Posts by Sara Barnes

Sara Barnes

Sara Barnes is a Staff Editor at My Modern Met and Manager of My Modern Met Store. She is a graduate of the Maryland Institute College of Art where she earned her BFA in Illustration and MFA in Illustration Practice. Sara is also an embroidery illustrator and writer living in Seattle, Washington. She runs Bear&Bean, a studio where she stitches pet portraits and other beloved creatures. She chronicles the creativity of others through her website Brown Paper Bag and newsletter, Orts. Her latest book is Threads of Treasure: How to Make, Mend, and Find Meaning Through Thread, published in 2014. Sara’s work has been recognized in Be Creative With Workbox, Embroidery Magazine, American Illustration, on Iron and Wine’s album Beast Epic, among others. When she’s not stitching or writing, Sara enjoys planning things that bring together the craft community. She is the co-founder of Camp Craftaway, a day camp for crafty adults with hands-on workshops in the Seattle area.
June 15, 2015

Alluring Watercolor Paintings Prove that Eyes are Windows to the Soul

There's a classic saying that “the eyes are the windows to the soul,” and Spanish artist Jone Bengoa conveys this sentiment perfectly in her alluring paintings. The 19-year-old creates realistic watercolor portraits where a set of pupils and eyebrows are the only things visible on a stark white page. Devoid of other facial features, Bengoa's artworks are intense. Although minimal in composition, they express an incredible amount of emotion.

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June 10, 2015

Simple Paper Folds Create Fantastic Illusions of Drawings Brought to Life

By simply folding, wrinkling, or curling a sheet of paper, Copenhagen-based illustrator HuskMitNavn is able to create delightfully amusing scenes. His bold, black and white drawings depict a cartoonish set of characters that are brought to life through strategically-positioned paper edges coupled with brilliantly maneuvered perspectives. He produces the fantastic illusion that these two-dimensional illustrations have suddenly sprung to life.

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June 7, 2015

Amusingly Mischievous Murals Cleverly Interact with the Streets

Italian street artist Caiffa Cosimo, also known as Cheone, creates eye-catching street art featuring optical illusions. The larger-than-life paintings cleverly interact with their surrounding environment in an amusing and mischievous way. Cheone's characters are seen dumping out a can of paint, doodling on the street, and rolling crosswalk lines onto the pavement. In one scene, the subject really comes alive and grabs the shirt of a passerby.

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May 20, 2015

Mesmerizing Video Highlights 100 Years of Changing Filipina Beauty

The Cut is back with their latest installment in a fascinating video series called 100 Years of Beauty. In it, they manage to condense a century-worth of female beauty, hairstyle, and trends into about a minute. The episodes take us around the globe, and so far, we've been to places like the United States, Mexico, and Iran, as well as North and South Korea. This newest video explores decades of beauty standards in the Philippines.

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