Canadian Arctic Sculptures

Largest Sand Painting

The largest sand painting measured 6,000 m² (64,583.2 ft²) and was created by Dr. Pranali Patidar together with 150 students of MPKV College of Agriculture (all India), Dhule in  India, on 26 January 2009.

The event was organized by the Lions Club of Dhule and depicted the flag of India, with the outline of India on top of it in blue.

Bronze goddess Sculpture

New York (AP), A bronze sculpture of the Roman goddess Artemis fetched $28.6 million Thursday at auction, a world-record auction price for a sculpture of any period, Sotheby's said.

"Artemis and the Stag," dating from the first century B.C. to first century A.D., was purchased by London art dealer Giuseppe Eskenazi on behalf of a European private collector, Sotheby's spokeswoman Lauren Gioia said.

The price included the seller's commission. The previous auction record for a sculpture was $27.4 million, for a marble version of Constantin Brancusi's modernist "Bird in Space." It was sold in 2005 at a Christie's auction in New York.

Eskenazi was on hand to make the winning bid far exceeding Sotheby's pre-auction high estimate of $7 million. The sculpture was sold by the Albright-Knox Art Gallery in Buffalo, N.Y., to raise funds for other art purchases.

Sotheby's catalog described the 36-inch-high bronze as "one of the finest large Classical bronze figures in America today certainly the most splendid to appear on the market in living memory."

It depicts the goddess of the hunt in billowing gown just after shooting her bow. Her arms are gracefully outstretched and she's flanked by a small stag.

In the last two years Saimir Strati has been recognised by Guinness World Record officials as having created the world’s largest nail mosaic with 500,000 industrial nails on a eight metre square wooden board and the largest, three-dimensional toothpick mosaic using 1,000,000 toothpicks.

Largest Cork Mosaic

His work, named "Romeo with a crown of grapes playing the guitar while dancing with the sea and the sun" is a homage to life around the Mediterranean. He worked 14 hours of work a day for 28days and completed his project on Thursday.

"I love mosaics, they are a dying genre. I follow the same technique used 3,000 years ago," said Saimir Strati. "A mosaic requires you to work for a long time and keep the emotion alive." 

"I also wanted to appeal to Mediterranean countries not to create mosaics based on computer pixels, but as our forefathers did. The Mediterranean is the home of the mosaic."

His 25-year-old mosaic collection features one created with fragments of egg shells and a portrait of Elvis Presley, made with compact discs. The artist did his latest work in a local hotel, where he told visitors: "Drink, because I need the corks."

Worlds Smallest Sculpture

I saw this guy on the news yesterday, working on sculpture that fits inside the eye of a needle. The English artist Willard Wigan works in-between heartbeats so that he doesn't destroy the piece he is creating. He uses rice or grains of sand and a surgical blade to create his "micro sculpture".

Artists are usually trying to get attention by going MASSIVE, so it's good to see some small art getting attention too, even if it is ridiculously small art. They're so small that he uses the hair from flies as a paint brush to decorate them!

There has been smaller sculptures created, but they were made with lasers. In 2001 Japanese scientists made a tiny sculpture of a bull that measured 10 micrometers by seven (a micrometer is one-thousandth of a millimeter). Wigan's works is created by hand though.

Here's some quotes from the micro sculptor..

Though my sculptures are quite small, it's important for people to realize that I am life-size. Of course, at times, when I'm working on a piece, I might come to believe that I myself am microscopic. That's how involved in my work I become. My tiny world becomes everything to me.

Willard Wigan

Toothpick Portrait

For those that are thinking about getting their portrait painted, but want something a little different, why not get a toothpick portrait? ;-)The San Francisco based artist Steven J. Backman creates sculptures and wall pieces made of toothpicks.

"I find toothpicks and glue to be the most challenging mediums to create unusual pieces of abstract and contemporary art. Unlike ordinary wood, toothpicks have personalities of their own that evolve once they are incorporated into a mass of formed space." Steven J. Backman

The artist has a summer promotion on until the end of September too, with toothpick portrait commissions available for about $500 USD.

Toothpick Sculpture of the Golden Gate Bridge

I have mentioned the toothpick artist(Steven Backman) before, with his toothpick portraits.He has since been working on larger and more complex toothpick sculptures of boats, cable,cars, and bridges, but he has also started going micro.

He has made a toothpick sculpture of the Golden Gate Bridge from 30,000 toothpicks which is now in the "Ripley's Believe it or not" museum in Hollywood, which can be seen Here..Steven has also recently created another version of the Golden Gate Bridge, but this time with one toothpick! (see pic in post) Measuring 1 7/8”(L) x 1/8”(W) x 3/4”(H), it was sculpted from 1 toothpick and glue.