Welcome back to our second edition of the 2022 weekly top 10!
As usual, we are glad to have you all onboard with us. Our community has been expanding ever since we started, and we wanted to thank every single one of you who joined the NFT Community and followed us to Substack.
For our new members, the Weekly Top 10 is a way to showcase some of the best art we’ve seen and help artists gain visibility in the eyes of the community.
The Weekly Top 10 is curated by @KateMacDonald, an exceptional artist and writer who is deeply involved in the community.
On this note, enjoy 🔥
10. “IN STRUCTURAM AMORIS”, by @gdrtweets
There is something about the wild rose, a decadence in its heady scent and how it brandishes its reproductive organs for such a short-lived time. With IN STRUCTURAM AMORIS (“The Structure of Love”) @gdrtweets captures this flaunting, fleeting wildness in a chiaroscuro painting. The rich, almost fleshy petals, saturated with pigment, and the turning leaves gradually being enveloped in the darkness pull you closer to examine the details - and capture you fast. This is no mere painting but a dark and moody siren song designed to captivate you in the madness of the maddest love.
Click here to see the art
Click here for the Twitter post
9. “Sorceress”, by @MatMiller_art
The use of various patterns in Sorceress by @matmiller lends a signature style to its surreal swampscape. Indeed every motif is created with its own distinctive linework so that even the textures of the head, body, and tail of the cat have been individually depicted. And that swampy foreground, oh! In the most delightful artist description of the week:
“She keeps watch of the spongy green swamps
Where the waters swell with a swish and a swash!
Pass by without sound and do not disturb
For the magic she conjures is rather absurd!”
Click here to see the art
Click here for the Twitter post
8. “The kid from the hood” @LowriderTattoo
The nursing mother and child of Leonardo da Vinci’s painting Madonna Litta is the jumping-off point of The kid from the hood by @LowriderTattoo. Masterfully rendered in a pointillist tattoo style, where the Renaissance painting focused on a theme of motherhood, Little Santiago is the focus of this work. The cherub-like contentment of the original is gone, this child is street tough and wise, his curly hair wrapped in a bandana and a tear falling from behind his sunglasses as sirens and helicopters grip the night. The usual mountain - signifying the magnificence of God’s creation - has been replaced by the Hollywood Hills. Little Santiago already knows that God helps those who help themselves and he’s preparing to go the distance alone.
Click here to see the art
Click here for the Twitter post
7. “Digital Takoyaki”, by @NHeluani
It might be because I love octopus balls so much - I do - I really do! But I cannot get enough of Digital Takoyaki by @NHeluani. Revolving in a never-ending pastel palette of pure bliss, this charming video work keeps me coming back for more (just like those octopus balls)! In the artist's own words, it’s “deliciously cute”.
Click here to see the art
Click here for the Twitter post
6. “Intimidation”, by @ChelseaReede
Can you feel them? The eyes on the back of your neck, that sense that you are being watched as you move about the city, the country, the trail through the deep part of the forest. With Intimidation, @ChelseaReedeArt’s expressionist painting sends signals coursing through your amygdala, the deep blood red an alert to the threat. While your eye enters the painting at the figure in the foreground, Chelsea’s composition pulls you up and through to the blue sky - and wonderfully rendered wolf in wait. In the words of the artist:
"We can't always see the things that are meant to intimidate us, but we can sense them."
Click here to see the art
Click here for the Twitter post
5. “The Cynomad | 01 | Explore”, by @oathere
There’s an undeniable freshness to the palette and perspectives of @oathere’s CG novel series, The Cyonmad. The inventive composition and polished illustration make this a graphic novel I would pick up to admire time and again - and the artwork comes with a print copy!
Click here to see the art
Click here for the Twitter post
4. “Holy Death (Entropy)”, by @KireevArt_NFT
Holy Death (Entropy) presents @KireevArt_NFT’s interpretation of Santa Muerta, the personification (and unofficial) saint of death. Aloof she is positioned above us and our worldly concerns, her halo skeletal and at the same time decorous. While slick like fashion photography, this composed work is about the mood of the scene and not the beauty of the model that inhabits it.
Click here to see the art
Click here for the Twitter post
3. “umbrellyfish”, by @ArtDbm
Don’t be fooled by the somber colour scheme of umbrellyfish by @ArtDbm - this whimsical piece captures the singular moment of a child’s imagination. A man stands at a bus stop smoking under his umbrella - an amazing umbrella, a glowing jellyfish of an umbrella lengthening and lifting up into the air, deflating down with a tug. On first watch, you may think this is the only animated section of the scene but watch it again to see the child’s sideways gaze willing it up, watching it fall and the glance at his guardian to see if anyone else has witnessed this magic.
Click here to see the art
Click here for the Twitter post
2. “Court of Azathoth”, by @KiratiSatt
What deity, what demon could fill a page with so many dark and twisted lines as one from the imagination of HP Lovecraft - except perhaps Court of Azozoth by @KiratiSatt in homage to Lovecraft. Inspired by the Cthulhu Mythos, the drawing writhes and gyrates, its monstrous tentacles filling the page from end to end like the notebook itself might be swallowed up with primordial evil.
As quoted by the artist:
"Fear is our deepest and strongest emotion, and the one which best lends itself to the creation of nature-defying illusions."
Click here to see the art
Click here for the Twitter post
1. “January”, by @ATypicalOne2
January, the first piece in the series T.U.S.O.M. by @ATypicalOne2 will seduce you with its rich jewel tones and triangular forms, leading the viewer’s eye through its distinctive composition. Created using the principles of sacred geometry with colours relating to its designated month, it turns out that The Ultimate Symbol of Manhood … is a phallus. (Dickspo! Made you look!)
Click here to see the art
Click here for the Twitter post
Let us know which of the 10 art pieces was your favorite and why. Don't hesitate to express yourself in the comments!
Thanks to everyone that submitted - there were so many amazing works to choose from! Don’t stop creating and be sure to drop your work again next week!