The rise of the surprisingly beautiful Snapchart art movement

Snapchat is designed to be ephemeral — that's why it purposefully destroys your messages seconds after they're received. Recently, however, some users have been saving their snaps and circulating them on the web. Why? Because they're masterpieces. There's James McKenna, whose sardonic depictions of subway commuters as characters like "punk rock dad" and "Asian angel of the Q train" earned him the title of "Snapchat king" from BuzzFeed. There's the pseudonymous Snapchat Artist, a 21-year-old college student who draws celebrity portraits and recreates famous paintings like "Girl with the Pearl Earring," all on an iPhone 4. There's the mysterious Abel, friend of Nerdist writer Becca Gleason, who does not post his snaps online but draws such impressive, comic-booklike scenes that Gleason felt compelled to save and publish them.