Unusual Life

At first glance, these images look like painted landscapes covered in snow. However, if you look a little more closely you will see that the landscape is made of bacon and other cold cuts. These aren’t paintings but true photos! Also everything you can see in the photograph is made of real food! Pictures were photographed by Carl Warner, a photographer who works in London, and who made specialty of these food landscapes or how I like to call them - ‘foodscapes’. In recent years he has been commissioned by many advertising agencies throughout Europe to produce his distinctive images for clients in the food industry. Each scene is photographed in layers from foreground to background.

It’s the New Year! Sure, the big December blockbuster holidays are over. But, the rest of the year has no shortage of neat and unique holidays to brighten up those cold winter days. While you are stuck indoors and have a little time on your hands, explore some of the years less-heralded days at Holiday Insights.

And don’t miss your opportunity to download the original Rangerville 2009 calendar, full of art cars, folk art, installation art, sculptures, bizarre and unusual holidays and wackyness for the whole year.

If you missed the opening, don’t worry, you can drop by anytime to the Official Bad Art Museum of Art at Cafe Racer because it’s now open from 7am until 2am, 7 days a week. Stop by for lunch or dinner or a cold one after work and view the stupendous art.
• Video by Marlow •

From Emily Duffy, about her visit to the De Young Museum in Golden Gate Park in San Francisco:

Last weekend I went back to the De Young with some of the local crafty ArtCar wimmin. I got some photos of those amazing gun/bullet sculptures by Al Farrow (along with some other stuff) though still not able to get sneak shots of the Yves Saint Laurent exhibit.

View entire Flickr photo set HERE.

Hats off to Kelly Lyles for the tip.

Peace on Earth. Please!

YES WE CARVE
Pumpkins for Obama. A collection of Americans (and beyond) showing Obama support in a fun, positive, October appropriate way. Download, carve & share YOUR Barack O’Lantern at www.YesWeCarve.com

…And on a possibly related note, Marlow and I are officially opening our Official Bad Art Museum of Art ( or O.B.A.M.A. ) on Saturday, November 15th. Have Fun, Be There! Details here. -JoDavid

Nit Wit Ridge is a house built entirely of junk located between San Francisco and LA near the Pacific Ocean. It is considered a fine example of folk art and is a California State Historic Landmark. It was built by one man (Arthur Harold Beal) over the course of 51 years.

Art began his creation in 1928 by digging out a hillside in Cambria. He used rocks, abalone shells, wood, beer cans, tile, car parts and other assorted junk to create his “Hearst Castle”.

Nit Wit Ridge is in Cambria (881 Hillcrest Drive), about 20 minutes north of Cayucos. Tours are available from the owners (Michael and Stacey O’Malley) by calling 805-927-2690. To get there, take highway 1 north to Cambria. Turn right at Main Street and continue through East Village into West Village. Turn right on Cornwall Street and then right again on Hillcrest Drive.

Via Weird Universe

Artist Jennifer Marsh covered this 50-year-old former Citgo station with a giant blanket. Jennifer was sick of paying high gas prices and bothered by the abandoned gas station that was an eyesore on the drive to her studio each day, so she decided to do something about it. With the help of professional and amateur artists from 15 countries and more than 2,500 grade-school students in 29 states, Marsh covered the 50-year-old former Citgo station — pumps, light stands, signs and all — with more than 3,000 fiber panels that are crocheted, knitted, quilted or stitched together.

The panels cover 5,000 square feet and come in every color, hue and texture. There are panels in burlap, leather, even silk. There are panels of solid color and others with patterns, prints or scenes.

The project cost about $29,000, much of it her own money. There were also grants and contributions from individuals and businesses.

Want to cover your own gas station? Jennifer offers helpful hints and ideas to create your own jumbo art work.

A pointalized portrait of each victim of The Green River Killer was made and then photocopied by artist Gary Hansen. The portraits were then cut out by hand and placed to make a portrait of Gary Ridgeway. There are almost 12,000 victim portraits.

Jon Ronson’s fascinating film about his experiences and discoveries documenting the thousands of boxes of Stanley Kubrick’s estate. This is a 50 minute documentary, so click on the full screen button under the video and enjoy it when you find the time.

Off the Map gives you an opportunity to enter a unique view of the world as seen through the eyes of ten incredible visionaries. Once you are inspired by their vision, be sure to build your own online backyard paradise and share it with Unusual Life.

Off The Map/PBS

Sweet Dreams: Sleeping on Cakes

1979 Michael & Leda moved themselves and their paintings from Provincetown MA to rural land in Cornville Arizona. There they began the first mixed media structure which they later called Eliphante. They continued building and sculpting on the 3 acre environment.

www.Eliphante.org

Thanks to Earl and Rhonda Brown for the tip!

The French city of Nantes recently became host to extremely strange and fascinating sculptural display: “Les Machines de l’Ile Nantes”, designed by François Delarozière and Pierre Orefice.

Via Dark Roasted Blend

A sleepy east side street scarred with abandoned houses and weed covered lots in Detroit's depressed lower east side has become the center of a controversy involving a volatile mingling of ruins, art and politics.

Begun in the eighties by artist and Heidelberg Street resident Tyree Guyton the Heidelberg Project, as it came to be known, developed into a block long environment consisting of free standing found-object constructions and abandoned buildings and trees adorned with found objects. Much of the area and works are are simplistically painted upon with multi-colored polka dots being the signature icon.

Via Detroit Yes

Artists Madeline Gins and Arakawa say that their house in East Hampton, N.Y., opposes death and may extend life. Originally called the Bioscleave House (Lifespan Extending Villa), they say its architecture makes people use their bodies in unexpected ways to maintain equilibrium, and that will stimulate their immune systems.

The couple also built nine “reversible destiny” loft-style apartments in Mitaka, Japan.

The house on Long Island, which cost more than $2 million to build, is their first completed architectural work in the United States - and, as they see it, a turning point in their campaign to defeat mortality.

The house, which is still unoccupied, was commissioned in the late 1990s by a friend who sold the property to an anonymous group of investors after the project dragged on and costs mounted. But it is ready, Arakawa and Ms. Gins said, to begin rejuvenating whoever moves in.

In addition to the floor, which threatens to send the un-sure-footed hurtling into the sunken kitchen at the center of the house, the design features walls painted, somewhat disorientingly, in about 40 colors; multiple levels meant to induce the sensation of being in two spaces at once; windows at varying heights; oddly angled light switches and outlets; and an open flow of traffic, unhindered by interior doors or their adjunct, privacy.

All of it is meant to keep the occupants on guard. Comfort, the thinking goes, is a precursor to death; the house is meant to lead its users into a perpetually “tentative” relationship with their surroundings, and thereby keep them young.

A House Not for Mere Mortals from the New York Times

Immortality House Audio Slideshow

(Thanks to Earl and Rhonda Brown for the tip!)