Skip to main content

Katie McCann's delightfully grotesque paper creatures


Every now and then I like to go to Katie McCann's tumblr and dig through her wonderfully weird creations once again to see what new can I find in them. Her collages are insane, and I mean that in the best possible way. 

Katie (aka Beetle Blossom) is an English artist currently living and working in Berkeley, California with a passion for everything unusual, grotesque and unique. Using cut outs from old medical books and magazines, she creates intricate Frankenstein-like figures "who are sometimes static like specimens and at other times are surviving in a unique habitat." She often incorporates lace, beads and fabric into her work to make them appear more elegant.

Artist Statement:
"I have known such a creature (Charles Altamont Doyle) is how I start my collages. As a child, I lived in a wonder world of faeries, witches, science fiction and botany. Not much has changed, the only difference being that I record all of my thoughts and stories in the form of intricately cut and pieced together collages. I like everything old and a little tired so I seek out images and photographs that are antique, vintage and forgotten. I transform these paper memories and records into other worldly creatures who are sometimes static like specimens and at other times are surviving in a unique habitat. I am rooted in the tradition of old fashioned childhood where discovery was at the bottom of the garden in amongst the crushed leaves, the lilac and the fungi. I hope that the creatures I uncovered in that quiet landscape are reflected in my collages."




Follow Katie's tumblr for more disturbing goodness.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Preserved tattoos of the dead

The idea of preserving tattoos after death came into existence long before NAPSA . London's Wellcome Collection has over 300 specimens of preserved human flesh bearing tattoos , collected in the late 19th century. There are many more examples of smaller collections in Paris, Poland, Portugal, Berlin, and Austria. But what fascinates me the most is this lesser-known museum at Tokyo University, the Medical Pathology Museum, which houses pieces of skin collected since 1926 by Dr. Masaichi Fukushi. "Fukushi would perform autopsies on donated cadavers and dissect off just the skin. He created a method of treatment to preserve the skin and kept them stretched in a glass frame, essentially like a leather. Later the ownership of the tattooed skin collection was passed on to Fukushi's son Katsunari. Katsunari added a further 20 tattooed skins himself and it's believed that the Medical Pathology Museum has 105 in its collection, many with full body suits." ...

Enigmatic Shapes and Psychedelic Patterns

To say that I love Sanagi 's work is an understatement. Looking at her art feels sort of therapeutic, and I find her drawings refreshingly intricate. They're trippy, psychedelic, and resemble something that you might see under a microscope. Not much is Googleable about Sanagi, but that's fine. There aren't many artists these days that still pull off the whole mysterious vibe, so I commend her for that. By the way... they're all hand-drawn with pen and ink.

Weirdly Charming

If you’re a fan of art that makes you do a double-take, you need to check out  Richard Brener . Based in the UK, Richard is an internationally collected artist who works primarily with ink, fineliners, and gouache. When you first see his pieces, they actually look pretty playful. Then you realize the entire canvas is packed with thousands of tiny, ghost-like shapes he calls "champs." They’re all squeezed together like commuters on a rush-hour train, and the level of detail is honestly mind-blowing. Richard spends hundreds of hours drawing these little guys over and over. It’s obsessive, very intentional, and a little bit wild. The cool part is that the longer you stare, the more the vibe shifts. Check out more photos below: