Slavenka & Obi: February 2018

Wednesday, February 28, 2018

Can You Hear Me Now

Fukui-based photographer, Ryosuke Takamura uses his camera to capture the evolution of his expression and the beauty of the quiet prefecture in which he lives.

Seventy-five years ago a stealthy group of commandos took out a crucial Nazi chemical plant .

Feb. 28 marks the 75th anniversary of Operation Gunnerside, and though it hasn’t yet been 100 years, the memory of this successful Norwegian mission remains strong both within Norway and beyond. Memorialized in movies, books and TV mini-series, the winter sabotage of the Vemork chemical plant in Telemark County of Nazi-occupied Norway was one of the most dramatic and important military missions of World War II. It put the German nuclear scientists months behind and allowed the United States to overtake the Germans in the quest to produce the first atomic bomb.
Read more

Edmonton Embraces the Cold by Turning Park Paths Into Frozen Skating Trails

If you live in Edmonton, Alberta, you just accept that it's going to be freezing cold all winter.
The city embraces the inevitable cold. While other towns have specific vehicles for removing snow and ice from streets (which Edmonton has, too), city workers go out early in the morning and spray water on park paths to make them more slippery! Quite a few layers later, there is a sheet of ice up to a foot thick over park trails. Time to strap on your skates!
The man behind the frozen trails is architect Matt Gibbs. more

Can you identify these animal tracks?

With snow falling across Europe, test your knowledge of these animal footprints.

Step outside if you dare.

Snowy scenes across Croatia as 'beast from east' hits.The temperature is -14°C in Zagreb. ☕

Tuesday, February 27, 2018

The Oscars 2018

Denis Gonchar

The toxic colour that comes from volcanoes

Expunge orange from the history of art and the whole thing collapses.

The sky above Edvard Munch’s The Scream falls down and the fire that ignites Frederic Leighton’s famous Flaming June flames out. Take away orange, and everything from the warm eternal glow of Egyptian tomb painting to the troubled stubble of Vincent van Gogh’s smouldering self-portraits vanishes. A savvy arbiter between resolute red and unyielding yellow, orange is a pigment that pivots. It’s a hinge of a hue that enables a work of art to swivel between contrary states of being – this world and another, life and death. Read more

Anatomically Correct

WanJim Gim illustrates the form and gesture of the human body using complex hatched layers of color and dramatic lighting.
He adds intrigue to poses that could be considered traditional figure drawing studies by adding abstracted lines and watercolor washes that integrate the fragmented body parts into a larger visual field.

Beautifully Disturbing Characters by Paolo Del Toro

Artist Paolo Del Toro uses needle felting to create massive masks and sculptures out of wool and foam.

Monday, February 26, 2018

Apparent portraits

Paolo Iommelli

Fluffy Birds

Ossi Saarinen is a nature photographer based in Finland. He has been photographing different types of wild animals in Finnish nature but his bird photos always the ones making everyone "awww".

False Fact

Personal Message

European cities shiver in Siberian snow blast

Rome sees snow for the first time in six years while other cities also have freezing weather.

Freezing Conditions Hit Croatia

Most towns, including those on the Adriatic coast, woke to temperatures in the minuses on Monday, with the worst still to come. Snow and ice have forced roads, schools and markets to close in the worst affected areas. The spell of winter weather has closed schools in the northwest, and heavy vehicles have been banned from all roads leading toward the coast. Over 1,000 soldiers were deployed in Delnice in western Croatia to help clear 5 feet of snow, whilst strong winds have caused havoc in parts of Istria. According to AccuWeather, the temperature in Osijek this morning was -8°C, whilst the real feel temperature was -18°C. In Varaždin it was -10°C with the real feel -22°C, whilst in the capital Zagreb it was -9°C with a real feel factor -22°C. In Rijeka at 9 am it was -6°C, but with the strong winds, the real fee factor was -22°C. The freezing conditions forced the Rijeka markets to close. In Pula, the real feel factor was -16°C, whilst the strong bura wind created a real feel factor of -22°C in Senj. In Zadar on the Dalmatian coast, the official temperature was -2°C, but the real feel factor was -8°C. more

Slavenka & Obi