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.
May 13, 2022

Popular App Will Transform Your Selfie Into an Artsy Avatar, But It Comes With a Warning

Sometimes, there's an app that is so captivating it takes the world by storm. NewProfilePic is that app of the moment, and it’s giving anyone who uses it an artsy avatar for their social media accounts. Using artificial intelligence, the technology transforms photos into stylized portraits that look like they’ve been digitally painted. The pictures even have a splashy background to suggest a hand-painted touch; it's incredible that these drawings are generated by a computer.

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May 11, 2022

Monumental Yarn Art Installations Add a Radiant Spectrum of Color Indoors and Outdoors

Artist Eric Rieger, aka HOTTEA, gathers loose threads to make monumental installations. Using seemingly countless strings, the pieces hang from ceilings and envelop the spaces they’re in with fields of vibrant hues—all of which seemingly have a mind of their own. Each thread is untethered and able to freely move with a passing breeze. The installations are a site-specific endeavor and are often informed by HOTTEA’s own experiences, memories, or associations with a place.

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