Halloween (also known as All Saints’ Day) is celebrated across the world from the United States,Canada, Ireland, Puerto Rico, Japan, Australia, United Kingdom to parts of New Zealand on the last day of October. The most prominent symbol of Halloween has to be the carved orange pumpkin lit by a candle inside on every house’s doorstep.

The carved pumpkin is also called a jack-o-lantern, which got it’s origin from Europe. The European used to carve lanterns from turnips or rutabaga back in the days believing that the head was the most powerful part of the body with the spirit and the knowledge to frighten off any superstitions. The named jack-o-lantern traced back the Irish legend of Stingy Jack. The story of Jack, a greedy, gambler, hard-drinking old farmer has been summarized by Wikipedia as follows:

He tricked the devil into climbing a tree and trapped him by carving a cross into the tree trunk. In revenge, the devil placed a curse on Jack, condemning him to forever wander the earth at night with the only light he had: a candle inside of a hallowed turnip.

To celebrate Halloween with you all, I have compiled a number of creative pumpkin artworks for you to enjoy. Have a horrific Halloween!

…continue reading the post Halloween Pumpkins: Jack-O-Lantern

Between the Ferry Building and the end of Market Street in San Francisco sit an unusual fountain. It is locally known as the “Vaillancourt Fountain” but the sculptor, Armand Vaillancourt, named it “Québec libre!” on the night before the inauguration day of the fountain in 1971. Armand Vaillancourt is a French sculptor, painter and performance artist born on September 3, 1929 in the city of Black Lake, Quebec, Canada. “Québec libre!” which is in French and when translated to English mean “Free Quebec!”. Armand gave the sculpture such a name to show his support for the Quebec sovereignty movement and more largely, the support for the freedom of all people in Quebec.

This huge cubic fountain is 200 feet long, 140 feet wide and 36 feet high. It was closed for years for repair but was fully restored few years ago. Over the years the Vaillancourt Fountain received a number of names that was given by the public. They called it everything from “a giant monument to sanitary plumbing” to “a complete waste of money” to “a misrepresentation of art” to “a public fraud”.

The fountain had its most notorious moment in 1987: During a free outdoor concert by the band U2, lead singer Bono spray-painted “Rock and roll stops the traffic” on the fountain. His act was condemned by then mayor Dianne Feinstein and resulted in a citation for malicious mischief. Bono responded, “We’re the Batman and Robin of rock ‘n’ roll… I am an artist, and that was not an act of vandalism.” At a later concert, Bono invited Mr. Vaillancourt to spray-paint “Stop the madness!” onstage. Freedom of artistic expression aside, the act discouraged live concerts at the Embaradero for years afterward. :-)

…continue reading the post Embarcadero Center: The Vaillancourt Fountain

Early this month, I have heard on the news about a gigantic mechanical spider clinging to a derelict building in Liverpool, England. According to its performance artists at La Machine the story about the spider goes something like this…It appears to be female, around 13 metres tall and has been dubbed ‘La Princesse’ by the specialist researchers. The scientists believe the creature may be about to hibernate, and are attempting to prevent it falling into an inert state, as they are concerned with the potentially catastrophic results of the spider laying up to 1000 eggs. Scientists have therefore removed the spider from the building and taken it to a research base established at the ACC, at Albert Dock in Liverpool. The end.

La Princesse has been commissioned by the creative arts company and charitable trust Artichoke as one of the highlights at the 2008 Capital of Culture celebrations. One thing is for sure, it will attract thousands of visitors who just want to get a glimpse of the mechanical beast. The spider is made out of steel and poplar wood and will be operated by 12 people strapped to its frame. A attempt to wake La Princesses was done on Friday September 5th.  It was a success and the spider was moving around and spraying the public with water. Thousands of people have braved the wet weather to watch La Princesse being woken to an accompaniment of music from airborne musicians.

La Machine was also the designer of the mechanical elephant and the giant girl for Royal de Luxe’s performance of the The Sultan’s Elephant which brought the people of London in May 2006 to a standstill with amazement. Brilliant engineering!

…continue reading the post La Princesse: Gigantic Mechanical Spider

I came across a video that truly amaze me by its creativity, both in quality and in execution. It’s a touching love story created by animation director, Carlos Lascano. This is not only a video about a love story but also about the director himself.

Carlos is indeed a successful multi-faceted artist with talents in painting, illustration and comics. Born in 1973, I can say he was born with a paint brush in his hand. His path in life really inspired me and the way he found his vocation in this world. He has then completed Law School in 1997, but decided not to practice and to dedicate his career entirely to his art creation. He finally decided that film making was his medium of choice because it represent the coming together of the different forms of expression of his artistic universe. In the same year he founded his own production company Pandemonium, a visual group which produced publicity for television.

That’s what I call literary ambition! His incursions into the art world speaks for itself. He has filmed video clips, commercial ads, animations, documentaries and featured films. His latest work as the animation director for the short film, The Legend of the Scarecrow, won more than 20 awards worldwide and was preselected for the Oscars in 2005.

You can visit his website at carloslascano.com. I suggest you to watch the animation videos under gallery. I’m sure you won’t be disappointed.

…continue reading the post Stop Motion: A Short Love Story

Yes, the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games is officially over. Such spectacular ceremonies China has put together for the world to enjoy! Below are the last set of the Google Olympic Logo doodles. Can’t wait for the next Olympic Games in 2012 which will be held in London, England.

…continue reading the post Google Beijing Olympic Logos: Part Three