Amazing Pencil Art works in the world

Amazing Pencil Art works in the world

The creator of these pictures 

“The sculptures were originally inspired by the form and function of the sea urchin. The spines of the urchin, so dangerous yet beautiful, serve as an explicit warning against contact. The alluring texture of the spines draws the touch in spite of the possible consequences.”

“To make the pencil sculptures, take hundreds of pencils, cut them into 1-inch sections, drill a hole in each section (to turn them into beads), sharpen them all and sew them together.”

A box with a secret compartment that would contain a pearl. The box would be shaped like a sea urchin, made of silver. In order to open the box and reveal the secret compartment, you’d have to pull on one of the urchin’s spines. The idea was of something beautiful, sculptural, but that you wouldn’t necessarily want to touch, and that also held a secret treasure.”

used pencils to draw and paint over their canvas, all but one. By the name of GhostPartol, this this australian artist creates beautiful works of art the other way around: using the pencils as canvas! He is a self-taught illustrator, he moved from the area of stencil art to exhibit his illustration work worldwide. His works of art ranges form fine ink drawings, graffiti, and commissioned murals to soft sculptures.

Pencil Art: using pencils as canvas

Top 9 Unique Structures To Be Built Soon

Construction technologies are advancing extremely quickly. Couple that with multi-billionnaires / deep-pocketed companies trying to outdo each other in the quest for the next standout design and you have a near-future filled with mile-high skyscrapers and buildings that no longer look like buildings.

Below are 9 strange and unique structures which have either been approved or are in the final stages of approval. some have already been partially constructed.

Welcome to the future landscape.

1. aqua, usa (website) 



From a distance this skyscraper, to be completed in 2009 in chicago, will seem quite traditional. it’ll only be when you get close and look up that you can appreciate the ripple/jelly effect created by variously sized balconies from top to bottom.



2. residence antilia, india (architects’ website)



Construction has begun on residence antilia despite opposition from those who see it as an ‘excessive’ design in a city where more than 65% of the population live in slums. politics aside and after you recover from the initial shock of seeing a skyscraper that resembles an ikea cd rack, the building actually looks like it may succeed as a stunning, unique, green piece of architecture.

3. chicago spire, usa (website)



The phenomenal chicago spire, when completed in 2010, will be the world’s tallest residential building and the tallest building of any kind in the western world. seemingly modelled on the image of a giant drill poking through the ground, the 609m structure will dominate the chicago skyline.




4. cctv headquarters, china (website)



At a modest 234m the cctv building isn’t going to stand out from a distance. however the design and shape is a crowdstopper to say the least and will be another incredible addition to beijing’s skyline in time for the 2008 olympics. the shape, described as a ‘z criss-cross’ results in a very high, seemingly unsupported corner at the front. let’s hope there’s a glass floor up there.



5. regatta hotel, jakarta (website)


Taking on a nautical theme, the developers say the 10 smaller towers represent sailing boats whilst the larger building is ‘the lighthouse’. it’s the lighthouse that steals the show for me, possibly the most incredible looking structure i’ve seen for a long time. if it ends up looking anything close to these pictures i’ll be impressed.



6. russia tower, russia (architects’ website)



Topped with an observation deck over the city of moscow, russia tower will become the tallest building in europe when completed in 2012 and twice the height of the eiffel tower. construction has already started on this angular beast which was designed by foster & partners, also responsible for the gherkin and spaceport america, currently in development.



7. penang global city centre, malaysia (website)




Following months of speculation and sturdy opposition, this humungous project is in the final stages of approval and apparently construction will start very soon. even so, due to the size of the plan it will take at least 15 years to complete. resembling a sci-fi city, the area will be crowned by 2 x 200m towers and completely transform the small island of penang.




8. gazprom headquarters, russia (architects’ website)




This gigantic, 300m tall glass flame of a building will house the gazprom headquarters in st. petersburg, dwarfing all structures in its vicinity. it will apparently change colour up to 10 times per day depending on the position of the sun. the building has already been nicknamed ‘corn on the cob’ by unhappy locals.





9. burj dubai, dubai (website)





This is the big one. when completed next year it will be the tallest man-made structure in the world and the tallest building by a long shot with a predicted height of 818m. note: currently the tallest building on earth, excluding an antenna, is taipei 101 in taiwan which stands at 509m. the photo below is the building’s current state: the skyscrapers below the burj dubai used to look tall.

Southbank

Southbank is an inner city suburb of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia located direct south of the Yarra River opposite Melbourne's Hoddle Grid. The northernmost area is considered part of the Central Business District and Central Activities District of the city. Its Local Government Area are the Cities of Melbourne and Port Phillip.

Bordered to the north by the Yarra River, and to the east by St Kilda Road, Southbank's southern and western borders are bounded by Dorcas Street, Kings Way, West Gate Freeway and Montague Street.



Southbank was formerly an industrial area and part of South Melbourne. It was transformed into a densely populated district of high rise apartment and office buildings .
Today Southbank is dominated by high-rise development. It is one of the primary business centres in Greater Melbourne, being the headquarters of Foster's, Crown Limited, the Herald Sun as well as regional offices of many major corporations in a cluster of towers . It is also one of the most densely populated areas of Melbourne with a large cluster of apartment towers including Australia's tallest tower measured to its highest floor, the Eureka Tower.
Southbank Promenade and Southgate Arts and Leisure Precinct on the southern bank of the Yarra River extending to Crown Casino is one of Melbourne's major entertainment precincts. Southgate's landmark Ophelia sculpture by Deborah Halpern has been used to represent Melbourne in tourism campaigns.
The area was part of the first port of Melbourne. It had a few old bridges, the first being the first Princes Bridge and later the Sandridge Bridge which was formerly part of the Port Melbourne railway line .
South Bank from one of Brisbane’s CityCats.


Arts centre precinct which opened  on  parkland which was once used as an amusement park and featured the Southgate Fountain.
Queensland Performing Arts Centre, Brisbane 



The Southbank art and craft market occurs on the promenade near the Arts Centre every Sunday. The promenade is also home to several buskers and a pavement chalk artists.




Southgate, Sheraton towers and new tall office buildings for The Herald and Weekly Times Ltd and IBM were built along with an award winning pedestrian footbridge
 Eureka Tower  >


The 91 floor Eureka Tower was begun in 2002, aimed at being the tallest residential tower in the world and was completed in 2006.



Southbank promenade, designed by architects Denton Corker Marshall, runs from Princes Bridge along to Queens Bridge street and Queens Bridge which also incorporates Queensbridge Square and continuing to the west of the Bridge is "Yarra Promenade", which runs underneath Kings Way and Kings Bridge to Clarendon Street, Spencer Street Bridge including Crown Entertainment Complex and promenade restaurants.

Colorful fountain at night in Melbournes Southbank Australia 

Nepal,festival of lights.

In Nepal, people worship crows and cows, dogs and snakes, vehicles and tools.... isn't it strange? In hindu religion, there are 33 millions of god and goddess... one will wonder, how they can remember names. But it is not strange for those who knows Nepal has more festival days than days in calender. Well, we just finished celebrte biggest festival Dashain and another important festival Tihar is already knocking at a door.

After 15 days of Dashain, the biggest festival of Nepal, 2nd biggest festival is biginning from coming Wednesday which is know as Tihar or also known as Dipawali. It is regarded as a festival of lights. It is celebrated for five days.

On the first day, we worship crow ("kaag" in nepali and the day is known as kaag tihar). Crow is regarded as messenger (not yahoo messenger!!) between earth and heaven. people offer meal to crow that day. Not only on Tihar, crow are worshiped during ancestor's memorial days as well.

Second day we worship dogs. Dogs are regarded as gate keeper of Yamaraj who is god of death.

n the third day, we worship cow, which is regarded as goddes Laxmi, the god of wealth. In the evening, we worship photo or idol of goddess Laxmi. In the evening, girls or ladies play Bhaili in groups and visit home to home, singing and dancing, giving best wishes to all then house owner give them special food, fruits and money. These group of girls and there wishes are regarded as sign of good luck.

The forth day is Goverdan pooja, which means cow dung worship. Cow dung is also symbol of purity and wealth. In Newar community (native resident of Kathmandu valley, including me), we worship ourself. This day is also New Year Day of our calender which is known as Nepal Sambat. Nepal Sambat is not used officially but it is a Nepal's own calender abd we are trying to replace existing one with this Nepal Sambat.

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New year greeting in two different Newa script, Nepali script and in an English.

Same like girls play Bhailo on Laxmi pooja day, boys play Deusi on forth day. But now a days, both boys and girls play together. Now a days, in citie areas, the culture has deformed and people play deusi bhailo as money making day. People in big groups (some political parties as well) go to big hotels to play deusi and demand huge money or donations. But all are not bad... some groups play deusi-bhailo, collect money and use in good work like social welfare. Anyway, this tradition is still well preserved as it is much fun to young people.

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Kids playing deusi at one home.The light follow to the room where goddess Laxmi is being worshipd.

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Finally, fifth day is the Bhia pooja day or Bhai Tika day (tika means red mark on forehead). This day, sisters worship their brothers. According to story, Yamaraj god of death coming to earth to receive one boy who have to die that day, but his sister requisted Yamaraj not to take her brother that day. She made some trics and made Yamaraj to wait until Bhai tika day. Yamaraj impressed by his sister's love, so he grant a life to her brother (this story may be little bit different as I forgot exactly but main theme is same)

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Sister worshiping her brothers. On the floor is manadala.

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Manadala: It is a drawing by water ring, oil ring, rice grain and different beans (I don't know names), flower and different color and finally oil lamps.

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Garland of this flower (pink) is used to worship brothers. This flower remain for very long time. One of the condition sister made to Yamaraj is, he can not take her brother until that flower dry up and until oil ring (on manadala) will not dry up. Intelligent girl!!

Pandaripuram - Sri Pandarinathar Temple

The Perumal of this sthalam is Sri Pandurangan. He is also called with the names 'Sri Vittobha' and 'Pandarinathan'. He is found to be giving his seva in Nindra thirukkolam facing his thirumugham towards east direction. 
The Perumal gives his seva in such away that he keeps his two hands in his hip and found to enjoy the Bhajans of Bhagavathas. 

The Thaayar of this temple is Rukmanibhai Thaayar.

  2 Kms away from Pandaripuram there is a place named "Gopalpur", where a Vishnu Paadham [divine feet] of Sri Vishnu is found. \
The speciality of this sthalam is the position in which the perumal is found. His hands are placed in his hip and the expression of this posture explains that he is enjoying the Bhajans of his devotees. 

There is another great specialty in this sthalam and it is the way we worship the Perumal. They adopt a process called "Padha Sparisa Seva" which means that we can place our fore head touching the divine feet of the Perumal in Garbagriham [Moolavar Sannadhi]. It is considered as very auspicious if we do it on Wednesdays. 

In earlier times, this location [where now Pandaripuram is found] was known as "Thandiravanam". In the nearby forest area, there lived an aged couple by name  Muthabhai and Sanadevan. They had a beautiful child by name "Pundareegan" and he had  great love towards his parents.


The story goes that, Indiran killed an Asuran, Virutharasuran, and he was given a sabham[punishment] that he would become a brick / stone because of his sin and as a stone, he was thrown in front of the house of Pundaleegan. 
This being the case, Lord  Krishna wanted to test the love and affection of Pundareegan. When Bhagavan came towards his house, Pundareegan was serving his parents. Sriman Narayanan asked him to come out of the hut, but Pundareegan, doesn't want to break the service that he is doing to his parents and asked Lord Krishna to stand on the stone that is placed in front of their hut. But, soon after Sriman Narayanan's divine feet was placed on the stone, Indiran got his original appearance and thanked both Lord Krishna and Pundareegan

After serving his parents, Pundareegan came out of the hut and worshipped the perumal. By fully convinced on the bhakti of him, Lord Krishna stood in that place and as asked by Pundareegan, the perumal stood there as "Vittala". Since, the perumal gave his seva for Pundareegan, the perumal is also called as "Pundareega Varadhan".

There once lived in this place, a person called "Gorakkumbhar". He had  great faith and bhakti towards Sri Pandarinathan. Just like how we breathe and release air, he expressed Vittalans thiru Naamam and chanted it. He led his life by making pots. To make pots, the clay, sand and water needs to be mixed together and they usually mix it using their feets. One day while he was stamping to make the clay, his small child just happened to come near the place where he was stamping the clay. Because of joy and the bhakti, along with the clay, he accidentally stamped his small child also. And after some time, his wife returned and searched for the child, but could see only the cloth of it, which got mixed with the clay. Then only, she came to realize that her child has been killed in the process of making the pots.  Gorakkumbhar and his wife cried and the Perumal as Sri Pandurangan came in front of the couple. He gave back the life of the child because of the great bhakti of Gorakkumbhar. The Paintings and the expressions of this story can been seen in Pandaripuram temple. 

On the south direction of Chandrabaga River, Sri Vittalan temple is located. On the south side of the river, Chakkubhai temple is found. In front of the Moolavar Sannadhi, a big mandapam is found and all the bhaktas sit in this mandapam and perform Bhajans and expressing the Naama "Jai Jai Vittala - Panduranga". 


On the left side of this Mandapam, a huge pillar which is covered with silver coating is found and it is believed that Sri Narasimhar came out this pillar to rescue Prahaladhan, It is said that the people who visit this temple, place their forehead in this pillar and worship the Perumal. 
Milk Guava, Laddu, corn are given as the Prasadham in these places. 


There are lots of other Sannadhis for Sri Ganesha, Sri Garudalwar, Hanuman, and Saurangi Devi etc.  And, a separate Sannadhi for Pundareegan is found on the shore of the Chandrabagar River. 


Places of InterestAll the Bhaktas should visit this great shrine atleast once in their liftime to have darshan and also be showered with Lord Krishna's  Blessings. 
On the first day of the month of Margashirsha the sandals of Vitthala are taken to this temple. On the last day of the same month the chariot of Vitthala is brought to this temple in a grand procession. Sraddha is performed at this temple. Pilgrims perform funeral rites here for their departed ancestors.