All that I see or seen is but a Dream in a Dream

Captain Nemo’s (Naseeruddin Shah) Nautilus Car - THE LEAGUE OF EXTRAORDINARY GENTLEMEN (2003)

Captain Nemo’s (Naseeruddin Shah) hero Nautilus car from Stephen Norrington’s fantasy adventure The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen. This car was used throughout the film as the League hunted down Moriarty (Richard Roxburgh) and was also featured extensively on the film’s posters.

The massive car was one of only two custom made especially for the production. This particular vehicle was the complete running version and was designed by production designer Carol Spier. The other unit was designed for insert shots and featured an attached scaffold for filming close-ups of the actors.

The car is based on the chassis for a Land Rover fire tender, onto which a steel frame was fitted along with a Rover V8 engine, six wheels measuring 72 cm (28½”) in diameter and a massive fibreglass body. Hydraulics are mounted within the wheel arches to allow greater clearance during driving. Detailing applied to the body includes headlights and embellishments representing the Hindu god Ganesha at the vehicle’s front. Within the cabin, custom trim styled after flora and fauna line the doors and control panel, which has the donor vehicle’s functional dials fitted. A faux leather interior is capped off with a ̔silver̛ band running around the tops of the seats. The car’s body and panels are finished in an ivory colour, with the mouldings and detailing showing a worn ̔gold’ finish.

This lovely young lady picked up these gorgeous bronze “Lord Ganesha” weights from Julian Ganesha today and they look so amazing!

Ceramic Coral Reef by Courtney Mattison

Our Changing Seas III is the third piece in a series of large-scale ceramic coral reef sculptures by artist Courtney Mattison. The sprawling installation is entirely hand-built and is meant to show the devastating transition coral reefs endure when faced with climate change, a process called bleaching. She shares via email:

At its heart, this piece celebrates my favorite aesthetic aspects of a healthy coral reef surrounded by the sterile white skeletons of bleached corals swirling like the rotating winds of a cyclone. There is still time for corals to recover even from the point of bleaching if we act quickly to decrease the threats we impose. Perhaps if my work can influence viewers to appreciate the fragile beauty of our endangered coral reef ecosystems, we will act more wholeheartedly to help them recover and even thrive.

Klaus Kemp makes these beautiful arrangements out of microscopic diatoms. You can learn more about him and his process in this video by Matthew Killip:

Cristal :)

“Athena” by Daria Theodora

10″x16″; graphite and digital color

www.xintheodora.com

For the 2016 Month of Love challenge: Hero.

It’s that time of the year again: February, the month of love. I was conflicted for a while of who should I choose for “Hero”. But I kept returning to Athena, the Greek goddess of wisdom, courage, and war strategy, among her other roles.