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All photos used in this mosaic are property of the original photographer, not me. Please visit the originals at the links below:
1. pink & green chandelier - rsh, 2. ikea chandelier remix, 3. Something old something new, 4. cuz who doesn't need a pink chandelier??, 5. Think Pink, 6. Flamboyant, 7. decorated chandelier, 8. chandelier, 9. pink tinge, 10. Bling Bling, 11. ...*Chandelier*..., 12. pink ceiling, 13. Gorgeous pink crystal chandelier, 14. Chandelier, 15. Pink Chandelier, 16. Funky Chandelier Downtown, 17. Succotash chandelier, 18. pink chandelier, 19. pink Hollywood Regency style chandelier, 20. Pink Chandelier, 21. Pink Ladies' Chandelier, 22. chandelier, 23. Pink champagne on ice, 24. the calendar hung itself, 25. L
I could probably tweak this forever but without drag and drop editing, I'll never get it exactly the way I want it. :-P
Created with fd's Flickr Toys.
This old barn used to belong to Doukhobors, a Christian group with Russian origins. Information below:
www.bigdoer.com/66001/exploring-history/anastasia-lords-o...
This is the same barn that I posted yesterday, when it was seen from a huge distance and a head-on view.
The day before yesterday, 8 August 2019, was more of a barn day than a bird day. A while ago, another photographer had mentioned that a few barns in a certain area SE of Calgary had been removed and I was curious to see if I could tell which ones were missing. There is one huge barn in particular that I am always hoping still stands. I would love to be able to get photos from both sides of it, but it is way out in a farmer's field that is, of course, private property. Standing in the road, I can only get a distant shot and, as often happens, I had a problem with heat distortion on distant shots. There is an old, round, wooden grain bin and a partly hidden, smaller barn just near the barn, too. I think the first time I ever saw the barn was on 21 January 2015, when I took my daughter out for the day.
My intention two days ago had been to leave early in the morning, but it was already 10:45 am when I climbed into my car. Seeing that the weather forecast for the next six days included rain on each day, I knew I just had to do this trip straight away. Some of the roads I drove to get to my destination(s) were familiar, but others less so. There are two or three highway intersections that are confusing to me and I usually end up taking the wrong turn.
For a change, I turned off the main highway going south before my usual turn, in order to shorten the distance. My first sighting was a distant Red-tailed Hawk perched on a wooden fence at a wetland that used to be a great spot, but now is totally dried up.
After a quick stop at a tiny church that I always photograph when I am out that way, I continued east till I came to the three old Mossleigh grain elevators - one of the places I always get confused about which way to drive. Ideally, a dramatic sky would have been great, but I have taken better photos in the past.
From Mossleigh, I did my usual exploring, finding that a lovely old, wooden house was still standing. I believe this was built from a kit years ago, and it remains in reasonably good condition.
Eventually, I found the large barn that I wanted to see again. It took me a while to work out which road it was on (thought I knew!), but I found it after some driving back and forth. It was good to see the smaller barn, in less then good condition, just down the road. The other two times that I have been standing in the road to take photos of this smaller barn, a lady has come along the road from a nearby farm and very kindly told me to on in and take any photos I'd like. No-one around yesterday, so I stayed on the road,of course. At one point, I happened to glance up the road and saw what I thought was someone's dog on the crest of the road. When I zoomed in on my camera, I realized it was a coyote, who started walking towards me. Unfortunately, it turned off into the field and disappeared. When I was at this smaller barn, it amused me to see a magnificent Mule near the barn, plus a horse. The Mule looked huge and was a real poser, wanting to be in almost every shot I took. Such a gorgeous creature, that I don't remember seeing there before.
Once I had taken a few photos, I started on my homeward drive, not stopping anywhere as I could see that, if I hurried, I could get to the Saskatoon Farm in time to get a meal before the restaurant closed for the day. Yay, I just made it.
Knowing that Frank Lake was only a short drive away, I couldn't resist driving back south to have a quick look. Found a couple of my friends there and spent some enjoyable time with them. Only took a few photos there, most to be deleted, before heading home. A fun day, though hot and hazy.
Used a few of my new favorite bg stamps :) CG139 Cling Dots was clear embossed on the base card. K5344 La Letter was inked and then the center wiped with a baby wipe before stamping. The rose is from CG108 Special Moments.
My mom's fave color is yellow so this Mother's Day card will be sent to her :)
Other Materials Used:
Stampin Up cs, pp, ink, sentiment and tag
Nestie
Michael's rhinestones
ribbon (source unknown)
TFL!
Please don't use this image on websites, blogs or other media without my explicit permission. If you wish to use this image, please, contact me through flickrmail or at vicenc.feliu@gmail.com. © All rights reserved...
The National Cathedral, completed in 1990, is the culmination of a two-century-long plan for a majestic Gothic style cathedral. This richly decorated cathedral is located on a landscaped 57 acre plot of land on Mount Saint Albans in Northwest Washington, 400 feet above sea level. The cathedral consists of a long narrow rectangular mass, the eight bay nave and the five bay chancel, intersected by a six bay transept. Above the crossing, rising just over 300 feet above grade, is the Gloria in Excelsis Tower. The Cathedral is the sixth largest in the world, second largest in the United States. The top of the tower is the highest point in DC. The one story porch projecting from the south transept has a large portal with a carved tympanum. This portal is approached by the Pilgrim Steps, a long flight of steps 40 feet wide. The primary building material is gray Indiana limestone; some concrete and structural steel are used sparingly. The building abounds in architectural sculpture, wood carving, leaded glass, mosaics, artistic metal work, and many other works of art, including over 200 stained glass windows. Most of the decorative elements have Christian symbolism or are memorials to famous persons or events.
Programs used for managing and editing mods for Skyrim:
Mod Organizer, TES5Edit, Wrye Bash, DDS Viewer, NifSkope & GeDoSaTo for downsampling
Main visual mods used in my screenshots:
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GRASS: SFO v2.3b, Tamriel Reloaded Grasses, Unique Grasses, Unbelievable Grass Two, Verdant - A Skyrim Grass Plugin
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TREES: Skyrim Flora Overhaul v2.3b, SFO v2.1, Ultimate Lush Overhaul, Realistic Aspen Trees, 4K Parallax Treebark, TreesHD_Skyrim_Variation, Upgrade and fix for TreesHD by Pfuscher, 4K Tree and Parallax for Pines by Pfuscher, CM Bark
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TEXTURES & MESHES: Static Mesh Improvement Mod - SMIM, Skyrim Realistic Overhaul, NobleSkyrimMod HD-2K, Tamriel Reloaded HD, Skyrim HD - 2K Textures, Skyrim HD - Terrain Parallax Tribute, 4K Parallax Skyrim by Pfuscher, Vivid Landscapes - All in One, Realistic Water Two, Project Parallax Remastered, Immersive Roads, Real Roads
***Please, feel free to use my Textures, Backgrounds, Stock, etc., in your Artwork.
If you do use them, I would love it if you would please post your work in my group, Ruby's Treasures.
...Please DO NOT redistribute as your own...
***If you are interested in purchasing my new and unseen Premade Backgrounds & PNG's , please visit my new Blog here~angiesimaginations***
Iron Reich Heinkel H3-Klapperschlange
The Klapperschlange continued to be used into the 3050’s both as a front line fighter and in secondary roles. It was produced in greater numbers than any other Reich fighter and was the only fighter in production throughout the war.
I used nnenn's cockpit box design: www.flickr.com/photos/nnenn/3418787940/
I also took the basic wing design from this model: www.flickr.com/photos/nnenn/2176416842/
This is my contribution to the nnenn Vic Viper missing man formation for Brickworld in June. There will also be formations at Brickfair in August and Brickcon in October. If you’d like to participate in any of these tribute formations, flickr-mail me for more details.
Equipment used: Nikon D7000 + MB-D11 Really Right Stuff (RRF) right angle bracket, DR-6 right angle finder, CZ 50mm Makro Planar, Gitzo 2220 tripod with Acratech GV2 gimbal / ball head. One Elinchrome 200 FXR triggered through Skyport, one shoe mount flash with red gel mounted (plus a homemade snoot) on Manfrotto 196 AB two section arm fixed to a Manfrotto super clamp. One reflector aluminum paper to the right, Eye-Fi card
Note the red on red separation (between the car and the background).
Exposure: Manual model, 1/250, f/8 and 5.6
Set up: the car model was kept on a gray colored glass beneath which was kept a black paper to make the surface look deep black. One Elinchrome 200 FXR (mounted directly over head with a homemade rig). It was angled slightly away to prevent light spilling on background. The shoe mounted flash was used to project the red light on the background which was gray wall. It was fixed just below the table surface on which the model was kept. A reflector was kept to the right to throw light on the car grill.
Another interesting thing is that we used an Eye-Fi card on the D7000 which has an icon to tell the transmission status of Eye-Fi card. So, we were able to see the result on the computer monitor instantly without any tethering. This needless to say greatly simplified the whole operation.
It took three hours of struggle to get the back light correctly. Two heavy weights - photographically and literally – RBP and Adi plus self, did this together.
I dedicate this image to RBP and Adi but for whose help we would not have got the result.
For a description of this famous car and the model (which is a limited edition) please see: Ferrari 375 Plus - 2 image.
That's me polishing my leg with car products. Haha! It's a rushed project for my Visual Comm class, in which we had to choose an existing product and produce a fake print ad for it. And for this project, I chose to use Mothers car products. :)
I hope you guys get the concept. :D Okay so for those of you who don't, it's supposed to be a girl getting jealous of her boyfriend's/crush's car because the car gets all the attention. So she decides to try using the products that the car uses, thinking that it might do the trick and divert all the attention to her instead. XD
LOL. Shooting + Layout + Printing = more or less 2 hours. An hour and 30 minus the travel time. :p
Model/concept/photo/layout: Ashley Gosiengfiao (me)
© 2009
Ashley Gosiengfiao and Mothers®
Using recycled and locally-sourced construction materials, the Civic Condos anchors the top of downtown on W. Burnside.
Used a 30 sec exp, f8, SB-24 gelled with 1/2 CTO at 1/16, fired using the test button, The SB-24 was snooted with a old mouse pad. LED stick on a string. Smasung GX-1L on a Bilora tripod.
Oh yeah stinky black sock covering the back of the flash.
Trying out this painting app called HEAVYPAINT which a lot of digital plein air artists I admire have been using. I jumped in without looking at manuals or tutorials. The painting part is similar across painting apps (for instance the brush tool and color palette) but navigation (zooming in/out, panning) and other basic functions like layers and masking are different. I need to look up how to do these basics. Heck, I didn't even know how to save the file so I just made a screen capture. 😂
Date: August 16, 2020
Location: Front yard
Medium: Digital (HEAVYPAINT)
Rebels have used the top floor of the Parisian Restaurant as a weapons stash.
Here they have accumulated a considerable amount of all types of weapons including Assault Rifles, Light Machine Guns, Bolt Action Rifles and Explosives!
The question now is: will the Army discover this hidden stash and confiscate all the weaponry before the rebels decide to attack?
Stay tuned!
Inspired by Andrew's (@LimaBean79) work!
I used a solar filter which renders the sun WHITE, not the orange you see here. The sun is SO bright that you have to stretch the data to see some of the grain, and orange/yellow helps to make the solar details easier to see. However since this is a STACK most of that good data is lost in the stacking process.
What is a stack? Photoshop people will know this as a "layer" but instead of using screen mode or lighten mode as one with a star trail, I used ***** mode.
For information about how Venus' motion differed according to your location on earth see: transitofvenus.nl/wp/where-when/local-transit-times/ enter "Trona Pinnacles, CA" in the search box. You'll notice from the slider that Venus doesn't move at a uniform speed. Lots of reasons including that the apparent motion of Venus across the face of the sun is due to a combination of: Venus' rotation around the sun; Earth's Rotation around the sun AND earth's rotation on it's axis. For super fun, enter "Manila, Phillipines" in the search box and you'll see something rather interesting. Advance the slider and you'll notice the ingress is slow but the egress is rapid. (It also makes a LOOP).
My results from Trona Pinnacles look quite linear - but I was using an Equatorial mount so was getting very little field rotation.
From our vantage point (Phil McGrew was with me), the motion was quite linear - see below for the forecast path.
© Copyright 2012, Steven Christenson
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All rights reserved. Curious what "all rights reserved means?" it means that without written permission you may not: copy, transmit, modify, use, print or display this image in any context other than as it appears in Flickr.
Carreg yr Imbill is the remains of a large dolerite with pegmatite pods and quarry at Pwllheli, Gwynedd, Wales.
The dolerite was mined by the Liverpool and Pwllheli Granite Company (sometimes known as the Pwllheli Granite Company), which used the diorite for stone setts to pave the streets.
The worked out quarry forms the basis for a large holiday village which is run by the Haulfryn Group, the same company which runs The Warren in Abersoch.
Pwllheli is a market town and community on the Llŷn Peninsula (Welsh: Penrhyn Llŷn), north-west Wales. It lies in the traditional county of Caernarfonshire but is currently administered as part of the unitary authority of Gwynedd. It had a population of 4,076 in 2011, the population declining slightly to 3,947 in 2021. of whom a large proportion, 81%, were Welsh speaking. Pwllheli is the place where Plaid Cymru was founded. It is the birthplace of the Welsh poet Sir Albert Evans-Jones (bardic name Cynan).
Pwllheli has a range of shops and other services. As a local railhead with a market every Wednesday, the town is a gathering point for the population of the whole peninsula.
The town's name means salt-water basin.
The town was given its charter as a borough by Edward, the Black Prince, in 1355, and a market is still held each Wednesday in the centre of the town on 'Y Maes' (‘the field’ or ‘the town square’ in English).
The town grew around the shipbuilding and fishing industries and the granite quarry at Gimlet Rock (Welsh: Carreg yr Imbill).
The population in 1841 was 2,367.
During the 1890s the town was developed by Solomon Andrews, a Cardiff businessman. This work included the promenade, roads and houses at West End. A tramway was built linking the town to Llanbedrog. The trams ran until 1927, when the section of track between Carreg-y-Defaid and Tyddyn-Caled was seriously damaged by a storm. Andrews ran the Cardiff Road section in 1928 and offered to sell the tramway to Pwllheli Corporation at the end of the season, but they did not take up his offer. He then sold the assets and the Corporation removed the tracks during the winter of 1928/29.
Poet Albert Evans-Jones, who was an archdruid for the National Eisteddfod of Wales and was known by his bardic name 'Cynan', was born in Pwllheli; before becoming an archdruid he joined the First World War effort through the Welsh Student Company of the RAMC, serving in Salonika and France, initially as an ambulance driver and medic, later as the company's chaplain. He was the son of the proprietor of the Central Restaurant in Penlan Street, Pwllheli.
Pwllheli Town Council consists of fifteen members elected from the North and South wards.
Pwllheli North and Pwllheli South are the county wards covering the town; they each elect one county councillor to Gwynedd Council.
Ysgol Glan y Môr was formed by the merger in 1969 of the former Pwllheli Grammar School at Penrallt and the Frondeg Secondary Modern School in Upper Ala Road to form a comprehensive school based on two sites in the town. The junior pupils (year 1 and year 2) were located at the Penrallt site and the senior pupils (year 3 and upwards) at a new complex in Cardiff Road. This new school was subsequently expanded to accommodate all pupils under the Ysgol Glan y Môr name.
The Penrallt site was later redeveloped as the Pwllheli campus of Coleg Meirion-Dwyfor. The façade of the main building of the old grammar school was retained and incorporated into the design of the current college buildings. Thus the 'old school' is readily seen from the town square (Y Maes), as it has been since the former Pwllheli County School moved to Penrallt in the early 20th century.
Pwllheli railway station is the terminus of the Cambrian Coast Railway, running to Machynlleth with services continuing to Shrewsbury and Birmingham. The station is operated and served by Transport for Wales. The rail link to Caernarfon via the Carnarvonshire Railway was axed under the Beeching cuts and as a result it closed in December 1964.
Pwllheli is connected to the wider road network by the A497 to Porthmadog and the A499 to Caernarfon. From there major roads lead away from Gwynedd to the rest of Wales.
Buses serve most of the town as well as the rest of the wider Llŷn Peninsula. Services to Caernarfon give connections to Bangor.[citation needed] Pwllheli bus station is in the town centre.
Attractions
Plas Bodegroes, which until 2009 was a Michelin starred restaurant
Penarth Fawr, a 15th-century house
Hafan y Môr, a former Butlins holiday camp now operated by Haven
Pwllheli Market
Neuadd Dwyfor, a theatre and cinema in Penlan Street
Pwllheli has a section of the Wales Coast Path along its shoreline.
Pwllheli has a small harbour at the confluence of the Afon Erch and Afon Rhyd-Hir.
Hafan Pwllheli is a marina built in Pwllheli Harbour during the 1990s.
Notable people
Eleazar Roberts (1825–1912), musician, translator, writer and amateur astronomer
Owen Davies (1840–1929), Baptist minister and writer
Sir (Albert) Cynan Evans-Jones CBE (1895–1970), bardic name Cynan, was a war poet and dramatist.
William Richard Williams (1896–1962), Principal of the United Theological College, Aberystwyth
John Robert Jones (1911–1970), philosopher
Hywel Williams (born 1953), Plaid Cymru politician, MP for Arfon, previously Caernarfon, since 2001
David Dawson (born 1960), artist
Gareth Pierce (born 1981), actor and musician
Pwllheli hosted the National Eisteddfod in 1925, 1955 and 2023 as well as an unofficial National Eisteddfod event in 1875.
According to the United Kingdom Census 2011 80% of the population spoke Welsh.
Pwllheli is home to association football team Pwllheli F.C., rugby union team Pwllheli RFC and running club Llŷn Striders. There is a hockey club, Clwb Hoci Pwllheli, which is part of the rugby, cricket and hockey club.
Pwllheli is a hub for water sports, owing in part to a marina, Pwllheli Sailing Club and Plas Heli - the Welsh National Sailing Academy.
The town has two beaches, South Beach and Glan-y-don. South Beach stretches from Gimlet Rock, across the Promenade and West End, towards Penrhos and Llanbedrog. Glan-y-don Beach is on the eastern side of the river mouth and runs for 3 miles (5 km) from behind the marina workshops and out towards Penychain (holiday camp).
The town has a golf club on the Llŷn coastline.
Gwynedd is a county in the north-west of Wales. It borders Anglesey across the Menai Strait to the north, Conwy, Denbighshire, and Powys to the east, Ceredigion over the Dyfi estuary to the south, and the Irish Sea to the west. The city of Bangor is the largest settlement, and the administrative centre is Caernarfon. The preserved county of Gwynedd, which is used for ceremonial purposes, includes the Isle of Anglesey.
Gwynedd is the second largest county in Wales but sparsely populated, with an area of 979 square miles (2,540 km2) and a population of 117,400. After Bangor (18,322), the largest settlements are Caernarfon (9,852), Bethesda (4,735), and Pwllheli (4,076). The county has the highest percentage of Welsh speakers in Wales, at 64.4%, and is considered a heartland of the language.
The geography of Gwynedd is mountainous, with a long coastline to the west. Much of the county is covered by Snowdonia National Park (Eryri), which contains Wales's highest mountain, Snowdon (Yr Wyddfa; 3,560 feet, 1,090 m). To the west, the Llŷn Peninsula is flatter and renowned for its scenic coastline, part of which is protected by the Llŷn AONB. Gwynedd also contains several of Wales's largest lakes and reservoirs, including the largest, Bala Lake (Llyn Tegid).
The area which is now the county has played a prominent part in the history of Wales. It formed part of the core of the Kingdom of Gwynedd and the native Principality of Wales, which under the House of Aberffraw remained independent from the Kingdom of England until Edward I's conquest between 1277 and 1283. Edward built the castles at Caernarfon and Harlech, which form part of the Castles and Town Walls of King Edward in Gwynedd World Heritage Site. During the Industrial Revolution the slate industry rapidly developed; in the late nineteenth century the neighbouring Penrhyn and Dinorwic quarries were the largest in the world, and the Slate Landscape of Northwest Wales is now a World Heritage Site. Gwynedd covers the majority of the historic counties of Caernarfonshire and Merionethshire.
In the past, historians such as J. E. Lloyd assumed that the Celtic source of the word Gwynedd meant 'collection of tribes' – the same root as the Irish fine, meaning 'tribe'. Further, a connection is recognised between the name and the Irish Féni, an early ethnonym for the Irish themselves, related to fían, 'company of hunting and fighting men, company of warriors under a leader'. Perhaps *u̯en-, u̯enə ('strive, hope, wish') is the Indo-European stem. The Irish settled in NW Wales, and in Dyfed, at the end of the Roman era. Venedotia was the Latin form, and in Penmachno there is a memorial stone from c. AD 500 which reads: Cantiori Hic Iacit Venedotis ('Here lies Cantiorix, citizen of Gwynedd'). The name was retained by the Brythons when the kingdom of Gwynedd was formed in the 5th century, and it remained until the invasion of Edward I. This historical name was revived when the new county was formed in 1974.
Gwynedd was an independent kingdom from the end of the Roman period until the 13th century, when it was conquered by England. The modern Gwynedd was one of eight Welsh counties created on 1 April 1974 under the Local Government Act 1972. It covered the entirety of the historic counties of Anglesey and Caernarfonshire, and all of Merionethshire apart from Edeirnion Rural District (which went to Clwyd); and also a few parishes of Denbighshire: Llanrwst, Llansanffraid Glan Conwy, Eglwysbach, Llanddoged, Llanrwst and Tir Ifan.
The county was divided into five districts: Aberconwy, Arfon, Dwyfor, Meirionnydd and Anglesey.
The Local Government (Wales) Act 1994 abolished the 1974 county (and the five districts) on 1 April 1996, and its area was divided: the Isle of Anglesey became an independent unitary authority, and Aberconwy (which included the former Denbighshire parishes) passed to the new Conwy County Borough. The remainder of the county was constituted as a principal area, with the name Caernarfonshire and Merionethshire, as it covers most of the areas of those two historic counties. As one of its first actions, the Council renamed itself Gwynedd on 2 April 1996. The present Gwynedd local government area is governed by Gwynedd Council. As a unitary authority, the modern entity no longer has any districts, but Arfon, Dwyfor and Meirionnydd remain as area committees.
The pre-1996 boundaries were retained as a preserved county for a few purposes such as the Lieutenancy. In 2003, the boundary with Clwyd was adjusted to match the modern local government boundary, so that the preserved county now covers the two local government areas of Gwynedd and Anglesey. Conwy county borough is now entirely within Clwyd.
A Gwynedd Constabulary was formed in 1950 by the merger of the Anglesey, Caernarfonshire and Merionethshire forces. A further amalgamation took place in the 1960s when Gwynedd Constabulary was merged with the Flintshire and Denbighshire county forces, retaining the name Gwynedd. In one proposal for local government reform in Wales, Gwynedd had been proposed as a name for a local authority covering all of north Wales, but the scheme as enacted divided this area between Gwynedd and Clwyd. To prevent confusion, the Gwynedd Constabulary was therefore renamed the North Wales Police.
The Snowdonia National Park was formed in 1951. After the 1974 local authority reorganisation, the park fell entirely within the boundaries of Gwynedd, and was run as a department of Gwynedd County Council. After the 1996 local government reorganisation, part of the park fell under Conwy County Borough, and the park's administration separated from the Gwynedd council. Gwynedd Council still appoints nine of the eighteen members of the Snowdonia National Park Authority; Conwy County Borough Council appoints three; and the Welsh Government appoints the remaining six.
There has been considerable inwards migration to Gwynedd, particularly from England. According to the 2021 census, 66.6% of residents had been born in Wales whilst 27.1% were born in England.
The county has a mixed economy. An important part of the economy is based on tourism: many visitors are attracted by the many beaches and the mountains. A significant part of the county lies within the Snowdonia National Park, which extends from the north coast down to the district of Meirionnydd in the south. But tourism provides seasonal employment and thus there is a shortage of jobs in the winter.
Agriculture is less important than in the past, especially in terms of the number of people who earn their living on the land, but it remains an important element of the economy.
The most important of the traditional industries is the slate industry, but these days only a small percentage of workers earn their living in the slate quarries.
Industries which have developed more recently include TV and sound studios: the record company Sain has its HQ in the county.
The education sector is also very important for the local economy, including Bangor University and Further Education colleges, Coleg Meirion-Dwyfor and Coleg Menai, both now part of Grŵp Llandrillo Menai.
The proportion of respondents in the 2011 census who said they could speak Welsh.
Gwynedd has the highest proportion of people in Wales who can speak Welsh. According to the 2021 census, 64.4% of the population aged three and over stated that they could speak Welsh,[7] while 64.4% noted that they could speak Welsh in the 2011 census.
It is estimated that 83% of the county's Welsh-speakers are fluent, the highest percentage of all counties in Wales.[9] The age group with the highest proportion of Welsh speakers in Gwynedd were those between ages 5–15, of whom 92.3% stated that they could speak Welsh in 2011.
The proportion of Welsh speakers in Gwynedd declined between 1991 and 2001,[10] from 72.1% to 68.7%, even though the proportion of Welsh speakers in Wales as a whole increased during that decade to 20.5%.
The Annual Population Survey estimated that as of March 2023, 77.0% of those in Gwynedd aged three years and above could speak Welsh.
Notable people
Leslie Bonnet (1902–1985), RAF officer, writer; originated the Welsh Harlequin duck in Criccieth
Sir Dave Brailsford (born 1964), cycling coach; grew up in Deiniolen, near Caernarfon
Duffy (born 1984), singer, songwriter and actress; born in Bangor, Gwynedd
Edward II of England (1284–1327), born in Caernarfon Castle
Elin Fflur (born 1984), singer-songwriter, TV and radio presenter; went to Bangor University
Bryn Fôn (born 1954), actor and singer-songwriter; born in Llanllyfni, Caernarfonshire.
Wayne Hennessey (born 1987), football goalkeeper with 108 caps for Wales; born in Bangor, Gwynedd
John Jones (c. 1530 – 1598), a Franciscan friar, Roman Catholic priest and martyr; born at Clynnog
Sir Love Jones-Parry, 1st Baronet (1832–1891), landowner and politician, co-founder of the Y Wladfa settlement in Patagonia
T. E. Lawrence (1888–1935), archaeologist, army officer and inspiration for Lawrence of Arabia, born in Tremadog
David Lloyd George (1863–1945), statesman and Prime Minister; lived in Llanystumdwy from infancy
Sasha (born 1969), disc jockey, born in Bangor, Gwynedd
Sir Bryn Terfel (born 1965), bass-baritone opera and concert singer from Pant Glas
Sir Clough Williams-Ellis (1883–1978), architect of Portmeirion
Owain Fôn Williams, (born 1987), footballer with 443 club caps; born and raised in Penygroes, Gwynedd.
Hedd Wyn (1887–1917), poet from the village of Trawsfynydd; killed in WWI
Stan Getz
CD :
Stan Getz
La Ballade De Stan
Verve Records
France
1990
Design . CB Graphic
Postcard :
Pantone 22-0109
Ipanema
Use Hearing Protection
GMA
Using Stud.io I imported my LDD file and rendered using the built in render program which turns out to just be POV-Ray. They came out quite good but there is the odd missing brick line which kinda makes it look too smooth.
Using dried seaweed and sand stained with ground up red rock, I created three spheres to hold the seaweed stalks. It was very, very hot today and the damp sand was drying extremely quickly which made the work very fiddly and difficult as I struggled to get the seaweed to stick into the surface as it kept breaking up.
Poland does not use the euro as its currency. However, under the terms of their Treaty of Accession with the European Union, all new Member States "shall participate in the Economic and Monetary Union from the date of accession as a Member State with a derogation", which means that Poland is obliged to eventually replace its currency, the złoty, with the euro. Bb
There is no target date for Polish euro adoption, and no fixed date for when the country will join ERM-II (the fifth euro convergence criterion). The country's former Deputy Prime Minister Janusz Piechociński has stated that Poland will not join the Euro until at least 2020.
Euro adoption will require the approval of at least two thirds of the Sejm to make a constitutional amendment changing the official currency from the złoty to the euro. The ruling Law and Justice Party opposes euro adoption. Former PM Donald Tusk has said that he may agree to a referendum on euro participation in order to gain their support for a constitutional amendment. Public opinion is against participation according to polls, with more than 70 percent believing that adoption of the euro would be bad for the Polish economy according to one poll from September 2012.
There is not yet any official information on the design process for the Polish national sides of the euro coins.
using my common light tank chassis to try out a few things for my next Ogre Mk V,
based on the Ogre wargame by Steve Jackson Games
Graffiti (plural; singular graffiti or graffito, the latter rarely used except in archeology) is art that is written, painted or drawn on a wall or other surface, usually without permission and within public view. Graffiti ranges from simple written words to elaborate wall paintings, and has existed since ancient times, with examples dating back to ancient Egypt, ancient Greece, and the Roman Empire (see also mural).
Graffiti is a controversial subject. In most countries, marking or painting property without permission is considered by property owners and civic authorities as defacement and vandalism, which is a punishable crime, citing the use of graffiti by street gangs to mark territory or to serve as an indicator of gang-related activities. Graffiti has become visualized as a growing urban "problem" for many cities in industrialized nations, spreading from the New York City subway system and Philadelphia in the early 1970s to the rest of the United States and Europe and other world regions
"Graffiti" (usually both singular and plural) and the rare singular form "graffito" are from the Italian word graffiato ("scratched"). The term "graffiti" is used in art history for works of art produced by scratching a design into a surface. A related term is "sgraffito", which involves scratching through one layer of pigment to reveal another beneath it. This technique was primarily used by potters who would glaze their wares and then scratch a design into them. In ancient times graffiti were carved on walls with a sharp object, although sometimes chalk or coal were used. The word originates from Greek γράφειν—graphein—meaning "to write".
The term graffiti originally referred to the inscriptions, figure drawings, and such, found on the walls of ancient sepulchres or ruins, as in the Catacombs of Rome or at Pompeii. Historically, these writings were not considered vanadlism, which today is considered part of the definition of graffiti.
The only known source of the Safaitic language, an ancient form of Arabic, is from graffiti: inscriptions scratched on to the surface of rocks and boulders in the predominantly basalt desert of southern Syria, eastern Jordan and northern Saudi Arabia. Safaitic dates from the first century BC to the fourth century AD.
Some of the oldest cave paintings in the world are 40,000 year old ones found in Australia. The oldest written graffiti was found in ancient Rome around 2500 years ago. Most graffiti from the time was boasts about sexual experiences Graffiti in Ancient Rome was a form of communication, and was not considered vandalism.
Ancient tourists visiting the 5th-century citadel at Sigiriya in Sri Lanka write their names and commentary over the "mirror wall", adding up to over 1800 individual graffiti produced there between the 6th and 18th centuries. Most of the graffiti refer to the frescoes of semi-nude females found there. One reads:
Wet with cool dew drops
fragrant with perfume from the flowers
came the gentle breeze
jasmine and water lily
dance in the spring sunshine
side-long glances
of the golden-hued ladies
stab into my thoughts
heaven itself cannot take my mind
as it has been captivated by one lass
among the five hundred I have seen here.
Among the ancient political graffiti examples were Arab satirist poems. Yazid al-Himyari, an Umayyad Arab and Persian poet, was most known for writing his political poetry on the walls between Sajistan and Basra, manifesting a strong hatred towards the Umayyad regime and its walis, and people used to read and circulate them very widely.
Graffiti, known as Tacherons, were frequently scratched on Romanesque Scandinavian church walls. When Renaissance artists such as Pinturicchio, Raphael, Michelangelo, Ghirlandaio, or Filippino Lippi descended into the ruins of Nero's Domus Aurea, they carved or painted their names and returned to initiate the grottesche style of decoration.
There are also examples of graffiti occurring in American history, such as Independence Rock, a national landmark along the Oregon Trail.
Later, French soldiers carved their names on monuments during the Napoleonic campaign of Egypt in the 1790s. Lord Byron's survives on one of the columns of the Temple of Poseidon at Cape Sounion in Attica, Greece.
The oldest known example of graffiti "monikers" found on traincars created by hobos and railworkers since the late 1800s. The Bozo Texino monikers were documented by filmmaker Bill Daniel in his 2005 film, Who is Bozo Texino?.
In World War II, an inscription on a wall at the fortress of Verdun was seen as an illustration of the US response twice in a generation to the wrongs of the Old World:
During World War II and for decades after, the phrase "Kilroy was here" with an accompanying illustration was widespread throughout the world, due to its use by American troops and ultimately filtering into American popular culture. Shortly after the death of Charlie Parker (nicknamed "Yardbird" or "Bird"), graffiti began appearing around New York with the words "Bird Lives".
Modern graffiti art has its origins with young people in 1960s and 70s in New York City and Philadelphia. Tags were the first form of stylised contemporary graffiti. Eventually, throw-ups and pieces evolved with the desire to create larger art. Writers used spray paint and other kind of materials to leave tags or to create images on the sides subway trains. and eventually moved into the city after the NYC metro began to buy new trains and paint over graffiti.
While the art had many advocates and appreciators—including the cultural critic Norman Mailer—others, including New York City mayor Ed Koch, considered it to be defacement of public property, and saw it as a form of public blight. The ‘taggers’ called what they did ‘writing’—though an important 1974 essay by Mailer referred to it using the term ‘graffiti.’
Contemporary graffiti style has been heavily influenced by hip hop culture and the myriad international styles derived from Philadelphia and New York City Subway graffiti; however, there are many other traditions of notable graffiti in the twentieth century. Graffiti have long appeared on building walls, in latrines, railroad boxcars, subways, and bridges.
An early graffito outside of New York or Philadelphia was the inscription in London reading "Clapton is God" in reference to the guitarist Eric Clapton. Creating the cult of the guitar hero, the phrase was spray-painted by an admirer on a wall in an Islington, north London in the autumn of 1967. The graffito was captured in a photograph, in which a dog is urinating on the wall.
Films like Style Wars in the 80s depicting famous writers such as Skeme, Dondi, MinOne, and ZEPHYR reinforced graffiti's role within New York's emerging hip-hop culture. Although many officers of the New York City Police Department found this film to be controversial, Style Wars is still recognized as the most prolific film representation of what was going on within the young hip hop culture of the early 1980s. Fab 5 Freddy and Futura 2000 took hip hop graffiti to Paris and London as part of the New York City Rap Tour in 1983
Commercialization and entrance into mainstream pop culture
Main article: Commercial graffiti
With the popularity and legitimization of graffiti has come a level of commercialization. In 2001, computer giant IBM launched an advertising campaign in Chicago and San Francisco which involved people spray painting on sidewalks a peace symbol, a heart, and a penguin (Linux mascot), to represent "Peace, Love, and Linux." IBM paid Chicago and San Francisco collectively US$120,000 for punitive damages and clean-up costs.
In 2005, a similar ad campaign was launched by Sony and executed by its advertising agency in New York, Chicago, Atlanta, Philadelphia, Los Angeles, and Miami, to market its handheld PSP gaming system. In this campaign, taking notice of the legal problems of the IBM campaign, Sony paid building owners for the rights to paint on their buildings "a collection of dizzy-eyed urban kids playing with the PSP as if it were a skateboard, a paddle, or a rocking horse".
Tristan Manco wrote that Brazil "boasts a unique and particularly rich, graffiti scene ... [earning] it an international reputation as the place to go for artistic inspiration". Graffiti "flourishes in every conceivable space in Brazil's cities". Artistic parallels "are often drawn between the energy of São Paulo today and 1970s New York". The "sprawling metropolis", of São Paulo has "become the new shrine to graffiti"; Manco alludes to "poverty and unemployment ... [and] the epic struggles and conditions of the country's marginalised peoples", and to "Brazil's chronic poverty", as the main engines that "have fuelled a vibrant graffiti culture". In world terms, Brazil has "one of the most uneven distributions of income. Laws and taxes change frequently". Such factors, Manco argues, contribute to a very fluid society, riven with those economic divisions and social tensions that underpin and feed the "folkloric vandalism and an urban sport for the disenfranchised", that is South American graffiti art.
Prominent Brazilian writers include Os Gêmeos, Boleta, Nunca, Nina, Speto, Tikka, and T.Freak. Their artistic success and involvement in commercial design ventures has highlighted divisions within the Brazilian graffiti community between adherents of the cruder transgressive form of pichação and the more conventionally artistic values of the practitioners of grafite.
Graffiti in the Middle East has emerged slowly, with taggers operating in Egypt, Lebanon, the Gulf countries like Bahrain or the United Arab Emirates, Israel, and in Iran. The major Iranian newspaper Hamshahri has published two articles on illegal writers in the city with photographic coverage of Iranian artist A1one's works on Tehran walls. Tokyo-based design magazine, PingMag, has interviewed A1one and featured photographs of his work. The Israeli West Bank barrier has become a site for graffiti, reminiscent in this sense of the Berlin Wall. Many writers in Israel come from other places around the globe, such as JUIF from Los Angeles and DEVIONE from London. The religious reference "נ נח נחמ נחמן מאומן" ("Na Nach Nachma Nachman Meuman") is commonly seen in graffiti around Israel.
Graffiti has played an important role within the street art scene in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA), especially following the events of the Arab Spring of 2011 or the Sudanese Revolution of 2018/19. Graffiti is a tool of expression in the context of conflict in the region, allowing people to raise their voices politically and socially. Famous street artist Banksy has had an important effect in the street art scene in the MENA area, especially in Palestine where some of his works are located in the West Bank barrier and Bethlehem.
There are also a large number of graffiti influences in Southeast Asian countries that mostly come from modern Western culture, such as Malaysia, where graffiti have long been a common sight in Malaysia's capital city, Kuala Lumpur. Since 2010, the country has begun hosting a street festival to encourage all generations and people from all walks of life to enjoy and encourage Malaysian street culture.
The modern-day graffitists can be found with an arsenal of various materials that allow for a successful production of a piece. This includes such techniques as scribing. However, spray paint in aerosol cans is the number one medium for graffiti. From this commodity comes different styles, technique, and abilities to form master works of graffiti. Spray paint can be found at hardware and art stores and comes in virtually every color.
Stencil graffiti is created by cutting out shapes and designs in a stiff material (such as cardboard or subject folders) to form an overall design or image. The stencil is then placed on the "canvas" gently and with quick, easy strokes of the aerosol can, the image begins to appear on the intended surface.
Some of the first examples were created in 1981 by artists Blek le Rat in Paris, in 1982 by Jef Aerosol in Tours (France); by 1985 stencils had appeared in other cities including New York City, Sydney, and Melbourne, where they were documented by American photographer Charles Gatewood and Australian photographer Rennie Ellis
Tagging is the practice of someone spray-painting "their name, initial or logo onto a public surface" in a handstyle unique to the writer. Tags were the first form of modern graffiti.
Modern graffiti art often incorporates additional arts and technologies. For example, Graffiti Research Lab has encouraged the use of projected images and magnetic light-emitting diodes (throwies) as new media for graffitists. yarnbombing is another recent form of graffiti. Yarnbombers occasionally target previous graffiti for modification, which had been avoided among the majority of graffitists.
Theories on the use of graffiti by avant-garde artists have a history dating back at least to the Asger Jorn, who in 1962 painting declared in a graffiti-like gesture "the avant-garde won't give up"
Many contemporary analysts and even art critics have begun to see artistic value in some graffiti and to recognize it as a form of public art. According to many art researchers, particularly in the Netherlands and in Los Angeles, that type of public art is, in fact an effective tool of social emancipation or, in the achievement of a political goal
In times of conflict, such murals have offered a means of communication and self-expression for members of these socially, ethnically, or racially divided communities, and have proven themselves as effective tools in establishing dialog and thus, of addressing cleavages in the long run. The Berlin Wall was also extensively covered by graffiti reflecting social pressures relating to the oppressive Soviet rule over the GDR.
Many artists involved with graffiti are also concerned with the similar activity of stenciling. Essentially, this entails stenciling a print of one or more colors using spray-paint. Recognized while exhibiting and publishing several of her coloured stencils and paintings portraying the Sri Lankan Civil War and urban Britain in the early 2000s, graffitists Mathangi Arulpragasam, aka M.I.A., has also become known for integrating her imagery of political violence into her music videos for singles "Galang" and "Bucky Done Gun", and her cover art. Stickers of her artwork also often appear around places such as London in Brick Lane, stuck to lamp posts and street signs, she having become a muse for other graffitists and painters worldwide in cities including Seville.
Graffitist believes that art should be on display for everyone in the public eye or in plain sight, not hidden away in a museum or a gallery. Art should color the streets, not the inside of some building. Graffiti is a form of art that cannot be owned or bought. It does not last forever, it is temporary, yet one of a kind. It is a form of self promotion for the artist that can be displayed anywhere form sidewalks, roofs, subways, building wall, etc. Art to them is for everyone and should be showed to everyone for free.
Graffiti is a way of communicating and a way of expressing what one feels in the moment. It is both art and a functional thing that can warn people of something or inform people of something. However, graffiti is to some people a form of art, but to some a form of vandalism. And many graffitists choose to protect their identities and remain anonymous or to hinder prosecution.
With the commercialization of graffiti (and hip hop in general), in most cases, even with legally painted "graffiti" art, graffitists tend to choose anonymity. This may be attributed to various reasons or a combination of reasons. Graffiti still remains the one of four hip hop elements that is not considered "performance art" despite the image of the "singing and dancing star" that sells hip hop culture to the mainstream. Being a graphic form of art, it might also be said that many graffitists still fall in the category of the introverted archetypal artist.
Banksy is one of the world's most notorious and popular street artists who continues to remain faceless in today's society. He is known for his political, anti-war stencil art mainly in Bristol, England, but his work may be seen anywhere from Los Angeles to Palestine. In the UK, Banksy is the most recognizable icon for this cultural artistic movement and keeps his identity a secret to avoid arrest. Much of Banksy's artwork may be seen around the streets of London and surrounding suburbs, although he has painted pictures throughout the world, including the Middle East, where he has painted on Israel's controversial West Bank barrier with satirical images of life on the other side. One depicted a hole in the wall with an idyllic beach, while another shows a mountain landscape on the other side. A number of exhibitions also have taken place since 2000, and recent works of art have fetched vast sums of money. Banksy's art is a prime example of the classic controversy: vandalism vs. art. Art supporters endorse his work distributed in urban areas as pieces of art and some councils, such as Bristol and Islington, have officially protected them, while officials of other areas have deemed his work to be vandalism and have removed it.
Pixnit is another artist who chooses to keep her identity from the general public. Her work focuses on beauty and design aspects of graffiti as opposed to Banksy's anti-government shock value. Her paintings are often of flower designs above shops and stores in her local urban area of Cambridge, Massachusetts. Some store owners endorse her work and encourage others to do similar work as well. "One of the pieces was left up above Steve's Kitchen, because it looks pretty awesome"- Erin Scott, the manager of New England Comics in Allston, Massachusetts.
Graffiti artists may become offended if photographs of their art are published in a commercial context without their permission. In March 2020, the Finnish graffiti artist Psyke expressed his displeasure at the newspaper Ilta-Sanomat publishing a photograph of a Peugeot 208 in an article about new cars, with his graffiti prominently shown on the background. The artist claims he does not want his art being used in commercial context, not even if he were to receive compensation.
Territorial graffiti marks urban neighborhoods with tags and logos to differentiate certain groups from others. These images are meant to show outsiders a stern look at whose turf is whose. The subject matter of gang-related graffiti consists of cryptic symbols and initials strictly fashioned with unique calligraphies. Gang members use graffiti to designate membership throughout the gang, to differentiate rivals and associates and, most commonly, to mark borders which are both territorial and ideological.
Graffiti has been used as a means of advertising both legally and illegally. Bronx-based TATS CRU has made a name for themselves doing legal advertising campaigns for companies such as Coca-Cola, McDonald's, Toyota, and MTV. In the UK, Covent Garden's Boxfresh used stencil images of a Zapatista revolutionary in the hopes that cross referencing would promote their store.
Smirnoff hired artists to use reverse graffiti (the use of high pressure hoses to clean dirty surfaces to leave a clean image in the surrounding dirt) to increase awareness of their product.
Graffiti often has a reputation as part of a subculture that rebels against authority, although the considerations of the practitioners often diverge and can relate to a wide range of attitudes. It can express a political practice and can form just one tool in an array of resistance techniques. One early example includes the anarcho-punk band Crass, who conducted a campaign of stenciling anti-war, anarchist, feminist, and anti-consumerist messages throughout the London Underground system during the late 1970s and early 1980s. In Amsterdam graffiti was a major part of the punk scene. The city was covered with names such as "De Zoot", "Vendex", and "Dr Rat". To document the graffiti a punk magazine was started that was called Gallery Anus. So when hip hop came to Europe in the early 1980s there was already a vibrant graffiti culture.
The student protests and general strike of May 1968 saw Paris bedecked in revolutionary, anarchistic, and situationist slogans such as L'ennui est contre-révolutionnaire ("Boredom is counterrevolutionary") and Lisez moins, vivez plus ("Read less, live more"). While not exhaustive, the graffiti gave a sense of the 'millenarian' and rebellious spirit, tempered with a good deal of verbal wit, of the strikers.
I think graffiti writing is a way of defining what our generation is like. Excuse the French, we're not a bunch of p---- artists. Traditionally artists have been considered soft and mellow people, a little bit kooky. Maybe we're a little bit more like pirates that way. We defend our territory, whatever space we steal to paint on, we defend it fiercely.
The developments of graffiti art which took place in art galleries and colleges as well as "on the street" or "underground", contributed to the resurfacing in the 1990s of a far more overtly politicized art form in the subvertising, culture jamming, or tactical media movements. These movements or styles tend to classify the artists by their relationship to their social and economic contexts, since, in most countries, graffiti art remains illegal in many forms except when using non-permanent paint. Since the 1990s with the rise of Street Art, a growing number of artists are switching to non-permanent paints and non-traditional forms of painting.
Contemporary practitioners, accordingly, have varied and often conflicting practices. Some individuals, such as Alexander Brener, have used the medium to politicize other art forms, and have used the prison sentences enforced on them as a means of further protest. The practices of anonymous groups and individuals also vary widely, and practitioners by no means always agree with each other's practices. For example, the anti-capitalist art group the Space Hijackers did a piece in 2004 about the contradiction between the capitalistic elements of Banksy and his use of political imagery.
Berlin human rights activist Irmela Mensah-Schramm has received global media attention and numerous awards for her 35-year campaign of effacing neo-Nazi and other right-wing extremist graffiti throughout Germany, often by altering hate speech in humorous ways.
In Serbian capital, Belgrade, the graffiti depicting a uniformed former general of Serb army and war criminal, convicted at ICTY for war crimes and crimes against humanity, including genocide and ethnic cleansing in Bosnian War, Ratko Mladić, appeared in a military salute alongside the words "General, thank to your mother". Aleks Eror, Berlin-based journalist, explains how "veneration of historical and wartime figures" through street art is not a new phenomenon in the region of former Yugoslavia, and that "in most cases is firmly focused on the future, rather than retelling the past". Eror is not only analyst pointing to danger of such an expressions for the region's future. In a long expose on the subject of Bosnian genocide denial, at Balkan Diskurs magazine and multimedia platform website, Kristina Gadže and Taylor Whitsell referred to these experiences as a young generations' "cultural heritage", in which young are being exposed to celebration and affirmation of war-criminals as part of their "formal education" and "inheritance".
There are numerous examples of genocide denial through celebration and affirmation of war criminals throughout the region of Western Balkans inhabited by Serbs using this form of artistic expression. Several more of these graffiti are found in Serbian capital, and many more across Serbia and Bosnian and Herzegovinian administrative entity, Republika Srpska, which is the ethnic Serbian majority enclave. Critics point that Serbia as a state, is willing to defend the mural of convicted war criminal, and have no intention to react on cases of genocide denial, noting that Interior Minister of Serbia, Aleksandar Vulin decision to ban any gathering with an intent to remove the mural, with the deployment of riot police, sends the message of "tacit endorsement". Consequently, on 9 November 2021, Serbian heavy police in riot gear, with graffiti creators and their supporters, blocked the access to the mural to prevent human rights groups and other activists to paint over it and mark the International Day Against Fascism and Antisemitism in that way, and even arrested two civic activist for throwing eggs at the graffiti.
Graffiti may also be used as an offensive expression. This form of graffiti may be difficult to identify, as it is mostly removed by the local authority (as councils which have adopted strategies of criminalization also strive to remove graffiti quickly). Therefore, existing racist graffiti is mostly more subtle and at first sight, not easily recognized as "racist". It can then be understood only if one knows the relevant "local code" (social, historical, political, temporal, and spatial), which is seen as heteroglot and thus a 'unique set of conditions' in a cultural context.
A spatial code for example, could be that there is a certain youth group in an area that is engaging heavily in racist activities. So, for residents (knowing the local code), a graffiti containing only the name or abbreviation of this gang already is a racist expression, reminding the offended people of their gang activities. Also a graffiti is in most cases, the herald of more serious criminal activity to come. A person who does not know these gang activities would not be able to recognize the meaning of this graffiti. Also if a tag of this youth group or gang is placed on a building occupied by asylum seekers, for example, its racist character is even stronger.
By making the graffiti less explicit (as adapted to social and legal constraints), these drawings are less likely to be removed, but do not lose their threatening and offensive character.
Elsewhere, activists in Russia have used painted caricatures of local officials with their mouths as potholes, to show their anger about the poor state of the roads. In Manchester, England, a graffitists painted obscene images around potholes, which often resulted in them being repaired within 48 hours.
In the early 1980s, the first art galleries to show graffitists to the public were Fashion Moda in the Bronx, Now Gallery and Fun Gallery, both in the East Village, Manhattan.
A 2006 exhibition at the Brooklyn Museum displayed graffiti as an art form that began in New York's outer boroughs and reached great heights in the early 1980s with the work of Crash, Lee, Daze, Keith Haring, and Jean-Michel Basquiat. It displayed 22 works by New York graffitists, including Crash, Daze, and Lady Pink. In an article about the exhibition in the magazine Time Out, curator Charlotta Kotik said that she hoped the exhibition would cause viewers to rethink their assumptions about graffiti.
From the 1970s onwards, Burhan Doğançay photographed urban walls all over the world; these he then archived for use as sources of inspiration for his painterly works. The project today known as "Walls of the World" grew beyond even his own expectations and comprises about 30,000 individual images. It spans a period of 40 years across five continents and 114 countries. In 1982, photographs from this project comprised a one-man exhibition titled "Les murs murmurent, ils crient, ils chantent ..." (The walls whisper, shout and sing ...) at the Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris.
In Australia, art historians have judged some local graffiti of sufficient creative merit to rank them firmly within the arts. Oxford University Press's art history text Australian Painting 1788–2000 concludes with a long discussion of graffiti's key place within contemporary visual culture, including the work of several Australian practitioners.
Between March and April 2009, 150 artists exhibited 300 pieces of graffiti at the Grand Palais in Paris.
Spray paint has many negative environmental effects. The paint contains toxic chemicals, and the can uses volatile hydrocarbon gases to spray the paint onto a surface.
Volatile organic compound (VOC) leads to ground level ozone formation and most of graffiti related emissions are VOCs. A 2010 paper estimates 4,862 tons of VOCs were released in the United States in activities related to graffiti.
In China, Mao Zedong in the 1920s used revolutionary slogans and paintings in public places to galvanize the country's communist movement.
Based on different national conditions, many people believe that China's attitude towards Graffiti is fierce, but in fact, according to Lance Crayon in his film Spray Paint Beijing: Graffiti in the Capital of China, Graffiti is generally accepted in Beijing, with artists not seeing much police interference. Political and religiously sensitive graffiti, however, is not allowed.
In Hong Kong, Tsang Tsou Choi was known as the King of Kowloon for his calligraphy graffiti over many years, in which he claimed ownership of the area. Now some of his work is preserved officially.
In Taiwan, the government has made some concessions to graffitists. Since 2005 they have been allowed to freely display their work along some sections of riverside retaining walls in designated "Graffiti Zones". From 2007, Taipei's department of cultural affairs also began permitting graffiti on fences around major public construction sites. Department head Yong-ping Lee (李永萍) stated, "We will promote graffiti starting with the public sector, and then later in the private sector too. It's our goal to beautify the city with graffiti". The government later helped organize a graffiti contest in Ximending, a popular shopping district. graffitists caught working outside of these designated areas still face fines up to NT$6,000 under a department of environmental protection regulation. However, Taiwanese authorities can be relatively lenient, one veteran police officer stating anonymously, "Unless someone complains about vandalism, we won't get involved. We don't go after it proactively."
In 1993, after several expensive cars in Singapore were spray-painted, the police arrested a student from the Singapore American School, Michael P. Fay, questioned him, and subsequently charged him with vandalism. Fay pleaded guilty to vandalizing a car in addition to stealing road signs. Under the 1966 Vandalism Act of Singapore, originally passed to curb the spread of communist graffiti in Singapore, the court sentenced him to four months in jail, a fine of S$3,500 (US$2,233), and a caning. The New York Times ran several editorials and op-eds that condemned the punishment and called on the American public to flood the Singaporean embassy with protests. Although the Singapore government received many calls for clemency, Fay's caning took place in Singapore on 5 May 1994. Fay had originally received a sentence of six strokes of the cane, but the presiding president of Singapore, Ong Teng Cheong, agreed to reduce his caning sentence to four lashes.
In South Korea, Park Jung-soo was fined two million South Korean won by the Seoul Central District Court for spray-painting a rat on posters of the G-20 Summit a few days before the event in November 2011. Park alleged that the initial in "G-20" sounds like the Korean word for "rat", but Korean government prosecutors alleged that Park was making a derogatory statement about the president of South Korea, Lee Myung-bak, the host of the summit. This case led to public outcry and debate on the lack of government tolerance and in support of freedom of expression. The court ruled that the painting, "an ominous creature like a rat" amounts to "an organized criminal activity" and upheld the fine while denying the prosecution's request for imprisonment for Park.
In Europe, community cleaning squads have responded to graffiti, in some cases with reckless abandon, as when in 1992 in France a local Scout group, attempting to remove modern graffiti, damaged two prehistoric paintings of bison in the Cave of Mayrière supérieure near the French village of Bruniquel in Tarn-et-Garonne, earning them the 1992 Ig Nobel Prize in archeology.
In September 2006, the European Parliament directed the European Commission to create urban environment policies to prevent and eliminate dirt, litter, graffiti, animal excrement, and excessive noise from domestic and vehicular music systems in European cities, along with other concerns over urban life.
In Budapest, Hungary, both a city-backed movement called I Love Budapest and a special police division tackle the problem, including the provision of approved areas.
The Anti-social Behaviour Act 2003 became Britain's latest anti-graffiti legislation. In August 2004, the Keep Britain Tidy campaign issued a press release calling for zero tolerance of graffiti and supporting proposals such as issuing "on the spot" fines to graffiti offenders and banning the sale of aerosol paint to anyone under the age of 16. The press release also condemned the use of graffiti images in advertising and in music videos, arguing that real-world experience of graffiti stood far removed from its often-portrayed "cool" or "edgy'" image.
To back the campaign, 123 Members of Parliament (MPs) (including then Prime Minister Tony Blair), signed a charter which stated: "Graffiti is not art, it's crime. On behalf of my constituents, I will do all I can to rid our community of this problem."
In the UK, city councils have the power to take action against the owner of any property that has been defaced under the Anti-social Behaviour Act 2003 (as amended by the Clean Neighbourhoods and Environment Act 2005) or, in certain cases, the Highways Act. This is often used against owners of property that are complacent in allowing protective boards to be defaced so long as the property is not damaged.
In July 2008, a conspiracy charge was used to convict graffitists for the first time. After a three-month police surveillance operation, nine members of the DPM crew were convicted of conspiracy to commit criminal damage costing at least £1 million. Five of them received prison sentences, ranging from eighteen months to two years. The unprecedented scale of the investigation and the severity of the sentences rekindled public debate over whether graffiti should be considered art or crime.
Some councils, like those of Stroud and Loerrach, provide approved areas in the town where graffitists can showcase their talents, including underpasses, car parks, and walls that might otherwise prove a target for the "spray and run".
Graffiti Tunnel, University of Sydney at Camperdown (2009)
In an effort to reduce vandalism, many cities in Australia have designated walls or areas exclusively for use by graffitists. One early example is the "Graffiti Tunnel" located at the Camperdown Campus of the University of Sydney, which is available for use by any student at the university to tag, advertise, poster, and paint. Advocates of this idea suggest that this discourages petty vandalism yet encourages artists to take their time and produce great art, without worry of being caught or arrested for vandalism or trespassing.[108][109] Others disagree with this approach, arguing that the presence of legal graffiti walls does not demonstrably reduce illegal graffiti elsewhere. Some local government areas throughout Australia have introduced "anti-graffiti squads", who clean graffiti in the area, and such crews as BCW (Buffers Can't Win) have taken steps to keep one step ahead of local graffiti cleaners.
Many state governments have banned the sale or possession of spray paint to those under the age of 18 (age of majority). However, a number of local governments in Victoria have taken steps to recognize the cultural heritage value of some examples of graffiti, such as prominent political graffiti. Tough new graffiti laws have been introduced in Australia with fines of up to A$26,000 and two years in prison.
Melbourne is a prominent graffiti city of Australia with many of its lanes being tourist attractions, such as Hosier Lane in particular, a popular destination for photographers, wedding photography, and backdrops for corporate print advertising. The Lonely Planet travel guide cites Melbourne's street as a major attraction. All forms of graffiti, including sticker art, poster, stencil art, and wheatpasting, can be found in many places throughout the city. Prominent street art precincts include; Fitzroy, Collingwood, Northcote, Brunswick, St. Kilda, and the CBD, where stencil and sticker art is prominent. As one moves farther away from the city, mostly along suburban train lines, graffiti tags become more prominent. Many international artists such as Banksy have left their work in Melbourne and in early 2008 a perspex screen was installed to prevent a Banksy stencil art piece from being destroyed, it has survived since 2003 through the respect of local street artists avoiding posting over it, although it has recently had paint tipped over it.
In February 2008 Helen Clark, the New Zealand prime minister at that time, announced a government crackdown on tagging and other forms of graffiti vandalism, describing it as a destructive crime representing an invasion of public and private property. New legislation subsequently adopted included a ban on the sale of paint spray cans to persons under 18 and increases in maximum fines for the offence from NZ$200 to NZ$2,000 or extended community service. The issue of tagging become a widely debated one following an incident in Auckland during January 2008 in which a middle-aged property owner stabbed one of two teenage taggers to death and was subsequently convicted of manslaughter.
Graffiti databases have increased in the past decade because they allow vandalism incidents to be fully documented against an offender and help the police and prosecution charge and prosecute offenders for multiple counts of vandalism. They also provide law enforcement the ability to rapidly search for an offender's moniker or tag in a simple, effective, and comprehensive way. These systems can also help track costs of damage to a city to help allocate an anti-graffiti budget. The theory is that when an offender is caught putting up graffiti, they are not just charged with one count of vandalism; they can be held accountable for all the other damage for which they are responsible. This has two main benefits for law enforcement. One, it sends a signal to the offenders that their vandalism is being tracked. Two, a city can seek restitution from offenders for all the damage that they have committed, not merely a single incident. These systems give law enforcement personnel real-time, street-level intelligence that allows them not only to focus on the worst graffiti offenders and their damage, but also to monitor potential gang violence that is associated with the graffiti.
Many restrictions of civil gang injunctions are designed to help address and protect the physical environment and limit graffiti. Provisions of gang injunctions include things such as restricting the possession of marker pens, spray paint cans, or other sharp objects capable of defacing private or public property; spray painting, or marking with marker pens, scratching, applying stickers, or otherwise applying graffiti on any public or private property, including, but not limited to the street, alley, residences, block walls, and fences, vehicles or any other real or personal property. Some injunctions contain wording that restricts damaging or vandalizing both public and private property, including but not limited to any vehicle, light fixture, door, fence, wall, gate, window, building, street sign, utility box, telephone box, tree, or power pole.
To help address many of these issues, many local jurisdictions have set up graffiti abatement hotlines, where citizens can call in and report vandalism and have it removed. San Diego's hotline receives more than 5,000 calls per year, in addition to reporting the graffiti, callers can learn more about prevention. One of the complaints about these hotlines is the response time; there is often a lag time between a property owner calling about the graffiti and its removal. The length of delay should be a consideration for any jurisdiction planning on operating a hotline. Local jurisdictions must convince the callers that their complaint of vandalism will be a priority and cleaned off right away. If the jurisdiction does not have the resources to respond to complaints in a timely manner, the value of the hotline diminishes. Crews must be able to respond to individual service calls made to the graffiti hotline as well as focus on cleanup near schools, parks, and major intersections and transit routes to have the biggest impact. Some cities offer a reward for information leading to the arrest and prosecution of suspects for tagging or graffiti related vandalism. The amount of the reward is based on the information provided, and the action taken.
When police obtain search warrants in connection with a vandalism investigation, they are often seeking judicial approval to look for items such as cans of spray paint and nozzles from other kinds of aerosol sprays; etching tools, or other sharp or pointed objects, which could be used to etch or scratch glass and other hard surfaces; permanent marking pens, markers, or paint sticks; evidence of membership or affiliation with any gang or tagging crew; paraphernalia including any reference to "(tagger's name)"; any drawings, writing, objects, or graffiti depicting taggers' names, initials, logos, monikers, slogans, or any mention of tagging crew membership; and any newspaper clippings relating to graffiti crime.
I saw this dilapidated old fishing bobber sitting by our fire pit and couldn't resist all the fantastic lines and contrast.
Use your Talents reminds us to pursue our passions imperfectly. This piece visualizes Henry Van Dyke's poem with colorful birds perched on a branch woven through a woman's hair.
used here, here, here, here, here, here
one of these kids is really playing a video game. the other one has a live controller and no idea what to do with it, but he has a lot of fun curling up with his brother and sharing in the excitement. sometimes nick exclaims "i won!", which is also pretty funny, given the circumstances. these two were especially friendly towards one another tonight, they've had about three days apart.
copyright © 2008 sean dreilinger
view brothers reunited after separate thanksgivings - _MG_3362 on a black background.
view brothers reunited after separate thanksgivings - _MG_3362 on a black background.
Schmidt Puzzles 58946
cardboard
1,000 pieces, used and complete
693 x 493 mm
2022 piece count: 18,784
puzzle: 20
TED: "It sez on the box that it's Mount Fugee, but I don't get it - the Fugees is a hip hop band, not a mowntin!
Still, it's a pritty pikchur an' not 'alf as difficut as I fawt it'd be. I dun the outside first, then that Fugee (still don't unnerstand, it's not Wyclef Jean, is it?), next I dun the sea an' sky, an' then I dun the leafs. Simples!!
Oh... an' Dad sez it's nuffink to do wiv the Fugees... instead it's a mowntin called FUJI in Japan. I wish they woodunt try an' confuse me, it ain't fair, is it?"
*grumbles*
Taken using DIY helmet rig, Smilar to that often used with GoPro
I drilled a hole vertically through the top (vertex) of the helmet and passed a bolt and washers through. Next I attached a 2m length of 21.5 mm PVC pipe using the bolt as a fulcrum. The camera (a Canon Powershot S100) was mounted on the longer end and was counterweighted with big nuts & bolts on the shorter end.
As my Powershot has no wireless remote, I had to pass a 5m USB lead throught the pipe and use a USB Battery charger as a shutter release (activated in the CHDK firmware hack available on the Powershot).
See photo of the rig in this Album
Processing was HDR of single RAW image in Photomatix.
Topaz Adjust
Touch of Fractalius
Blackpool is where the north, and most of Scotland, used to go on their holidays.
Once unions and pressure had allowed for workers from industrial towns used to travel en masse, buy train, to one of the three huge stations the town had, for a week. Each town had their own week, a wakes week, when it would go on holiday to Blackpool.
Blackpool grew huge and prosperous, catering for the masses going on holiday at the seaside The town had three pleasure piers, a Winter Garden, threatres, a Pleasure Beach and hotels and B&Bs all the way down the Golden Mile that looked onto the Irish Sea. In the centre was the Tower, and below that the Ballroom.
Its all still there, and at the end of the 19th century, when electric light was brought to the town, there came the "illuminations", brightly lit displays that lined the Golden Mile, and stretched the holiday and visitor season well into autumn.
The illuminations are best seen in the autumn, when night falls ever earlier, and at five (or was yesterday), they are switched on, so a long line of cars and coaches inch down the Promenade admiring the lights.
Also in Blackpool is the trams, the largest Victorian Tram system still working in the country, been there so long it saw just about every other system taken down, and is now witnessing new ones having been put into cities like Manchester, Sheffield, Birmingham, Nottingham, London (well, Croydon), and Edinburgh, with many more planned.
Although the best way to see the lights is by foot or by tram, and best to arrive by train. Which is why we were getting up at half four on a Saturday morning, so to travel to London to board a railtour that would take us to Blackpool and back in a day, though arrive back too late to get us back to Dover so a hotel in that London would be needed.
We have coffee and do the last of the packing. Our friend, Gary, was coming in to feed the cats on Saturday afternoon and Sunday evening, so no cat roundup needed. And so at quarter past five into the darkness and light drizzle.
It was very cold.
I found a place to park on Priory Gate Road, Jools went to buy the tickets, and with the train already in the platform, we go on and took our coats off.
We left on time, 05:49, and were in London some 70 minutes later, all ready to walk the ten minutes to Euston. Now if only we could find a place for some light breakfast.
Pausing only for some grabbed shots, we took the escalators down to the undercroft and headed out the westerly exit behind the British Library and the Crick Institute, where a bright light shone brightly in the distance, offering the hope that a café might be open.
King's Café was just opened for the day,, but they were willing to serve us. We had coffee, of course, while I opted for nutella on toast while Jools had a mountain of mushrooms on toast. Both good, and all for under a tenner.
Our hunger not killed off, but we were due to have fried breakfast on the train.
A short walk from there to Euston, and quickly walked to Platform 16 where the train was waiting, and thankfully with the heating fully on.
The train, eight carriages and two service coaches top and tailed by class 90s, all prepped and raring to go, and the smells of breakfast was already escaping the kitchen car.
We were sat at a table for four, on the other side a single guy sat, who had plenty to say, not all of it good.
Initially, it seemed he knew what he was talking about, but then he mentioned Liz Truss had done a good job, then that Nigel Farrage should be brought into the Government. I replied that there isn't a gibbet high enough in London town to hang that traitor from. He changed the subject
That notwithstanding, and his jibber jabbering, it was a fine trip up, us having breakfast served before we had even left the London suburbs.
Fruit salad followed by a full try up then rounded up with toast and preserved. All freshly cooked or prepared, and served with lashings of tea of coffee.
Would we like a drink, was the next question. It was nearly ten, and opening time somewhere. So, I asked what ales they had. He got as far as Bishop's Finger and I told him to stop, bring me a bottle forthwith!
The journey north, however, was becoming difficult. Friday had seen a storm batter the north east and north west, with there being many trees down and trains in the the wrong place. The WCML was also closed, so we had to meander our way north via Stoke before edging back along a single line to Crewe.
Everywhere there was huge crowds of people just waiting for a train, we inched past as I supped dark, strong ale.
At one point it seemed possible we were not going anywhere. We had reached Northampton, and apparently Network Rail had no requests for us heading any further north. So, we sat there for 40 minutes whilst the paperwork was sent in and approved before we moved off.
All around us was a covering of dusty snow, not much, but enough to make the scene pretty as a Christmas card. It looked cold, this was because it was cold.
Anyway, we reached Crewe, moved north through Warrington and Wigan before halting again at Preston. This was where the line to Blackpool branched off, on the station people were waiting everywhere, we were sat in British Rail luxury in the best carriages the British rail industry ever made, the Mk 3s.
We pulled out, and snaked across the main line onto the newly electrified line, and headed to the coast. At station photographers were waiting, recording our progress, while inside we got ready to head out once we arrived at Blackpool North.
We walked to the end of the platform, through the station and across the main road, heading into the town centre. When we reached the top of the slope, the north wind hit us like a truck.
It took our breath away.
Now, even though we had two breakfasts, we were both hungry, so once we decided which place to try, we went into a local version of Wetherspoons called Vintro Lounge, and got the last table .
We felt normal, but around this were Mothers with daughters, and the daughters have very inappropriate make up, some with false eyelashes, all this on girls no more than ten years old.
There will dolls, all delicate with painted faces.
We found out later there was rehearsals at The Winter Garden, and these were trying out for the chorus, but it did look odd, to say the least.
We both ordered the sweet potato and lentil curry and people watched, and it has to be said, has a different class of people to watch.
I have been to Blackpool many times; first time as a child of about four when we were on a coach tour, and we travelled in said coach to see the illuminations late that summer evening, although I guess they were not the full show being in summer.
I returned twice with my second wife and her son, and I did enjoy the experience, but it did seem to be a town that was trying to wring every last penny from my wallet.
Finally, I did an HGV course round here, and drove down the Golden Mile curing the course of one lesson, not able to admire all the trams on the prom.
I have been up the Tower and to the Pleasure Beach, rode "The Big One", so, what else is there to do? On a bitterly cold November afternoon, little more than go out for short periods before diving back inside a bar or a place for a coffee.
Trams were terminating at the pier, and so the plan to ride to Fleetwood was blown out of the water, so, after photographing the prom around the tower and finding the North Pier closed, we retired to the Winter Gardens for another coffee and to shelter until the sun went down.
The Winter Gardens was playing host to a Labour Conference, so earnest men in sharp suits talked in heated tones hunched over bottles of Italian lager (brewed under licence), and I thought of all the open goals that Labour has missed these last five years, and that the party seems happiest fighting amongst itself. I looked down at Dad's union badge on my coat, and thought of the firebrands of the past who wouldn't have done this.
At half four, we went back outside to snap some lights during the blue hour, but found most of the lights were not yet on. We were to learn that they got switched on at five.
We had tickets for a free ride on a vintage tram, so went to the stop before time, and saw a large crowd on men of a certain age had already gathered and were trying to board the tram already there. A second one trundled past us, we kept pace with it, so when it stopped and the doors opened, the conductor had just to mouth the words "railtour ticket holders only", we dived on and bagged seats upstairs at the back, which would soon be at the front as the tram was at the end of the line.
They turned the heating up so we could warm up, but that meant the windows misted up.
Bugger.
I tried to get good shots, and did OK on the trip back.
The wind was blowing sand along the prom, causing cars parked on the side of the road to become embedded in drifts. And a group of drunk young men tried to force themselves onto the tram only to be foiled when we didn't halt at the next stop.
Seeya guys.
We got back at ten past six, we had an hour to kill, so we went to find a micropub I had spotted earlier, passing long lines in the cold night waiting to get into 'Spoons.
The pub was a quarter full, I had a pint of chocolate stout, and Jools had a cider. It was warm, welcoming, all that a pub chain isn't.
I had a pint of Stay Puft, another sweet stout, which was most excellent too.
We walked back to the station and got back on board, settling down in our seats, letting the heat revive us. Jabber was back too, his pub crawl round the region's Wetherspoons had been foiled due to trains being cancelled and the suspension of most of the tram route.
I delighted in telling him of the several pints of fine stout I had supped.
-----------------------------------------------
The Winter Gardens is a large entertainment complex in Blackpool, Lancashire, England, which includes a theatre, ballroom and conference facilities. Opened in 1878, it is a Grade II* listed building,[1] operated by Blackpool Entertainment Company Limited[2] on behalf of Blackpool Council, which purchased the property from Leisure Parcs Ltd as part of a £40 million deal in 2010.[3]
The Winter Gardens has hosted the annual conferences of British political parties and trade unions and its owners claim that every Prime Minister since World War II has addressed an audience at the venue.
It has also hosted the Blackpool Dance Festival since its inception in 1920, and the World Matchplay darts tournament since 1994. The annual dance competitions Miss Dance of Great Britain and Dance Master UK are hosted there annually.
The Winter Gardens Company bought the site in 1875 for £28,000.[4] The Winter Gardens was built on the six-acre Bank Hey Estate and officially opened on 11 July 1878. The original intention was "to place on the land a concert room, promenades, conservatories and other accessories calculated to convert the estate into a pleasant lounge, especially desirous during inclement days."[5]
The Vestibule, Floral Hall, Ambulatory and Pavilion Theatre were all built in the 1870s[1] and the Opera House Theatre originally opened in 1889.[6] The Empress Ballroom was built in 1896[1][7] together with the Indian Lounge (now the Arena).[8] The long-gone Blackpool Ferris wheel, erected in 1896, was also located at the complex.
In 1910, the Opera House Theatre was rebuilt.[6] Ownership of the complex changed in 1928 when the Winter Gardens Company was taken over by the Tower Company.[4]
In 1930, the Olympia was built[9] and the following year saw the addition of the Galleon Bar, Spanish Hall and Baronial Hall.[1] The Opera House Theatre was rebuilt in 1939.[6]
EMI took over the complex in 1967, and ownership changed hands again in 1983 when it was bought by First Leisure.[4] In 1998, Leisure Parcs acquired the Winter Gardens from First Leisure's Resorts Division as part of an estimated £74m deal which also included Blackpool Tower, and the resort's three piers. On 3 December 2009, it was revealed that Leisure Parcs had accepted an offer of £40m from Blackpool Council to buy the Winter Gardens as well as the Tower, and other sites in the resort. The deal, financed through a combination of government regeneration cash, European funding and a loan, was finalised in March 2010.[10][11]
Political party conferences have increasingly taken place in major cities with modern, purpose-built conference centres such as Birmingham, Liverpool and Manchester, with the most recent major conference in Blackpool being the Conservative conference in 2007.[12][13]
Since 1996, the venue has hosted the yearly Rebellion Punk Festival.
Images used:
Image by Christo Anestev from Pixabay
pixabay.com/photos/coronavirus-mask-corona-virus-5050865/
corona
Image by Marcos Cola from Pixabay
pixabay.com/photos/girl-child-face-mask-covid-kid-5760039/
girl 57
Wirrabara.
A Kaurna Aboriginal name meaning “gum trees with running water” was used to name the town when it was proclaimed in 1874 although the local Aboriginal people were the Ngadjuri tribe. Before 1874 the land was firstly leased by Samuel and Frederick White from 1844 who named their run Charlton. A small and not very successful copper mine, the Charlton mine, was established in the 1850s on this run just north of the present town site. The Charlton Mine was run by the Australian Mining Company from 1854 for just a few years. White’s leasehold was purchased by Charles. B. Fisher in 1861 who renamed the property Wirrabara instead of Charlton but Charles White retained his old homestead and some acreage around it. When Surveyor General George Goyder visited Fisher’s Wirrabara run in 1864 he estimated it was carrying 50,000 sheep. In 1866 the Wirrabara run was taken over by Alexander Borthwick Murray and his three sons of Mt Crawford as a sheep stud for their Murray Merinos. When parts of the run were resumed in 1872 for closer settlement Alexander Borthwick Murray used his employees to purchase extensive areas of freehold land in a system known as dummying. The Murray family built a homestead in 1872 on the property called Avonmore shown because they then had freehold to the property. When Alexander Scott Murray married in 1874 he extended and remodelled it into a grand ten roomed house with marble fireplaces and cedar architraves and it became his family home. There is a fine stone memorial to Alexander Scott Murray near the railway station with its silo art. He was only 34 years old when he died of ill health and he was the highly respected manager of Wirrabara Station. He had a large public role and apart from supporting local organisations he did public works like laying the foundation stone of the Laura Institute etc. On his death he left a wife and four children under five years of age. The memorial was unveiled in February 1882 two years after Alexander Scott Murray’s death in 1880. After Alexander Scott Murray’s death his brother John took over Avonmore but he too died of health issues in 1884 aged 35 years. Alexander Borthwick Murray and his remaining son Malcomb of Avonmore also had lands northwards along the ranges. In 1885 A.B. Murray had some of these lands surveyed and put up for sale as a private town named Murraytown after himself. Up to 50,000 sheep were shorn on the Wirrabara run in the late 19th century which by then occupied 20,700 acres freehold. But then son Malcom Murray committed suicide in April 1900. Malcom Pulteney Murray was known for his pranks, drunkenness and rash behaviours and his depressions. Alexander Borthwick Murray died in 1903 and his estate trustees managed Avonmore and the lands at Murraytown. The 20,700 acre Wirrabara Estate was sold as part of Alexander Borthwick’s estate in 1910 for over £141,000. At that time it was known for its fruit orchards, grain paddocks and lucerne flats. It was subdivided into 47 farms.
Apart from pastoralism forestry has been a major industry in the region even after grain farmers arrived in 1874. Some individual foresters were cutting timber and selling it from around 1865. Good quality straight posts were sold by them for the erection of the telegraph line to Melrose and Port Augusta in 1865. The first plantation forest in Australia was established by the SA government in 1875 at Bundaleer near Jamestown. The second forest was declared at Wirrabara in 1877. The government had resumed almost 50,000 acres in 1875 which was set aside as the Wirrabara Forest Reserve. A Forester’s residence and a Nurseryman’s residence were soon erected. The most drought resistant of the pine trees the Aleppo Pine from Syria was planted here in 1878. Tasmanian blue gum and other exotic and native trees were planted at Wirrabara. Most of the lands of the forest were about 1,700 feet above sea level (518 metres) and about 20 small leasehold farm blocks were created in it for fruit growing. The horticulturists were known as the Wirrabara Blockers. In these early years Wirrabara forest was also used to produce seedlings for plantings at Bundaleer. The first saw mill began in 1880 with another in 1902 to mill the Aleppo pines. In 1881 the Wirrabara Forest School opened as so many people lived in this area. A second Forest School was built in 1910. Forestry and saw milling remained an industry until the Bangor bushfires of 2014 destroyed large areas of the forests which the then current Labor government decided not to replant. The native trees along the ranges remain as forest or as conservation parks. Thus it is not surprising that the theme for the Wirrabara grain silo art is the forestry worker and the native birds of the forests like the red capped robin. The King Tree or Eucalyptus camaldulensis (usually called River Red Gum) is one of the main trees of the native forests. By 1889 the Blockers were under the control of the Commissioner of Crown Lands and some purchased their farms freehold. Most Blockers grew vines or fruit trees. Some blocks were sold by the government as soldier settler farms after World War One but this was not successful with farmers deserting their blocks by 1932.
The town began to emerge overnight in 1874 with many buildings being erected by 1875. The first stores in the town were opened by Melrose storekeepers. They were followed by a baker, a butcher, a saddler and the hotel. In fact the Wirrabara Hotel was licensed in 1875 and the fine sandstone building opened shortly thereafter. A government school followed the Free, Compulsory and Secular Education Act for 1875 by opening in 1879. It was replaced with a larger red brick school building in 1921. The Post Office started in 1880 and the Institute foundation stone was laid in 1884. Once open it was used for Anglican and Lutheran church services. It still runs a library service, the only independent library service left in SA. In 1912 a new local Wirrabara stone institute or hall was built and opened by the Governor Sir Day Bosanquet. The War Memorial in front of the Institute was unveiled in 1921. The first courtroom operated in Wirrabara from around 1880 with a temporary police station. One of the biggest events in the town growth was the arrival of the railway line from Laura in 1910 as it pushed northwards to Booleroo Centre. Public meetings in Wirrabara had called for this from 1901. Parliament approved the line in 1908 and the work was finished to Wirrabara in 1910. In 1923 the government bought a block of land in Fifth Street for a new police station but this was not erected until 1929. Apart from industry and commercial premises the town soon churches.
The Wesleyan Methodists opened their church in 1876 being the first in town. The Bible Christians Methodists opened theirs soon after. The Anglicans held early services in the first Institute until St Margaret’s Church opened in 1909 on the corner of Second and Fifth Streets. The old or first Institute was left vacant for some time after 1912 and then in 1920 it was taken over by Manning’s Furniture Store. In the early 1940s the Anglican began planning for a new and larger church. When Manning’s Furniture store came on the market in the first institute the Anglicans purchased that and it was consecrated in 1964 with the old foundation stone on the front. The Lutheran church opened in 1921. The foundation stone of Catholic Church was laid on 1 June 1930 by the Bishop of Port Augusta with the church opening in February 1931.
Wirrabara received an $80,000 federal government grant through the Fund My Neighbourhood program to have their silos painted. The Mount Remarkable Council conducted a local survey to select the artist and the theme of the painting. The most favoured artist was Sam Bates, alias Smug, of Melbourne and he was awarded the task. The most popular theme voted for was forestry and woodcutters. The woodcutter depicted on the silos is Dion Lebrun of Tumby Bay and the beautiful bird is a red capped robin. Since the closure of the forests the silo art is just one of a number of measures the locals are taking to keep their town alive. A farmers’ market is held once a month on a Sunday morning, they maintain a community website, the volunteer staffed craft shop distributes tourist information and some locals still grow apricots, peaches and nectarines and one enterprising horticulturist is now growing Manuka bushes to produce Manuka honey in a few years’ time.
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Love Stitching Red and Carolyn Saxby - Mixed Media Textile Art
Today i took the opportunity to use a Sony NEX-7 [Crop-Sensor] with a Sony-Zeiss Full-Frame 35mm 1.4f lens.
I have recently read that using a full-frame lens with a crop sensor may not produce better results than using a lens designed from a crop-sensor camera and in fact the images will be less sharp.
When starting out, many photographers choose to go with a crop body and invest in full frame lenses. This is usually recommended as a good approach as you can keep your lenses and swap out your body for something newer down the road, eventually leading to that high quality full frame sensor that you always wanted. However some experts, especially Tony Northrup, claim that starting out with the full frame lens and crop bodies does not provide you with the sharp images.
In my case I had a top end full frame camera [Canon 1DSIII] with a set of very expensive glass and I was not at all happy as the combination was way too heavy and totally unsuitable for street photography. About five years ago I decided that I needed a better solution and after using a Sony NEX-5 for about a year I decided to purchase a NEX-7 and switch from DSLR to Mirrorless [at the time that was a big gamble]. In theory it would be possible to use my Canon lenses with the NEX-7 but in reality it was not a workable solution. The NEX-7 featured a crop-sensor so I purchased a set of suitable Sony lenses and they were not expensive.
My reason for getting the NEX-7 and associated lenses was greatly reduced weight coupled with the fact that my equipment did not attract unwelcome attention.
The NEX-7 performed way beyond my expectations and I was really pleased and then towards the end of last year because the camera was giving problems at random I threw all logic out the window and took an ever bigger gamble by purchasing a Sony A7RMkII full frame mirrorless camera which is larger and heavier than the NEX-7.
To be honest, there is no comparison between the two cameras, the A7R is very much superior and while it is heavier it is actually easier to use. Also the Canon lenses actually work with the A7R but using the necessary adaptor was a pain and added weight. However the Canon lenses showed what the A7RMkII could do so I decided that maybe I should consider getting some native Sony FE prime lenses and then I discovered that they all were expensive and heavy [ unless I got manual focus lens such as the Loxia ]. Anyway I ended up with a set of primes [and no cash] but I now have serious weight issue especially when I travel.
I was planning to use the NEX-7 as a backup or when I travel but the crop-lenses are not very good so it would make no sense to leave my full-frame lenses behind so a possible solution would to bring along one of the FE primes [35mm 1.4f] but then I came across discussions online claiming that FE lenses underperform when used with a crop-sensor. Of course there is another issue in that the NEX-7 is at the end of its life and needs to be replaced by something like the A6300 but as I already said I have no spare cash.
After using the placemat as a rug (thanks to Call of the Small for her genius), I decided to use it again in a new scene but as wallpaper. I think the scale is pretty cool with it. The back wall is just plain scrapbook paper.
When I first started making scenes in the roombox, I pulled out all of my cool papers including a stack of origami sheets. I thought I would use them on the walls but I decided to steal another idea from Call of the Small -- flooring! She had used one piece as a rug I think. I needed to cover the whole space so I cut it into squares and glued it down to a piece of paper and made a tile floor from it. I will definitely do that again.
See the other shots for more information.