Posts by Sara Barnes

Sara Barnes

Sara Barnes is a Staff Editor at My Modern Met, Manager of My Modern Met Store, and co-host of the My Modern Met Top Artist Podcast. As an illustrator and writer living in Seattle, she chronicles illustration, embroidery, and beyond through her blog Brown Paper Bag and Instagram @brwnpaperbag. She wrote a book about embroidery artist Sarah K. Benning titled "Embroidered Life" that was published by Chronicle Books in 2019. Sara is a graduate of the Maryland Institute College of Art. She earned her BFA in Illustration in 2008 and MFA in Illustration Practice in 2013.
Art
January 13, 2017

Bold Geometric Tattoos Cover the Body in Mesmerizing Mandala Designs

Geometric art relies on precision and straight lines—the type of work that's typically done with a ruler. So, when it comes to tattoos, it's a bold stylistic choice. After all, the softness of skin and an ever-moving canvas are the opposite of exactness. This fact makes Corey Divine’s mesmerizing body art all the more impressive. Using the same elements as in geometric drawings, he translates these complex designs onto the skin.

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Entertainment
January 10, 2017

Simple Lines Reveal Masterful Compositions in Iconic Film Scenes

Last year, Raymond Thi reignited our appreciation for film cinematography. Through his app, Composition Cam, he highlighted the brilliant arrangements of memorable scenes in iconic movies like The Shining, Ghostbusters, and Citizen Kane. Thi has recently expanded his idea by examining even more visually stunning film and TV compositions. Thi places bright pink lines to show how each scene is built.

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Street Art
January 6, 2017

19 Stunning Staircases Transformed by Artists Around the World

Street art is best known as murals that cover entire walls—and sometimes even the buildings themselves. It has the incredible ability to turn the world into an outdoor gallery, but there's one surface that's often ignored: staircases. When painted, public stair art is a stunning and unexpected canvas for portraits, geometric patterns, and intricate mosaics. Each rise of a step is one fraction of a larger image.

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History
January 1, 2017

Bizarre Vintage Ads From 1910 Are Oddly Similar to Modern Marketing

The more things change, the more they seem to stay the same. There have been a myriad of cultural and technological advances made since the early 20th century, but our advertisements are still surprisingly similar. Thanks to an unearthed copy of the 1910 World Almanac, we have insight to what companies were trying to sell long ago. It turns out that weight loss, cars, and cures for baldness were all paid advertisers. Sounds familiar, doesn’t it?

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My Modern Met

Celebrating creativity and promoting a positive culture by spotlighting the best sides of humanity—from the lighthearted and fun to the thought-provoking and enlightening.