These crazy images were created by French artist Jean-Marc Cote, and a few others back in 1899, 1900, 1901, and 1910.
The point being.. Well, basically they were asked to imagine what life would be like in the year 2000. According to Collective-Evolution, these artworks were originally in the form of postcards or paper cards enclosed in cigarette and cigar boxes.
The images depict the world as it was imagined it would be like in the year 2000. Some of these unique illustrations are actually quite accurate vision of the current era today, including farming machines, robotic equipment, and flying machines. Now we haven’t started riding giant seahorses yet, although it does look like one hell of a good time.
NASA researcher turned origami artist Robert Lang quit his scientific career almost 20 years ago to pursue his origami artistry full-time, creating classic nature-inspired designs in intricate detail.
Robert Lang’s origami designs have led to real-life folding patterns that fit satellite dishes and receiving arrays into cylindrical NASA rockets and made airbags in some car designs more compact, practical and safe. Now the California-based artist’s mind-blowing origami takes simple swans, frogs and other classic nature-inspired designs and adds intricately detailed layers.
His work combines aspects of the Western school of mathematical origami design with the Eastern emphasis upon line and form to yield models that are at once distinctive, elegant, and challenging to fold.
Robert Lang’s portfolio even includes mythical creatures including unicorns, dragons, and pegasuses.
Rosa Medea is Life & Soul Magazine’s Chief. She writes about lifestyle including sustainable and green living. She also offers content services to businesses and individuals at Rosamedea.com
Suiseki, which literally translates as ‘water stone’, is an ancient Japanese art of admiring stones. An ode to time, patience and simplicity, suiseki involves showcasing the most remarkable stones found in nature and upon which water, erosion, wind and time have acted to sculpt abstract or, depending on the imagination more meaningful shapes, such as a mountain or animal. The beauty of a suiseki therefore lies in its ability to suggest an aspect of nature.
Originating from China, where it is known as gongshi, and Korea, where it is termed Suseok, the art of suiseki was introduced to Japan by the Chinese Imperial Court during the Asuka period (538 or 552-710 AD), and was only discovered in the western world during the first bonsai exhibitions, where the stones were also presented. Like the rigorous codes of bonsai, suiseki also has its own rules, linked to the quality of colours and the powers of suggestion and balance. Stones in multiple colours are the most appreciated, but placing them in light or shadow also allows a more precise aspect to be showcased, while also reflecting their harmonious balance and translating their original beauty. Enhanced naturally, the stone is simply placed on a wooden stand or, like in times past, presented in a bowl filled with a layer or water or sand. A wooden stand, or dai/daiza, is the most frequently used option, and is generally made from a type of refined wood such as rosewood, in order to support the stone and, more importantly, showcase it.
For real suiseki aficionados, the most difficult thing is to find the stone that provides complete satisfaction from the moment of its discovery. Once the rare pearl is unearthed, the whole stone becomes conducive to contemplation of and reflection on the place of humans in their environment. As Matsuura Arishige, global ambassador of the art of suiseki, explains so well, ‘a good suiseki has the power to represent to humans, in just a few centimetres, the whole of Earth and the cosmos’.
SPIRITUAL FIRST AID KIT- A lifestyle kit. What you can do at home to raise the psi vibration of your home and continuously cleanse your space from negativity. Even though you are not meeting anyone or seeing anyone your inner negative and energy of everyone, social media can still affect you physically, emotionally, mentally, spiritually and psychically does not matter if you have people in your space or not. Keeping your home clean of this energy is a must.
Clear, protect, shield: if you don’t know how to do this message me and we can work out a minimal cost and customize your clearing, shielding, protecting for you, your home, work, kids, business, everything and everyone.
Meditate: if you don’t have a practice or want some guidance message me and we can work something out and teach you some simple ways to get you started or what you need to focus and how to feel your energy and up your game to get you, your body to a calm relaxed space.
Stretch, Quigong, Yoga, Tai Chi: There are online YouTube videos where you can do your yoga, tai chi whatever you do it’s all available online.
Mantras : listen and put on ‘Om Mani Padme Om”- you will find it on YouTube for 10 hours. Put it on continuously. It will clean all negative energies in your space.
Incense: Always have and continuously burn Sage, Dragons Blood, myrrh, patchouli, sandalwood, camphor in your home at all times.
Crystals: Have crystals in your home to protect and raise the psi vibration of your space.
Herbs, Essential Oils, Candles: Your herbs you use to make your food have magickal properties. Message me how to work with them magickally.
Color Therapy: Wear colors that lift your energy. Drink colored water. To know more message me.
Read, watch stories that are comic, light hearted. Excersice your imagination, visualize, affirm, think, speak good positivity words and thoughts from your heart. Practice being real, honest with yourself and others, speak your truth without fear.
Whatever you do do it from your heart always❤️or don’t do it.
African American Women have been on the rise in recent years. They have been reaching high and receiving considerable coverage on many important issues and movements. These are just a few of the amazing African American women of the 21st century that have made a name for themselves and served as a source of inspiration… via […]
To mark International Women’s Day 2020, we’re celebrating seven female designers, artists and creative heroes changing the way we think about the world through their use of visual media.
There’s no shortage of inspirational women in the fields of illustration, graphic design and art, although sometimes they’re under-represented. In line with International Women’s Day, we’re showcasing some of the women who have helped to redefine female roles, shape how we see things and pave the way for female designers of the future.
Specialism: installations, sculpture, painting (and many more)
Career highlights: After training as an artist in Japan, Yayoi Kusama moved to New York and became part of the avant-garde and pop-art scenes in the 1960s. There she made waves with a before-its-time flashmob featuring naked people painted with polka dots. The dots are an all-consuming theme in her work. She is also known for ‘infinity installations’ which use mirrors to create a perception of never-ending colored spaces.
Why we love her: Yayoi Kusama is fearless, prolific, bold and brave, never afraid to challenge norms either in her native Japan or in the more permissive culture of the USA. She is also a powerful example of someone working and living with mental health issues. Her style is linked to visual and auditory hallucinations and she uses art as a means to express and understand her experiences.
Paula Scher. Credit: John Madere
2. Paula Scher
Specialism: Graphic design
Career highlights: After starting out in children’s publishing and designing album covers, Paula Scher became the first female principal at design consultancy Pentagram in 1991. She is responsible for iconic branding and visual identity work for companies like Microsoft, Coca-Cola and the Museum of Modern Art in New York, which reflect her love for typography and its potential for expression. She is now a lecturer and educator in graphic design.
Why we love her: Paula Scher is one of the most influential designers of any gender. As well as producing an impressive body of commercial and fine art, she is committed to educating and paving the way for the next wave of creative talent and setting a shining example of what can be achieved for female illustrators and designers.
Jessica Walsh. Credit: Dezeen.com
3. Jessica Walsh
Specialism: graphic design, art direction
Career highlights: Jessica Walsh is already a titanic talent in the graphic design world despite being not yet 35. After studying graphic design she interned at design consultancy Pentagram under Paula Scher, and honed her illustration style working for Print Magazine. Teaming up with Stefan Sagmeister, she became principal partner at Sagmeister & Walsh in 2012, before founding her own agency &Walsh in 2019.
Why we love her: Jessica Walsh’s work blends the craft of design with a strong cultural thread that comments astutely on the world we live in. Projects like ‘40 days of dating’, for example, play with expectations of modern romance while showcasing talented illustrators. We especially love Jessica’s initiative ‘Ladies Wine & Design” which encourages women in design to collaborate rather than compete.
Bridget Riley. Credit: Telegraph
4. Bridget Riley
Specialism: Painting
Career highlights: Bridget Riley is one of the best-known practitioners of op-art – works which expand and manipulate the limits of optical perception. Trained as an artist, she graduated from a career as an educator to a full-time artistic practice beginning in the mid 1960s. Her work has been exhibited worldwide and she has won numerous awards for her visionary use of color, light and line.
Why we love her: Hypnotic, precise, pure and vivid, Riley’s work speaks for itself. As well as bending the brains and eyeballs of innumerable viewers, Riley has made an impact by carving out a space for art in her native London. She founded the SPACE artists collective which has been running since the 1960s, and was influential in creating the Sainsbury Wing of the National Gallery by fending off government plans to sell off the land where it now stands.
Laetitia Ky. @laetitiaky
5. Laetitia Ky
Specialism: Human hair
Career highlights: Ky hails from the Ivory Coast, and via Instagram has quickly become world-renowned for her playful yet political use of her hair as a sculpting medium. Ky uses a system of wires, wool and weave to turn her dreadlocks into images that augment, reflect or comment on the world around her.
Why we love her: Laetitia Ky is a fresh voice with a completely original approach to visual art and design. She uses her platform to comment on issues that matter to her including inclusivity and gender, with a special focus on uplifting other women. She recently launched her own clothing line and has signed a 2-year contract as part of the Elite Models World Digital Creator Award.
Margaret Calvert. Credit: London Design Festival
6. Margaret Calvert
Specialism: Typography, design
Career highlights: While she may not be a household name, South African designer Margaret Calvert’s work is deeply familiar to anyone who has lived or travelled within the UK. Along with her colleague Jock Kinneir, she is responsible for the design style used on road and rail information signs, as well as the ‘Transport’ font found across the nation’s motorways.
Why we love her: When Margaret Calvert started out, female graphic designers were unheard of. Fortunately, she is steadfast and driven, even when working against the prevailing expectations of the times. Her approach, based on clarity and ease of reading at high speed, met with resistance from traditionalists but has been upheld as the official style for the UK transport system as well as the gov.uk website.
Camille Walala and LEGO collaboration, ‘House of Dots’. Credit: Arts & Collections
7. Camille Walala
Specialism: Graphic design, murals
Career highlights: Calling to mind artists like Lichtenstein and Warhol, Camille Walala’s work is a riot of powerful lines and pure tones that set them startlingly apart from the street settings where they typically appear. After starting out as a textile artist, she began taking the UK capital by storm with distinctive murals, interior design projects and store frontage.
Why we love her: Camille Walala paints the world in bold blocks of color. Her ‘tribal pop’ style is fresh, directional and fun, and is rapidly gathering momentum. In January 2020 she launched ‘House of Dots’ a walk-in installation in collaboration with LEGO. We expect to see much more of her in the future.
Chile-based ZeroCabin has created a collection of 100% self-sustaining and off-grid cabins for those who want a retreat in nature that leaves zero impact.
Developed by a small team of scientists with no architectural training, each cabin is built by the ZeroCabin team upon an elevated base of two-metre high wooden piles to maximise views in nature.
The timber-framed structures, which are built without using nails, use biodegradable insulation and thermally efficient glazing systems, which cut down on the use of active heating and cooling systems.
The “kit of parts” offered by ZeroCabin includes maintenance plans for photovoltaic panels, waste recycling and rainwater collection through reverse osmosis. These kits provide buyers with the tools and information to create a self-sustaining cabin with negative impact customised to function anywhere in the world.
ZeroCabin say: “The ZeroCabin is zero impact, it is a perfect symbiosis between you and nature. We build it wherever you want, we just leave a path, we don’t use a boom truck. 10% of our utility is invested in plans to preserve native forests and wildlife.”
Each cabin is oriented at a precise angle within its context for optimal exposure to the sun, making the most efficient use of solar panels for on-site generation of energy.
Rosa Medea is Life & Soul Magazine’s Chief. She writes about lifestyle including sustainable and green living. She also offers content services to businesses and individuals at Rosamedea.com
Artist and designer Sarina Mantle is helping women to reconnect to Mother Earth through a different medium – a self-care colouring book, Women + Patterns + Plants.
With a strong resonance for indigenous cultures, plant life, shamanic healing and the divine feminine, Sarina Mantle has created a beautiful book that takes the colourist on a mindful and engaging journey that is empowering.
Women + Patterns + Plants is made up of several of Sarina Mantle’s illustrations – black-and-white line drawings featuring women, patterns and plants.
The colouring book is as much a visual expression of Sarina Mantle’s journey of self-discovery. Prior to penning the book, Sarina Mantle travelled to Peru where she spent time with the indigenous women of Shipibo heritage, who are master embroiderers and painters. There she was surrounded by all the things that encompass her book – plants, textiles and women.
In an interview with Yellowzine, she said: “I felt deeply inspired by Mother Earth. I decided after my own self-discovery that I wanted to create visually through illustration; I wanted to make drawings of women reconnecting to Mother Earth. It has been my way of contributing to the collective consciousness that are returning to sustainability, nurturing plants, growing food and spending time in nature.”
Women + Patterns + Plants is a beautiful book which is a powerful way in which to nurture the connection with one’s self and one’s source, Mother Nature and her children.
Women + Patterns + Plants by Sarina Mantle is available from Amazon and independent bookstores
Rosa Medea is Life & Soul Magazine’s Chief. She writes about sustainable lifestyle and green living for publications, and offers content services to planet-friendly businesses. Find out more at Rosamedea.com
As an artist, textile designer, women business owner it is my responsibility to create and service that serves the greater good leading by example and shifting my own life. And it is important to be aware how my life choices impacts the environment by my energy, thought, belief system, choices and actions. What I create, how I use the energy and intention behind that creation, service will tell me if my focus is on physical or serving the greater good. If I create art, design, sell the products that I am selling with the intention of money, pride, popularity, then no I am not serving the greater good. Because here my focus is about physical things. But if I create my art, design service products because I love what I do, love what I provide to my customers regardless of the outcome for that design, art piece, fabric then yes I am serving the greater good. That is my security. That pure joy in creating, servicing and not focusing on physical and what it will bring me is the spiritual living taking care of me.
Living spiritually is where our security is. When I shifted my focus from physical things and people to complete spiritual living, I had and have complete security for life now. My purpose becomes my security. My life every moment, energy, thought, belief system, choices and actions are spiritually guided that which serves the greater good. Each of us born here are here as a guest, temporary not permanent. As a guest it is my responsibility to treat Mother Earth and all of her resources with respect and kindness. That means my life belongs to Mother Earth in everything I do. It is my responsibility to respect the land that has given me a life to experience Mother Earth. Your focus on Physical and financial things, body do not give you security. Security is your inner being, soul and higher mind not your conscious, money mind. Approaching life as a physical and material security can and will be taken away from you at any given moment in split second. You think you have but no you have no control on anything physical. If you say your job is a security? Hmm it can come to bankrupt or close down at any given time, money? Hmm that also can be taken away from you at any point, car, health, home, career, business, acquiring physical things, falling in love with a body than the inner being can be taken away from you at any given moment, if you think having a physical body to love, marry, kids is security then really look deeply they all can be taken away from you in split seconds coz you are focus on the physical not who they are inside. Physical things including physical bodies are not security. This so called magickal life you say by doing things, going to places, traveling, clothes, restaurants, brands you buy all have a physical focus. A magickal life is living spiritually that magickally takes care of you. And what gives you magickally will also be sustained magickally. You truly have no control on your physical life. But if you stay spiritually connected then yes it will secure you. Living spiritually is your security. Your focus is the key. Believe and you will see. Shift your focus. Just by shifting your focus you can bring change not only to your life but to Mother Earth. That is what is required to shift and bring change so mother earth can do what she has to do to bring things to balance.
Looking at your life what would you say is your foundation based on? What does security mean to you?
Closing out this decade with a look at the design trends of the last decade. How many of these are part of your home? As we wrap up the decade and recap this yearlong series, we want to know which designs and trends you think will endure?
nishadesigns.com 