Source Design You Trust  Xavier Ortiz (aka BUILTFROMSKETCH) is a Sacramento-based watercolor illustrator and stay-at-home father who specializes in dark fantasy themes, drawing from his background in animation and storyboarding at the Academy of Art University in San Francisco to craft intricate, atmospheric scenes. His portfolio features haunting motifs like witches, vampires, demons, and occult…

Source Design You Trust  Samuel Popovich is an oil painter from Colorado, USA, celebrated for his playful, whimsical art featuring frogs, quirky animals, and imaginative scenes. His love for painting began after binge-watching Bob Ross as a child, and he aims to create art that immediately brings happiness and warmth to viewers rather than focusing…

Source Design You Trust  Environment – Gold Winner: “Patterns in a Floodzone” by Sean Breithaupt The AOP Photography Awards, often dubbed the “Oscars of photography,” mark their 40th year by celebrating the finest in creative image-making. This prestigious event showcases the artistry and technical brilliance of photographers who continue to push the boundaries of visual…

Source Design You Trust  Jason Limon is a painter and sculptor from San Antonio, Texas, USA, who is internationally renowned for his surreal acrylic paintings and sculptures featuring skeletons, skulls, and whimsical objects. He began his career in graphic design before moving full-time into art in 2007, exhibiting widely in galleries across the United States…

Source Design You Trust  Zhiyong Jing is a painter living and working in Beijing, China, well known for his surreal dreamlike artworks that explore themes of hope, isolation, and absurdity. He earned a BFA in oil painting from the Tianjin Academy of Fine Arts in 2005 and credits his education with shaping his signature style,…

Source Colossal   In a world this absurd and disastrous, do we gravitate toward cynicism or levity? For the artist duo known as Murmure (previously), both are the only option. The Caen, France-based pair presents a new body of paintings and charcoal drawings in their plainly titled exhibition, La fête est finie, or The party is…

Source Colossal   Coincidence is around every corner, and immortalizing a split second of fleeting chaos takes a special eye. Since 2020, Pure Street Photography—an initiative focused on connecting international photographers—has commended visual storytellers through an annual competition. This year’s edition drew an impressive 1,160 submissions across 34 countries and five continents. Judged by British writer…

Source Colossal   In the famous first stanza of the 17th-century poem “Auguries of Innocence,” William Blake writes: To see a world in a grain of sandAnd a heaven in a wild flower,Hold infinity in the palm of your handAnd eternity in an hour. Perhaps Blake didn’t intend us to literally hold infinity in our hands,…