A Roll of the Dice
 Amorphous forms, Artemis II, and arrangements abloom.
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Best of the Week  ✶  April 14, 2026

Hi readers!

This week, half the Colossal team is attending the Quarantine residency off the coast of Menorca, Spain. Publishing will be lighter than usual for the next few days, but keep an eye on Instagram for updates from the island.

—Jackie and Kate

A mandala-like composition of flower petals and leaves

Hillary Waters Fayle Creates ‘Portraits of Place’ from Seeds, Foliage, and Petals

For Hillary Waters Fayle, flower petals, seeds, and foliage combine into a kind of album of various places, which she then uses to create bold cyanotypes.

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an artist working on the floor of a studio

SPONSOR

A Parade of Floating Artworks Honors Hieronymus Bosch in the Netherlands

From June 18 to 21, experience how imperfections and flaws can lead to fascinating discoveries and beautiful creations at the 2026 Bosch Parade. This edition’s theme, Powered by Defects, pays a contemporary tribute to the large and small wrongdoings in the world.

Dedicated to painter Hieronymus Bosch, the annual parade honors the artist’s fascination with the fantastical and absurd. This year, an international fleet of nineteen new creations will drift down the Dommel river at the centre of ’s-Hertogenbosch, where the artist was born and eventually adopted his name from.

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A photo taken during the Artemis II mission around the Moon, showing the Earth setting beyond

Artemis II Captures Spectacular Images of ‘Earthset’ from Deep Space

A new striking image of the Earth “setting” behind the cratered Moon is reminiscent of one of the most iconic photographs of all time, known as “Earthrise,” which was snapped by astronaut William Anders during the 1968 Apollo 8 mission—the first crewed trip to the Moon.

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an abstract wall-installed artwork by Moffatt Takadiwa made from computer keyboard keys, combs, toothbrush heads, and metal pieces
a detail of an abstract wall-installed artwork by Moffatt Takadiwa made from computer keyboard keys, combs, toothbrush heads, and metal pieces

Moffat Takadiwa’s Scrounged Sculptures Confront Africa’s ‘Colonial Hangover’

Moffat Takadiwa’s current solo exhibition, The Crown! at Semiose, highlights the tension not only between visual harmony, consumer culture, and waste but also those of what curator Fernanda Brenner describes in the exhibition essay as “the tensions of Africa’s post-colonial afterlife.”

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a composite photo of archaeological finds thought to be ancient dice carved from stone and bone, found in the American West and Southwest

12,000 Years Ago, Native Americans Were Playing Games of Chance with Handmade Dice

Researchers previously believed that the earliest dice originated about 5,500 years ago, but Robert Madden shares that examples excavated in North America date back as far as the Late Pleistocene—the Ice Age.

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a ceramic sculpture by Abi Castillo of a head with gray hair and a masked shaped like a butterfly around her eyes, with a smaller butterfly and caterpillar details

Abi Castillo’s Ceramic Beings Contrast Delicacy With the Natural World

Femininity, nature, and symbolism play a central role within Abi Castillo’s sculptures, contrasting with the notion of concealment.

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an illustration of characters participating in a workshop

Colossal Members Have Funded 100 Projects in K-12 Classrooms through DonorsChoose

Colossal Members have helped us reach a fantastic milestone! We’re delighted to share that this month, we’ve officially assisted in funding 100 projects in classrooms around the nation via DonorsChoose. A portion of all Membership fees are allocated to this initiative, and so far we've been able to contribute more than $13,000, making a substantial difference in numerous learning spaces.

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A macro photo of slime mold

Retrofuturistic Figures Emerge from Wood in Playful Sculptures by Aleph Geddis

Chiseled from wood,