For 16 days straight, from dawn to dusk, five highly determined Montreal-based artists (who make up the artist run collective A’shop) worked on a graffiti mural of a Mother Nature-esque Madonna or a modern-day version of “Our Lady of Grace.” Inspired by Czech Art Nouveau painter Alphonse Mucha, the crew created this breathtakingly beautiful five story mural using 500 cans of spray paint in over 50 different colors.

“We been doing graffiti for a long time but this is our first large project involving the whole team,” Fluke of A’shop told The Montreal Gazette. “We’re always busy with other projects so we’ve never really had time to let [the reactions to] them sink in. But this mural was just so big and also our last of the season. It was challenge, took us out of our comfort zone. We wanted to try something more classic.”

The city gave the group complete control of the project and, luckily, the public ended up loving it. “The main thing that struck us was the public’s reaction while we were painting the mural. Some people gave us the cold shoulder at first, thinking we were painting an ad. Then when they realized we were reviving an old wall with a mural, they were came back to see us everyday. That really fueled us. Within days we had the whole community involved. People invited us for lunch and the Jamaicans at the local barber shop were giving us high-fives!”

Fluke said that he hopes this project will encourage other city boroughs to consider murals of their own. “Our city has way too much gray. So I hope this [mural] kickstarts a mural campaign.”

To really appreciate the time and effort that went into this massive mural, here are some progress shots that were taken over the 16 day period.

What is the idea behind this piece? What does it represent?
The idea was to step out of our comfort zone and show the public what graffiti artists can be capable of. There is an amazing amount of quality work being produced within Montreal’s graffiti scene. Unfortunately, bad press and political strategies often only show the “negative” side of it, creating unneeded friction between citizens and our culture. Graffiti as a form of visual language can be hard to comprehend for most. We thought it would be interesting to paint this mural in a more common language, using imagery that anyone can understand, initiating dialogue and building bridges. For this, we chose to inspire ourselves from Alphonse Mucha, father of Art Nouveau (1860-1939), a style of art that most people know or have seen before. Of course, we gave it our own flavor and used N.D.G as the main theme. The end product being our take on “La Notre-Dame-de-Grâce” or “Our Lady of Grace.”

How did you decide on the “Lady of Grace” subject?
“Our Lady of Grace” English for “Notre-Dame-de-Grâce” (N.D.G) is the name of a residential neighborhood of Montreal located in the city’s west-end, where the mural was painted. We decided to bring this fictional character to life so that this borough could have an iconic symbol of its own.

How much work went into prepping for this mural?
We spent a few weeks figuring out the concept, planning the layout , collecting sponsors and gathering references that represent the neighborhood.

How did you get permission from the city to do this?
Through Help from the City of Montreal and the borough, Prevention N.D.G. – a local not-for-profit that works with the community – the city came up with a budget that was meant to be used in the context of beautifying an area and, though that can be done in many ways, we decided to propose this mural as a means to bringing some color to a gray part of town. After many months of negotiation and preparation, we finally got the ok on our project and got to work.

How do you think the mural turned out? Were you all happy with it?
We’re all very happy with the end result. The crazy part is that we’re more motivated now than ever and realize that this is only the tip of the iceberg for what we have planned for future projects.

Have you participated in any similar projects in Montreal or elsewhere?
We have been painting murals for a long time and most of them for free. Nowadays, we generally get commissioned by the commercial and private sectors. We’ve done similar projects in Europe and in different parts of Canada but this is the first time that we’ve had the opportunity to work on a community project in our own city that allowed us full control over our creation.

Do you think the city should finance more projects like the one in N.D.G? Why?
Absolutely, because it’s a gain for everyone. What better way to regain dead space.

Although graffiti communities are close knit and we often share similar values, the reasons why we do graffiti in the first place are not always the same. Some want their name out there and have little need for the artistic side of it. For others, there is a creative process. If we don’t acknowledge it and support it, we are preventing these people form potentially doing great things as artists.

Via: http://www.mymodernmet.com/profiles/blogs/massive-art-nouveau-inspired-mural-in-montreal

Austria’s Green Lake: The park that becomes a lake for the summer
The emerald green waters of this mountain lake offer some of the most unique diving in landlocked Austria.
On the bed of the lake underwater explorers will discover fish swimming though the branches of trees, a floor covered in grass, benches, bridges and a landscape that looks like it belongs overground.
And that’s because for half of the year it is overground.

Underwater park: A diver thinks about a sit down beneath the Green Lake

Changing of the seasons: Left, how the park looks during the autumn and winter months with a shallow layer of water at its lowest part, and right, divers flood in to explore the area in a totally different way in the summer

This is the Green Lake in Tragoess, Styria, which sits at the foot of snow-capped Hochschwab mountains.

Throughout the frozen winter months the area is almost completely dry and is used as a county park. It is a particular favourite site for hikers.

But as soon as the temperatures begin to rise in spring, the ice and snow on the mountaintops begins to melt and runs down into the basin of land below.

The park fills up with ice-cold crystal clear water, which gets its distinctive green colouring from the grass and foliage beneath.

The water levels rise from about one or two metres deep in the winter to as much as 10 metres in the late spring and early summer.

The waters are at their highest in June when it becomes a mecca for divers keen to explore the rare phenomenon, before the waters recede at the end of July.

Tunnel vision: This diver swims between two bushes in the crystal clear water

Alpine adventure: The lake is a well-known hiking destination and water levels have been steadily rising over the years

Who needs roads? A diver takes his own path through the country park, past an access road

Click here to view the embedded video.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Life-size zombies crawling out of a 1,800-pound giant pumpkin? You have to face it, Halloween carved pumpkins don’t get a lot cooler than that.

A crowd of Halloween fans gathered at the New York Botanical Garden, the other day, to see pumpkin-carving master Ray Villafane work his magic on the world’s biggest pumpkin. Ray, an established artist known also for his incredible toy and sand sculptor, had something special in mind for this year’s event, and it’s safe to say zombie fans were pleased with his idea. He used two of the largest pumpkins from this year’s harvest, one of them a record-holder, to create a creepy scene featuring zombies covered in pumpkin guts crawling out of a giant squash. Ray spent hours painstakingly carving his undead work of art, but his efforts were generously rewarded with cheering and clapping.

Ray Villafane used Brant and Eleanor Bordsen’s 1,693 pound pumpkin to create the zombies, while Kelsey and Jim Bryson’s 1,818.5 pound orange monster was used as the base they’re crawling out of. If you’re in the New York area and love scary pumpkin carvings, be sure to drop by the New York Botanical Garden, where Villafane’s masterpiece will be on display through Halloween.

Lily is a Great Dane that has been blind since a bizarre medical condition required that she have both eyes removed. For the last 5 years, Maddison, another Great Dane, has been her sight. The two are, of course, inseparable.

(via Weird Universe, Daily Record, The Sun)

chilean born, new york-based designer and artist sebastian errazuriz’s ‘metamorphosis’ bookshelf
is hand carved from baltic birch plywood. it was created for the exhibition of his furniture work ‘beautiful premonitions’
which opens april 28th, 2011 at the cristina grajales gallery in new york. originally based on the thick ivy that he used
as natural shelves for his childhood garden toys, errazuriz collaborated with woodworkers from the horm
furniture company to develop the piece entirely in italy.

detail of the carving

errazuriz in the company of the bookshelf.

errazuriz with a woodworker from horm piecing together the final form.

the designer planning out how the form will come together.

a woodworker joining components with wood glue

I have to say this is truly amazing!!!! Kudos to the artists!

For clothes that fit like a second skin, try instant fabric in a can

Rummaging in a drawer, grabbing a T- shirt and slipping it over your head would certainly be simpler. But some of us are willing to put a little more effort into our wardrobes.

The result? A shirt that fits so snugly it looks as if it has been sprayed on to the body. Actually, it has.
Thanks to a liquid mixture made of cotton fibres we could soon be spraying ourselves into everything from T-shirts, dresses, trousers to swim-wear and hats.

Stage one: This might tickle a bit… Dr Torres spray paints the model’s shoulder and torso. Both wear goggles to protect their eyes.

Fabrican – literally fabric in an aerosol can – is the brainchild of Spanish designer Dr Manel Torres who has spent ten years working on his invention.

In a video demonstrating how it works, he sprays a blue and white T-shirt on to a model in just under 15 minutes.

Drying as soon as it hits his skin, the garment can be taken off, washed and re-worn.

Dr Torres teamed up with Paul Luckham, Professor of Particle Technology at Imperial College London, to create Fabrican, which consists of cotton fibres, polymers (the plastics which hold them together) and solvents which keep it in liquid form.

Stage two: Thank goodness I didn’t ask for a suit… The fabric, drying fast, is already showing a couple of creases on the model’s torso

Stage three: Plain white’s so yesterday… Dr Torres decides to add a fetching splatter of blue to brighten things up a little

Stage 4: A touch to the neckline shows how the fabric dies away from the body

Stage five: The shirt off my back… The garment can be taken off, washed and re-worn

Fabrican is still a couple of years from hitting the shelves.

Dr Torres is working on ways to create more forgiving shapes as not everyone likes their clothes clinging to every curve. He is also trying to minimise the distinct whiff of solvent about the garments.

And although some spray-on designs will be on show at London Fashion Week, the instant fabric could end up being used for everything from bandages to furniture upholstery.

Calgary-based multi-media artist Jeff de Boer created ornate and gorgeous sets of armor for mice and cats!

Goldgenie Bobby Moore Signature Range Gold iPod Touch 64GB:
£599.99 (U can buy it here)

• This special edition 64GB Ipod Touch features Bobby Moore’s signature on the reverse and has been embellished with 24ct gold by Goldgenie. This stunning piece will make listening to music and surfing the web a truly luxurious experience, and would also be an exceptional memento for football fans.
• Goldgenie will donate 10% of the profits from each Bobby Moore iPod Touch to the life saving work of the Bobby Moore Fund. The donations will be spent on cutting-edge bowel cancer research, carried out by leading scientists.

Goldgenie Frank Lampard Signature Range Gold iPod Touch 64GB

£559.99 (U can buy this here)

• This special edition 64GB Ipod Touch features Frank Lampard’s signature on the reverse and has been embellished with 24ct gold by Goldgenie. This stunning piece will make listening to music and surfing the web a truly luxurious experience, and would also be an exceptional memento for football fans.
• Goldgenie will donate a portion of the profits from each Frank Lampard iPod Touch to the Teenage Cancer Trust.

For the Milan Design Week, Italian studio Carnovsky created a series of wallpapers that react to different coloured lights

The designs were created for the Milan shop of Janelli & Volpi, a noted Italian wallpaper brand. Each features overlapping illustrations, different elements of which are revealed depending on whether a blue, green or red light is shone upon them.

Under red light:

blue light:

green light:

This one features the animal kingdom:

Color est e pluribus unus

RGB is a collection of wallpapers that mutate and interact with different chromatic stimulus.

RGB consists in the overlapping of three different patterns that results in unexpected and disorienting images.
The colors mix up, the lines and shapes entwine becoming oneiric and not completely clear.
Through a filter (a colored light or transparent material) it is possible to see clearly the layers in which the image is composed. Each one of the red, green and blue filters serve to reveal just one of the three patterns, hiding the other two.

We wanted to represent the antique theme of the metamorphosis intended as an unceasing transformation of shapes from a “primigenial chaos”.
For this purpose we have created a sort of catalogue of natural motifs starting with the engravings from natural history’s
great European texts, between the XVI and the XVIII Century, from Aldrovandi to Ruysch, from Linneus to Bonnaterre.
A catalogue – it naturally includes also human – that does not have a taxonomic or scientific aim in the modern sense, but that wants to explore both the real and the fantastic, the true and the verisimilar in the way medieval bestiaries did.

In each image three layers live together, three worlds that could belong to a specific animal kingdom or to an anatomical part, but at the same time connect to a different psychological or emotional status that passes from the clear to the hidden, from the light to the darkness, from the awakeness to the dream in something that could be a sort of exploration of the surface’s deepness.

RGB has been shown during Milan Design Week at Jannelli & Volpi store

Photos By Luca Volpe

Click for bigger photo.