Puzzle Photography
View allAll Photos Tagged PUZZLE-LIKE
This site has a height of 2,660 meters (8,727 ft) above sea level and is located in the Runtún hamlet.
Baños is a mixed bag. The setting is amazing: you can see waterfalls, hike through lush forests, rest your bones in steaming thermal springs, hike down impossibly steep gorges, bike or boat all the way to the Amazon Basin, and marvel at the occasional eruption of nearby Volcán Tungurahua. The town itself is somewhat overwhelmed with garish tour operators, cut-price spas and budget accommodations, but the jigsaw-puzzle-like sidewalks in red, yellow, and blue are wide enough to stroll on, and the cathedrals, spotlit in different colors, look pretty from the plazas at night.
Look and feel aside, this is the central highlands’ premiere destination for mountain biking, hiking, rafting and partying, and while some folks will have their reservations about the town’s appearance, almost everybody leaves with a big smile on their face and great stories from their adventures.
The 2000 action film Proof of LIfe was filmed here.
This site has a height of 2,660 meters above sea level and is located in the Runtún hamlet.
Baños is a mixed bag. The setting is amazing: you can see waterfalls, hike through lush forests, rest your bones in steaming thermal springs, hike down impossibly steep gorges, bike or boat all the way to the Amazon Basin, and marvel at the occasional eruption of nearby Volcán Tungurahua. The town itself is somewhat overwhelmed with garish tour operators, cut-price spas and budget accommodations, but the jigsaw-puzzle-like sidewalks in red, yellow, and blue are wide enough to stroll on, and the cathedrals, spotlit in different colors, look pretty from the plazas at night.
Look and feel aside, this is the central highlands’ premiere destination for mountain biking, hiking, rafting and partying, and while some folks will have their reservations about the town’s appearance, almost everybody leaves with a big smile on their face and great stories from their adventures.
The 2000 action film Proof of LIfe was filmed here.
He looks puzzled. Like he has forgotten something. He was actually washing up and scrubbing at his head. LOL
I want to thank each and everyone in advance who took the time to visit my little space here on Flickr.
The past is a puzzle, like a broken mirror. As you piece it together, you cut yourself, your image keeps shifting. And you change with it. It could destroy you, drive you mad. It could set you free...
I was going to darken the green background, but then the jigsaw puzzle like nature of its pieces struck me as another subject, so I left it as is. I cannot imagine why Flickr doesn’t know this, but the lens used here is the 70-200mm f/4.0 AF-S VR Nikkor.
While camping in the Kootenai National Forest near the Canadian border in early September, the bark on a pine tree caught my eye. Classic orange-brown plates break apart in puzzle-like shapes, with deep furrows and rough patches mixed in. Iâm pretty sure it was a Ponderosa Pine, given the color and texture. Some areas show old scars and evidence of insect activity or woodpecker workâtypical for trees in this region. Iâm always fascinated by how these large, tall pines hang on year after year, toughing out northern Montana weather and everything from insects to fires that comes their way.
_DSC4397
© Stephen L. Frazier - All Rights Reserved. Reproduction, printing, publication, or any other use of this image without written permission is prohibited.
These unconventionally shaped canvases bear a resemblance to pieces of a giant puzzle. Like many of General idea’s works, the paintings reference the ancient Mesopotamian Ziggurat shape with which the group was captivated. An architectural structure of steps leading to a temple, the ziggurat is a recurring motif in their work, representing power, progress and success. Each of these paintings is four inches deep, corresponding to the height of the depicted ziggurat’s steps.
Taken either from the internets or Tim Hollis gave it to me. This was the walk through "haunted" funhouse built by Val Valentine. It was more of a maze with puzzles like a room with lots of doors, tilting balconies, tilting hallways, wishing wells with clawing skeletons at the bottom, and whatnot. There were no monsters inside, except for one sort of clumsily convulsing Chewbacca-looking monster in chains somewhere in the bottom. He was in a pit and you walked by and looked at him. He looked kind of sad, more than scary. He was tied to the walls in chains, and there were bloody bones illuminated in blacklight all around him. The roof had the "Flashing ghost" strolling on his tracks on top, and there was a witch that repeatedly looked out a window, but visitors never encountered them inside the attraction.
You can see some construction photos here:
This site has a height of 2,660 meters above sea level and is located in the Runtún hamlet.
Baños is a mixed bag. The setting is amazing: you can see waterfalls, hike through lush forests, rest your bones in steaming thermal springs, hike down impossibly steep gorges, bike or boat all the way to the Amazon Basin, and marvel at the occasional eruption of nearby Volcán Tungurahua. The town itself is somewhat overwhelmed with garish tour operators, cut-price spas and budget accommodations, but the jigsaw-puzzle-like sidewalks in red, yellow, and blue are wide enough to stroll on, and the cathedrals, spotlit in different colors, look pretty from the plazas at night.
Look and feel aside, this is the central highlands’ premiere destination for mountain biking, hiking, rafting and partying, and while some folks will have their reservations about the town’s appearance, almost everybody leaves with a big smile on their face and great stories from their adventures.
The 2000 action film Proof of LIfe was filmed here.
The hardy people that choose to live in bush Alaska often have to become like MacGyver, and at any given moment, jerry-rig anything that has broken. That is the reason you see a lot of what the average person would call "junk" - laying around outside of a remote cabin or home. You can't just jump in a car and go to the local hardware store, as it may be a couple of hundred miles away. (As it is in the case of this homesteader.)
On the other hand - what do you do with an old car or large home appliance that has quit working when you live off grid? There are a lot of puzzles like the ones I have mentioned, that have to be solved when living remotely. What would you do?
*(Notice the old truck parked down in the right hand corner of the photo? Old vehicles always capture my attention.)
Brick Four
This was the first new brick I built. I wanted to build an old fashioned puzzle-like toy similar to a Jacob's Ladder. My son has already spent quite a bit of time fiddling with this, going through its different configurations.
Inspired by Cole Blaq's "Enter The Brick" series.
Even Brits won't make mistake here, folks!
So much for the Dutch practical mentality exposed here. But even after many many years of living here I do come across puzzles, like this one. Questions arise: What kind of presumably accidents induced painting of these arrows? The lanes are very narrow. Were some people trying to ride over the middle? Or were having difficulties steering safe off the side railings? Or is it simply showing off the visual culture of somebody in charge who couldn't stand the bare empty blackness in an almost closed tunnel space? Or is it just to encourage people to ride up onto the roof parking lot of this shopping mall, which they otherwise would be afraid to undertake? Or to enforce the sense of direction to the pilot in a moment of sudden light fall-off when shoveling the gas up the hill? Or is it just another way to disclaim responsibility when/if something goes awry in this claustrophobic passage?
LG G4 out-of cameraphone's jpeg, edited in Snapseed.
Slime moulds can move and search for food like animals but produce spores like mushrooms, but are neither. They can live as single cell organisms, they can fuse together and they can subdivide again as they have no cell walls. Laboratory tests have shown that they can solve puzzles like optimize their paths and learn to avoid negative feedback and make decisions based on predicting the future. They are "no more than a bag of amoebae encased in a thin slime sheath" yet they manage to have various behaviours that are equal to those of animals who possess brains. Really strange and fascinating animals... uups... forms of life.
Helsingin Fastholm 02102016
My commercial portfolios
Slime mold images by Henri Koskinen at MushroomImage
It's a Kokdamon cut and paste art, can u find out which album the materials from?!
Top 50 Album list (A-Z) will give u some hints:
1. The Album Leaf - Into The Blue Again
2. Ali Farka Touré - Savane
3. Beck - The Information
4. Beirut - Gulag Orkestar
5. Belle & Sebastian - The Life Pursuit
6. Bob Dylan - Modern Times
7. Bonnie 'Prince' Billy - The Letting Go
8. Built To Spill - You In Reverse
9. Camera Obscura - Let's Get Out Of This Country
10. Cat Power - The Greatest
11. Danielson - Ships
12. The Decemberists - The Crane Wife
13. DeVotchKa - Little Miss Sunshine OST
14. The Dresden Dolls - Yes, Virginia
15. El Perro Del Mar - El Perro Del Mar
16. The Elected - Sun, Sun, Sun
17. Electric President - Electric President
18. Emily Haines & The Soft Skeleton - Knives Don't Have Your Back
19. The Flaming Lips - At War With The Mystics
20. Isobel Campbell - Milk White Sheets
21. Isobel Campbell & Mark Lanegan - Ballad of the Broken Seas
22. Jarvis Cocker - Jarvis
23. Joanna Newsom - Ys
24. The Knife - Silent Shout
25. L'Arpeggiata/Christina Pluhar - All'Improvviso: Ciaccone, Bergamasche...
26. M. Ward - Post-War
27. Madeleine Peyroux - Half The Perfect World
28. Mogwai - Mr Beast/ Zidane-A 21st Century Portrait
29. Mojave 3 - Puzzles Like Your
30. Monster Movie - All Lost
31. Neil Young - Living with War
32. Neko Case - Fox Confessor Brings the Flood
33. Nouvelle Vague - Bande à Part
34. Peter Bjorn And John - Writer's Block
35. PJ Harvey - The Peel Sessions (1991-2004)
36. The Raconteurs - Broken Boy Soldiers
37. Red Sparowes - Every Red Heart Shines Toward the Red Sun
38. Regina Spektor - Begin To Hope
39. The Roots - Game Theory
40. Scott Walker - The Drift
41. Sonic Youth - Rather Ripped
42. Sparklehorse - Dreamt For Light Years In The Belly Of A Mountain
43. Tom Waits - Orphans: Brawlers, Bawlers and Bastards
44. Tortoise/Bonnie 'Prince' Billy - The Brave & the Bold
45. TV on the Radio - Return to Cookie Mountain
46. Wolfmother - Wolfmother
47. Yeah Yeah Yeahs - Show Your Bones
48. Yo La Tengo - I Am Not Afraid Of You And I Will Beat Your Ass
49. 秋紅 Qiu Hong- 秋紅 Qiu Hong
50. 陳偉發 - 花屍. 殘枝. 舞台音樂合輯 1999-2003
I'm so depress + angry yesterday, when i realise one of the most essential folder in my computer lost!!! I still can't figure out why, but pretty sure it's been deleted. (by me?! when i'm sick? in my dream???) So i say goodbye to my portfolio, postcard artwork, digital drawing, web materials and and and i can't remember whatz inside now, arrrr! My mood is still recovering, so i want to think optimistically, that it's a good sign to make something new and creatively! here's a cut n paste art i made, can u find out which album the images from?! tell me about it, i'll be happier i guess.
Apart from music, live shows, art and movie, the Swiss Trip really changed my life ever since. 2-0-0-6 is a very special year for me, i start to realise life is short, how can we left all the most important things behind, i can only see endless working and entertainment, typical family + future + retirement planning among the people, i wanna shout to the ordinary life: HEY SUCK YOU! LEAVE ME ALONE!!! coz now i'm so excited and happy to know where i should go, even the place might not exist yet, i believe, it's not a dream anymore til the moment we get there. Thank you my little angel, for giving me the chance to see myself and to feel the massive love around me. It's never too late, don't afraid if i can't see it, come follow your heart like we used to do, dance and fly with me over the rainbow, there's sunshine after the darkness, then we'll still be able to laughing in the rain, let's pray together day by day... Finally i won't surprise if some people don't get what i'm saying, there's too much Kokdamon Dry Talking, wait and you may understand someday before year 2030, if you're still alive, Good Luck, Good Health in the coming 2007 Pig Year.
Dodging the Guard:
A Short C.R.A.S.H Story
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Aarla watched the torch-lit announcer through slitted eyes, waiting, poised on the starting line.
The scruffy-bearded starter, clad in the red-and-blue colors of the Royal guard, raised the sliver whistle to his lips, taking a deep breath as he did.
As soon as that whistle sounded, the Stealth competition, the Outlaws representative sport, would begin.
The goal of the sport was to navigate through a darkened maze to the center, garb the flag there, and return to the starting line, all while avoiding the other players, and the archers situated in high wooden towers throughout the maze, armed with rubber-tipped arrows.
In order to properly darken the maze, thus making it harder for the players, as well as the archers, to see, the competition was being held at night, under a cloudy sky.
It was a timed event, and the player who returned first, and with the flag and the fastest time, won a gold medal, and a whole lot of bragging points.
Aarla intended to be that person.
Alongside her, on the starting line, were the other three player from the opposing teams who would be competing against her in this first round.
The event was being done in several rounds, with one player from each team going into the maze at a time.
The final round would then pit the highest-scoring player from each team against each other for the deciding round.
Arnus, the blond-haired Loreesi, threw her a smug look, like he thought he was easily going to beat her, because she was a girl.
Aarla ignored him.
Burt, the bushy-bearded Garheim, was busy alternating between stretching, and swigging from a large bottle of ale in his right hand, his movement becoming more erratic every time he did this.
Vax, the Outlaw competitor, was simply standing on the line, casually studying the maze and his competition, his black cloak swaying softly in the night breeze.
Feeling her gaze upon him, Vax turned, and gave her a cocky smile, the grin making his mustached face look rather dashing, something she wouldn’t have thought possible for an Outlaw.
Focus, she told herself angrily, setting her eyes on the maze once more, although she could feel the other’s gaze still on her.
PRREEPP!!
The whistle shrieked into the night, and Aarla took off like an arrow, bolting into the maze before her competitors had even left the starting line.
Once in the hedge maze, Aarla slowed her pace, seeming to almost meld into the hedges.
She did this so that the tower archers wouldn't be able to pick her out by reckless movement.
Quickly, silently, she made her way deeper into the hedgerows, occasionally making a wrong turn, but for the most part easily figuring out the correct route.
The designers of the maze had done a fantastic job setting up a truly baffling challenge, but unfortunately for them, Aarla had always had an uncanny knack for solving puzzles like these, something that her former superiors in the Ranger Corps had been frustrated by back in the day.
It may be the right route, but it sure isn’t an easy one, Aarla thought, slowing her pace and hugging the hedge next to her, as she slipped past an archer’s tower, the third one she passed.
Leaving the tower behind, she sped up her pace again, and took a left, followed instantly by a right, and then a left again, and found herself standing at the beginning of a straight passage, that terminated in a circular clearing with four entrances set on the compass points, paved with loose stone. The middle was dominated by a fountain, with a maple tree alongside it, and a few stone benches.
The heart of the maze.
Aarla ran forward, adrenaline pumping through her as she spotted the thin wooden pole set next to the fountain, surmounted by a small red banner.
The flag.
Such was her excitement that Aarla failed to notice the archer’s tower right at the edge of the clearing until it was almost too late.
The thrum of a longbow, follwed by the hiss of an arrow splitting the air inches from her head, alerted Aarla to it’s presence, and she dropped to the ground, skidding against a hedge for cover.
Once her heart rate returned to normal, Aarla peered around the bush, taking in her surroundings, and identifying the location of the tower.
It was a devious spot indeed, she thought, spying it.
The tower had been placed right next to the entrance she’d been about to use, thus covering most of the surrounding area.
But how to beat the archers inside?, she wondered.
While she was completely confident in her ability to sneak past obstacles like this, she usually did that kind of thing in the pitch dark, and even though there was only a smattering of light from the half-obscured moon, she wasn’t willing to risk it, especially not after hearing the longbow, which most likely meant there were Scout Snipers in that tower, people she knew could shoot in near darkness with accuracy.
Her problem however, was quickly solved, as with the blundering crash of broken hedge branches, Burt came stumbling up the path, bottle swinging from one hand, with twigs tangled in his beard.
He went right past her, crouched alongside the hedge as she was, and never noticed her.
Nor did he notice the tower, until, with the thrum of three longbows, three arrows came arching down out of the night, to strike him in the chest and stomach.
As Burt swore, and the arrows bounced off him and hit the dirt, Aarla took advantage of this golden opportunity, and bolted past the staggering Garheim, speeding into the central clearing and diving behind the protective bulk of the fountain.
Even as fast as she was, one of the archers still managed to send a shaft after her, and it thunked against the tree trunk inches from her face.
Ignoring this, Aarla gingerly reached around the corner of the fountain, and plucked the flag and it’s staff out of the ground, noticing as she did that the flag bore the Royal seal.
How ironic, she thought wryly.
Wrapping the flag up under one arm, she bolted out form behind the tree, and raced out one of the other entrances, hearing a few arrows clatter on the stones behind her.
Now it was a contest of speed, and Aarla raced flat out, skidding around corners and intersections with reckless abandon.
At one point, she flew around a blind corner, and ran straight into Vax, knocking both of them off their feet in a tumble.
“Ooff,” the Outlaw said, flat on his back, with the wind knocked clean out of him.
Aarla had ended up on top of him, and a part of her mind fleetingly registered that Vax was even more handsome up close, and she decided she might not mind this arrangement.
“Well, I’d love to stay this way a little longer, but I’m afraid I’ve got somewhere to be,” she said, smiling disarmingly at the bemused Outlaw, then sprang to her feet nimbly.
“See you around,” Aarla said slyly, then bolted away.
“Wait,” Vax started, climbing to his feet, baffled about what had just happened, and wondering why the flirtatious Lenfel girl was running.
Then, he recalled seeing something rolled up under her arm.
“Hey!” he yelled, realizing she had the flag, and took off after her.
Up ahead, flying through the maze, Aarla spotted the dark mass of another tower, and started to slow.
As she did however, a taunting voice reached her ears, seeming to be directed at the archers in the tower.
“Ha! Missed again, you blind apes! You couldn’t hit me even if the sun was blazing down!”
Recognizing the voice of Arnus, she sped up again.
Rounding a corner, she spotted the foolish Loreesi standing behind a hedge bordering an L-shaped intersection, hands on his hips as he shouted abuse at the tower.
As Aarla ran full-tilt past the tower, Arnus spotted her, and the rolled-up flag.
“Hey! That’s mine!”
He started forward, and that was his downfall, as the archers caught sight of his white shirt in the dark, and with a thrum, an arrow was loosed right into his head.
“Ooww!” he cried, as Aarla sped right past, ignoring him.
One of the archers saw her, and sent an arrow arcing at her, to slam into the hedge right next to her.
Unfazed, Aarla ducked behind a T-shaped hedge, turned a corner, and left the tower and Arnus behind.
Around another corner, the entrance came into view, and beyond it, the torch-lit arena stands filled with people, and the starting line.
With victory in her sights, Aarla sped up, determined to reach the line and win.
As raced towards the opening however, she spotted an archer’s tower that she’d missed before, right next to the edge of the maze.
Even as she registered this, the archer’s shouts reached her ears, and she saw them draw their bows back and aim in her direction.
No, not when I’m this close, she thought, panicked.
With a the thrum of bowstrings, the arrows leapt away, arching through the sky towards her.
The first hit the hedge right behind her, the second impacted the dirt as she skipped a step. but the third hissed through the air, arcing straight at her chest…………….
Sr.B Puzzles Workshop
created 4-4-2024
plywood
398 pieces
31x 24 cm
TED: "Yer a verry lucky bear, Donald! I wuzzn't aloud to do posh pussles fer ages after I started doin' jigsaws, so Mum must be verry impressed wiv yer progress.
So, this is a 'and cut pussle frum Sr.B, that Spannish man wot sells 'is pussels on Etsy. It's a pikchur of a lady wearin' a dead cullerfull dress, an' the backgrownd's cullerfull too.
There's no pikchur to follow so it took us a cupple of days to do, even tho' it's only a small jigsaw. There's a free mini pussle inkluded too, so I fink it's verry good valew fer the munny cuz we'll be doin' it agane an' agane."
DONALD: "I know it's a huge honor to be allowed to make a special hand cut puzzle like this, so I made sure to keep my paws clean while assembling it.
And I like the beautiful felt-lined box with its sliding lid - it adds a touch of luxury!"
Like an ornate veggies & dip platter, this snowflake has some remarkable hidden details. Something I see very seldom: overlapping bubbles without any additional complex scenarios. Let’s dive into the details!
It might be helpful to see this key feature up close, so here is a blown-up version of the center of this snowflake, with some bubbles that look like crossed bandages in the center: donkom.ca/bts/DKP_1892.jpg . This is cool, because it means that two bubbles formed at different layers within the same prism facet of a snowflake under what would otherwise be considered “normal” growth conditions. You can tell they are separate by a faint overlap in their shadows as well.
Usually, a bubble forming by this method would be a cavity in the very center of the ice where the access to water vapour was a little less. The lack of building blocks means that the very center of any facet is likely to grow slower than the outer edges, with the corners growing the fastest (that’s where the branches form). To have two bubbles, each at different unknown distances from the center or the edges of the prism facet, throw a wrench into this logic. I’m not sure I have a model to describe this, but it’s definitely an exceptional circumstance or it would be seen more readily.
If I measure the distance between the bottom bubble and the shadow, I get 35px. If I measure the top bubble to its shadow, I get 42px. A seven pixel difference between the two, vs the shadow distance which would be the distance between the bubble and the rear surface of the snowflake, is very minor. The two bubbles are forming right on top of each-other, not evenly spaced on either side of the center which might be possible in a “crystal twinning” scenario. These distances are a clue, but not enough of one to solve the puzzle because there are no other signs of crystal twinning here.
Don’t get me wrong, this is a beautiful and mostly symmetrical snowflake that has many merits, but I value it significantly more because it has a mystery. Something that I will be going to bed with tonight and ponder in my dreams. These curiosities never end, as there will never be an end to new snowflakes… so long as we can get this climate change thing in check! Even then I have archives of many, many hundreds of snowflakes to share if no more avail themselves to me in the decades to come. :)
Like science? Like puzzles? Like photography? If you checked at least two of those boxes, you need a copy of Sky Crystals: www.skycrystals.ca/ - check out the book, but also the poster print if you just want to stare into 2500 hours worth of work depicting the pristine complexity of The Snowflake.
So my friends, here a shot that will explaine the puzzle...... like how these 2 streets in my last 2 post's come together... plus here you can see the litlle cafe on the small walking bridge - i said it was a little complicated to explain (((:
2 level streets:
Calle de Campanero is the one below, and the steps going up to Calzada Tecolote turning right.
prototype of "new angle" table for fritz hansen, 1960s
architect: jørn utzon 1918-2008
(iphone photo).
this little-known prototype I found in our best copenhagen auction house when the utzon family sold parts of his art and design collection. for reasons unknown, I failed to put in a bid. the table sold for very little.
the principles of the final design are here, the 45 degree cut off of the frames that allow them to come together so elegantly in three dimensions. only the curves are missing.
this, I believe, is one of the places where the direct influence of utzon's reading of the yingzao fashi, the Chinese building manual published in 1103, can be seen. reducing complex geometry to a manageable kit of parts is one of the lessons of the yingzao fashi and it became a central issue in utzon's work when he won the sydney opera house competition. here is one of the clearest examples, with a puzzle-like and distinctly Asian feel to it.
more utzon here
please name photographer "SEIER+SEIER".
do NOT copy texts, tags and comments.
For those with a bit less exotic taste than the DeLorean crowd, how about this offering!? Recently seen at Go! Games and Calendars: a company which is apparently repositioning itself to become the go-to place for physical (as in old school style) board and other games, puzzles (like the one pictured here) and other related offerings. The calendars seemed almost secondary (still a huge selection though), even toward the end of the year when I last visited the Southaven Tanger Outlets location a short while back.
It is a beautiful tree, with lovely spring flowers, jigsaw puzzle-like bark, and brilliant autumn color. The fruits have a spooky resemblance to depictions of a certain virus.
Maurice Cumbers (1907 - 1984), from Croydon, cut puzzles for his friends and family. This one nearly ended up on the bonfire because it had 3 pieces missing...
I can't figure out how you would cut a puzzle like this, but perhaps others can! Diagonal lines run from the corners, and from triangles at the top and bottom centre, to a large circle in the middle.
And others will certainly know more about the painting, which I think must be by Martin Rico (1833 - 1908), who painted in Paris and Venice as well as in his native Spain.
I'm having a lot of fun with these. My plan is to keep breaking down the rectangles until it feels like it's done. Then, I'll go back into the rectangles adding drawing, text, photos, etc until it feels complete. I love big puzzles like these.
The finished 500-piece jigsaw puzzle "Gathering," artwork by Bob Pettes, and manufactured by Ceaco. We've really grown to love folk art puzzles like this, and artist Bob Pettes does wonderful work.
This is my interpretation of the official LEGO Architecture set #21005. I sought to bring a little more detail, color, and foliage into the model without radically changing the original design.
The model still separates in a puzzle-like fashion, although the lack of some pieces in dark tan makes it a little less structurally sound.
I elected to make the base in black as a nod to the other models in the Architecture series and to help highlight the relief changes in the landscape.
“Bauhaus” Cubic Puzzle 154 units 3-fold view. (This is my favorite view.)
I first planned to design a tube puzzle like this several years ago, and started on a provisional project then. However, after running into some design challenges I gave up for the time and set the project aside. I took the time to renew it over winter break and this was the result.
Each tube here is a custom designed pattern, and as a result they do not even have the same number of units each, but rather vary from 16-19 units per tube. The puzzle holds together very tentatively on its own, but adding the extra purple “loops” (two of which are unlike the other ten) makes the model very solid and durable. The exact pattern of the puzzle is fairly arbitrary, and could be modified to make a different puzzle. Since I designed the puzzle piece by piece, assembly was not hard, but I could imagine that simply giving the completed tubes to someone else, it could take them a few minutes to figure out the relationship.
The tubes are incredibly labor intensive- about 2 hours was required to design each piece. The nickname’s origin is from the 20th century design style, which I think is at least loosely reflected in the styling of this model.
Designed by me.
Folded out of copy paper.
(2) SMGO
If realistic pictures of great execution were described as paintings that only luck voice, the superflowing plastic Gleitzeit painting only luck the tune.
The attempt to communicate visual art through speech is a continuation of an art experiment that started as long ago in ancient Egypt, in archaic Greece, in medieval art where scrolls come out of the mouths from figures to show what they were saying.
When Jaisini paints straight on canvas without preliminary sketch he is close to a transitory moment of creation that becomes an apogee of human effort when an artist doesn’t premeditate art but pushed himself to make future visible not yet existing in any other form or ready sketch.
The artist’s mind is a container of his picture’s idea.
At this moment of art making many factors contribute to the execution of the painting. Questioning this many times anyone will hardly get the final answer because of the nature of inquiry to explain the moment of high inspiration. How a man could paint complex paintings that allow endless topics to write about? Meanwhile Jaisini paints in short time duration of few hours bringing out something never seen before and of immediate production, not the result of prepared studies and sketches.
Watching Jaisini speaking I try to see anything that could connect to his art.
Language of gestures and words could explain the artist’s language of color and imagery. Jaisini seems to be tense and relaxed simultaneously.
His human condition overcomes regular norms of life. He is instantly analytical and frivolous and like a great actor doesn’t need a mask or a make-up to enforce his transition in a role. For him paintings are like roles where he can explore ambiguities through faces of the images and linear plastic. A skillful master he in fact never contributed time to polish his skills.
The mastery comes from another source. The freshness of his approach maybe explained by the authentic method and refusal to overdo or over practice that often is an enemy of creativity substituting productivity for inspiration. An artist who is a mass producer of his one discovery is not an artist but a craftsman manufacturing artifacts automatically. Jaisini had never repeated himself in predictable way. The artist pointed out that he can’t repeat any of his painting when he might even intent to adding that it is too complicated and impossible to remember the way it was once painted, the layer of colors, the spontaneity of the line is unattainable for repetition.
I was interested to create a connection with thoughts and visual subjects of complexity because of their strong potential to communicate.
Communication with these paintings has resulted in desire to write and even to start a new art of imagination.
I think that Jaisini’s entanglement of lines and thoughts, colors and images had trapped me. The plasticity of line is something programmed to catch the attention. When you think that you just caught the line it runs away as flirtatious suitor. The plastic configuration of line that allures you with superflowing outlines is as potent in words and in vision as for instance a succulent fruit, a seductive nude, and aroma of flowers. The plasticity invites you to puzzle out hidden content as if it was a personal secret.
You might not stop even if it takes time as in my case after my curiosity was never satisfied with finding explanation.
First I wanted to see the pictures and with time I was seeing in them more and more. But when I tried to establish meaning of the paintings the things I saw were changing. With time I returned to the stage of pure seeing but it was not the same as if I was already a different person. Apparently the mind is so avid to learn and find meanings that it will go on searching and integrating as if it is hungering for new all the time ready to devour new food for mind and uncover mysteries. Based on cognitive psychology people perceive reality and think through clusters of meanings. The style of Jaisini is based on creation of such clusters with information for the eye, mind, and instinct.
The picture offers certain clues and the picture’s puzzle adjusts to viewer’s capacity of understanding and seeing the idea in connection between reality and puzzle-like artistic formula.
The coherence of the picture can be reached by different approaches either through thinking, or seeing, by intuitive comprehension, or knowledge.
Jaisini’s line clusters do not claim to construct reality. They aim to present us with alternative connection to reality. And it is a self-conscious exercise of seeing but not believing, believing but not feeling, feeling but not knowing. The artist motivates us to experience many levels of this self-conscious exercise. Jaisini places more force of signification on linear spontaneity such as free flow, causality of the line that compete with conceptual activity of meaning creating that is a brain teasing game.
It was set up by the artist to bring out such a creation that when you are tired of looking you can think and read. The special achievement of Jaisini is his mastery over causality and non-tension of line that is a great tool to cultivate subconscious comfort and willingness to further understanding.
The original impulse of Show Must GO On creation drove the artist’s hand to build the meaning and idea, but at the same time the overall compositional elements of this painting are hardly explainable or meaningful.
It seems that this picture is a contest of subject matter against pure form, pure spatial balance with only purpose of space elaboration. Jaisini seems to consciously use his emotion of sorrow, emotion from musical stimulation to find unusual combinations of images, colors, and linear patterns. The painting’s ensemble of images is the most surprising in relation to title and original motive. The central main image of man in SMGO is being pulled by two opposing forces of creation and destruction, most likely self-destruction if read into the picture’s context. There is also a complex subject of rape that is presented in the painting.
In our minds and epoch rape symbolic seems to completely loose its original artistic context when the heroic rape was produced during the 15th through 18th centuries in pursuit of marital doctrine and to serve as erotic stimulation, sometimes to assert political authority.
Jaisini’s impulse to suggest a “heroic” rape from comes from an ingrain artistic reaction to the outside world as eternal antagonistic power to creativity. In such art as of Jaisini the symbolic of sexual nature transforms into yet another level of meaning. In classical art sexual subjects and images of rape were meant to justify violence against woman in a high fashion of submissiveness to husband and sacrifice for family. In Gleitzeit art presence of sexual symbolic is disinherits social quality.
It is a tool for creating figurative contrasts and points of higher sensibility.
At the same time imagery inherit a history of meaning in art and therefore can emit additional aspect of possible meaning. In that capacity Jaisini’s paintings are magnets for the mind. The line reminds a lasso that traps the prey. Jaisini’s visual manner of creating a tangled line derives from the deep-seated character of a hunter who has to capture his subject and tighten it up. But the picture’s composition is never strained. It is at the moment of creation and capture. The prey that could be the artist’s thought of an image is not restricted to one meaning, one vision. It is on a brink of new development. Just as interpretation of the picture.
Tradition in art to portray scenes of hunting traces back to ancient Greek but is transformed now in purely formal development of line that is not easily comprehended because in the art of Jaisini there is no figurative scenes of hunt or pursuit, no heroes with role ranks.
In Show Must Go On a central figure of a man non-ambiguously enters a figure of submissive person. It looks like a “heroic” rape scene but not as a classical representation of a god or a hero chasing a woman or a youth.
The painting doesn’t represent metaphorically sexual desire of Greek art’s sample where sexual relations were transformed in a metaphor of hunt.
This version is easily eliminated as the scene in Show Must Go On is homoerotic and the violated figure is not of youth or of an attractive appearance. As in many traditional images of “heroic” rape in the one in SMGO no one suffered great harm. A classical happy ending of marital story doesn’t apply to the concept of Show Must Go On that puts attacker in a position of victim. He is a victim of a personal creative urge of an artist who sacrifices something not known to majority of people shown by the unusual development when the raper in turn is violated by a portrayed predator (a sword-fish) who enters from the back and aims at his heart.
The image of submissive man might take on a role of bride who doesn’t resist the event of rape. His role of a silent victim seems to be a bigger burden then a role of transgressor or the rapist. Jaisini creates unique transformations in each of his work. The singer is this central man-rapist is not accidentally depicted as athletically build one to highlight a sensation of attractiveness worthy of assault. The transgressor is more worthy the assault then his victim. The prototype of a singer, Freddie Mercury, is not athletic.
The central man’s visual image doesn’t correspond to the initial inspiration.
The transformation changes percept of things when the prototype of the singer originally is not the body builder type.
The victimization by creative process is a complex subject taking in account the process of spontaneous painting style. In the works of Jaisini there are no pornographicall images, but sensuality is intense. It is achieved by the curvilinear plastic entrapping with line’s contact points accented by special symbolism making sensuality tangible without realistic portrayals.
One of the painting’s concepts is to show a victim of creative urge.
The mechanism of the offered role change is even more complex taking in account process of painting when the artist starts his work from a fleeting vision from mind finishing his painting in one session. It means that Jaisini executes inner thought and formulates it even before he fully understands what is done. That may explain mastery of the fresh and brisk approach of painting and unusual associations.
The main image of male in the painting who is rushing forward seems to be a deliberately provocative indication of an intercourse in bizarre set up. But the figure of aggressor is vulnerable by the depiction of a sward-fish attack.
Is this predator is a truer portrayal of maleness than of the central man meant to be masculine and aggressive but renewed in meaning with additional context of victimization. This image is going through immediate unusual change into a new type of androgen.
The man (creator) has attractiveness of female as recent popular incarnations of the androgen images in popular culture singers with strong sexual charge such as Alice Cooper, Freddie Mercury, Robert Plant.
The expression of sexual ambivalence in the artist establishes a fascinating game that exploits the confusion surrounding the male and female roles.
This is my interpretation of the official LEGO Architecture set #21005. I sought to bring a little more detail, color, and foliage into the model without radically changing the original design.
The model still separates in a puzzle-like fashion, although the lack of some pieces in dark tan makes it a little less structurally sound.
I elected to make the base in black as a nod to the other models in the Architecture series and to help highlight the relief changes in the landscape.
Cluster meanings
People perceive reality as cognitive psychology explains thinking through clusters of formulated meanings.
The whole style of painting Jaisini built is based on creation of such clusters that contain information for the eye and the mind.
The picture offers certain clues.
The picture’s puzzle could adjust to the viewer’s capacity to see the idea, connection between reality and artistic puzzle-like formula.
The coherence of picture could be reached through different approaches, either thinking or seeing, maybe by intuitive comprehension or knowledge.
Jaisini’s line clusters do not claim to construct reality.
They aim to present us with an alternative connection with reality.
It is a self-conscious exercise of seeing but not believing, supposing but not sensing, feeling but not perceiving.
Jaisini motivates to experience many levels of self-conscious exercise.
He triggers off the viewer by a puzzle and new transformation of a myth, by new variations and relations of colors, by exchange of shapes with void and spatial intrigue of linear spontaneity creating a session of hypnosis with a purpose to bring the viewer’s eye to a level of sophistication comparable to the artist’s.
Jaisini sets priority of significance on linear spontaneity such as free flow, causality of the line together with color purity and spatial intricacy.
At the same time conceptual activity of meaning-creation is a brain teasing game that can take turn or even put aside formal exploration of the painting.
It was set so by the artist for the viewer who gets tired seeing an option to start reading.
Great achievement of Jaisini is the mastery over causality, elimination of any artificial rigidity, non-tension of linear plasticism that is a great tool to cultivate subconscious comfort and willingness to further understanding of art.
Line enclosure is an element of externality (the artist’s command).
In postmodern art such external command of an artist’s hand was abolished due to the lowering of painting quality standard and discourse into over mechanization with hollowing of the meaning and reduction of painting to a color pallet as a decorative spot or introverted symbol.
The weak side of such style is yearning for addition, necessity to place another painting next to it and more of different styles in order to stimulate the postmodern painting’s presence with lost meaning, reason or fashion.
In decorative purpose like that point of true creativity is missing altogether.
A possession of a true art piece is comparable to possession of relic that works in mysterious way bringing luck to the house, creating new stories to tell. In this respect a painting by Jaisini eliminates artificial rigidity.
It is an exhibition in itself said by the owner of a gallery who is experienced in evaluating visual effect and compares one painting with an entire exhibition.
I as a writer found that Jaisini’s pictures capable to capture interest of a beholder to the point of desire to start studying art to better understand the complexity of one painting.
In Jaisini’s case one wouldn’t say, hey, I could paint like that.
Jaisini himself pointed out that it’s almost impossible to repeat painting or remember the way he had painted his picture.
Structure of style’s elements to create formal meaning coherence
What's the attraction?
Why did it catch my eye,
Engage my mind,
Metaphorize the puzzle pieces all designed to save the tree from fires, and yet be burnable without the inner tree dying...and the pieces really are like a Jig Saw Puzzle, and when my mind is cluttered, eyeing a puzzle like this allows for serenity in the details.
…we went upstairs into a spacious studio. The invigorating, nutty smell of
oil paint delighted my senses. It seemed as if I had stepped inside of the
painting. The enormous room dissolved the concentrated scent of oil paints and transformed into Asian perfume. Stepping inside an artist’s studio every time put me into the position of Alice in Wonderland. Surrounded by scattered paintings, brushes, pallets, paint tubes, roles of canvases, and sketch pads, I was searching for the special conversational piece. If I could only find the right piece, which would be the artist’s favorite, I knew it
would break the ice. The first painting that caught my attention put me suddenly under hypnosis and I don’t recall for how long I was staring at it, whether it was a minute or an hour. This is not, in any way, an exaggeration but a real-live experience.
Evidently, Jaisini noticed that I was trapped by one of his paintings and broke the silence.
-Do you like that piece, or are you looking for a starting point to criticize it?
However it is, I welcome your criticisms rather than flattery.
-Your painting develops in my mind like photosensitive paper in a developer. On second thought, I sense an aesthetic pleasure from just the color harmony, but I still need more time-I said.
-No problem, take your time while I finish a sketch.
I had to postpone the interview in order to get a better look at the painting
that captured me. The artist put on some classical music. I began taking notes about what I had seen while he was silently sketching. As time flew
by, it was getting dark outside and the music ended long ago. I glanced at
the watch and realized that 4 hours had already elapsed and I didn’t even start the interview.
Jaisini was still concentrating on his work and it was obvious that I should’ve called it a day. Setting the convenient time for tomorrow I left.
…we met at the café.
I could tell that Jaisini was in a good mood and the interview has a better chance today. Perhaps his work went well, I thought. Jaisini greeted me as someone he had already befriended….
…-Positively, the painting I was contemplating in your studio sticks to my mind
Jaisini answered;
-It happens to many. I like this cafe. It is always so picturesque. The people
here make it colorful. For example, do you see that waitress?
-The small blond in her late thirties?
-Yes, her name is Nancy. Three years ago she told me that she wanted to become famous and in her free time she writes a script for a movie, convincing me that it will be the first script of its kind, a love story based on
her memoir.
Jaisini smiled charmingly, adding: -Oh, no, I am not joking. I believe in her. Once I invited her to the studio, as
she seemed like such a peculiar person. I was just finishing my painting called “Organ Grinder”. She declared frankly and firmly: ”I want this picture. How much?”
I explained to her that I don’t sell paintings.
Then I experienced certain chemistry. When such a “simple” person, but still
the one who writes the script, says: “I want the “Organ Grinder”, it was the
strangest thing. I didn’t like the painting one bit and after that, all of a sudden, I started seeing it in a different light of something very pure and
divine. She wanted so badly to own the picture that she induced her desire on me. I think that to create this “divine” we have to get down with people, declass to become simple and understand art with awe. Even though Gleitzeit is not for regular people, it can be understood by a mailman who asked me for an autograph, by an immigrant who came to the US to earn
money, or by a priest from England who told me that this art is for intellectuals, not for ambitious people who say, “I understand this art while others don’t.”.
-Do you think that your pictures relate to people as if they are puzzles of human life?
-When a man is awake, a man is asleep; everything encloses. And when you enclose your line you create the reality in which the man truly exists not knowing that he is entrapped in a secluded world of his own doing which he cannot escape. The enclosed line may provoke the desire to breakout, to find an exit.
-The question arises, what is fine art now and who needs it? The elite?
-Yes, but people crave art too if a mailman asked me for my autograph on a postcard after I had to explain him about the picture he saw. Before I explained the painting the man felt scared of breaking his head over it. It is understandable when in schools art is taught as an entertainment, not as a psychological significance, a process of growth, a visualization of today’s reality, an analysis of social life and ancient history, or the world’s history that brought people to the technical progress.
- To build a family is more important for that man.
-Yes, he understands his purpose of trying to build a family of five with eighteen grandchildren. A man’s genetic structure is of a turtle’s and is directed to one, laying eggs by any means and returning in a year through six thousand miles across the ocean to lay eggs again at the same place. But pay attention that bravado of the civilized world brings a realization that everything is a sham. Real is what is encoded by nature; real is when you see a beautiful ocean, a beautiful sunrise, or the grace of a horse. This is real.
- Then what is fine art? Is fine beautiful or good?
-Beautiful. It began from nature, from the copying of beautiful bodies of people and horses…. My main direction in art is most progressive, to achieve in composition the grace of color combinations, an intellectual color climax, tone, contrast, and so on. The idea of the painting unites in itself everything we see in the real world, but in an intricate, puzzle-like concept.
-Art in America is a tendency for immediate recognition. The remembrance is strictly visual since there was no comprehension. First they want to see that it’s different. What about Gleitzeit, how do you see this visual effect expressed?
-A regular person, either a lady florist, my tennis partner, or a teenage cowboy comes to my studio and says: “I don’t understand this art and
I don’t want to see it, it’s not mine. When the lady florist starts seeing some figures in a painting, she shouts, “I see! Look! Look! I see it now!” like a child. A man denies what he doesn’t understand as an immediate reaction. An everyday man is brought up on the understanding of natural grace. He doesn’t assimilate it in an abstract
way. He sees an egg and a hen and points out which are the egg and the hen. In my picture he can’t say that this is an egg and this is a hen at first. Moreover, he can’t say what came first, the egg or the hen. He sees something very simple or very complicating. The man refuses to do an effort. Slowly, not even slowly, but pretty quickly the man can
transform if he learns.
-Do you want to change the process of art cognition? The judgment is not based on the appearance since ‘we’ve seen all there is to see’ with and without philosophy, like when they sell us Coca-Cola they tell us about the transcendental. We are understanding folks. Do you want this “flat” cognition to change?
- A man is looking for an escape. I try to attach him to a thread in the picture, which is twisted, to untangle it. What is next? Did he learn something? Yes, and he also begins to understand abstraction after the knot is undone. This is flexitime. Will the work turn blank? No, since it still has an idea. If it would be an automated drawing by a schoolchild that may look like something there is no concept. In my art you have an idea and mastership. The key is the artist’s mastership. A weak painting will not survive. What is left to the spectator is aesthetic pleasure and confidence.
-What if people ask you for a simpler art? Why do they have to untangle your art?
- I answer simply. It’s not my doing and decision. I didn’t decide it. The art critics said so, they who studied art all their life and read volumes of books. They say that they analyzed it and it has this and that meaning, non other. That an artist is a reflection of society.
- Do you consider yourself a reflection?
-No, I don’t. Philosophers try to understand what is art and life. I only
insist that grace will not diminish in value.
… and I caught myself on a thought that I wanted to know how the story with the scriptwriter waitress ended. If the painting is still in the artist’s holdings I would like to see it to know why she wanted it so badly. And I asked…From 48 hours of the Interview with Paul Jaisini in his New York studio
…we went upstairs into a spacious studio. The invigorating, nutty smell of
oil paint delighted my senses. It seemed as if I had stepped inside of the
painting. The enormous room dissolved the concentrated scent of oil paints and transformed into Asian perfume. Stepping inside an artist’s studio every time put me into the position of Alice in Wonderland. Surrounded by scattered paintings, brushes, pallets, paint tubes, roles of canvases, and sketch pads, I was searching for the special conversational piece. If I could only find the right piece, which would be the artist’s favorite, I knew it
would break the ice. The first painting that caught my attention put me suddenly under hypnosis and I don’t recall for how long I was staring at it, whether it was a minute or an hour. This is not, in any way, an exaggeration but a real-live experience.
Evidently, Jaisini noticed that I was trapped by one of his paintings and broke the silence.
-Do you like that piece, or are you looking for a starting point to criticize it?
However it is, I welcome your criticisms rather than flattery.
-Your painting develops in my mind like photosensitive paper in a developer. On second thought, I sense an aesthetic pleasure from just the color harmony, but I still need more time-I said.
-No problem, take your time while I finish a sketch.
I had to postpone the interview in order to get a better look at the painting
that captured me. The artist put on some classical music. I began taking notes about what I had seen while he was silently sketching. As time flew
by, it was getting dark outside and the music ended long ago. I glanced at
the watch and realized that 4 hours had already elapsed and I didn’t even start the interview.
Jaisini was still concentrating on his work and it was obvious that I should’ve called it a day. Setting the convenient time for tomorrow I left.
…we met at the café.
I could tell that Jaisini was in a good mood and the interview has a better chance today. Perhaps his work went well, I thought. Jaisini greeted me as someone he had already befriended….
…-Positively, the painting I was contemplating in your studio sticks to my mind
Jaisini answered;
-It happens to many. I like this cafe. It is always so picturesque. The people
here make it colorful. For example, do you see that waitress?
-The small blond in her late thirties?
-Yes, her name is Nancy. Three years ago she told me that she wanted to become famous and in her free time she writes a script for a movie, convincing me that it will be the first script of its kind, a love story based on
her memoir.
Jaisini smiled charmingly, adding: -Oh, no, I am not joking. I believe in her. Once I invited her to the studio, as
she seemed like such a peculiar person. I was just finishing my painting called “Organ Grinder”. She declared frankly and firmly: ”I want this picture. How much?”
I explained to her that I don’t sell paintings.
Then I experienced certain chemistry. When such a “simple” person, but still
the one who writes the script, says: “I want the “Organ Grinder”, it was the
strangest thing. I didn’t like the painting one bit and after that, all of a sudden, I started seeing it in a different light of something very pure and
divine. She wanted so badly to own the picture that she induced her desire on me. I think that to create this “divine” we have to get down with people, declass to become simple and understand art with awe. Even though Gleitzeit is not for regular people, it can be understood by a mailman who asked me for an autograph, by an immigrant who came to the US to earn
money, or by a priest from England who told me that this art is for intellectuals, not for ambitious people who say, “I understand this art while others don’t.”.
-Do you think that your pictures relate to people as if they are puzzles of human life?
-When a man is awake, a man is asleep; everything encloses. And when you enclose your line you create the reality in which the man truly exists not knowing that he is entrapped in a secluded world of his own doing which he cannot escape. The enclosed line may provoke the desire to breakout, to find an exit.
-The question arises, what is fine art now and who needs it? The elite?
-Yes, but people crave art too if a mailman asked me for my autograph on a postcard after I had to explain him about the picture he saw. Before I explained the painting the man felt scared of breaking his head over it. It is understandable when in schools art is taught as an entertainment, not as a psychological significance, a process of growth, a visualization of today’s reality, an analysis of social life and ancient history, or the world’s history that brought people to the technical progress.
- To build a family is more important for that man.
-Yes, he understands his purpose of trying to build a family of five with eighteen grandchildren. A man’s genetic structure is of a turtle’s and is directed to one, laying eggs by any means and returning in a year through six thousand miles across the ocean to lay eggs again at the same place. But pay attention that bravado of the civilized world brings a realization that everything is a sham. Real is what is encoded by nature; real is when you see a beautiful ocean, a beautiful sunrise, or the grace of a horse. This is real.
- Then what is fine art? Is fine beautiful or good?
-Beautiful. It began from nature, from the copying of beautiful bodies of people and horses…. My main direction in art is most progressive, to achieve in composition the grace of color combinations, an intellectual color climax, tone, contrast, and so on. The idea of the painting unites in itself everything we see in the real world, but in an intricate, puzzle-like concept.
-Art in America is a tendency for immediate recognition. The remembrance is strictly visual since there was no comprehension. First they want to see that it’s different. What about Gleitzeit, how do you see this visual effect expressed?
-A regular person, either a lady florist, my tennis partner, or a teenage cowboy comes to my studio and says: “I don’t understand this art and
I don’t want to see it, it’s not mine. When the lady florist starts seeing some figures in a painting, she shouts, “I see! Look! Look! I see it now!” like a child. A man denies what he doesn’t understand as an immediate reaction. An everyday man is brought up on the understanding of natural grace. He doesn’t assimilate it in an abstract
way. He sees an egg and a hen and points out which are the egg and the hen. In my picture he can’t say that this is an egg and this is a hen at first. Moreover, he can’t say what came first, the egg or the hen. He sees something very simple or very complicating. The man refuses to do an effort. Slowly, not even slowly, but pretty quickly the man can
transform if he learns.
-Do you want to change the process of art cognition? The judgment is not based on the appearance since ‘we’ve seen all there is to see’ with and without philosophy, like when they sell us Coca-Cola they tell us about the transcendental. We are understanding folks. Do you want this “flat” cognition to change?
- A man is looking for an escape. I try to attach him to a thread in the picture, which is twisted, to untangle it. What is next? Did he learn something? Yes, and he also begins to understand abstraction after the knot is undone. This is flexitime. Will the work turn blank? No, since it still has an idea. If it would be an automated drawing by a schoolchild that may look like something there is no concept. In my art you have an idea and mastership. The key is the artist’s mastership. A weak painting will not survive. What is left to the spectator is aesthetic pleasure and confidence.
-What if people ask you for a simpler art? Why do they have to untangle your art?
- I answer simply. It’s not my doing and decision. I didn’t decide it. The art critics said so, they who studied art all their life and read volumes of books. They say that they analyzed it and it has this and that meaning, non other. That an artist is a reflection of society.
- Do you consider yourself a reflection?
-No, I don’t. Philosophers try to understand what is art and life. I only
insist that grace will not diminish in value.
… and I caught myself on a thought that I wanted to know how the story with the scriptwriter waitress ended. If the painting is still in the artist’s holdings I would like to see it to know why she wanted it so badly. And I asked…From 48 hours of the Interview with Paul Jaisini in his New York studio
A dark orange fungi growing in a crack of a fallen tree, at Sugarloaf Mountain, MD, USA.
Google Lens IDs this as the fruiting body of Serpula himantioides, commonly known as the dry rot fungus. This fungus is a brown-rot fungus that grows on decaying wood, particularly coniferous logs. Its spore-bearing surface is formed of a convoluted maze of puzzle-like ridges, which are typically ochre, tan, or yellowish-brown. A cottony, white to cream margin often borders the fruiting body. It is a globally distributed wood decay fungus found on all continents except Antarctica.
Finis. An absolute masterpiece from Ravensburger, circa 1976. Everything one could want in a puzzle: bright colors, intricate details, a classic work of art but not so iconic that we see it everywhere. No areas of extreme monotony but not a cake walk, either. Will Ravensburger ever make a puzzle like this again?
Completed in 22 hrs., 42 mins. with no box reference. Actual piece count: 2,992 (44x68). 27.3 secs./piece; 131.8 pcs./hr. Difficulty rating: 2.7/10.
I am very excited to be back in my original territory: large, cardboard, classic fine art puzzles. While I have enjoyed my foray into wooden puzzles, mini pieces, etc., and will continue my discovery of these areas, I'll always have a soft spot for gems like this.
“Bauhaus” Cubic Puzzle 154 units In my hand.
I first planned to design a tube puzzle like this several years ago, and started on a provisional project then. However, after running into some design challenges I gave up for the time and set the project aside. I took the time to renew it over winter break and this was the result.
Each tube here is a custom designed pattern, and as a result they do not even have the same number of units each, but rather vary from 16-19 units per tube. The puzzle holds together very tentatively on its own, but adding the extra purple “loops” (two of which are unlike the other ten) makes the model very solid and durable. The exact pattern of the puzzle is fairly arbitrary, and could be modified to make a different puzzle. Since I designed the puzzle piece by piece, assembly was not hard, but I could imagine that simply giving the completed tubes to someone else, it could take them a few minutes to figure out the relationship.
The tubes are incredibly labor intensive- about 2 hours was required to design each piece. The nickname’s origin is from the 20th century design style, which I think is at least loosely reflected in the styling of this model.
Designed by me.
Folded out of copy paper.
Sailors be warned?
When I was a kid my friend's Dad was a fireman. Whenever we ran around too fast he'd scream "Where's the fire?"
I always found that puzzling. Like he should have known....where...the fire was. Because...he was a fireman.
I've not been in the habit of sharing puzzle finds in a public forum lately, but I wanted to share what is perhaps an historic set of three puzzles I purchased last year.
According to French puzzle historian Denis Charvériat's definitive text on Véra puzzles, Etablissements Véra, Puzzle Véra was established in France around 1932 by a Russian named Alexandre Tchertoff, who was inspired directly by hand-cut American puzzles from the first decades of the 20th century. These American puzzles were noteworthy for their use of extensive color-line cutting, taking advantage of improved technology (the treadle saw, and availability of lithographic prints) to produce a high-end product intended for adults.
In the early decades Véra puzzles were mostly smaller in size, numbering perhaps a few hundred pieces, and probably no more than a thousand. But as the company grew, especially after World War II, they became more ambitious and began making much larger sizes, perhaps egged on by competing brand Eddie Puzzle, which was in business from 1945-1950.
It was during this period that they established their two signature product lines: Rex Véra, which came in a blue box, and typically featured wavy, somewhat interlocking pieces that usually weren't cut along color lines; and the more difficult Royal Véra, in red boxes, push-fit pieces where extensive color-line cutting was used to increase difficulty.
Of course, none of these puzzles came with an image of what the completed puzzle would look like - the way all puzzles should be, if you ask me! Only a vague title, dimensions, and approximate number of pieces was provided for the user.
Over the years we have been discussing the development of "BIG" puzzles, and trying to figure out exactly the progression of larger and larger sizes. With cardboard puzzles, my understanding is that 2000 piece puzzles didn't start until the early 1960s or possibly the late 1950s (there is an early series by U.S. brand Tuco with 2000 pieces which might be older than the first 2000s that Tower Press of the UK rolled out in 1963). We know for sure that Tower Press' 2500 piece series, which debuted in 1965 (according to UK puzzle historian Andrew Reynolds) included on the box verbiage that the series was the "largest cardboard" in the world. Milton Bradley wouldn't reach this size until 1973 with their Colossus series in the U.S., although they were creating larger titles of 3000 and 4000 pieces at around the same period for the European market.
Indeed, it seemed as if Tower Press was the benchmark during the '60s decade, increasing sizes from 2500 to 2800 in the late 1960s, and their duo of 4000 piece Alpine scenes which date from either 1969 or 1970 are considered the first 4000 piece (or even 3000+ piece) puzzles in the world, although Arrow Games was also making 4000 piece "Connoisseur" puzzles at around the same time.
But what about wooden puzzles? In fact, many years before die-pressed puzzles were reaching these new heights, hand-cutters were chopping up prints and blown-up photographs into surprisingly prolific piece counts. English puzzle maker Victory's 2000 piece series debuted in 1932 and I found several years ago a stunningly difficult Eddie puzzle from the 1940s with 2157 pieces.
I'd read that Véra made puzzles as large as 4000 pieces during their time, but I did not actually see any evidence of it until recently. I assumed that their largest titles only appeared during the very final years, in the 1970s, perhaps in response to the cardboard brands.
But looking at these three boxes featured above, the chronology seems a bit different. According to Charvériat, Véra Puzzle labeling changed during the course of their history. The bottom two puzzles featured here, "Cavalier du Moyen-Age" and "Départ de Pêcheurs (petit port Anglais)" are of a box style from 1965 on - because the number of pieces is presented with both French and English translations. Between 1960 and 1965, the same style was used but only in French. It is the top puzzle, "Cambridge," which is the most interesting: this style of box, with the number of pieces highlighted in a box on the lower left corner, is the style used from 1955-1960.
So, at least a decade before the first 4000 piece (or even 3000 piece) cardboard puzzles were being pressed, puzzles like this one were being cut by artisans in France. Ambitious and extremely difficult, these puzzles set a high standard that doesn't exist today, in the "multiple bags," "poster included," "photoshopped for greater ease," "repeat pattern" world of BIG puzzles.
I've gone through all three titles, and "Cambridge" (3964 pieces) looks to be the most difficult, some sort of mid-century illustrated city neighborhoods map, with buildings and greenery cut very elaborately. "Cavalier" (3963 pieces) looks to be the most colorful, and will probably be the one I attempt first, and "Départ" (4164 pieces), is probably an early 1970s photograph of a harbor scene, which appears to feature a lot of detail. Unfortunately, the bottom puzzle suffered a bit of moisture damage during shipment, causing the red ink to bleed onto the label, but not damaging the puzzle pieces.
“Bauhaus” Cubic Puzzle 154 units 2-fold view.
I first planned to design a tube puzzle like this several years ago, and started on a provisional project then. However, after running into some design challenges I gave up for the time and set the project aside. I took the time to renew it over winter break and this was the result.
Each tube here is a custom designed pattern, and as a result they do not even have the same number of units each, but rather vary from 16-19 units per tube. The puzzle holds together very tentatively on its own, but adding the extra purple “loops” (two of which are unlike the other ten) makes the model very solid and durable. The exact pattern of the puzzle is fairly arbitrary, and could be modified to make a different puzzle. Since I designed the puzzle piece by piece, assembly was not hard, but I could imagine that simply giving the completed tubes to someone else, it could take them a few minutes to figure out the relationship.
The tubes are incredibly labor intensive- about 2 hours was required to design each piece. The nickname’s origin is from the 20th century design style, which I think is at least loosely reflected in the styling of this model.
Designed by me.
Folded out of copy paper.
National Puzzle Day was created in 2002 by Jodi Jill, a syndicated newspaper puzzle maker. This day is a day when people can play and enjoy puzzles and “reflect on those puzzles, games, and even challenges in life that we embrace every day but sometimes take for granted.” Teachers are also known to use puzzles in their classrooms on the day, and Jodi Jill has even created lesson plans and puzzles for it.
Puzzles may be done for the pure enjoyment of figuring them out or taking on a challenge, to learn new words, or just to pass the time or stave off boredom. They may also be done to sharpen the mind, as they may improve cognitive and problem-solving skills. They have many benefits to the mind and may help improve memory and help with the avoidance of Alzheimer's and dementia.
Anyone can use puzzles, from young children to the elderly, from the low-skilled to experts. And there are many types of puzzles. Common types include picture puzzles, also known as jigsaw puzzles; word puzzles like crossword puzzles and word-search puzzles; and number and logic puzzles like Sudoku. They can be for entertainment purposes or can be serious, testing ingenuity or knowledge.
Puzzles go back centuries. The word “puzzle” dates back to 1595 when it was used in a book as a verb to describe a new type of game; afterward, it became used as a noun. The word comes from pusle which means “bewilder” or “confound.” It wasn't until the mid-nineteenth century when the word started being applied to a toy used to test ingenuity.
One of the most popular puzzles, the jigsaw puzzle, was invented in the 1760s by John Spilsbury, a British engraver and cartographer. He mounted a map on a sheet of wood and sawed around each individual country on it, subsequently using it to help him teach geography. Until about 1820, this was the primary purpose of puzzles. Another type of puzzle, the crossword, debuted in the early twentieth century, when magazines and newspapers began featuring puzzle contests, with the goal of increasing readership. In more recent years, Sudoku has become popular in newspapers.
And shall we add the infamous “Jumble” Word puzzle which was introduced in 1954,, where letters of words were scrambled and the goal was to determine the word, then, taking some of the circled words, determine yet another word which was the solution to another puzzle with a comic drawing.
Here, Detective Sam Shoegum and his CSI assistant are combing through a pile of clues in another type of puzzle.
20200129 029/466
Falcon (UK) 1990's, No. 3662 Imperial. Recent eBay find.
2.000 pcs, 98 x 68 cm. Difficult but fun.
Incredible colors and quality. Why can't they make puzzles like this anymore?
Jean-Baptiste Mauzaisse (1784-1844) born in Corbeil of humble origin, entered nineteen years at the school of Fine arts in Paris. A talented portraitist, under the Empire and the Restoration of the favors aristocracy and the Parisian bourgeoisie, he made an elegant gallery of portraits of the society of his time. In 1819 he received orders from Louis XVIII for the ceilings of the Louvre. A history painter of talent earned him a Louis-Philippe of command to the Museum of History of France that the King created at Versailles.
As Furetto correctly has pointed out, Mauzaisse's painting is a faithful 1836 copy of Vernet's painting from 1826. Palace of Versailles, France.
The puzzle presents only the lower left part of the painting.
For this weeks Flickr Friday challenge "I Stay at Home", I had an idea similar to many others - to portray the primary activities we're keeping ourselves busy with during our sheltering related down time.
For me the list (in no particular order) is this:
>Photography. (for example, this very image, and several others that I've created recently using Photoshop in a more creative editing capacity than I ever have before. This comes along with watching lots and lots of YouTube videos!)
>Puzzles. (like many others out there, we've done several during the lockdown, including a couple as part of puzzle challenges, when we competed with some other family members to be the first to complete a similar puzzle using a set start time - communicating during the "race" via text & Facetime)
>Zoom/Skype/Facetime virtual hangouts with friends & family. (the "puzzle" in this image is a photo of a zoom meeting we had with our friends Mike & Jean, with their 5yr old daughter, and our friend Raphman and his mom yesterday afternoon, but beyond that we've utilized various communication technologies to catch up with, or have full fledged hanging out times with friends, including a Jeopardy style trivia contest hosted by friends of ours with five other teams around the city & country using Zoom)
>TV shows & movies. (as fate would have it, our old plasma TV crapped out shortly after the start of the stay-at-home orders, but we did purchase a new OLED set that has a terrific picture - making our favorite shows and moves that much more enjoyable. Plus, the additional down time has allowed us to catch up on shows we've been meaning to get around to for some time)
>Craft beer. (ok, this is nothing new, and really has nothing specific to do with sheltering, but we're doing our best to support our favorite microbrewery, Maplewood in Chicago, which, thankfully for us, is just down the ally from our place, so take-out orders are super convenient!)
These are strange and difficult times for all of us, and I understand how much we're all looking forward to some kind of return to normalcy, hopefully sooner than later, but do appreciate the sacrifices people are making to help "flatten the curve" on this virus.
Stay safe out there!
WARNING: Layers of wandering and fulgurating thoughts ahead.
I've been playing Firewatch the last few days.
What's Firewatch?
A game--a mystery interactive puzzle like game? Maybe?
(It just came out a few days ago
but I've been reading about it since early last year
and knew I wanted to check it out.)
You play as some guy named Henry who,
after some troubling times in his personal life,
takes a remote job as a fire lookout at a national park in Wyoming.
The year is 1989.
Your only source of communication is a walkie-talkie.
And the only person you talk to is this girl Delilah.
Well, she's not a girl. She's a woman--
and I think she might be like my boss.
Anyway-she's the occupant in the closest fire lookout tower to me--
which, I think is like 6.3 miles away.
Through binoculars, I can see her tower in the far distance--on top of some rocky crag.
But you never see her though.
You just talk.
And this talking--the random conversations--are what build (some of) the story.
I imagine many of you have quit reading by now--or stopped when you saw the word game.
But for the two of you that might still be reading this--
imagine me or yourself finding some long ago written note
in a lockbox
deep in the wild woods of Wyoming.
Imagine what you might imagine reading a strangers words.
Words that hint at something. Words don't quite make sense.
Would you hold or fold?
And that is just one of the aspects
that has pulled me into this game and it's story.
I'll give a few others real quick
that could become posts of their own:
1. The ambient, slightly country-esque, instrumental music.
2. The vast, gorgeous, empty landscapes.
3. The sky.
4. The wind.
So-I wont go into the slow building story--
the mysteries and suspense that unfold.
I haven't even finished the game yet.
But I knew yesterday
while I was exploring the abandoned Arapahoe Camp
that I wanted to write something about what I was feeling--
how this game was more like life to me.
What might that be?
Here's one: Communication.
"But you're a Hermit Vincent," you say.
You don't like people and prefer solitary pursuits.
All true. I will agree.
But for the random stranger I might have to engage
in the laundry room at midnight
pre-soaking his blood drenched bed sheets--
I'll need to know how to speak--up or out.
And speaking of speaking--
how you talk to Delilah affects the game.
You can lie, you can tell the truth,
you can be bitchy or funny.
You can sulk.
You can not say anything at all.
But I quickly noticed
you have to pay attention to what she says too.
And you aren't given much time to reply to her.
Which makes me think how in real life
I blurt out things I shouldn't say.
Or how I respond too quickly with anger and ruin a moment
--and possibly every moment after that.
So anyway--I have some suspicions about Ms. Delilah.
But I'll keep them to myself in case someone reading this might play the game.
I don't want my theories to cloud what dialogue you might choose.
But it's interesting how you have to work together with someone who you cannot see.
Whose only source of personality
is the words they feed you through a walkie-talkie.
I want to say a little more about this
but I'll just steer us into another set of layers:
Human Behavior and Mental Health.
The game subtly beats you over the head with both of these.
While consulting my map or compass
(which I suck at by the way)
or while rappeling down a scree laden decline,
climbing rock faces with my bare hands,
stumbling through caves and canyons
or staring out from my tower across the smokey world,
I would think, could I really do this?
It's curious.
In real life, here in Chicago,
I'm about to be in-between jobs very soon.
Could I pick up sticks
and go back to Wyoming to sit in a tower
cut off from civilization and diligently watch for fires??
The Hermit in me screams, "Hell freaking yeah boy!!
Stop playing and go get your lazy ass
to the nearest National Park Service and A-PPLY!!!"
But the Gatekeeper of Order in me says,
"Hell no. Most of those fires will probably be set
by some severely inebriated fool puking up his guts,
terrorizing the giraffes, the dinosaurs and the deer,
and leaving his stupid garbage
and cigarette butts everywhere.
I'd probably immediately lose
all four millimeters of my temper
and drown his dumb ass in the nearest body of water.
And actually this is something I--I mean Henry-actually has to deal with in the game.
And Henry--says some things
that actually bite him on the ass later.
Watch your frequency.
Watch your fire.
But I absolutely despise hot weather
and this job would be during the damn summer.
So no--I suppose The Tower of Semi-Solitude
with Smokey the Bear as my imaginary bunkmate
is probably a no go.
"Only you can prevent forest fires."
And only you can prevent yourself from going stone crazy.
I might be better off being a lookout in Greenland or Antarctica--
making sure polar bears, panthers,
piglets and penguins don't get into any brawls.
Making sure all dog sled teams that pass through have the proper paperwork.
And just making sure that the ice stays frozen.
But could my mind stand up to such a task?
The task of confronting yourself.
You're not just observing nature.
You're observing You.
Mental health sent Henry out to Wyoming
and mental health stalks him in Wyoming.
And I don't think he realized it until he started seriously wondering
who was who
and questioning the weirdness happening around him.
"What the fuck is going on?!!,"
he and Delilah scream at each other--more than twice.
I scream those same words at myself almost every day.
Because--there is no fire.
(You know. It's an illusion!)
Hooray!! Completed in 68 hrs., 55 mins. with no box reference. 85.22% freehand. 49.6 secs./piece. Difficulty rating: 5.0/10.
I am at a loss for words at this point: both relieved and deflated at having this beast out of my life. Of course I love the art work and feel privileged to have had a crack at such a rare puzzle. But it wasn't an easy road .. the combination of an irregular cut, similar knob shapes, dark features throughout, a somewhat light and dull print and many shadowy details which I was having to put together with no clear map, made this one of my toughest challenges yet.
The "85.22% freehand" stat refers to how far into the puzzle I got before switching over to a shape-based approach in which a specific piece is searched for a specific spot. Most of the puzzles I have completed, even the huge ones, have been completed without using this method. It depends on how many monotonous colored pieces there are at the end, how dark those pieces are, how difficult the cut is, how hurried I am feeling, etc. To some degree it's a short cut, I think, but not really cheating. Maybe a compromise would be the best word for it. My thoughts on this method will continue to evolve.
I want to thank Piecefull for helping me acquire this puzzle. She was hiking though northern England with a group when, stopping in a village in the Lake District, she happened upon a shop called Barney's Newsbox, which was jam-packed with puzzles. She spotted this one among the crowd, but didn't have time to inquire further. She instead shared her find with me, encouraging me to chase after it. After some trial and error in contacting the staff I managed to link up and the rest, as they say, is puzzle history. It's extra special to acquire a rare puzzle like this one with the help of a friend.
"Photographer Douglas MacDonald explores Jejudo’s iconic, and omnipresent, volcanic cones"
Nearly 400 oreum, or cone-shaped protrusions created hundreds of thousands of years ago by small volcanic explosions around the base of Mt. Hallasan, dot the island of Jejudo for as far as the eye can see. This otherworldly landscape is a hiker’s paradise, a stunning combination of lines, shapes and lush greenery that draws hundreds, if not thousands, of men and women, boys and girls, grandmothers and grandfathers to trek across these peculiar formations each and every day. Among them are photographers, looking for that perfect picture.
Oreum central
Yongnuni Oreum, or “Dragon Eyes” Hill, is one of Jejudo’s most famous oreum. Located on the northeastern end of the island, the slope sits right in the heart of farmland bursting with some of the best-looking oreum Jejudo has to offer. On a sunny summer day the vibrant green hills appear to come alive as sunlight shines down on them and soft breezes push their lush grasses back and forth across the landscape.
Weather conditions can change rapidly, however, as I learned while making my way up the steep, winding trail on a recent trip, enshrouded in thick fog and buffeted by harsh winds. Fortunately, I’ve learned to be patient, and on that day my wait was short. By early afternoon, the sky had cleared slightly and rays of light spread across the hill as hikers walked up and down the many trails. Within an hour, though, storm clouds had rolled in and the light disappeared just as fast as it had appeared. Dejected, I began my descent, my picture taking done for the day. Just then, a young boy flew past me, his father nipping at his heels. In the distance, layers of hills and dark, angry clouds clashed for space – all the elements of a great photo came together in a brief moment. It was a photo opportunity years in the making.
The beginning
I first arrived on Jejudo in January, 2002. Excited by the fact that I was now living in what many have dubbed the “Hawaii of Asia,” I spent months traveling around the island and taking in all the popular tourist destinations.
What I did not realize in those early years, however, is how inaccessible the island’s oreum can be to newcomers. The discovery of such innocuous wonders left me seeing the terrain in an entirely different light. There is a sense of natural sprawl and randomness to oreum that makes them difficult to photograph. It’s not until one begins to move into the right spots, pursue the best angles and meld the natural elements of light, wind and color together that one can see the deeper beauty of these famous Jejudo landmarks.
The human element
Having had some interaction with the communities that thrive in these areas, I can say that the local people’s connection to the land is equally moving. On a recent trip to Dangsanbong Al Oreum on the west coast of the island, I spotted a group of older women dressed in colorful work clothes putting onions into bags in a nearby field. Intrigued, I hopped out of my car and entered the field to watch the women at work. Their arms and legs were covered in dirt. They wore thick gloves to protect their hands from cuts and scrapes. Their faces were covered in sweat and grime. Despite what looked to be backbreaking labor, one older woman flashed me a huge grin. When I asked her why she was so happy she cheerfully exclaimed, “This is my home. I was born here. These are all my friends. We enjoy coming out to the fields together, working hard, harvesting the land and sharing stories.” I could feel their sense of community and closeness to the terrain.
Heeding a farmer’s advice later that day, I sat perched on the southwestern corner of Dangsanbong Al Oreum’s peak and watched as the sun set over the famous Chagwido Island. My position afforded me an even more striking view down below, however. The fields of garlic, onion and barley formed an endless patchwork of puzzle-like squares that extended for miles into the distance.
4.3
Just a few minutes west of Yongnuni Oreum lies one of Jejudo’s most beautiful hills: Darangshi Oreum. Its near-perfect triangular shape looms like a pyramid over the pristine rural landscape. Arriving a little early one day, I took some time to explore nearby Aggeumdarangshi Oreum. The donut-shaped “Little Darangshi” features a solitary tree at the top and a crater filled with tall, bristly stalks of grass. It’s a study in simplicity.
As I take in the panoramic views of Seongsan Ilchulbong in the south and the oddly hat-shaped Songi Oreum in the west, I’m struck by a man half-hidden in the grass praying to relatives lost over a half century before. Sasam, or “4.3,” broke out on Jejudo on April 3, 1948. One of the deadliest conflicts in Korean history, it continued for six bloody years, during which time thousands of Jejudo residents died, mostly at the hands of security forces, as punishment for perceived sympathy toward communism and the newly formed North Korea.
Final destination
Darangshi’s dark history was in the back of my mind as I trekked up the steep trail to the summit. Overall, I’ve come to appreciate Jejudo as a place of maddening contrasts and inconsistencies, of beauty and sadness and both mystery and openness that I’ll never fully comprehend. At the top I’m greeted by one of the best views in all of Jejudo. A gallery of oreum stand proudly in the distance, stretching across the landscape below like some kind of massive exhibition. The sun began to set and golden light streamed across the 115-meter-deep crater just beyond my feet. As I steadied my camera on a tripod, a father and teenage son stepped into the sun’s glare and walked hand-in-hand along the crater’s rim.