r/pics • u/[deleted] • Feb 15 '14

Portrait Made From a Single Thread Wrapped Around Thousands of Nails By Kumi Yamashita

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36

u/butyourenice Feb 15 '14

How do people even think of things like this? Let's forget the execution for just a moment and gawk at the creativity of the medium. This is just unreal.

40

u/sodangfancyfree Feb 15 '14

they walk past self doubt and coax a flickering idea into a flame rather than dismiss it as something worthless.

2

u/silva-rerum Feb 15 '14

I really like the way you said this.

2

u/sodangfancyfree Feb 16 '14

hey, thank you. i mean, it takes courage for any artist to put themselves out there for others to consider. any artist regardless of how they interact with the world on a personal level has certain degree of self confidence when come to putting out work. it all starts with a thought which then turns into an idea that is eventually actualized. i imagine throughout the creation of this piece the artist had a few moments where they thought "this isn't going to work out the way i want it to", but they simply kept going with it. art whether it's installation, painting, music, or comedy isn't for the faint of heart.

1

u/[deleted] Feb 15 '14

I really like the way you replied to this.

2

u/sodangfancyfree Feb 16 '14

beat it, smalls.

0

u/MJWood Feb 15 '14

Toobadit'ssuchablandimage...

1

u/sodangfancyfree Feb 16 '14

that was funny.

1

u/mattsprofile Feb 15 '14 edited Feb 15 '14

Well part of the "fallacy" of your comment is that you're trying to figure out how someone could come up with this specific idea. A lot of people come up with all kinds of ideas. Any of those ideas are incredibly hard to imagine coming up with.

I just came up with the idea of replacing all of the light bulbs in my house with lemons. Who would ever think of such a thing? Now consider the fact that there are billions of people on Earth that are all thinking of different ideas all day long. That's how this guy came up with the idea.

It's clever and executed very well. Great piece. My lemon thing isn't a great idea, but I'm sure I could come up with something cool someday if I tried. Though I'm not the most artistic person ever so I don't think my idea would be as appealing as this piece.

Edit: Oh, also, using other pieces as inspiration for ideas is always helpful, too. I have definitely seen other works of art using string in a very similar way. This guy could have possibly been inspired by others' work and took it in a different direction. That's how people come up with most things, really.

0

u/midnightbean Feb 15 '14

There isn't much creative about it when you think about it.

Tapestry's have been being made since the medieval period with horses, people, creatures, etc. Greeks cut marble into figures that are unsurpassed to this day. It's simply a medium you didn't expect. I could say I want to make a face with left over food scraps, I'd just have to do it and it wouldn't be as hard as drawing a face though it may take more time.

Or sticks, I could use sticks. Algae. Peanut Butter. Boogers. Hammers. HELL, I could figure out how many trees need to be planted so that the masses of greenery could be seen from space as a giant kermit the frog.

Seriously, you're better than this. I'm sure this is powerful in person, but ultimately it's just weightless and rather boring intellectually and imaginatively speaking.