We’re big fans of French photographer Léo Caillard and more importantly his wonderful sense of humour. He’s collaborated with art director Alexis Persani on a new series called Street Stone. They’ve taken some of the world’s most celebrated sculptured masterpieces from outside the Louvre and using a little bit of Photoshop trickery from Alexis and photographic magic from Leo, they’ve reinterpreted these iconic artworks into hipster fashion icons.

A bit dark but with a funny twist, these paintings by Painter Justin Reed certainly knows his films and pop culture references. He’s the talent behind these quirky, devious and slightly sinister paintings from some of the most well-known and watch movies from the past three decades. As you’re about to see he’s immensely talented and adapt at capturing that tangible sense of emotion of the faces of his characters. And frankly, anyone who can make a blue bad-ass version of Samuel Jackson look cool, deserves a standing ovation.

The incredibly successful TV series Breaking Bad has literally taken television audiences by storm, has been consistently 5-star reviews and now is now going strong in its 5th season. The American Film Institute listed even listed it one of the top ten television series of 2010 and 2011.

These photos of bulldogs dressed as some rather dandy individuals, were taken back in 1905! Essentially before cats basically took over the world and dominated the entire Internets. Though they’ve been officially cataloged by the Library of Congress and State Historical Society of Colorado, very little is known about the origin of these rather peculiar vintage photographs or who actually took them to begin with. Mind you, we’d hazard as guess it was by a photographer who clearly loved their pets and was more than a tad eccentric.

We seriously don’t recommended you try this at home…. It’s a reoccuring theme, many of the world’s musicians, writers and artists claim that drug use has often helped fuel their creative process and with that in mind artist Bryan Lewis Saunders conducted the ultimate experiment on himself. Over 45 days, he took a different drug and whilst under the influence of that drug, he attempted to draw a self-portrait. The results are truly fascinating, highlighting the powerful effect his chemical cocktails were having on part of his brain responsible for creativity, emotion, daydreaming & sensitivity. You can read his challenging story behind the experiment right here: http://bryanlewissaunders.org/ Please note! Loljam does not support or condone the use of any kind of drug unless prescribed by a doctor as a medical necessity.

Driftwood, nothing special, if you go the beach it is a common occurrence as it lazes on the shore being washed back and forth by the incoming waves. South African artist Andries Botha has taken this simple, raw material and given it a new life, transforming it into beautiful installation piece You Can Buy My Heart and My Soul (Ungayithenga inhlizyo nomongo wami in the original Africans). The work comprises of a family of elephants and is an elegant and majestic addition to the coastline of Belgium. Andries had this to say of his incredible work. Botha worked with a team of 10 African artists who laboured over the figures to create accurate and hauntingly lifelike renditions of the creatures which from a distance could fool anyone.

Swiss visionary Felice Varini doesn’t view the world in quite the same way you and I do. Over the past 30 years, he’s become famous for establishing himself as one of the pioneers of a technique called anamorphosis. In short, he creates some truly mind-bending optical illusions that will astound and confound you. Move 1 degree out of position and what you’re looking at is nothing more than a series of colourful (yet random) shapes – move 1 degree into position and suddenly all the elements slot into place, the perfect geometric puzzle if you will.

We’ve put together 25 classic photographs that unquestionably ooze retro cool, from the stylish fashion of 1940′s right through to the hip & happening 1960′s where attitude was everything. Here’s 25 of our personal favorites inspired by these guys: http://aconversationoncool.tumblr.com/

Tim Tadder likes to dabble in the odd and slightly absurd, that’s why we’re featuring his latest photographic series Fish Heads. He photographs his subjects as they are either being swallowed into water or rising up out of it. The expressions he’s able to capture through his talent and vision are quite remarkable – veering between unsettling and amusing. He has several other wonderful projects available for you to view and enjoy via his official Behance profile. In the meantime, we hope you enjoy his compelling imagery.

We recently stumbled (or should that be tumbled?) across Tumblr artist OKTotally who follows hot in the footsteps of Kevin Weir, in creating a series of awesome animated GIFs. His subjects include various scenes from the likes of Robocop, Star Wars, Ghostbusters and Lord Of The Rings which he’s reworked into 8-bit GIF goodness! There’s even a few obscure references below – but the longer you watch them, the quick the “Ah ha!” moment will come. Enjoy and check out more of OKTotally‘s work here: http://oktotally.tumblr.com/

Despite being based in Los Angeles, Gray Malin spends little time living there. He’s been too busy flying around the world in a helicopter capture and collating images for his sublime photographic series À la plage, à la piscine,where he bravely pokes his head out of a helicopter to shoot the view below him. And what a view it is indeed. He’s photographed beaches and oceans from Central, North, South America all the way across to Europe and even Australia. If you’re thinking about going on holiday anytime soon, hopefully his work will inspire you to book those flights ASAP. Make sure you visit his official website, where you can buy prints and see more of his incredible collection. All images copyright of Gray Malin

Part hotel, part research vessel and unlike anything you’ve witnessed before – say hello to The SeaOrbiter Whilst it looks like something from the future, it’s actually currently under construction. French visionary architect Jacques Rougerie was the chief designer of the unique construction of the ship, 50% of its surface will be permenatnly underwater, to allow for deep sea exploration in the fields of marine biology, oceanography and climate issues. Even more impressive is that it’s slimline design was crafted specifically to allow it to drift with ocean currents. It’s propulsion engine is largely powered by renewable energy sources such as wave, wind and solar making the vessel incredibly eco-friendly. How much does it cost? An eye-watering $43,000,000 and it will tower 58 meters high! The question is, would you fancy a ride?

The Great City of London, known for its historical landmarks, modern skyscrapers, ancient markets and famous bridges. It’s arguably the financial capital of the world and home to over eleven thousand people. Wait, what? Eleven… thousand? That’s right: but the City of London is a different place from London – though London is also known for its historical landmarks, modern skyscrapers, ancient markets, famous bridges and is home to the government, royal family and seven million people. If look map of London crafted by a careful cartographer that map will have a one-square mile hole near the middle – it’s here where the City of London lives inside of the city named London. Confused? All is explained in this fascinating video by the very talented C.G.P. Grey

San Quentin State Prison is one place where you certainly don’t want to end up. Located in Marin County, California, United States and is in fact the oldest prison in the state (it was originally opened in 1852). Constantly featured in countless TV documentaries and referenced in films & music, the prison itself is firmly rooted in US popular culture. Even Johnny Cash and Metallica have held concerts there.

You can tell that photographer and visual artist Thomas Jackson has a tremendous amount of fun with his creations. He’s behind this series of playful digitally manipulated images, which feature swarms of everyday objects flying through the air in the most unlikely of places. He’s called it Emergent Behavior whereby he magically creates swarms out of cheese balls, Post-It notes, glow sticks and even plastic cups and then delicately edits them into his photographs. The overall effect is quite brilliant and fun and lets face it, it would be a lot more enjoyable watching his creation of a swam or Post-It notes flying at you in the middle of a forest than say a swarm of killer wasps! You can see the full range of his Thoma’s work right here, we can’t wait to see what he comes up with next!

Angie Hiesl certainly knows how to shock and awe, causing complete strangers to stop dead in their tracks and admire her art installations. That’s because her work involve placing senior citizens in white chairs and then sticking them to the side of buildings some 20ft in the air! She originally started the idea back in 1995 and now her works have been featured and see in over 14 different countries – all with hired local actors. They do all have one thing in common though, they are all aged 60+ and their entire remit is to sit in the chair and carry on doing whatever it is they would normally do at home – doing some knitting, reading a book or having a smoke. The latest country to experience her work was Montreal in Canada as part of the Festival Transamerique At the bottom of the post we’ve also included a clip showcasing the publics reaction to her wonderfully fun and humourous work. You can keep up to date with her next shows via her website: http://www.angiehiesl.de/eng/index.php

Gloriously photographed right? Glorious yes. Photograph no. It’s actually a hand-draw portrait, which took artist Samuel Silva 30 hours to complete. It’s based on this image originally taken by Russian photographer Kristina Tararina - not that you can really tell the difference… What’s even more unbelievable is that Samuel he considers drawing as just a “hobby” (he’s actually an attorney in Portugal.) but on this evidence maybe he should switch profession? Check out his work here: http://vianaarts.deviantart.com/

We always thought the Japanese were more than a little kooky in with their fashion, but it seems the Chinese are catching up with the launch of the “Facekini” – and yes, it’s as bad as it sounds. Now you can hit the beach, looking like a cross between a serial killer, Mexican-wrestler, holiday Gimp and bank robber, safe in the knowledge that your skin will be protected from harmful UV rays. How many items of clothing can lay claim to giving you 4 different styles AND sun protection? The “Facekini” are a relatively a new (fashion?) trend, having first been noticed on the beaches of Qingdao a few weeks ago. For those of you who are fans of the look, you’ll be please to know that the “Facekini” comes in a wide selection of colours. Some sellers have made the bold claim that orange coloured “Facekini’s” in particular keep Jellyfish Stingers and Sharks at bay because “orange is the colour they fear the most” Will we all be wearing them soon? Not likely. After all, imagine what you look like when you take it off. White skin and perfect dark tan / burn marks around your eyes – not the most welcoming of looks. Personally, we can’t figure out why they don’t just use parasols and sunscreen, but each to his own.

If you haven’t already guessed, we’re huge fans of the humble “Animated GIF” it’s recent revival and reinterpretation as a form of art, has lead to some seriously ingenious and other worldly uses. Like bringing 22 Of Your Favourite Album Covers To Life, recreating Famous Scenes From Sci-Fi & Fantasy Films and even coming together to form a music video. Don’t even get us started on these 24 cinemagraphs featuring the work of Stanley Kubrick. So you can imagine how excited we were, when we stumbled across a Tumblr photo blog called “40Licks” (clearly the artist is a Rolling Stones fan) and saw they’d been creating and sharing some really mind-blowing animated GIFs. But perhaps best of all and in the spirit of making something new out of something that already exists, you can even upload your own image and ask them to create a GIF for you. Now THAT is seriously cool. Here’s a few of our personal favs from their collection, but head over to the 40Licks Tumblr account for even more eye-candy goodness.

Advertising agency TBWA have created a new campaign titled Piracy, which aims to showcase that some of the world’s most iconic and best loved musicians, were robbed of their on-going success due to music piracy. It’s slightly strange that as part of the campaign, they’ve chosen the likes of Jim Morrison, Bob Marley, James Brown, Michael Jackson, Jimi Hendrix, Elvis and Freddie Mercury, artist whom were arguabley the most successful in an era before file-sharing and global music piracy even existed.

Lest we forget those corporate power ties & shoulder pads, the hundreds of unintentionally funny movies, all those hair metal bands parading about and finally the inevitable rise of the home computer and video games. (Here’s one of my personal favourite moments from the 80s.) But above all, one thing that even today instantly identifies the 80′s, is it’s artwork. It was an era whereby artists created some of the most bizarre, controversial and odd forms of art mankind has ever seen. Even today it’ll leave you scratching your head.

Greek illustrator Charis Tsevis is fast becoming one of the most sought after visual designers in the world. He’s already won several awards for his quite brilliant portraits created using the “macro image” effect – whereby he uses a vast range of visuals (hundreds and thousands) and combines them to format a single image / portrait of the individual. A digital mosaic if you will. And the end results (as you’re about to see) are often jaw-dropping. He has his own studio Tsevis Visual Design and when he’s not creating artwork for some the world’s most well-known and respected brands, he also teaches Editorial Design as a professor at AKTO College of Art and Design. He very generously create a showcase of his work from 2011-2012, sharing on via his official Behance profile, we selected a few of our personal favorites to share with you below. But you can can see the full range of his extraordinary work right here: http://www.behance.net/gallery/Editorial-Illustrations-2011-2012/4224749 Do let us know which ones you enjoy the most!

Being a biker is a pretty cool pastime, cruising along the highway at breakneck speed, not a care in the world, with a Harley Davidson / Chopper underneath powering you on your journey of freedom and discovery. Bikers have always been a pretty creative bunch, from their unique tattoos through to their custom logos and insignia which identifies the community / gang they belong to. Recently 21 world-renowned artists were asked to custom design a series of Bell helmets with whichever illustration / concept they wanted. As you’re about to see, these unique designs are the perfect combination of attitude and style – the very core of being a biker.

The saying goes that “ones man’s trash, is another man’s treasure” and there’s no better example of this than the work of street artist My Dog Sighs. Taking discarded cans & tins that he finds in the street, he then sets about turning them into little characters each with their own disctinct personality and unique look. From the happy to the sad, from the angry to the cheeky each can’s facial expressions are created as an individual peice of art. We think his work is certainly a lot of fun and who knows, maybe in the future he’ll expand his playfulness & bring life back to other objects that the man in the street has tired of.

Freaked out yet? You will be. French electro sex pop act Apoplexy (we’re not making that up, that’s actually how they describe themselves) who in truth we know very little about, have just released one of the coolest music videos of the year. It’s called ‘Pimpon’ from their new record ‘Après Minuit, and whilst the music is certainly an acquired taste, the visionary work of director Rémy GENTE makes it all worthwhile. We won’t ruin it for you by giving the game away, so just sit back watch and immerse yourself in some of the coolest visuals you’ve seen in a music video in a long long time.

The incredibly imaginative & intricate work of Kris Kusi is sure to give you more than few nightmares. By bending, shaping and contorting, Kusi creates these dramatic & macabre scenes of horror, death, temptation and hell. Whether you find them creepy or not, you can’t deny the talent & skill on display in his work. Just make sure you’re not wandering around the museum at night looking at it, it may just come alive….

Located in a ginormous art-deco building, it comes complete with an arcade room, rooftop garden, massive gourmet cafeteria (called @BirdFeed) and even a yoga / meditation room. You have to ask the question, would it be possible to do any work in a place as cool as this? And also, as a side note, did you know the name of the Twitter bird is “Larry?” (we didn’t either!)

The Vader Project is a re-imagining of the iconic Darth Vader helmet, painted & illustrated by 100 of the world’s leading pop culture artists, showcased through 8 exhibitions, toured across 3 countries and finally captured in 1 beautiful full-colour catalog. It’s the brainchild of Dov Kelemer and Sarah Jo Marks of DKE Toys (one of the largest designer vinyl and art-toy distributors in the world). Each independent artist was given a replica blank vinyl Darth Vader helmet to customize and illustrate as they wished. We’ve picked out a few of our favorites from the series.

The work of Spanish artist Pedro Campos, will certainly make you look twice. He’s the incredibly talented individual behind these frankly stunning photo-realistic paintings of everyday household items. So good is his work, that they actually look like high-end photographs – but in reality, they’ve been created using a humble paintbrush and several dabs of oil paint. The level of skill, patience and technique needed to create these would surely be applauded by the likes of Johannes Vermeer & Michelangelo. You can see more of Pedro’s phenomenal work via his official website: http://www.pedrocampos.net/

In an age where prescription pills are handed out like candy as a quick-fire solution to every problem and where every child is pumped full of antibiotics, you have to wonder have we become too dependant on our miracle pills? That’s the context of an interest question posted by British photographer Valerio Loi, who takes this theory to the next level. Imagine if human emotions & feelings could be prescribed over the counter just as easily. Need a sharp jolt of joy in your life? All yours over the counter. It’s an interesting idea and you have to ask yourself, if you could literally capture emotions in a single drop, would you keep some at home int he bathroom cabinet?

The UN Conference on Sustainable Development is currently taking place in Rio Brazil and to celebrate its arrival, two frankly enormous fish sculptures were created and placed on Botafogo beach (one of the most famous) in Rio. Not only do they look spectacular but they are actually made entirely out of unwanted plastic bottles. Recycling as art as it were. We love them, wouldn’t it be great if more councils and governments were equally as creative? Experience more from Rio via this fantastic Rio+20 Flicker set.

This is Spencer West. There aren’t many people in the world like him. At age 5 he tragically lost both his legs, with doctors assuring him that he would never be able to walk or lead an active life again. But the Canadian-born 31 year old has defied all the odds, knocking down every barrier and obstacle in his way. With the support of his family & friends and through sheer willpower, Spencer has proved the doubters wrong by achieving the impossible. He climbed Mt. Kilimanjaro. He spent over 12 months in intensive training, making sure his arms and hands were strong enough to support the extreme physical pressure they’d be put under. It took him a grueling 7 days to make it to the summit, he traveled only using his hands for a stunning 80% of the trek and with his two best friends by his side willing him on – he helped raise an incredible £300,000 for the Free the Children charity. Through sheer drive, determination and perseverance Spencer West as shown the world that anything is possible and in doing so, he truly is an inspiration to us all.

Illustrator and artist Diana Beltran Herrera, is surely one of the most patient and ingenious origami artists out there. She’s the creative mastermind behind these cute and vibrant paper animals and birds. They’re reminiscent of those wonderful children’s pop-up books, designed to entertain and capture the imagination. We think she’s succeeded.

Peter Chinn is changing the way we view life and our understanding of birth with his use of 3D ultrasound scans, nano cameras and computer graphics. He’s the producer of National Geographic’s “Extraordinary Animals in the Womb”. series whereby he looks at the growth and development of embryonic animals from the date of conception, until birth. It’s photographs from that show which we’re featuring below. We think they’re startling, magical and jaw-droppingly beautiful in equal amounts. Really does make you realise how small & fragile life truly is.

We’ve tracked down 5 of the greatest movie mash-ups out there on the interwebs for your viewing pleasure. You wouldn’t think it would work, but it does – spectacularly. Out of these 5 movie mash-ups, we honestly can’t pick our favourite, although the visuals of Toy Story mixed up with the dialogue from True Grit is hard to beat. Do let us know which combination you thought worked the best and which one you enjoyed the most!