Tag Archives: Cool stuff

Writing Stories

Tribal Contemporary Art Portraits – Papua New Guinea

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#Contemporary Art

Pic: Luke Stringer.

While I have been away from this blog I have been painting and creating other projects. I am sharing these short post and images especially for my blogger friends and followers. Thank you for your continued support. It is good to see some of you here already.

One of the the themes that has become part of my contemporary painting style and signature are the tribal Papua New Guinea (PNG) portraits. While these artwork take me a long time to paint and require research and specific layering to stay true to the authentic ‘bilas’ (traditional decoration and representation of the tribes), I really enjoy the process of painting these.

I have been through the cultural process myself while growing up in Wagang Village, Lae, Morobe Province. I grew up with feathers, magic leaves, bones, shells and all the beautiful natural materials you use to create special costumes. I made my own bilas and danced with my people for many years prior to moving to university to study away from home.

My love for intangible and tangible cultures of my people and the aesthetic beauty for each area in province in PNG continues through these contemporary creative exercises. I hope you like these and please share them if you want to. If you want such portrait done, comment here or email me on jkleahyart@gmail.com for sizes and prices. All work posted here are copyrighted.

Oro Beauty (Fiona Stringer). JKLeahy©

“Simbu Princess” Cleo Kambolz – J.K. Leahy©

Writing Stories

The Contrast That Makes Art – Cool Stuff

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Self portrait by Aliza Razell

This is artwork made my cool stuff post this week.  Please refer to other cool stuff in earlier posts on tribalmystic.me blog.  This week explores the creative combination of two mediums that I love – watercolour and photography. The  contrast brings surprising and uniquely beautiful art.

Self portrait by Aliza Razell

Massachusetts-based artist Aliza Razell creates tickling self-portraits by exploring philosophical abstractions through merging watercolour and photography medium in Photoshop. See more on DeMilked blog.

Writing Stories

Cool Stuff – Strong Gothic Arches for Hatters Huts

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Susan and Michel’s homes. Blue Mountains, NSW, Australia.

My friends Susan Cochrane and Michel Bonnefis are currently homeless, but not for long. They were here in Brisbane (Queensland, Australia) for a month house-sitting and visiting for Christmas. They are currently staying at a friend’s house while their new home is being built in the Blue Mountains, New South Wales, by designer and award winner Mark (the Hatter) O’Carrigan. Once a hat designer, O’Carrigan currently designs these cool houses he calls Hatters Huts.

The Hatters Huts homes, feature strong Gothic arches re-created from the basic idea of the Nissen huts. During the First World War Engineer and inventor Major Peter Norman Nissen designed these prefabricated steel structure for military use. They were made from a half-cylindrical skin of corrugated steel. The structures were extensively used during the Second World War. Here is one story about Nissen huts from the war.

 

Susan and Michel

Australian O’Carrigan’s inspiration behind one of  architecture’s greatest developments is the gothic arch, as seen in many famous cathedrals. The arches give these homes more space than what a typical Nissen house does. A Blue Mountain resident himself, O’Carrigan also believes that houses anywhere should be built to suit their local environment.

Mark’s philosophy towards his unique buildings stems from his years of designing and making hats… ” A good home is like a good hat…it must be comfortable and stylish, sit lightly, protect you in all-weather, suit you and be affordable”, he said.

After earning a living as a leather craftsman for 25 years (specialising in hand crafted hats) and winning design awards for those creations, he has developed a unique ecological tourism business centred on a massive sandstone cave at Hatters Hideout.

You can sleep in this cave a hand-built lodge and environmental retreat which is set 3.2ha of Blue Mountain’s land. It sleeps 12 people.  Guests can choose between sleeping in the cave or in a lodge. There is a campfire, gas barbecue and camping gear. From: $245 per night. The Hatters Huts are also O’Carrigan’s business.

Another Nissen house example.

Similar design Nissen home in Ireland.

With a high demand in Australia, more architects and designers are creating strong and sturdy energy conserving homes that can also insulate for the country’s wild bushfires.

When the construction of their home is completed, Michel, a French national, a joiner and craftsman and Susan, an Australian author and arts curator will design and complete the inside of their ‘hut’.

Susan and Michel’s house is expected to be completed in a couple of months. I will bring you more pictures.

Writing Stories

The Master Creator – Puffer Fish

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I’ve been wanting to share this BBC-Earth David Attenborough video for a while. Since my friend Caroline Moree introduced me to this story, I can’t stop going back to it to remind me of how hard one must work, to create something phenomenal. I would like to make this part of my Cool Stuff collection. I hope you can enjoy this too.

Writing Stories

Sisyphus – The Coolest Art Project in 2016

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There isn’t much to say except to watch this coffee table in order to understand why it would attract one of the highest amounts of money in the Kickstarter projects for 2016. Designer Bruce Shapiro’s table also made my list of “cool stuff” for the year.

Luke Dormehl writes, in ancient Greek mythology, the character of Sisyphus, king of Ephyra, is punished for his deceitfulness by being condemned to roll a boulder up a mountain for all eternity.
Jump forward a couple of millennia and creator Bruce Shapiro has used that story as his inspiration for one of the coolest Kickstarter projects we’ve ever seen: a table with an ever-changing automated tabletop pattern created from sand.
“Sisyphus is a kinetic sculpture in which a two-motor robot moves a magnet to pull a steel ball through a field of sand,” Shapiro told Digital Trends. “It can also be thought of as an instrument upon which paths are played. Like musical instruments, it is the combination of both the instrument and composition played upon it which produces the art.”
There are three sizes of table available, with prices starting at $795, and boasting a range of stunning wood veneer finishes. It’s created by Shapiro himself and a collective of fellow creators, called Nordeast Makers.
Read more on: Digital trends. See two other time lapse videos of the table on vimeo.
Follow us: @digitaltrends on Twitter | DigitalTrends on Facebook

 

 

Writing Stories

Art and Devotion in Style – Cool Stuff

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Far from what I remember as a child, when I was growing up and singing in church, these magnificent structures are some of the most modern churches we have today. Nothing like the old buildings and sago roof churches I’m used to. I do love the old churches, but more and more, modern churches, chapels, mosques, cathedrals, and temples are popping up to keep up with this modern times.

I guess we could say, it can be cool to have devotion in style or devotion can be made cool as I add these churches to my Cool Stuff list. In our own beliefs, worship and devotion goes further and beyond fancy architectural structures, but each of these churches are a very beautiful work of art.  Personally, I think it would be wonderful to have a peaceful moment in one of them. What do you think?

Visit more churches and details at Design Milk.

roundup-religious-1-church-san-giovanni-battista-mario-botta

 

 

Writing Stories

Art and Science of 3D Scan by Photogrammetry

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The Wiki defines Photogrammetry as the science of making measurements from photographs, especially for recovering the exact positions of surface points. And, it may be used to recover the motion pathways of designated reference points located on any moving object, on its components and in the immediately adjacent environment. If you don’t understand this definition then watch this vimeo made by an artist/photographer and hopefully it would explain the process better.

Photogrammetry is an exciting technology according to Kwai Bun, the photographer and creator of this cool stuff!

“I’m an adventurous and enthusiast photographer”, said Bun about his passion.

Bun said the photogrammetry process is especially suitable for high-end human scan due to the flexible scanning scale and speed of acquisition.

This video shows a small clip of Bun’s journey on this project. The founder and director of ManyMany Creations Ltd. & Quantum Matrix Ltd begins to assemble his own rig installation from scratch. The project showcases beautifully presented 3D scanning results for various talents with close-up head, full body and art poses juxtapositions. The video is also a great overview to anyone curious about how photogrammetry can be used in 3D scanning Human.

Kwai.Bun.asia

Art, Writing Stories

Cool Stuff – Street Art

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The Cool Stuff is street art. I was looking at some street art photography and there were some really spectacular images. Check out art Fido for more.

This image below has to be my favourite so far. Take a look at it; it’s not too hard to figure out. I thought it was cool. I could not find the name of the artist, but it’s from 2013 street art list.

street-art

Art, Cool stuff, Writing Stories

Melted Seat To Be Continued – Cool Stuff

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colorful-art-chair-decor

How would you like to melt into this seat, or sit in this melted seat? Our cool stuff item comes from Julien Carretero. It is not only a spectacular ‘melted seat’, Carretero calls his creation, To Be Continued. This creation obviously does not stop here.

“Each piece produced comes as a result of a process applied on the piece that came before. Each piece is then existing because of the others and couldn’t have been designed without the others,” said Carretero.

And the whole purpose of making such a thing is to experiment with creating a real and recognizable uniqueness within serial production. If you are concerned about the ‘messed up’ look,  the artist says it is because of the imperfection of the cast, that the object slowly mutates and starts designing itself. I am not going to argue with that.

I think they look pretty cool; my only concern or curiosity is how does it feel to sit on the seats?

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Artist Profile

The multi-disciplinary industrial designer was born in Paris suburbs.  Carretero studied industrial design consecutively in France and in England before attending the Contextual Design MA at the Design Academy Eindhoven. In conjunction with his training and studies in the Netherlands, Julien worked for two years at designer Maarten Baas. After his graduation in 2007 he founded Studio Julien Carretero, which moved to Brussels in 2012. He has held and participated in several major exhibitions across Europe.

colorful-art-chair-design

Click on the link below to see the To Be Continued process itself.

Julien Carretero

Cool stuff, Writing Stories

Cool Stuff – Poetic Pendants

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When an artist and a poet come together, even by coincidence, this is what happens – something cool.

These poetic pendants were made by Cynthia Murray and she placed into the concave of each shell. selected verses from 1920’s book of poetry by John Keats. The shells were a gift from Cynthia’s mother (as a handbag) that she never used.  When the idea finally came, she took the shells off the handbag and turned them into single poetic pendants.

Cynthia Murray Designs.