Month: August 2015

Jiyuseki

Jiyuseki, Stone Sculptures

Hirotoshi Itoh, a.k.a Jiyuseki, is a Japanese artist who works with purposefully difficult materials to create light-hearted sculptures that challenge the convention of that material.
To make his stone sculptures, Jiyuseki first collects suitable stones from the river near his house, worn smooth by the water. Each piece takes a lot of time and patience to fashion, but the results are worth it.

The sculptures juxtapose the hardness of the stone with humourous additions. From a stone ‘cushion’ with stuffing leaking out to a bulging purse, it seems that Jiyuseki is able to manipulate materials that are quite literally rock-hard to do anything he wants.

John Lopez

John Lopez, Large Animal Sculptures, Scrap Metal Parts

Sculptor John Lopez is a product of a place. His people’s ranches are scattered along the Grand River in northwestern South Dakota—not far from where Sitting Bull was born and died. John’s forte lies in gentling colts and perfecting their bloodlines—and he started his celebration of them by sculpting in clay. Capturing every nuance, every muscle, in this land where business is still conducted over a cup of coffee and “neighboring” is a way of life.

Somehow that way of life—where times seems to have stood still—has seen the transition from horsepower to mechanized vehicles. The rusted carcasses of discarded equipment stand testament to generations of labor. And the man who knows bloodlines has picked through them, choosing the elements of the past—the actual implements that plowed the soil or cut the grain or dug the dinosaur—and created the curve of a jaw, the twitch of a tail, the power of a shoulder.

Little River Canyon National Preserve

Little River Canyon National Preserve, Alabama

Little River is unique because it flows for most of its length atop Lookout Mountain in northeast Alabama. Forested uplands, waterfalls, canyon rims and bluffs, pools, boulders, and sandstone cliffs offer settings for a variety of recreational activities. Natural resources and cultural heritage come together to tell the story of the Preserve, a special place in the Southern Appalachians.

Turrisi

Turrisi, Italy’s Phallic Bar, Castelmola, Italy

Massimo, the café’s third generation owner, recounts the history of this bar located in Castelmola, near Taormina. “The bar was opened in 1947 by my grandfather. At the time, it wasn’t exactly a bar as it is now, it was more of a post-war bazaar, a souvenir shop-cum-cafe, where customers were served almond wine, traditional to this part of Sicily. This area was historically a winery for the Greeks, where wine was sweetened to be transported. In the mid-19th century, Taormina, and in general this area of Sicily, was far more progressive than many other parts of the country and even Europe”.

“Painters looked back back to the Hellenistic period, depicting nudes, many of which were carried out here in Castelmola, The German photographer Wilhelm von Gloeden, for example, chose this area as the setting for many of his nudes of young boys. The lax liberal ways of bohemian artists and openness to sexual trends were a manner of life here, and my grandfather wanted to show this through the bar’s decor.”- Massimo

Ivri Lider, “The Man I Love”

Ivri Lider, “The Man I Love”

Ivri Lider is a gay Israeli pop star and part of the duo TYP also known as The Young Professionals. He is one of the biggest-selling contemporary artists in Israeli music, and has won the Male Singer of the Year honor from Israeli national and local radio stations since entering the Israeli music scene in the late 1990s. He has sold more than 200,000 records.

The video clips are from the motion picture “Ha-Bush” also known as “The Bubble”

This song is a classic and done beautifully by Ivri Lider, one of my favorite male singers.

(Source: https://www.youtube.com/)

Into the Heart of the Sun

Artist Unknown, (Into the Heart of the Sun), Computer Graphics, Endless Loop Animation Gifs

“Over the mountain watching the watcher.
Breaking the darkness waking the grapevine.
Morning to birth is born into shadow
Love is the shadow that ripens the wine.
Set the controls for the heart of the sun.
The heart of the sun, the heart of the sun. ”

– Roger Waters, “Set the Controls for the Heart of the Sun”