Art
Mysterious Artwork Visible From Space Discovered Near Las Vegas
A mysterious piece of artwork has been discovered in the desert outside of Las Vegas and the curious drawing is so enormous that it can actually be seen from space. According to a local media report, the peculiar design was seemingly first spotted last month by Dr. David Golan as he and his wife were walking their dogs in an area of wilderness at the edge of the city. When they reached a particularly high plateau, he noticed “this pattern in the rocks” which resembled “a face and a yin and yang sign.” A subsequent excursion to the site revealed that the artwork is largely hidden to those on the ground, Golan explained, “all you can kind of tell is that there are rocks piled up.”
Lest he had any suspicions that his mind might be playing tricks on him, when Golan later looked at the location on Google Earth, the remarkable artwork was clearly visible. Amazingly, the area resident says that he has often walked his dogs in the mountainous location over the last five years, but never spotted the drawing until last month and an online search for references to the mysterious piece turned up nothing. “Someone did some pretty miraculous artwork up on the top of the hill,” he marveled, “and it’s just sitting here.” The presence of the piece was apparently also news to the Bureau of Land Management, which is responsible for overseeing that particular portion of the desert.
As of now, the creator of the artwork as well as the meaning behind the piece remains a mystery, though a look at previous Google Earth images indicates that it has been something of an epic and evolving work in progress that began sometime in 2017. Beyond the questions surrounding its origin and its designer is the matter of its future now that the drawing has been discovered as such land art requires special permits from the BLM. Since the piece consists solely of rocks with no artificial materials, Golan hopes that the artwork will be allowed to remain in place, though since the presence of the piece is now public knowledge, it has already begun to draw visitors and, one fears, there is always the chance that some ‘critic’ will wind up destroying it.
Optimus Primal
This sculpture is supposedly made from used auto parts.
Little Robots and Donuts
Eric Joyner (born c. 1960) is a contemporary American artist whose body of work has focused on robots and donuts.
In 1999, he chose to focus only on topics that he likes. He started painting with four different elements: Mexican masks, San Francisco city life, old newspaper cartoons and Japanese robots. He found that the robots were the most popular feature with his friends. He had been collecting toy robots for about 20 years and wanted to bring them to life. In 2002, he felt that he needed another element to work off of. Inspired by the film Pleasantville, in which Jeff Daniels paints donuts, Joyner added donuts. The donuts have been featured as both objects of desire and adversaries to the robots.
Mongol Hordes on the Horizon
AP
To the outside world, Genghis Khan, the fearsome Mongolian warrior who conquered half the known world in the 13th century, is remembered for his brutalities and destruction that he brought upon the conquered regions resulting in the death of forty million people. But to Mongolians, he is a national hero, a larger-than-life figure and the symbol of Mongolian culture, and for good reasons. Genghis Khan founded the Mongol Empire, which became the largest contiguous empire in history, revived the Silk Road, uniting warring tribes and was responsible for cementing the position of Mongols in the world’s map.
After Mongolia overthrew communist rule more than 20 years ago, there appeared a slew of monuments and products celebrating the famous personage known locally as Chinggis Khaan. Mongolia’s main international airport in Ulaanbaatar is named Chinggis Khaan International Airport, students attend Chinggis Khaan University and tourists can stay at the Chinggis Khaan Hotel. His face can be found on everyday commodities, from liquor bottles to candy products, and on bank notes.
In 2008, a gigantic statue of Genghis Khan riding on horseback was erected on the bank of the Tuul River at Tsonjin Boldog, 54 km east of the Mongolian capital Ulaanbaatar, where according to legend, he found a golden whip. The statue is 40 meters tall and wrapped in 250 tons of gleaming stainless steel. It stands on top of the Genghis Khan Statue Complex, a visitor center that itself is 10 meters tall, with 36 columns representing the 36 khans from Genghis to Ligdan Khan. The statue is symbolically pointed east towards his birthplace.
Inside the two-story base of the statue, visitors can see a replica of Genghis Khan’s legendary golden whip, sample traditional cuisine of horse meat and potatoes, or play billiards. Visitors can ascend to the exhibition hall using an elevator at the back of the horse and then walk to the horse’s head passing through its chest and the back of its neck from where they can have an excellent panoramic view over the complex area and the scenery beyond.
The Chinggis Khan Statue is currently the biggest equestrian statue in the world.
Cool Artistic Topographical Maps
Pittsburgh is one of the hilliest cities in North America
Niagara region
