Creative Illustrations Made Out of Dirt


New York-based artist Sarah Rosado uses dirt to illustrate different shapes including a camera, a duck, a video game controller and more. Dirty Little Secrets is a project in which she uses dirt which she collects from local parks and using various tools she create beautiful hand-shape creations. I got in touch with Sarah and asked few questions regarding her artwork.

Q. Why did you select the medium “Dirt” for your art?

I wanted to do something different, something challenging. I had seen other artists do art with food and other objects but I had never seen art with dirt. That’s where the idea came from.
Q. What was the very first illustration you made using dirt?

The first dirt art that I did was the camera. I was pretty surprised with the results which served to feed my appetite to do more and more.

Q. What is your favorite illustration? and also what is the most difficult illustration you ever made?

My favorite illustration is the sneaker and the hardest one to make was the doggy.

Q. Do you preserve dirt illustrations or just take photographs and then they are destroyed?

No. The illustrations are not preserved. Once the image is created I photograph it and destroy it, never to duplicated again.

Q. Do you take orders / commissions as well?

When i first started the project it was just for fun but as I continued to create more illustrations people became interested in buying some of the images. Taking orders for sale is something I’m in the process of setting up. Commissions? Yes, why not.








Huge floats covered in flowers at the Bloemencorso Zundert floral parade


Nowhere else on the planet will you find as much variety in flowers as in The Netherlands. And they get very creative with it. For a recent event called “Flowers Parade” the giant flower sculptures were created in Belgium.

The floats are made of wire, cardboard and papier-mâché and entirely covered in thousands of dahlias grown specifically for the parade. Let’s take a look at most amazing flower sculptures below.























PAINTING BY DAVID WALKER


“Working in portraiture and using only spray paint David’s ability to capture his subject in his trademark multi-layered style has seen him invited to exhibit all over the world and his work becoming highly collectible.
Using self-enforced constraints such as a ‘no brushes rule’ David is pushing the medium in his own unique direction and challenging preconceptions.”










WALKING HOUSE


WALKING HOUSE

Introduction:

WALKING HOUSE is a modular dwelling system that enables persons to live a peaceful nomadic life, moving slowly through the landscape or cityscape with minimal impact on the environment. It collects energy from its surroundings using solar cells and small windmills. There is a system for collecting rain water and a system for solar heated hot water. A small greenhouse unit can be added to the basic living module, to provide a substantial part of the food needed by the Inhabitants. A composting toilet system allows sewage produced by the inhabitants to be disposed of. A small wood burning stove could be added to provide CO2 neutral heating. WALKING HOUSE forms various sizes of communities or WALKING VILLAGES when more units are added together. WALKING HOUSE is not dependant on existing infrastructure like roads, but moves on all sorts of terrain.


Construction:
:
Each unit is equipped with the basic systems for maintaining everyday life for a maximum of four persons. But it could easily be scaled up for larger family structures. Furniture is an integrated part of the structure. The module can be constructed from numerous materials. It is based on a framework made of steel, aluminum or wood and can be covered with steel, aluminum, wood or even semi- permeable textiles. Windows are made of polycarbonate. Insulation could be anything from thin plates of Polyethylene to wool.
The rear of the modules opens up to form a stair that functions as an entrance. Each leg works as an autonomous unit with its own accumulators and linear actuators. The concept is that six legs could be mounted on any kind of structure and make it walk. When it walks three legs are always on the ground to provide the necessary stability. The structure should move at a slow pace similar to the walking speed of the human body. It is a common fact that walking often helps a person concentrate their thoughts and creates a mental state that enforces mobility of the mind. The WALKING HOUSE is constructed to move at a pace similar to human speed exactly for this reason. By adding several modules together the system can provide dwellings that adapts to social needs for living as a single person, in a family, a collective or even in a WALKING VILLAGE. In this way the WALKING HOUSE adapts to persons instead of persons having to adapt to the house.


Background:

WALKING HOUSE is a result of a specific project initiated by Wysing Arts Centre, Cambridgeshire.
N55 was asked by Wysing Arts Centre to collaborate with a group of travellers in the area around Cambridge, where there has traditionally been a large population of travelers living in a symbiotic relationship with the settlers, making a living as seasonal workers on the farms. After an initial meeting with one of the groups, it was clear that the traditional nomadic culture was disappearing fast and the Romani people where settling down and living as a marginal group with all the problems that goes with this situation. What was left appeared to be a brutalized culture fighting to survive in a hostile environment becoming increasingly hostile itself. So we decided to see if it would be possible simply to keep a distance to the current situation and maintain an overview of the benefits of a nomadic culture and try to suggest new means that would enable a nomadic life in a symbiotic way with the surroundings. This is very much a question of the differences in aesthetics between the nomadic culture and the settlers. Our working theory has been that by introducing a design that both are inspired by traditional nomadic culture and contemporary design solutions, some of these differences could easier be overcome.
Traditional Romani Horse carriages from the 18th century are very refined systems of living in confined spaces. 


These horse powered carriages are covered by textiles or wood, both materials that enables the space to breathe while removing the moisture produced by the people living inside. 
The inner walls are often covered with wool for insulation purposes. Furniture etc are designed to take up as litle space as possible.


We have used this tradition to inspire a new design that uses some of the technological advantages of modern society. 


Ownership of LAND and WALKING HOUSE:

It is a habitual conception that ownership of land is acceptable. Most societies are characterized by the convention of ownership. But if we claim the ownership of land, we also say that we have more right to parts of the surface of the earth, than other persons have. 
We know that persons should be treated as persons and therefore as having rights. If we say here is a person who has rights, but this person has no right to stay on the surface of the earth, it does not make sense. If one does not accept that persons have the right to stay on the surface of the earth, it makes no sense to talk about rights at all. If we try to defend ownership of land using language in a rational way it goes wrong. The only way of defending this ownership is by the use of power and force. No persons have more right to land than other persons, but concentrations of power use force to maintain the illusion of ownership of land.
The misunderstanding that persons have a right to own land leads to situations where there is no tolerance for different ways of living and in extreme situations this leads to war.
Concentrations of power limit person’s access to land by the force of among other things the notion of ownership. The WALKING HOUSE requires no permanent use of land and thereby challenges ownership of land and suggests that all land should be accessible for all persons. Society could administrate rights to use land for various forms of production of food for example, but ownership of land should be abolished.
N55 furthermore suggest that WALKING HOUSES should be owned by all persons in common and used by the persons wanting to live in them.



Technical specifications:
Basic module:
Height: 3.5 meters
Width: 3.5 meters
Length: 3.72 meters
Weight: 1200 kg
Max speed: 60 meters/hour
Component list:
Plating and framework wood and plywood
Legs made of steel and mechanical components
12 linear actuators
solar panels
micro windmills
polycarbonate plates
interior equipment












Frédéric Chopin, 1906

Frédéric Chopin, 1906 - Parc Monceau, Paris, France - Jacques Froment-Meurice (1864-1947)