we were kids. He the kind that could actually draw and paint, and me the kind that pretended that I could actually draw and paint. At least once a year (until I was 14 or 15) we bought art supplies at our favorite bookstore. We got paint brushes, watercolor sets, color pencils, crayons and paint tubes. But, soon I realized, I wasn't artistic and creative enough to pursue a degree in fine arts. And no amount of expensive equipment can make me a better artist. Sabi nga sa Tagalog, "nasa Indian yan, wala sa pana." Take, for example, Mark Powell. The London-based artist draws incredibly detailed portraits of elderly people using only a standard ballpoint pen. Know what I love more about Mark than his awesome drawings? His canvases. The University of Huddersfield graduate uses old envelopes, maps, books and newspapers to create incredible life-like illustrations. His obsession with vintage paper document...

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