Miguel Endara made a drawing of his dad, called “Hero”, out of 3.2 million dots of ink, and documented the process so you can see what it looks like:

Artist Mary Ellen Croteau proves that recycling can be beautiful with her work, titled Close, made entirely of bottle caps.

According to Mary:

Plastic bottle caps – like bags, a plastic product that can’t be/isn’t recycled. I conceived of an “endless column” of these caps, after Constantin Brancussi’s iconic modernist sculpture. One became two, and two became many. While making these columns, I noticed the smaller caps tended to nest inside one another, and the color combinations reminded me of Chuck Close’s painted portraits. So I got sidetracked and started on a large self-portrait made entirely of bottle caps. The piece measures 8 feet by 7 feet. No paint is used, except to delineate a few shadows where white board was showing through. In a few cases, the caps are trimmed in order to fit a tight space.

See more detailed photos at her site.

[Mary Ellen Croteau]

Building detailed models out of LEGOs has always been an interesting hobby (though not necessarily one that I’d take on myself) which is why work like this set of Team Fortress 2 characters is so impressive.

Each character is made with genuine LEGO pieces, and from what I can tell, doesn’t use a ton of them either, which makes it even more impressive.

Click through to view the full set in all its glory.

[LEGO Team Fortress 2]

SteelPlant is releasing a series of handmade desktop dumpsters that have been painted, inked, glued, printed and/or distressed by various street artists.

Each dumpster is unique, and the art and application methods will change with each release, so they’re guaranteed to stay unique as well.

Use it as a planter, a stationary holder, or just a cool piece of art to have around the house, because where else are you going to find an artified mini-dumpster?

[SteelPlant - Desktop Dumpsters]

This Rube Goldberg Machine, built by a team from Purdue, includes 232 steps, and once verified, will surpass the world record held by Ferris State University of 230 steps.

It’s called “Time Machine”, and catalogs the history of the world, from dinosaurs, war, and rock ‘n roll to a cataclysmic inferno and efflorescent renewal.

Check it out:

[Via: Engadget]

Auto Ink by Chris Eckert is “a three axis numerically controlled sculpture. Once the main switch is triggered, the operator is assigned a religion and it�s corresponding symbol is tattooed onto the person�s arm. The operator does not have control over the assigned symbol. It is assigned either randomly or through divine intervention, depending on your personal beliefs.”

[Auto Ink via: Ink Butter]

In honor of World Water Day, animator Chris Perry has released his award winning short, The Incident at Tower 37:

NOVA is “a sincere DIY documentary film on new art and the young artists behind it”, filmed at Nova Contemporary Culture, which took place in July and August of 2010 at the Museum of Image and Sound, and SESC Pompeia, in S�o Paulo, Brazil.

[Via: Wooster Collective]

Jason Freeny (a long time favorite of DYH) has released his latest sculpture, a fully functional Rubik’s Cube that looks (but hopefully doesn’t feel or smell) like a brain.

Genius.

[Jason Freeny]

The Deep is the latest short from PEZ, which mimics the look of an underwater wildlife film with everyday objects used in unique and unusual ways.

Enjoy:

Dot is “the world’s smallest stop-motion animation character” (she’s only 9mm tall) shot entirely on a Nokia N8 with a microscope attachment called the CellScope.

Enjoy:

If you’re in the San Diego area, be sure to check out The Space Invaders Walk, a virtual tour through the city that’s led by Invader, a famous street artist who makes an appearance in Bansky’s new film, Exit Through The Gift Shop.

In addition to creating your own space invader, you can also keep an eye out for various pieces by Invader that have been stuck up around the city, all in anticipation of the group show that’s opening at Museum of Contemporary Art, San Diego called “Viva la Revolucion: A Dialogue with the Urban Landscape”.

[The Space Invaders Walk]

The last time we saw BLU, he had just released MUTO, a wall-painted animation that was like nothing else ever seen before, and which could only be described as amazing.

Now he’s back with a piece called BIG BANG BIG BOOM (an unscientific point of view on the beginning and evolution of life … and how it could probably end) and once again he’s raised the bar, as this wall-painted animation redefines what big budget street art is all about.

Enjoy:

Leave Me is a touching short that explores the unique idea of escaping into your camera’s photo library:

[Via: Neatorama]

The Thing Quarterly is a ‘periodical’ that arrives in the form of an object. For each issue, an artist, writer, musician or filmmaker is invited by the editors (Jonn Herschend and Will Rogan) to create a useful object that somehow incorporates text. The object is then reproduced and hand wrapped at a wrapping party, and mailed to subscribers with the help of the United States Postal Service.

Previous issues include a cutting board, a deck of playing cards, and a mug, so you never know exactly what you’re going to get, though it’s pretty much guaranteed to be unique, fun and/or awesome.

[The Thing Quarterly]

Missed Connections is a beautiful site from Sophie Blackall where she takes posts from Missed Connections websites and illustrates the story they are trying to tell.

From the site:

Every day hundreds of strangers reach out to other strangers on the strength of a glance, a smile or a blue hat. Their messages have the lifespan of a butterfly. I’m trying to pin a few of them down.

[Missed Connections]

The Sketchbook Project is an art experiment where artists from anywhere in the world can sign up to receive a Moleskine Cahier sketchbook, and once they fill it with art related to various themes (ranging from “It will be fun, I swear” and “Jackets, blankets, and sheets” to “I’m sorry I forgot you” and “Things found on restaurant napkins”) they will send it back to the Art House Co-Op who will tour them around the country before finally adding them to the permanent collection of The Brooklyn Art Library, where they will be barcoded and available for the public to view.

The only rule is that the book must be used in some way, and that it must stay within its original dimensions. Everything else is up to the artist, so if you’d like to participate, be sure to sign up on their site by October 31.

[The Sketchbook Project]

Jason Freeny is back, and this time he’s taken apart a common Goldfish Cracker to document the anatomy inside. As always, it’s great stuff!

[Via: MoistProduction]

What happens when you take 35,000 tilt-shift photographs of New York City and stitch them together into one epic movie?

The Sandpit:

SNASK is a stop motion video made with 1846 photos that took just under four days to shoot. As I’m sure you’ll agree though, that was time well spent: