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How a ceramic artist's unusual tools built a community of 180,000 people


How an artist transforms Bubble Wrap into an impressionist painting

A new website lets you design custom maps of anywhere in the world — and the results are undeniably cool

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The Insider Picks team writes about stuff we think you'll like. Business Insider has affiliate partnerships, so we get a share of the revenue from your purchase.

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  • Grafomap is a website that lets you design custom map posters of any place in the world.
  • You can make one of your hometown, your college town, your favorite travel destination, or the place where you got engaged or married — you're only limited by your imagination.
  • I made a poster of my favorite vacation spot, and the finished product is undeniably cool. 
  • The design process was super straightforward... and a lot of fun.
  • Custom map posters start at just $49. Now through the end of 2018, you can save 50% on all canvas map posters with the code "canvas50off".

I've lived in my current apartment for six months, and I still have yet to find wall art my partner and I both like enough to hang in it.

We're picky about what we should hang on our walls. Neither of us wants to decorate our space with Van Gogh reproductions and movie posters. Like a lot of people, we want to decorate it with wall art and photos that mean something to us.

Recently, I stumbled across an answer to our problem in the form of a website called Grafomap that lets you design map posters of any place in the world.

You can make one of your hometown, your college town, your favorite travel destination, or the place where you got engaged or married — you're only limited by your imagination.

Once you enter your desired location, Grafomap takes you to its poster editor where you can further customize your location down the exact address or coordinates. After that, you can continue personalizing your map by adjusting, panning, and zooming the map exactly to your liking, adding or removing text, and selecting the finish (paper, framed, or canvas), orientation, and size. Additionally, Grafomap has nine unique color themes to choose from (including Noir, Bourbon, Minimal, and Modern) that transform your map from just an ordinary map into a work of art you'll love displaying in your home.

My custom map poster of Sint Maarten took all of five minutes to create, and the finished product is undeniably cool. It's also very affordable. An 18"x24" print sets you back $49. If you want to get something a little bigger and that's ready to hang right out of the box it's shipped in, you can get a 24"x36" framed print for $168. (Full disclosure: I got to try the service for free.)

Learn more about how Grafomap's custom poster editor works below. And try it out for yourself here.

SEE ALSO: All of Insider Picks' holiday gift guides, in one place

Start by selecting a location for your map poster. I chose Sint Maarten since my partner and I have been vacationing there together for years.



Once you enter your desired location, Grafomap takes you to its poster editor where you can continue personalizing your map by adjusting, panning, and zooming the map to your liking, adding or removing text, and selecting the size, frame, and orientation.

Grafomap's uses OpenStreetMap (OSM) open source geodata database to generate maps and Mapbox design filters to add a design on top of OSM data. This Mapbox service was developed for companies like AirBnB and Uber, but Grafomap is the first company to repurpose this tool for art.



I most enjoyed toggling between color themes. My favorites were Wheatpaste, Modern, and Carbon.



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These 3D illusions made from just pencil and paper will confuse your senses

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Optical illusion Howard Lee

  • Howard Lee is a popular artist known for his hyperrealistic depictions of everyday objects. 
  • Now he is creating simpler illusions using just pencil and paper. 
  • Although simple, there is a mystery to how he pulls off each illusion. 

After seriously confusing the internet with his hyperrealistic drawings of everyday objects, artist Howard Lee is back with much simpler — but equally mind-bending — illusions. 

The British artist has taken a more minimalist approach to his latest works, using just a pencil and paper to make two-dimensional illusions come to life. These brainteasers seem to leap off the page, proving once again that you can't always believe what you see. 

INSIDER spoke to Lee about his latest project to learn a bit more about how it works. 

Read more: This artist creates incredible optical illusions using nothing but humans and body paint that will make you do a double take

He said the purpose of these new illusions is to "provoke questioning and discussion." And that's just what he did when he turned a piece of paper into a descending staircase. Take a look. 

A post shared by Howard Lee (@howard__lee) on

In the video, Lee purposefully shows how he made the paper into a staircase but does not explain how the ball disappears into the paper. 

"Some people are sure they know exactly how it's done and they just enjoy it, some people can't really decide what's going on," he said. "Just as a magician I'd like to leave it for people to make their own minds up."

He doesn't explain how the ball disappears into this paper's black hole, either. 

A post shared by Howard Lee (@howard__lee) on

He does explain, though, that his illusions are a combination of two principles. 

A post shared by Howard Lee (@howard__lee) on

"Some artists draw anamorphic perspective tricks and others conjure up a sort of video magic," he said. "I guess I just decided to combine the two."

The floating ball illusion is a great example of how he uses perspective to trick audiences. 

A post shared by Howard Lee (@howard__lee) on

While it may be confusing for the internet, Lee said the illusions actually quite simple to make — especially compared to his "which is real" drawings. 

"The beauty of these is that the drawing is so simple," he said. "Sometimes that element only takes 15 minutes or so. However, developing the concept, filming, and putting it all together does take longer."

The concept for the hand illusion, for example, took a great deal of time to conceptualize. 

A post shared by Howard Lee (@howard__lee) on

Although he's fairly new to this type of artistry, it doesn't stop him from defying dimensions — like this matchbox car drawing. 

A post shared by Howard Lee (@howard__lee) on

"I'd been looking to vary my online content for some time, and this seemed to make sense published alongside the work that my audience has come to expect," he told INSIDER. 

While he is doing what is expected of him, each new piece still has an element of surprise for the audience. 

A post shared by Howard Lee (@howard__lee) on

"You shouldn't trust your eyes, nor can you really believe what you see online," Lee said. "Very little is really as it seems."

Visit INSIDER's homepage for more.

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How an artist makes paint swirls look like microorganisms

A UK-based artist makes wearable sculptures that are walking pieces of art

How Pokémon were transformed into lifelike creatures for 'Detective Pikachu'

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  • Pokémon fans are getting excited for the upcoming movie, "Detective Pikachu," and they can thank RJ Palmer for bringing the animated characters to life. 
  • Years ago, Palmer designed a series of realistic-looking Pokémon on DeviantArt, which were popular with fans of the series. 
  • The film's production designer discovered Palmer's work online and asked him if he wanted to work on the film. Watch the video above to see how he transformed the creatures you'll see on screen in 2019.

Narrator: The Pokémon in "Detective Pikachu" have a new look, and they've never seemed more real or terrifying. That's in large part thanks to this guy.

RJ Palmer: I'm RJ Palmer, I'm a concept artist at Ubisoft, I draw creatures and monsters, and I worked on "Detective Pikachu."

Narrator: He started drawing when he was just three years old. He continued to hone his craft at the San Francisco Academy of Art. Then in 2012, his drawings for an amateur fan art project gained so much attention on the internet, it ultimately landed him a job on the new Pokémon film.

RJ: So I started drawing a shark dinosaur, and that turned into the Pokémon Garchomp, and people really, really responded to it, so I kept drawing more.

Narrator: RJ used real animals as inspiration.

RJ: The natural world is so inspiring, and I think pulling from that, as much as possible, is really cool.

Narrator: For example, Mewtwo was a combination of several creatures.

RJ: Kangaroo, and a little bit of rhino, and hairless cat, and some barn owl.

Narrator: For Charizard, he focused on different lizards.

RJ: So I looked at a lot of monitor lizards and brought qualities of crocodilians in there that I liked, as well.

Narrator: Surprisingly enough, RJ's main tools for designing his realistic Pokémon were simply a Wacom tablet and Photoshop.

RJ: And I've got a second monitor up, so I can have all my references.

Narrator: Ultimately, it was the amount of time and effort RJ poured into the project that made his Pokémon come to life. RJ researched every animal he used for inspiration, and in the end, each Pokémon he created took 30 or more hours to complete.

RJ: The one that took the longest to make is Tyrantrum. Tyrantrum is my favorite Pokémon.

Narrator: He posted them on the popular fan art community site, DeviantArt, and his work won over fans on the internet. It also got the attention of the production designer of "Detective Pikachu."

RJ: He gives me a call, and he's like, "Would you like to work on the Pokémon movie?" And I'm in shock, it was amazing. I've always been really into Pokémon as just a franchise, because I think it's really fun and creative.

Narrator: He moved to LA and worked on the film for seven months, doing concept art for characters and the environments. He helped come up with the initial designs for the Pokémon.

RJ: And then it gets given to all sorts of crazy effects houses.

Narrator: While his Pokémon on DeviantArt are more realistic, the ones he designed for the film had to be a bit more traditional.

RJ: So working on the movie, they had to get more in line with the cartoon aesthetic, I think. You do a design, and the people have opinions, and then you do another design, and they also still have opinions, and so it's a constant back and forth, trying to make one person happy, which is going to make somebody else unhappy, and you have to try and find a middle ground that's going to work for people.

Narrator: Pikachu, as the star of the film and franchise, took a while to nail down and get right.

Pikachu: Pika pika!

Woman: Yeah, pika pika pika, he's adorable!

RJ: Pikachu's one of the most well known cartoon characters ever, right?

Narrator: Despite speaking English and being a bit more furry than the cartoon, the Pikachu in the film is different from his realistic design.

RJ: I based him on rodents and lagomorphs. Lagomorphs are like rabbits, just like small, woodland critters.

Narrator: But it was Mr. Mime that really grabbed the internet's attention. Since his debut in the trailer, he's become a meme.

RJ: Mr. Mime was always going to be weird, right? 'Cause what do you make that thing? When I did my realistic version of it, I made it a frog, because it can be so many weird things. I think a detail that I didn't know they were going to go for, but the little shoulder pauldrons actually look like kickballs. I thought that was a pretty fun idea. And the Jigglypuff I like. In the Pokédex entry, they talk about it having a balloon-like skin texture, which would probably be pretty creepy in real life.

Narrator: So they made it more furry with a curly wisp of hair. In the end though, it's the fans who have the final say.

RJ: Everybody has their own idea of what Pokémon is, and I've certainly encountered that working on my own stuff. I've had some very divisive takes on certain Pokémon. So I knew that was going to be a problem going into the movie, and so far, at least, the response to the trailer, at least from the circles that I've seen, seem pretty positive.

Join the conversation about this story »

How this artist crafts Hobbit-inspired woodland mugs


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A teenager smashed rare Mayan and Chinese art at the Denver Art Museum, police say

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denver art museum

  • Eighteen-year-old Jake Siebenlist was arrested at the Denver Art Museum for criminal mischief after vandalizing several pieces of art.
  • According to officials, Siebenlist was "not in a state of mind that was reasonable."
  • Some of the damaged pieces include a Mayan vessel with a deity on a bird, a Chinese vase with phoenixes, and a Moche portrait bottle.

A bizarre vandalism incident at the Denver Art Museum saw 10 artworks damaged over the weekend, as a visitor went on a rampage Sunday afternoon, smashing sculptures including a 19th-century Qing dynasty Chinese vase and a Pre-Columbian Mayan vessel. They were all part of the exhibition “Stampede: Animals in Art,” comparing how animals have been depicted in art across different cultures over the centuries.

“Affected objects are being evaluated by the Denver Art Museum’s art conservation staff, and details about repairs are not yet available,” the museum said in an email to artnet News. “A single gallery space in ‘Stampede’ will continue to be closed for reinstallation for the next few days.”

It is unclear what set off the perpetrator, Jake Siebenlist, 18, who “was observed by several witnesses and security causing extensive damage to various art sculptures, artifacts and paintings on the fourth floor,” according to the police report (as provided by Westword). “Security at the scene tried to gain control of Siebenlist who pushed the museum patrons out of his path, making his way towards other art sculptures and paintings.”

beware of cranes sculpture

After being tackled and subdued by guards, Siebenlist was arrested at the museum and charged with criminal mischief, a felony offense. The incident was captured on surveillance tape, and the museum has turned the footage over to law enforcement. No other visitors were involved in the vandalism, and no one was injured.

“He was very aggravated and, obviously, not in a state of mind that was reasonable,” said Christoph Heinrich, the director of the museum, at a press conference, as reported by the New York Times. “This is a totally unreasonable, weird thing,” he added, noting that it was without precedent both for the museum and in his career.

The museum has not released an estimated value for the damaged artworks. “Every object for us has a cultural value that is enormous,” Heinrich told the Associated Press. “Our conservators are stellar and I am very confident that they will be able to conserve and restore hopefully most of the objects.”

Among the 300 objects on view in “Stampede” are works by famous artists such as Georgia O’Keeffe, Deborah Butterfield, and Frederic Remington. None of these appear to have been damaged.

Read more: Banksy posted a video showing what should really have happened to his self-shredding painting

vessel with deity riding on bird

Here is the full list of the damaged artworks:

  • Wolf Headdress Mask
  • Raven Rattle Tlingit
  • Jain-Style Figurine
  • Moche Portrait Bottle
  • Chinese Vase with Phoenixes
  • Moche Rattle Bowl
  • Mayan Fish-Shaped Vessel
  • Mayan Vessel with God on Bird
  • Chinese Initiator Sculpture
  • Beware of Cranes Sculpture

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NOW WATCH: Here's how easy it is for the US president to launch a nuclear weapon

Meet Ariana Grande's body paint artist for the 'God is a woman' music video

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  • Alexa Meade makes people look like paintings.  
  • Her work has been featured all over the world.
  • She has even painted Ariana Grande.

 

Alexa Meade is an artist who specializes in making humans look like two-dimensional paintings.

Her work is based around tricking people's perceptions using paints to create "shadows."

Watch the video to see how she does it.

Produced by Amanda Villa-Lobos

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INSIDER is hiring a paid writing intern for art videos

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INSIDER is hiring a paid social video writing intern to join our expanding social video team.

The position involves working closely with video editors to craft amazing stories told through video on our social media platforms. Specifically, this intern will focus on the Art Insidersocial brand, one of many under Insider, Inc.

We're looking to tell engaging stories that are both visually arresting and interesting to an audience that cares and knows about business topics.

Topics include:

  • Artists that are masters of their craft 
  • Unique art that uses lesser-known techniques 
  • Visually engaging or transforming art 
  • Art experiences 

Some examples:

A painter who uses bubble wrap as a canvas

A family that makes authentic 'Game of Thrones' coins

Man Has Been Restoring Stained Glass for 41 Years

The position includes pitching story ideas, researching, and writing scripts to accompany the video.

At INSIDER, our motto is "Life is an adventure." We tell stories for, about, and by people who seize life. INSIDER is distributed across social media, including Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat, and YouTube, as well as on our website.

If this sounds like your dream job, APPLY HERE with a resume and cover letter telling us why you're a fit for INSIDER and detailing your interest in Art Insider content.

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NOW WATCH: I'm a diehard iPhone user who switched to Android for a week — here's what I loved and hated about the Google Pixel 3 XL

This artist transforms real people into Disney-like cartoons, and the results are unreal

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bbgrl

  • Joaslin transforms photographs of real people into Disney-like characters.
  • She achieves her glossy, computerized style with the assistance of a digital tablet and Photoshop.
  • Through her transformations, Joaslin aims for "unique colors" and uses a style that she has been developing for years.

Joaslin is a Madagascar-born, French artist who specializes in Disney-like, computerized transformations of real people. 

She shares her artwork on Instagram, where she has amassed almost 40,000 followers, and often shares snippets of the technique she uses to achieve her style.

Keep scrolling to see some of Joaslin's most amazing works, including a custom-made transformation of me. 

Joaslin is a Madagascar-born, France-based artist who specializes in turning people into cartoon characters.

This Instagram post's captions said, "This painting was made on a single layer! It was challenging to do and thanks to it I found out that there are some tricks to make you paint much faster!" 



Her style is distinctly glossy, and she uses a digital tablet and Photoshop to achieve this look.

To see just how Joaslin does it, check out her how-to videos on Linktree.



Joaslin has been developing her style for years.

This portrait is actually animated



See the rest of the story at Business Insider

An artist is New York paints psychedelic rainbow pet portraits


15 fun and whimsical gifts from The Metropolitan Museum of Art — that should still arrive in time for Christmas

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The Insider Picks team writes about stuff we think you'll like. Business Insider has affiliate partnerships, so we get a share of the revenue from your purchase.

unicorn ornament

Buying gifts for the artsy-fartsy souls in our lives can be a mystifying experience. They're impossible to buy clothes for, and the run of the mill gift card or Kindle is far too pedestrian.

But thank goodness, The Metropolitan Museum of Art is, as always, at your service and to the rescue. And, until 1 p.m. EST on December 20th, The Met is offering an upgrade to two-business-day shipping for just $1, guaranteeing (as best they can) that Kris Kringle has just enough time to shoot down the chimney and slide these gifts under the tree. If you're anything like me, that should come as a tremendous relief.

We've rounded up gifts for all age groups, tastes, and interests, so rest easy, my Philistine (and otherwise lost) friends, we (and The Met) are here for you.

Below, you'll find 15 of the best gifts you can buy from The Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Looking for more gift ideas? Check out all of Insider Picks' holiday gift guides for 2018 here.

A unicorn ornament from The Unicorn Tapestries

Unicorn Ornament, $28 (member price: $25.20)

This ornament features The Unicorn in Captivity from the famous medieval Unicorn Tapestries hanging at The Met Cloisters.



A coffee table book of David Hockney's delightful works

David Hockney, $40 (member price: $36)

David Hockney has graced us with decades of delightful illustrations. It's about time we all have a book of them.



A tea-infusing mug littered with Steinlen cats

Steinlen Cats Covered Mug with Tea Infuser, $20 (Member price: $18)

Understated yet elegant, and a very safe bet. Plus, there are cats! All art lovers and artistes alike love cats, right?



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Archaeologists figured out that some of the world's oldest cave drawings don't just depict animals — they're constellations of stars

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bull cave painting

  • Researchers have discovered that ancient cave paintings in Europe depict star constellations and were used to keep track of astronomical events.
  • Archaeologists believe the artwork shows that humans had a complex understanding of time and space thousands of years before the ancient Greeks, who are credited with the first studies of astronomy.
  • Other artifacts, like a pillar from Turkey's Gobekli Tepe and Germany's Lion-Man of Hohlenstein-Stadel Cave, are also believed to have celestial meaning.

Many historians credit ancient Greek scholars like Plato and Aristotle for advancing the field of modern astronomy. But researchers in Europe now believe that humans living thousands of years before the ancient Greeks already had a nuanced understanding of the stars.

After studying previously known cave paintings depicting animals across Spain, France, Turkey, and Germany, two researchers realized the illustrations weren't just drawings of nearby wildlife. The art, which includes drawings of bulls, rams, leopards, scorpions, and fish, actually represents constellations of stars in the night sky, they said.

Martin Sweatman and Alistair Coombs from the Universities of Edinburgh and Kent published their findings in the Athens Journal of History last month. For their research, the team analyzed the chemical makeup of the paint used in cave drawings and dated the art back 12,000 to 40,000 years. Then they used advanced software to calculate where stars were positioned at the times the art was created.

After comparing the two sets of data, they figured out that many of the cave paintings mark the dates of significant comet sightings, and were correlated with star constellations that were visible at those times. 

Carvings on a previously known ancient sculpture also represented constellations

lascaux shaft scene cave painting

A particularly notable cave painting that the researchers studied was southern France's Lascaux Shaft Scene. The cave's illustration features a dying man and various animals. Sweatman and Coombs believe it symbolizes a comet strike that occurred around 15,200 BCE. The Lascaux cave's rhinoceros imagery signifies the current-day constellation Taurus, they think, while the cave's horse illustration symbolizes the stars making up the Leo constellation.

The two researchers decided to analyze the celestial significance of this and other cave paintings after confirming that a pillar in Turkey's Gobekli Tepe archaeological site represented a catastrophic comet strike from around 11,000 BCE.

Gobekli Tepe pillar turkey

That pillar has etched designs of a scorpion, bear, and bird. The researchers radiocarbon-dated those carvings to find their exact age, and determined that the animal symbols represent constellations that were in view when the carvings were created. Specifically, the carvings represented what we now consider to be the constellations Scorpius, Virgo, and Pisces. 

Read more: NASA came up with 21 new constellations — including Albert Einstein, Godzilla, and the Starship Enterprise

The ancient people who created this art were tracking time long before the ancient Greeks

The archaeologists believe that humans from up to 40,000 years ago used this art as a way to keep track of time. By noting the star constellations seen on certain dates, the ancient people also showed an understanding of the equinoxes, which occur due to the gradual shift of Earth's rotational axis on its orbital path.

Greek astronomer Hipparchus is credited with discovering the science of equinoxes around 129 BC. But the new research suggests that the phenomenon was understood long before the ancient Greeks.

"Early cave art shows that people had advanced knowledge of the night sky within the last ice age. Intellectually, they were hardly any different to us today," Sweatman said in a press release.

The painting in Lascaux, France, as well as other prehistoric art cited in the study, also suggested that other ancient relics were used for time-taking. The Lion-Man of Hohlenstein-Stadel Cave, the oldest known sculpture, dates back to 38,000 BCE. It is now believed to symbolize the star constellation Leo.

lion man statue

Sweatman said in the release that this new understanding of ancient people's sophisticated astronomical knowledge "will probably revolutionize how prehistoric populations are seen."

Visit INSIDER's homepage for more.

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NOW WATCH: Try to spot the constellations in this stunning time-lapse of the Milky Way

An artist from Belgium creates shadow art using everyday objects

Banksy's latest creation depicts a kid licking ash out of the air, and it calls attention to a global health crisis

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banksy port talbot garage air pollution

  • Celebrated street artist Banksy is out with a new work, called "Season's Greetings," which is located in Port Talbot, Wales.
  • From one side of the building, the image appears to show a child licking snowflakes out of the air.
  • But turn the corner, and you realize that the kid is actually ingesting ash from a dumpster fire.
  • The image draws attention to a painful truth: More than 90% of the world's people are breathing polluted air, which can be deadly. The citizens of Port Talbot inhale some of the worst air in the UK. 

Banksy is sending the world a chilling holiday card.

The reclusive street artist is taking credit for a spray-painted work that went up on a cinder-block garage in the Welsh town of Port Talbot earlier this week. Banksy released a video of the piece on Instagram captioned only "Season's greetings." 

The image uses the corner of the garage to convey a striking message. When seen from just one side of the building, the art appears to show a child catching snowflakes on his tongue. But if you turn the corner, it becomes clear that the snow is actually ash from a dumpster fire — which the kid is shown ingesting.

Banksy's video (embedded below) zooms out from the artwork, revealing its particular geographical relevance: Port Talbot Steelworks, the largest steel plant in the UK, employs roughly 10% of the town's population.

. . . . Season’s greetings . . .

A post shared by Banksy (@banksy) on Dec 19, 2018 at 6:53am PST on

 

Steel plants create ultrafine pollution particles, which can lead to higher-than-usual concentrations of sulfur dioxide, nitrogen dioxide, and carbon monoxide in the air. Studiesshow that people living near steel plants can suffer serious consequences, including higher resting heart rates and elevated blood pressures.

On Thursday, 55-year-old Gary Owen, a resident of the port town, told the BBC that he messaged Banksy in August to ask the artist to "do some art" for Port Talbot.

"The steel works is making lots of dust every day and the locals are sick of it," he wrote in a message to Banksy on Instagram.  

That note never received a reply, but Owen thinks it's not a coincidence that four months later, the artist's first display in Wales popped up in his hometown

Earlier this year, Port Talbot made news when the steel plant covered homes, pets, and children playing outdoors in a thick coat of black dust during a July heatwave, WalesOnline reported. 

"If I open the windows I've got to accept my furniture and window sills will get thick black dust all over them," local mother Kayleigh Humphries told the news outlet.

She said her family suffers the long-term consequences of living close to Port Talbot Steelworks. 

"Myself and my daughters suffer with respiratory issues. We recently went abroad, and I didn't even need inhalers or tablets," Humphries said. "But as soon as we get home we have chest infections straight away."

The World Health Organization (WHO) maintains a worldwide air-quality database, and Port Talbot is near the top of the list of cities with the worst particulate-matter pollution in the UK. 

But bad air isn't just a problem for Humphries, Owen, and other Port Talbot residents. Nine in 10 people around the world are breathing polluted air right now. Air pollution kills 4.2 million people every year, according to WHO.

Put another way, environmental contamination — chiefly from air pollution — accounts for more deaths than wars, obesity, smoking, and malnutrition. 

Read More: Pollution is killing more people than wars, obesity, smoking, and malnutrition

Air pollution can also impact the way children's brains develop, lead to cognitive decline in older adults, and prompt asthma, lung disease, and allergies. 

banksy season's greetings wales

The majority of air pollution comes from fuel burning, which "accounts for 85% of airborne particulate pollution and for almost all pollution by oxides of sulphur and nitrogen," according to a 2017 Lancet report

There are ways to mitigate pollution. In the US, aggregate emissions of six of the most common air pollutants have dropped 73% since 1970, the year the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) was founded, and the country's GDP has increased.

But there's still more work to do. In 2014, the EPA estimated that between 50,000 and 120,000 people in the US die prematurely because of bad air every year.

SEE ALSO: Pollution is killing more people than wars, obesity, smoking, and malnutrition

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NOW WATCH: Local Artist Gives His Take On Banksy's Art And His Choice To Remain Anonymous

9 details you probably didn't know about the making of 'Aquaman'

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Warning: There are some spoilers ahead if you have not seen "Aquaman."

"Aquaman" is finally in theaters and is heading for a big opening weekend at the box office.

While Jason Momoa is the perfect Aquaman, did you know he originally tried out to play another hero in the DC superhero universe? The actor wound up playing Aquaman instead and had to keep the secret of playing the King of the Seven Seas for years.

INSIDER went through "The Art and Making of 'Aquaman,'" which features interviews with the cast, director, and production team behind the movie along with gorgeous artwork and behind-the-scenes photos and concept art that went into making the film. 

The book, from Insight Editions will be out January 1, 2019. Until then, keep reading to see a few things you may not know about "Aquaman."

Jason Momoa kept the secret about playing Aquaman for years.

"When I first got the role, I couldn't tell my friends or even family members," Momoa says in the book. "[I] had to straight up lie to everyone who asked me about it directly. I was hired years before the movie started production, even before James Wan came on as director. Hell, I was in the role before there was even a script. I was the first person officially involved with the film."

"I hated doing interviews," he added. "Everyone would be like, 'You're playing Aquaman!' And I would have to lie and say, 'Nope, not happening. I don't know what you're talking about.' I had to lie nonstop."

Momoa told Jimmy Kimmel he kept the secret for four or five years.



Momoa originally auditioned to play Batman before he was cast as Aquaman.

"Man of Steel" director, Zack Snyder, had Momoa come in to test to play Batman. 

"I think when I did the audition for 'Batman,' I didn't play it like I was supposed to," said Momoa. "I just played it completely different and I think that's what Zack liked."

Instead, Snyder offered Momoa the opportunity to play Aquaman as long as he kept it a secret.



Nicole Kidman's likeness was used in concept art before she even agreed to be in the movie.

According to the art book, the filmmakers were so into the idea of casting Kidman as Aquaman's mom that the actress' likeness was used in concept art and wardrobe drawings for the character of Atlanna.



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