A few days ago I happened upon a rather unique art project called Last New Year in the Austin American Statesman , showing photos of a dilapidated home recently transformed with a number of installations by a small arts collective called Ink Tank . The premise for the project was fascinating: the ensemble imagined a fictional group of people living in the home who would react to the prophesied end-of-times 2012 date. One of my favorite pieces from the show is a giant installation called The Purge by artist Chris Whiteburch who decided to imagine how the house itself would confront the impending doom

Step by step this massive snow drawing was trampled into freshly fallen snow by artist Sonja Hinrichsen with the help of 5 volunteers last month at Rabbit Ears Pass in Colorado. I love that a piece so expansive and yet so temporary can be created with a few pairs of well choreographed snow boots.

Last week, NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory satellite captured this stunning video of magnetically captured plasma moving like a tornado across the sun’s surface.

Whatever font you prefer, one thing can be agreed on cats making silly faces or wearing clothing is freakin’ adorable.

Street Art Utopia just posted an enormous collection of work by street artist Sam3 spanning the last few years but includes a number of pieces I’d never seen before. If you like what you see, also check out his blog and maybe pickup some stuff in his shop . (via street art utopia ) Update: He also made this fun stop motion video .

This giant tornado of piggybacked men is an installation by Korean artist Do Ho Suh that is currently on display at Western Washington University (photographs above depict it in alternate configurations). Via Western : “‘Cause & Effect’ evokes a vicious tornado.

I’m thrilled to announce that I am now curating a weekly roundup of art over on designboom .

Extreme junkie Devin Graham went to Moab, Utah with some friends, set up a rope swing over a cliff. It’s quickly going viral, already nearing 1 million views in just two days.

There really is a Hello Kitty dentist in Koto-ku, Tokyo. Definitely the pinkest and cutest dentist on earth. The clinic is called “ Hearts Dental Clinic .” The reason for making a “Hello Kitty” dental clinic isn’t simply that Japan is crazy for Kitty it is but rather, the clinic uses the character as a way to make going to the dentist less nerve racking for patients, especially younger ones.

A Swiss man has installed a wood-burning stove in his 1990 Volvo 240 station wagon.