Ripley’s Believe it or Not: Enter if You Dare’s Arty Side

Posted August 11, 2010 by shooting in Uncategorized / 2 Comments

Ripley’s Believe it or Not: Enter if You Dare

Review by: Lauren

Review Copy: I was sent a copy to review. All opinions are mine.

Review: Most people should know what these books are about as a new one seems to come out every year. But a quick update is that it’s a collection of amazing feats, artwork, stories, and more that they package up in a nice book for all to enjoy with bright colored photos!

To start off on the negative side, I hate photos of spiders. They give me the chills and I want to throw the book. So I tended to stay away from some of the beginning sections as it deals with all sorts of creepy crawly things. Besides that though, I enjoy the Ripley books. You learn all sorts of amazing and interesting facts.

For example, one of the smallest teens in the world is Jyoti Amge from India. She only stands 23.5 inches tall, yet still enjoys a life like every other teen her age. On the page, you can pull back one of the covers and it shows you a full-length, actual size picture of Jyoti which really gives you perspective on how short she is. But again, that isn’t stopping her and that’s great! She’s even been in a video with Mika Singh, a singer from India.

One of my most favorite sections was Artistic License. I wish I could be creative in this sense, but alas, I must enjoy the work of others. Liu Bolin is the Invisible Man. He uses paint to make himself blend into the background of various settings. The pictures in the book are amazing, even showing him in front of a telephone booth in London. It said that many that walk by don’t ever notice him!

Another wonderful artist is Erika Simmons who creates pieces under the name “Ghosts in the Machine.” She takes old cassette tapes and makes art of famous faces. Below you see her creation of Jimi Hendrix. How amazing is this? I love music so I think this would be something wonderful to have of a favorite singer!

Finally, you have one of my absolute favorites that were featured. I’ve found so many great artists I’d love to know more about from this book, but Nicholas Hendrickx is just doing something so fascinating and talented, he has to be the highlight of this review. Mr. Hendrickx takes your everyday, common fly and puts them into his pieces. Voila! You get flies skateboarding, swimming in a ducky raft,and one of my favorites…holding an umbrella! Yes, this is pretty much magic the way he gets these flies to do his bidding!
To learn more about these fabulous artists, and learn a lot of other interesting things, be sure to pick up your copy of Ripley’s Believe it or Not: Enter if you Dare. 
Amazon Associates: If you buy the book from the above link, we get a small percentage.

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