Judy's pics.

Judy over at Lilac Gate snapped this picture of fall leaves. A "perfect" composition IMHO.
Please visit Judy here. http://lilacgate.blogspot.com/

Art work

Real Art work, not the sorta maybe okay stuff I do. This is the real thing. http://www.chopoli.com

These are from the hands of Tatjana Raum, she uses that cool plastic modeling compound mixed with actual items from nature to make, um....dolls. You really ought to check out her web site. I know one person who follows this blog will find some of her fairies in Tatjana's back yard!

Flash mobs

Improve Everywhere.

http://www.youtube.com/profile?user=improveverywhere&annotation_id=annotation_753250&feature=iv#p/u/23/WnY59mDJ1gg

Virtual Tours

I rather like virtual tours. Often you can see more in a virtual tour than you can in the actual visit...for one thing, there is no time limit.
I found that Rome was so intense that I could not comprehend the half of it! The brain would go into overload, and nothing more would filter in! The Vatican and the Vatican Museum is a fine example of a place that one could spend a lifetime and still not have it all sink in. For instance, as you follow the "green path" on your guide through the Vatican Museum, you go through a dozen huge rooms, all decorated in frescoes by great masters like Titian and Michelangelo. But everybody rushes past them as if they were tiles on the subway because at the end of the "green path" is the ultimate room, the Sistine Chapel.
I lingered over the path and saw (and photographed) many great masters. You can see them up close, and I am sorry to say that many have been damaged by hand prints and finger stains, not all of them at two year old level!
Frescoe art is actually done by slathering on a thin layer of plaster, and blowing powdered paint onto it through straws. The effect is that of airbrushing. The soft lines and rich light and shadow effects were not achieved again until the invention of the airbrush in the early twentieth century. All those pictures of Michelangelo on his back with a paintbrush in his hands...well now you have to re-thing that!
They would usually have a "cartoon" made from paper which they would pin to the wall, that had the outline of the picture. Then a star wheel would be wheeled through the paper to leave a row of dents in the soft plaster. Often the artist would "pounce" the paper. Pouncing is when you take a little cloth bag containing charcoal and bang in onto the paper...this would allow some of the dust to come through the holes made by the star wheel and mark the outline.

Anyway, the result of a good technique combined with genius will give you this...

http://www.vatican.va/various/cappelle/sistina_vr/index.html

I hope that you don't spend more than two or three hours on that link....evil grin!

Crazy sand,,,1945

http://www.wimp.com/crazysand/

Now HERE is an artist!

guitars

Oh my gawd doood, check out the axes!!!!!

http://www.taringa.net/posts/imagenes/2681199/Megapost-Guitarras-unicas.html

art

You don't need a lot of expensive stuff to be an artist. This fella, for instance, all he has is an exacto knife and a pile of plastic drinking straws.

Auto Rim Art

Made entirely out of wheel rims, hubcaps and bits and pieces from the wrecking yard.
The treatment of the legs of the wasp up above is amazing.

Man's best friend.

Man's worst friend.

Who. Who.

Just dragon my steel into town...

Art

How do people "think" of these things? Maybe thats what happens when you put a fine arts major into a job in a junk yard.

naaaaahhhhhh.

These are all auto rims and hubcaps. How cool is that?

Bored Chefs

click on the images to enlarge.

Body Painting

The world body painting competion was held in Tokyo this year. Here are some of the entries. Also, if you like, you might like to see what I have been up to in the shop...building spaulders. A long and slow process, probably pretty boring to most people, but heck...its what I do. I wish I was as artistic as the fella holding the brush below. Click on any of these pictures to enlarge. I'll probably post another batch of them tomorrow.....grin!

Oh, and if somebody from orizio photo drops in, allow me first to state...Dude, these are so awesome, and also that I will remove them if you desire, and lastly, I'll put your new url up here as quick as anything, but right now, the domain seems to be dead and gone, so I'm really hoping you have a place I can send my readers to.

This lasts one wasn't in the festival, I just included it to make Jennifer blush....

Toxic Art

click on image to enlarge.

This is a sample of Artte Toxic's work....full link and a lot more pictures at

http://arttetoxic.blogspot.com/

The talent of bloggers is still amazing me....please visit them and maybe leave an encouraging comment!

Judy's Pictures from September

After the unrelieved "white" of this last month, it is helpfull to remember that there are flowers out there. Under the snow. Thanks Judy for letting me use these pictures.