Ra Paulette, Cave Digger

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With a keen sense of empty space and no drawings whatsoever, New Mexico artist Ra Paulette has been excavating caves for the past 25 years. Using simple tools like shovels, a maddox, and more back and forth trips with a wheelbarrow than you can imagine, he turns caves into beautiful meditation spaces. Always working alone, the 70 year old visionary sculptor has completed 14 expansive caves so far. He never has a plan for what the finished product will look like, but never fails to impress when his visions come to life.

In his words: “My final and most ambitious project is both an environmental and social art project that uses solitude and the beauty of the natural world to create an experience that fosters spiritual renewal and personal well being.  It is a culmination of everything I have learned and dreamed of in creating caves.”
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Cavedigger Official Trailer (Academy Award Nominee – Best Short Documentary 2014):

Independent Film | Cavedigger Documentary | Jeffrey Karoff | Venice, CA
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Website: Ra Paulette Home

Source: Ra-Paulette-Cave-Digger

(Art)chitecture: Magical Bamboo Houses In Bali (Indonesia), by Elora Hardy

You’ve never seen buildings like this. The stunning bamboo homes built by Elora Hardy (35) and her team in Bali twist, curve and surprise at every turn. They defy convention because the bamboo itself is so enigmatic. No two poles of bamboo are alike, so every home, bridge and bathroom is exquisitely unique. In this beautiful, immersive talk, she shares the potential of bamboo, as both a sustainable resource and a spark for the imagination. “We have had to invent our own rules,” she says.

Elora was born in Canada and arrived in Bali when she was five months old.

Great great Job!

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Website: Ibuku Bamboo Architecture and Design

Source: Art-chitecture-Magical-Bamboo-Houses-In-Bali-Indonesia-by-Elora-Hardy

Enchantingly Charmingest Church Growing From Trees

When you see someone water plants, it feels awesome. And when you see someone grow tress, it feels more awesome.
After travelling the world and being a keen observer of Churches, New Zealander Barry Cox decided to construct a unique Church of his own using living trees and utilising his Tree Spade. And the amazing factor is that it took only 4 years for him to built such an enchanting church.

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Cox carefully selected from a wide variety of trees for his beautiful church. Some have stone-colored trunks, while, others, with sparse foliage, ensure that his church will always be illuminated by sunlight. His secret is that he owns a gardening company called Treelocations, which replants whole, live trees using enormous mechanized spades. This allowed him to plant live trees in any way he wanted, completing this church (and the iron frame supporting it) in only 4 years.
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After starting construction in April 2011, the Tree Church Gardens are now available for public visits and private events.
The gardens also include a shaded area under a large canopy constructed from a Military cargo parachute which is raised by a hydraulic ram.
Come and enjoy first-hand the living Church, the labyrinth walk and the extensive gardens for your viewing pleasure, photographic opportunities or private events.
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Websites:
Tree Church
Man Spends Four Years Growing a Serene Church Made of Trees
Moving Trees from A to B.
The man who grew a church from trees
A Church Made of Trees by Barry Cox

Source: ENCHANTINGLY-CHARMINGEST-CHURCH-GROWING-FROM-TREES

Land Sculptures by Mick Petts

 

Mick Petts is an Artist, Maker, Consultant, Lecturer / Academic from Wales.

Artist Statement:
‘My job is to see the full potential of a certain site or situation, to make new ideas spring to life, to re-engage people and wildlife with the land ‘. What excites me is the integration of art, science and innovation – to create landscapes which invite people to interact with them and which can change and develop over time. Inspiration behind my work can come from literally anywhere but I’m particularly interested in natural forms and patterns which occur on both on the macro and micro levels. To take the best from the past, create and celebrate in the present, and work with positive change for a sustainable future.

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Marsh Harrier Hide, WWT Martin Mere, 2004
Martin Mere Bird Observatory shaped to resemble a Marsh Harrier.

“Sultan the Pit Pony” is a breathtaking 200-meter-long raised-earth sculpture in Parc Penalta, South Wales.

This sculpture, created by Wales-based artist Mick Petts, is the largest earth sculpture in United Kingdom. It has become a significant visitor destination, with paths and scenic viewpoints offering beautiful views of the surrounding landscape.

It all began in 1996, when Petts was commissioned to design a landform to shelter the events area of Parc Penallta from prevailing winds. It took 3 years and 60,000 tons of coal shale to construct this landform, which symbolizes the final release of the pit ponies  used in the local mining industry.
Pit ponies were used by the local mining industry for two centuries to haul tubs of coal. The last animal-miner retired in 1999. As soon as the sculpture was completed, locals nicknamed it “Sultan” after a prize-winning pony from Penallta Pit.

Mother Earth / Mam Ddaear, 1989–1992

Designed and constructed over a three year period and utilizing waste materials, coal shale and recycled spoils drawn from across the development site. 170 metres long by 30 metres wide and 8 metres high, the concept was to create a female figure within the landscape on a scale where it was only possible to experience the whole sculpture through the personal exploration of the onlooker – building up a mental map of the body through the discovery and linking of individual features, thereby evoking a sense of human scale and relationship to the wider world. The whole figure was hydra-seeded with a specific wildflower/grass mix and mown to a defined maintenance schedule. Today Mother Earth forms part of a 40 hectare public open space at the Festival Park.

Boar Amphitheatre 2011–2012
A 250 seat outdoor performance space at Parc Cwm Darran near Bargoed, South Wales. The Boar was formed from the soil moved to create the seating terraces and relates to one of the Roman Legions which occupied this valley and hunted wild boar in the local oak woodland.

Banded Snail Lookout

The lookout provides views over the reserve and the adjoining Dyfi estuary and serves as an orientation point for the locality as well as interpreting one of the important species within the dune system. Welsh Oak 3m x 6.5m x 5m. Sand retaining crib structure. The structure is designed to accept and nurture windblown seed and should over time develop it’s own unique colony of plants.
The Banded Snail has become a favoured photo opportunity for groups and families visiting Ynyslas.

Sources:

200-Meter-Long Earth Sculpture Of Pony Pays Tribute To Animal Mine Workers

Global Impacts

Axisweb

Source: Land-Sculptures-by-Mick-Petts

(Art)chitecture: Magical Bamboo Houses In Bali (Indonesia), by Elora Hardy

You’ve never seen buildings like this. The stunning bamboo homes built by Elora Hardy and her team in Bali twist, curve and surprise at every turn. They defy convention because the bamboo itself is so enigmatic. No two poles of bamboo are alike, so every home, bridge and bathroom is exquisitely unique. In this beautiful, immersive talk, she shares the potential of bamboo, as both a sustainable resource and a spark for the imagination. “We have had to invent our own rules,” she says.

Great great Job!

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Website: Ibuku Bamboo Architecture and Design

Source: Magical-Bamboo-Houses-In-Bali-indonesia-by-Elora-Hardy

Mirages of Divine Figures on Cambodian Trees

French photographer Clément Briend (32) overlays trees with haunting mirages of divine figures highly revered in Asian culture, creating the illusion of awakened deities towering over passers-by.

He works with ways of projection in very unusual modalities that propose another interpretation, another perception of pictures in space. Using homemade prototypes able to project huge scalled pictures, he makes appear imaginary side of space. By this way, he creates hybrides spaces and take pictures of them. His photographies matches reality and projection, space and surface.

Clément lives and works in Paris, teachs photography at the University of Valenciennes.

In France (Saint Cloud)

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Website: Clement Briend Photographies

Source: Mirages-of-Divine-Figures-on-Cambodian-Trees

London Ink Swimmer

If you ever are anywhere around the south bank of the Thames between Tower Bridge and City Hall, you must see this giant sculpture of a man swimming through the grass. It’s 46 feet long and 10 feet broad and promoted a new TV series on the Discovery Channel called London Ink, a show about tattooing based on the show Miami Ink. The swimmer’s statue is made out of reinforced polystyrene and is a major draw for tourists and Londoners.
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The real reason behind building this statue was to show how the series will go on. Around 400-800 sculptors were called in to build this magnificient statue. During the making some silly incidents took place. 100-200 makers were not aware of the fact  that the statue needed to be partially inside the grass and partially outside. What happened was:
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After this, as expected, media surrounded the place and the workers were then dismissed. The Discovery channel heads thought that they could show the timings and other details of the series on the statue itself. Here is the back of the swimmer which was tattoed by the tattoo artist of David Beckham, Louis Molloy:
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This tattoo depicts a Koi Carp lying on a bed of traditional fish and chips. The tattoo artist says “The aim of the London Ink show is to make tattoos mainstream and change the stereotype of tattoos as only being for criminals and sailors,” Molloy said.

The overall view of the statue is like this:
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Here are some more snapshots of the statue:
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Source: London-Ink-Swimmer

Frozen Bubble’s World by Cheryl Johnson

When New Hampshire-based artist and photographer Cheryl Johnson was a kid, one of her winter pastimes was to blow bubbles while outside in freezing weather. Now that she’s an adult, she’s turned this beloved hobby into art.

Freezing a bubble sounds pretty simple, but the result, which Johnson captures in high resolution photos, is truly stunning. The unique, intricate creations are completely different from one another. Instructions for frozen bubbles vary online, but Johnson makes hers when temperatures drop below 15° Fahrenheit.

When I see these bubbles, I feel like a child … and what about you ?

Cheryl is also an accomplished self-taught watercolor painter.

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Websites:
Cheryl Johnson | Facebook
Cheryl Johnson Art

And if you want to try: How To Make Frozen Soap Bubbles

Source: Frozen-Bubbles-World-by-Cheryl-Johnson

Colors

“When Arts Comes to Life” by Two-Tickets (Kyla-Australia)
“Making Art Come to Life” by Two-Tickets (Kyla-Australia)
Holi Festival (होली) – India
Holi Festival (होली) – India
Rainbow Parrots by Mike Jones
“Perroquet” by Sølve Sundsbø
Tropical Fishes
Chameleon Fish by Wong Chek Poh
Blackwater Canyon (West Virginia-USA) in Autumn
“Colors of Autumn” by Jonathan Woods
Zhangye Danxia Landform Geological Park – China
Zhangye Danxia Landform Geological Park – China
Tulip Fields – Netherlands
Tulip Fields – Netherlands
Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta – New Mexico USA

Mosaics by MDC Master
Stones

Heart

 

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Source: Colors

Amazing Metro Stations Moscow

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The Moscow Metro was one of the USSR’s most extravagant architectural  projects, with stations constructed as luxurious “palaces for the  people”. Built under the command of Stalin, the iron-fisted leader  ordered the metro’s artists and architects to design a structure that  embodied svet (radiance or brilliance) and svetloe budushchee (a radiant  future). He directed his architects to design structures which would  encourage citizens to look up, admiring the station’s art, as if they  were looking up to admire the sun and—by extension—him as a god. With  their reflective marble walls, high ceilings and grandiose chandeliers,  many Moscow Metro stations have been likened to an “artificial  underground sun”.

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Source: Amazing-Metro-Stations-Moscow