Gabriel Dishaw’s Upcycled Creations

My passion for working with metal and mechanical objects has been crucial in the evolution of my art and freeing my imagination. It provides me an avenue to express myself in a way that both helps me and the environment. The metal has the ability to resonate the very fantasies and thought processes that I envision.
I create my works using found objects from typewriters, adding machines, old computers and technology. I take the items people no longer have use for and that would normally end up in a landfill and in-turn create something new and upcycled. My mission is to create dialogue and help find creative ways of dealing with this discarded tech in an environmentally sound way. More info:gabrieldishaw.com

Incredible Laser Cut Paper Art by Eric Standley

Eric Standley draws his themes from Islamic and Gothic architecture and art, formed in the 12th century. The technique he follows for the “building” of his works does not differ from that of the ancient craftsman other than he uses lasers in the place of the chisel and hammer.

Eric’s work consists of successive layers of intricately cut paper sheets utilizing a laser, thus creating a multifaceted, rich, colorful ensemble. The result is so complex and detailed that the works should be examined from multiple perspectives to be fully appreciated. The bold determination to shift from the permanence and massiveness of stone and the material allure of glass to the instability and familiarity of paper is rewarded by the induced pleasure stimulated while gazing at the work. It is not the quality of the raw material that makes art, but the art that gives quality to the raw material.

Eric’s artworks construct the mosaic of a collective representation of time; time that flows, includes, and accompanies. The time that has gone by, the time we are living in, and the time that will come. This is what defines us as we intervene with its flow. The echo of the past that is articulated is of when material elements existed, but now are lost like that of a dream. Through the suggestibility that his works express, Eric Standley manages to harness time and turn it into a lever of reflection on the riddles of life, as well as a way of reconstructing cultural values.

More info: eric-standley.com

Merry Cemetery - Romania

The Merry Cemetery (Romanian: Cimitirul Vesel pronounced is a cemetery in the village of Săpânța, Maramureş county,Romania. It is famous for its colourful tombstones with naive paintings describing, in an original and poetic manner, the persons that are buried there as well as scenes from their lives. The Merry Cemetery became an open-air museum and a national tourist attraction.

The unusual feature of this cemetery is that it diverges from the prevalent belief, culturally shared within European societies – a belief that views death as something indelibly solemn. Connections with the local Dacian culture have been made, a culture whose philosophical tenets presumably vouched for the immortality of the soul and the belief that death was a moment filled with joy and anticipation for a better life.