Artist who “paints” portraits on glass by hitting it with a hammer

2/26/2026 at 2:29:45 AM

I've noticed that 2D artists/non-sculptors who engage in strange mediums or techniques generally only make realistic closeup portraits of people. I saw the headline, thought "neat, but I bet he just makes normal expressionless faces." Opened the page and it seems like that's the vast majority of his work. As an artist myself, I'm always like ehhhhh when I see this. Feels a bit like the kind of stuff you see for sale in tourist areas.

The technique is cool though.

by kdheiwns

2/26/2026 at 3:05:11 AM

Perhaps they find more acceptance due to the effects of pareidolia, where the viewer is more inclined to say, “Oh yeah, I see it - that’s a face!”

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pareidolia

by rhplus

2/26/2026 at 6:38:27 AM

The introduction on that Wikipedia article needs to be updated to include digital compression artefacts.

Cheap 4K dash cams are awesome at creating the wackiest noise in suboptimal lighting conditions.

by nandomrumber

2/26/2026 at 11:45:29 AM

Some image artifacts are even common enough to have entered pop culture. For example, if you are a fan of Dungeon Meshi, Marcille's "Sky Fish" familiar is inspired by cryptids stemming from the "rods" that often show up in pictures.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rod_(optical_phenomenon)

https://cryptidz.fandom.com/wiki/Air_Rods

by harimau777

2/26/2026 at 9:51:04 AM

Once you stretch boundaries thin enough, you could argue that all art is about inducing pareidolia. After all, it’s all just cracks on glass/smears of paint on canvas and so on. It matters little whether there was artistic intent or not, if the result looks like a face, it looks like a face. ;-)

by WesolyKubeczek

2/26/2026 at 3:24:47 PM

Figurative art is only part of the vast possibilities of art.

by mejutoco

2/26/2026 at 12:50:36 PM

I saw some of these works in Stockholm and then in Miami, and you 100% captured my thoughts. Cool technique well utilized, but beyond that I'm not sure I felt any particular connection to the art. It just felt bland.

That's ok, not all art affects all people the same and to me that's the wonderful thing about art – it really is ok to have different opinions and taste, no one is wrong. I'll just move on to the next piece and hopefully enjoy that more. :o)

by mstade

2/26/2026 at 11:34:11 AM

Spot on. Interesting methods always seem to be popular with engineering folks. But results are soulless.

by portly

2/26/2026 at 4:28:49 PM

> I saw the headline, thought "neat, but I bet he just makes normal expressionless faces."

In this case, that's not true. See the examples shared by https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47163837 on this page.

See also https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47162666 for context.

by cs702

2/26/2026 at 5:04:46 PM

I also properly hate this guy's website. Too much clicking around and exploring to find good, in focus, photographs of examples of his work. Maybe I should blame OP for not submitting a page with examples of the work but, whatever, I did not enjoy the hunting and pecking.

by bartread

2/26/2026 at 3:24:06 PM

As someone who also loves to paint esp portraits I was wondering in your opinion what looks like a good portrait? Because every time I go out on a limb and do what I think is neat the subject/audience seems less than interested. It's like people like a good photo.

by kraig911

2/26/2026 at 7:29:04 AM

This feels like something Oscar from Duolingo could say.

by miramba

2/26/2026 at 8:17:57 AM

agree. shallow and uninspired

by coolius

2/26/2026 at 9:28:13 AM

"Normal expressionless faces" to quote OP have been a big part of the foundation of "art" for ages. Hammered in marble, paint brushed on canvas, made with tiny mosaic pieces, and any other possible medium. What makes "hammered in glass" shallow and uninspired compared to any of those?

The exhibitions section [0] has examples of abstract pieces of art too.

[0] https://simonbergerart.com/exhibitions

by close04

2/26/2026 at 12:21:07 PM

If you visit Rome and see a Bernini in person you will understand.

by portly

2/26/2026 at 5:29:53 PM

I’ll understand what? We have a plethora of established artists of incontestable value. If I need to check one out in particular to understand expression, excitement, inspiration, then all others have failed. You name exactly one. Why not Rodin? Or Henry Moore?

I bet nobody here saw the art from the submission in person but look at how many opinions around.

Every time I hear armchair critique of someone else’s “boring uninspired art” and “expressionless faces”, or “art connoisseurs” giving snippets of wisdom, I know they’re fuller of hot air than a desert on a hot summer day.

by close04

2/26/2026 at 6:24:04 PM

The examples you name are also fine. Just stuff that makes you feel something.

by portly

2/26/2026 at 9:14:37 AM

I'll kindly disagree, and put out an offer.

If it's shallow and uninspired, why not make a better version? The medium is freer than Free Software. A sharpened hammer, a pane of laminated glass, and some time.

How hard can it be?

by bayindirh

2/26/2026 at 9:37:37 AM

> The medium is freer than Free Software

$$$$$ for supplies, you could probably take up oil painting for cheaper.

by nightfly

2/26/2026 at 9:40:04 AM

A simple hammer you'll sharpen, maybe a bog standard angle grinder. These are the cheap ones, and all you need.

Bigger panes of laminated glass is expensive, but you can start small, no? I'd go to the local glass shops and ask for their scraps, for example.

However, the point is not the cost of the supplies, but supporting the argument by putting out something better than the thing being criticized.

by bayindirh

2/26/2026 at 10:54:20 AM

They said "shallow and uninspired" but that's separate from "requires immense skill and patience". The point is, whether or not the process is cool and impressive, is the end product really very interesting?

It can be valid to criticize something as uninspired even if you're not capable of doing it yourself. Movie critics would have a hard time otherwise.

In this case I wouldn't be quite as dismissive, personally. But if you've seen one, have you seen them all? Probably yes.

by iainmerrick

2/26/2026 at 10:56:37 AM

Like when someone that clearly needs more exercise, is yelling at a sports star to “not be lazy,” or “practice more.”

It can easily be said that this makes no sense, because the yeller has no idea of the tremendous work that even the lowest-tier athletes put into their vocation.

On the other hand, they are a “customer” of the athlete, and have a “right” to criticize the “product.” They are probably out of line, suggesting root causes and solutions, but they aren’t out of line for complaining about their experience with the product.

I wrote a short piece about this mindset, some time ago: https://littlegreenviper.com/problems-and-solutions/

by ChrisMarshallNY

2/26/2026 at 1:21:23 PM

The athlete is in a no way a product a dude behind the tv bought. Tv watching guy is not a customer of the artist. Like, first of all, the dude behind the tv did not paid the athlete nor the athlete employer.

> but they aren’t out of line for complaining about their experience with the product.

They are just as asshole, as much valid as me mocking random people on the street.

by watwut

2/26/2026 at 5:43:49 PM

I agree with that last part but the people watching the athlete are definitely the customer. The athlete gets paid because people watch them on tv (and in person). If no one watched them on tv, then they quite literally would not get paid. Their employer is selling their talent and abilities (the product) to the watchers (the customers). The watchers are literally paying the athlete and the athletes employer, if not through subscriptions or tickets, then just by watching the ads on tv.

by nomadygnt

2/26/2026 at 4:12:38 PM

> Bigger panes of laminated glass is expensive, but you can start small, no? I'd go to the local glass shops and ask for their scraps, for example.

Go to a scrapyard and see if you can pull the windscreen out of a car. It's just a contaminant when it goes in the fraggie anyway.

by ErroneousBosh

2/26/2026 at 3:03:12 PM

There is no obligation for a critic to produce better work than what is being criticized and it is a cheap and dishonest rhetorical tactic to imply otherwise.

I 100% guarantee you have criticized things without trying to produce better work yourself. It is a deeply dishonest standard.

by jerf

2/26/2026 at 3:04:46 AM

yeah it’s definitely a genre in itself.

It’s like there are 2 axes: - cool technique and - cool picture. The second is way more important than the first, which is way painters are still on top of the 2D art world.

Some people can do both though. And i’d say even in these cases the art world tend to dismiss the weird technique as gimmicky.

by d--b

2/26/2026 at 3:18:38 PM

There are a few modern artists who mix cool techniques to great results and get recognized. Olafur Eliasson and James Turrell come to mind.

Damien Hirst is a more polarizing third contender.

Edit: also Yayoi Kusama

by yojo

2/26/2026 at 4:19:54 AM

And the reason 'cool picture' is way more important than 'cool technique' is because the technique is essentially no longer part of the art / picture at completion.

You've just got the sausage, and there's (not necessarily) any indication of how it was made inherent to the sausage - even if the way the sausage is made is cooler than the sausage itself.

(that analogy got tiresome quickly)

by BLKNSLVR

2/26/2026 at 7:06:05 AM

I don't understand this at all in respect to the actual topic at hand. The "cool technique" in this case is creating 2D art by means of cracking glass. It's quite obvious at completion, just by seeing the art, what the general technique was. It's not like people are mistaking this for a watercolor.

by hn_throwaway_99

2/26/2026 at 4:41:18 AM

I'm not sure it's so fitting. You can see hoe this technique was done and how it's different from painting. Or like, a portrait made of pennies, or string and nails, etc, etc.

by steezeburger

2/26/2026 at 5:21:54 AM

Another way to see this is that most obsessed artists live within constraints they created years ago, and their art stands out as it is something never seen before: the best someone has ever done within the constraints they took decades to explore and master.

by baby

2/26/2026 at 6:40:20 AM

You may still end up with the sausage but the meticulously prepared one will most likely be the most delicious.

by 4dregress

2/26/2026 at 5:40:47 AM

[dead]

by NedF

2/26/2026 at 9:42:59 AM

agree and I'd venture we tend to see more uninspired art because most success in the art world is more about business acumen than experimentation and uniqueness.

by norome

2/26/2026 at 7:01:02 AM

> Feels a bit like the kind of stuff you see for sale in tourist areas.

Yeah, art is only real if it is unpopular and elicits a “I don’t get it” /s

by ralfd

2/26/2026 at 8:35:35 AM

Art is only interesting if it elicits an emotional response in the viewer. Otherwise it is illustration.

And the wonder of it is that we can all have different responses to the same thing. (The Mona Lisa is a waste of canvas and oil - a hill I will die on).

by colinb

2/26/2026 at 9:16:08 AM

> The Mona Lisa is a waste of canvas and oil - a hill I will die on

Seems like Mona Lisa elicits an emotional response in you as a viewer ;)

I get what you're saying though. I always "correct" people that claims some piece of music is "bad", there's no bad music, only music you don't like.

by Zobat

2/26/2026 at 2:41:22 PM

I cynically believe that many people will force themselves into having an emotional response if the art piece matches with what they understand as having currency with the type of people they seek to emulate and the rarified scene they want to be a part of.

by g8oz

2/26/2026 at 9:23:56 AM

I think I read here on hackernews that the Mona Lisa doesn't look at all like it did when it was freshly made. If I look at the restored copy https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mona_Lisa_(Prado)#, I at least find the silk very nice.

by F-W-M

2/26/2026 at 11:41:15 AM

The Mona Lisa is a panel painting and doesn't use canvas.

by ginko

2/26/2026 at 9:27:21 AM

In Exhibition section Lasting Moment is showing 4 glass sheets standing parallel to each other.

It looks like the cracks are same on all 4 sheets. That is amazing. Their are only 4 pictures though. I want to see them more closely.

Edit: while looking for more photos found more work here. The 3D effect by layering sheets is so cool. https://aurum.gallery/simon-berger/ I like the sphere more than the skull.

Edit: Found some more pictures of those sheets with same cracks in his Instagram https://www.instagram.com/p/C_34-G0K-Qm/?igsh=MWtzY2FydWQxa2...

by smusamashah

2/23/2026 at 4:07:36 PM

Reminds me of the artist that shipped glass cubes via FedEx, letting the box throwers make the art for him.

https://museemagazine.com/features/2018/10/15/walead-beshty-...

by ortusdux

2/26/2026 at 11:39:13 AM

This is a refreshingly pragmatic approach to modern art and I love it.

by nkrisc

2/26/2026 at 3:57:51 AM

Minecraft art

by rippeltippel

2/26/2026 at 5:04:12 AM

I was hoping it would look cool but they just look lifelelessly damaged. Meh.

by halapro

2/26/2026 at 11:40:24 AM

He says that he encourages the pieces to only transported by re-shipping them through FedEx, so as they change owners and travel the world they will become progressively more damaged.

by nkrisc

2/26/2026 at 3:04:09 AM

sorry, this isn't "art" because it actually conveys information. art has to be useless.

by drsalt

2/26/2026 at 3:25:14 AM

I cannot tell if this is /s or real. there is an entire genre of art that specifically about functionality - functional art. Chairs, tables, buildings, vases, textile, and so on can be beautiful art yet functional.

by WaitWaitWha

2/26/2026 at 4:22:27 AM

My favourite example: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giger_Bar

by BLKNSLVR

2/26/2026 at 6:33:51 AM

Sheesh, this makes me realize how boring "modern" interiors are, even though 3d printing makes means this is now much easier.

by nomel

2/26/2026 at 3:24:05 AM

What an artful comment.

by slumberlust

2/26/2026 at 11:38:04 AM

This is the worst take on “it’s not art” I’ve ever read. You can look through any art history textbook and it’s filled to the brim with classic art that convey lots of information.

by nkrisc

2/26/2026 at 6:38:53 AM

I’ve seen a lot of his work IRL, he was one of the artists at the now (sadly) defunct Aurum Gallery where I was a regular visitor.

For better or worse, he’s mostly know in the “street/urban art” world (which is much bigger than graffiti). And one of the features of a lot of the art in that scene is high technical mastery paired with “low” / populist motifs and composition.

Seen up close these works are really quite amazing, and I respect the artist choosing to make the things that can make him a living. Even Brice Marden, at some point, just kept making those trademark squiggles and cashing those checks.

by biztos

2/26/2026 at 11:05:07 AM

For better or worse, he’s mostly know in the “street/urban art” world (which is much bigger than graffiti). And one of the features of a lot of the art in that scene is high technical mastery paired with “low” / populist motifs and composition.

That's an interesting distinction. I hadn't really noticed that but it makes a lot of sense.

I suppose Banksy would be close to the crossover point between those two worlds? The ideas and the chutzpah are the main attraction, but generally 'low' populist motifs, without high technical mastery. Someone you could either look up to or sneer down on from either side.

by iainmerrick

2/26/2026 at 5:08:58 PM

It's a good question whether Banksy really is a crossover, or only a crossover in market terms. I would definitely call him a high master of stencil technique though, some of that stuff is pretty hard to pull off.

As clever as his art is, I think he's still very much an outsider in the capital-W Art World, which for his part he's often trying to prank. (Which they richly deserve, see Exit Through the Gift Shop.)

Things like the self-destroying painting were high-concept but also completely staged. For another artist getting rich off his contempt for the Art Market, but solidly on the Art World side of the fence, see Maurizio Cattelan.

One person with a foot in both worlds is Alex Face but he's mostly known in South-East Asia. I have a feeling it'd be easier to find examples in Asia than in the West.

https://www.artsy.net/artist/alex-face

by biztos

2/26/2026 at 8:55:27 PM

Could you do this in 3d? Like a iceblock, with cracks running through it, the cracks forming a 3dimensional statue?

by indubioprorubik

2/26/2026 at 11:37:57 AM

This could be a really cool practical effect in a movie. Imagine the protagonist of a horror movie walking through their house when suddenly a mirror breaks and it's a face watching them.

by harimau777

2/26/2026 at 3:44:06 AM

Is it all it's cracked up to be?

by downboots

2/26/2026 at 3:13:54 PM

It certainly didn’t disappoint me. Granted that’s N=1 anecdata.

(stereotyping a HN commenter that doesn’t understand humor)

by yesitcan

2/26/2026 at 6:21:34 PM

I went into this fully expecting that I was going to be outraged that someone can trash glass and call it art, but it actually is!

by royletron

2/26/2026 at 2:58:07 PM

Although I liked the video of the artist working, I didn't appreciate that they took away the controls to pause, play, seek. Is there a workaround to get back the playback controls on websites that disable it?

by computator

2/26/2026 at 8:48:47 AM

I would like to be wealthy enough to commission even a small piece for my home! Looks amazing. He must be using some special kind of glass

by aquir

2/26/2026 at 4:13:17 AM

Our world is full of creative, inspirational people. Bravo!

by RyanOD

2/26/2026 at 11:40:01 AM

Could this be automated, some type of "printer" that breaks layers of glass?

Interesting to consider how different mediums are mechanically reproducible to varying degrees as AI and automation grow more capable.

by password4321

2/26/2026 at 4:40:56 AM

In terms of artistic merit, it reminds me of https://gillieandmarc.com/collections/sesame-street-drop

Technique is undoubtedly interesting, but content....

by elephant81

2/26/2026 at 1:14:08 AM

Fascinating! Thanks for sharing

by simonhamp

2/26/2026 at 4:20:41 AM

Ok that’s awesome

by jama211

2/26/2026 at 11:44:02 AM

That dude hits the nail on the head with those portraits.

by vstm

2/26/2026 at 2:44:49 PM

When all you have is a hammer…

by peddling-brink

2/26/2026 at 10:40:50 AM

I did notice art as a profession, or people calling themselves artists, are usually within Europe, but rarely in North America. Whenever I stumble upon an art or artist portfolio online, I assume they are in Europe, and most times it turns out to be true. My theory is that the system in Europe allows people to nurture their creative side, meanwhile in North America it's a hyper-capitalistic system and society where you are always running away from some beast -if not debt, it is rent, if not taxes, it's something else- making people run like hamsters on wheels with zero space for disconnection and solitude. And if you managed to make something cool, suddenly you are pressured to grow and expand and look for investors and whatnot. Even job-wise, in the US for example, there's this hustle culture where you are somewhat expected to keep grinding after work, and if you don't, you are either seen as less productive, a slacker, or even terminated for performance issues. If you decide to quit, you might end up homeless, so you are in this never-ending cycle where your life is about grinding and being busy with what's considered "productive".

Not to dismiss the rest of the world, but my focus was on the western side, not so sure how it goes in other parts of the world.

by tamimio

2/26/2026 at 12:34:58 PM

AI bros in the comments criticizing a real artist, lol.

by dev1ycan

2/26/2026 at 5:02:44 PM

[dead]

by farceSpherule

2/26/2026 at 1:26:47 AM

[flagged]

by rustystump

2/26/2026 at 1:38:11 AM

This is Hacker News. I can't think of a better way of someone "hacking" something (i.e. using cracked glass in a novel way) to create something new, unexpected, and incredible.

I think this is probably the best idiomatic example of the type of story that I think belongs on HN that I've seen in quite some time.

by hn_throwaway_99

2/26/2026 at 3:15:20 AM

As an artist, this isn't incredible. Arranging lights/darks to copy a photo is high-school tier. Money for food + shelter + materials and I could do this in a month, as with anyone who can copy a black and white photo.

by boppo1

2/26/2026 at 7:00:51 AM

Well then, why didn't you come up with it first?

I'm serious. The world is rife with things the "don't seem like a big deal" only in retrospect, when people downplay innovations as "no big deal/anyone can do that" when something comes on the scene that a lot of people connect with.

Heck, I feel like your response is the art equivalent of this top comment on the original Dropbox Show HN submission by Drew Houston:

> For a Linux user, you can already build such a system yourself quite trivially by getting an FTP account, mounting it locally with curlftpfs, and then using SVN or CVS on the mounted filesystem. From Windows or Mac, this FTP account could be accessed through built-in software.

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9224

by hn_throwaway_99

2/26/2026 at 11:00:14 AM

He's replying to a post that says it's "new, unexpected, and incredible" and he specifically only addresses whether it's incredible. I think, especially in the spirit of "assume the strongest interpretation", you can probably assume that an artist is well aware of the value of novelty and is quite specifically not disputing it.

by amenhotep

2/26/2026 at 7:36:47 AM

Obligatory reminder that the Dropbox thread ends with "I only hope that I was able to give you a sneak preview of some of the potential criticisms you may receive. Best of luck to you!" The comment didn't dunk on Dropbox as an idea, but pointed out that they would need to highlight their moat wrt copycat competitors in order to convince sceptical investors.

The artist in question is presumably not raising VC money, so concerns about long-term viability of the niche if other artists start imitating the style probably don't apply. (Maybe it's even the reverse situation, where increased production of cracked-glass art raises the profile of the trailblazer and increases the demand for "originals.")

by yorwba

2/26/2026 at 3:46:00 PM

> Well then, why didn't you come up with it first?

This is never a good question. It doesn't take much imagination to substitute X in "Why didn't you come up with X first?" with something of no value. Obviously, if someone finds something to be of no value, then they would not have come up with it, would they. Or at least they would not have pursued it.

Rather, one must give reasons for believing something has value. (And I seriously doubt this is "new", though novelty is itself irrelevant. Valueless things can be "novel", too.)

IMO, this glass technique is maybe interesting, but it is also sort of gimmicky, at least as presented.

by lo_zamoyski

2/26/2026 at 5:09:19 AM

> high-school tier.

This is the first time I’ve seen the language of tier lists applied to art. Feels very weird/of a consumerist mindset.

by mrkpdl

2/26/2026 at 7:46:24 AM

[dead]

by krickelkrackel

2/26/2026 at 7:12:08 AM

Calling observational realism high school tier while working in 3D (as per your profile) is hilarious given your medium automates the very thing you are belittling and is literally taught these days at elementary school!

Any serious artist would respect technical competency. I guess that says a lot about your credentials “as an artist”.

by supermatt

2/26/2026 at 2:29:21 AM

I agree. This artist, while technically interesting, has nothing to do with AI, and so has no place on the front page.

by maplethorpe

2/26/2026 at 6:41:47 AM

There is an interesting AI point here: the US Copyright Office recently tried to argue that images generated by a model could not be copyrighted, no matter how detailed the prompt nor how curated, because the artist did not envision the exact output and thus it is merely the output of an uncreative mechanical process. Clearly OP does not envision the exact way in which glass will shatter or frost or crack, and has to repeatedly update and revise based on what happens; are his glass portraits mere mechanical outputs and uncopyrightable?

by gwern

2/26/2026 at 7:47:45 AM

[dead]

by krickelkrackel

2/26/2026 at 2:27:18 AM

“Please don't post comments saying that HN is turning into Reddit. It's a semi-noob illusion, as old as the hills.”

--https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

> While interesting […]

“On-Topic: Anything that good hackers would find interesting” --also hnguidelines

by cwillu

2/26/2026 at 7:38:32 AM

Idk if that is a quote or a rule? but it is dismissive in a weird way.

It is fair to say dont post “this is turning into xyz” as it doesnt contribute to the discussion. And that is fair. i could have explained why rather than dismiss the post.

I make no good hacker claims but i didnt find this interesting. I am in the minority it seems.

by rustystump

2/26/2026 at 8:12:36 AM

Please read the link, which you can also find in the hn footer under “guidelines”

by cwillu

2/26/2026 at 1:36:59 AM

HN waiting for the artist to announce on X that he's remaking all his works in rust.

by bravoetch

2/26/2026 at 6:43:47 AM

Derivative…

https://www.warhol.org/conservation/oxidation-paintings/

by biztos

2/26/2026 at 3:42:44 AM

Now THAT would be cool! Paint a oxidising agent on a metal sheet and wait. As the sheet continues to rust the piece evolves over it's lifetime.

I wonder how much variation you could get by using several oxidising agents of different strength?

Interesting project!

by amarant

2/26/2026 at 9:32:46 AM

Richard Serra already did that, using massive blocks of self-oxidising steel so his sculptures "evolve" with time.

by Maken

2/26/2026 at 1:37:01 AM

I think it's a welcome breath of fresh air considering how much AI slop is on HN lately

by efilife

2/26/2026 at 7:29:54 AM

Yeesh struck a nerve for some folks. I agree too much AI slop and am also tired of it.

I didnt like this because the title looks clickbaity and the actual website content is not compelling. The landing page as far asi can tell doesnt show any glass painting. Maybe i didnt dig deep enough.

by rustystump

2/23/2026 at 3:44:02 PM

Happy for him but this has no real artistic meaning compared to doing it in any other way. Odd to see things like that on HN.

by antirez

2/23/2026 at 3:54:16 PM

Hi, I submitted the OP because I found it cool and interesting, esp after seeing the clip of the artist creating a piece using only a hammer.

My only motivation for submitting the OP was thinking that others here would find it cool and interesting too.

That falls within the HN guidelines, don't you think?

by cs702

2/23/2026 at 3:57:26 PM

I disagree quite a bit. For me the medium, the technique, the process is all part of the art. Yet I still think the end result is also critical. But coming up with create ways to produce art matters.

And I am confused about the “doing it any other way”? I don’t really see other ways to achieve the same result. Say painting and photography will both produce end results that are quite different. The skills are very different. The end material is also quite different. The same way stained glass is quite different from painting

by AStrangeMorrow

2/26/2026 at 1:11:10 AM

I might agree with you as a knee jerk, but I believe "the medium is the message"[1] and I don't think there's anything particularly meaningful or evocative about shattered glass as opposed to any other planar medium.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_medium_is_the_message

by hresvelgr

2/26/2026 at 1:16:53 AM

There is no meaning in converting a conventionally destructive, random, chaotic act into a directed, aesthetic, meaningful one?

The fact he has a portrait of Kamala Harris called “glass ceiling breaker” and one of the victims of the Beirut explosion called #weareunbreakable suggests that you don’t need to dig particularly deep to find meaningful subtext in the choice of material and technique.

If anything it’s maybe a bit on-the-nose.

by jameshart

2/26/2026 at 2:06:31 AM

> If anything it’s maybe a bit on-the-nose.

This is what I was driving at. I should have been more specific to say not particularly meaningful or evocative to me. From the previews I've seen it's all based around shattering and breaking. Where I will give credit, there's one: "Transformation" where natural light is reflected at the shattered glass to portray a face which I find to be fascinating. The rest feel kitschy, it's not quite to my tastes.

by hresvelgr

2/26/2026 at 8:16:04 AM

Interesting technique, but indeed, painfully kitsch subjects.

by thenthenthen

2/26/2026 at 3:39:15 PM

> but I believe "the medium is the message"

> I don't think there's anything particularly meaningful or evocative about shattered glass as opposed to any other planar medium

These seem contradictory? If the medium is "uninteresting", then how it can be the focus of interest?

by lo_zamoyski

2/23/2026 at 3:57:06 PM

while i’m definitely a newcomer in HN terms, i love seeing things like this on the front page. it’s certainly interesting

by bstsb

2/23/2026 at 4:11:33 PM

I love that HN has a diverse set of topics, I didn't mean that. I mean: here usually the artistic and literature stuff appearing are more interesting. This looks like the average Facebook art content with many upvotes.

by antirez

2/23/2026 at 5:12:12 PM

Ah, I understand what you meant now.

Without judging the artistic merit of these pieces, I submitted the OP only because the idea and process of "painting" on glass with a hammer struck me as cool and interesting (pun intended). In any case, artistic merit is always in the eye of the beholder.

by cs702

2/23/2026 at 4:00:54 PM

Same here. As much as I enjoy a lot of the technical stuff, I never click on 80% if it because it is often “thing that already exist but in lisp/rust/etc, new tool similar to X to free/one extra feature/lightweight”. So unless it is a strong interest of mine, my area of expertise, or something that makes me curious it is a skip.

Stuff like that though always makes me curious

by AStrangeMorrow

2/26/2026 at 3:53:28 AM

If you can't tell the difference between oil on canvas and artistically shattered glass at a glance you might need... New glasses!

by amarant

2/26/2026 at 6:42:32 AM

Ok, today YOU officially Win the Internet!

by testaccount28