Ron Mueck is a hyperrealist sculptor who was born in Australia in 1958 and now lives in Great Britain.
In his early career he was as a model maker and puppeteer for children's television and films, notably the film Labyrinth.
He now sculptures many hyper realistic works with silicone, acrylic and fibre glass.
Mueck's sculptures faithfully reproduce the minute detail of the human body, but play with scale to produce disconcertingly jarring visual images.
Welcome to the world of Ditty & Bernie. Aunt Nettie, the oldest internet guru tells it like it is (and was). Take a tour - click on these links - Museum of Depressionist Art, The Glady's Dwindlebimmers Ralston Gallery of the Unidentifiable, and Redbone Fables and other Cautionary Tales. 
"The Fraternity Party Gets Out of Hand"
Triptych ~ detail of right panel, "The Botched Beer Raid." Pieter Boggle.
"ASSHURBACKAWARTS" C1850 BCE -Nilotic/Nubian? Originally thought of as a female fertility figure, it is now known that this statuette is composed of two separate pieces with different provenance, skillfully combined at some point after 1200 BCE.
The upper portion, with its diminutive breasts and dolorous expression, is believed to be a "brit'ny," purchased at temples by young maidens in the hope that divine intervention would make them more appealing to the opposite sex.
The lower portion is not, as originally believed, the erotically enlarged thighs and hips of a temple prostitute, but the buttocks of another statue entirely, perhaps representing either bountifulness or a diet heavy in carbohydrates.
Scholars have been polarized by this image, some believing it to be an androgynous cult figure, others seeing it as a some kind of a practical joke. )
"Woman Wearing Chastity uit"
Angelo Bronzenoze c. 1545
Another Bronzenoze from our collection. According to the story the husband of the Lady Constance Du Pre, the subject of this portrait, was an extremely jealous man. Whenever he had to leave town for any length of time he assured himself of his spouse's fidelity by locking her into this ingenious extension of the notorious chastity belt. Only one key was made, which the Duke Umberto kept upon his person at all times.
There came a time when the Duke was called to war by the King. Realizing that he would be gone for many years, and would perhaps never return, he took pity on his wife and entrusted the key to the chastity suit to Cardinal Wooley, a saintly man of the cloth, with the instructions that if he were not to return after seven years, the Lady Constance should be released from her bondage.
With that the Duke heaved a heavy sigh and rode off at the head of his troops. He had not gone 500 yards before the good Cardinal, his vestments disheveled, galloped up upon his palfrey to say that the Duke, in his haste, had given him the wrong key.
Bronzenoze used the same breastplate shown here on one of his later Madonnas.
If you have a creative mind and metal working skills it's amazing what you can produce. It also seems to help if you watch a lot of movies.
Called mecha or metal art and sculptures, these creations made of 100% metal are surprisingly realistic.
photos by Damn Funny Photos (2006)
CLAM BEACH
Central Avenue pumps cars through the body of McKinleyville which stretches out
like a supplicant
grasping the ocean in one hand and the inland trees in another.
McKinleyville
Old families still hold slices of patchwork pieces of privacy
standing against growth until gone - except in memory.
BMW’s are sold where rooster’s once did roam
waking the sleepy town up for another day
Cars crouch there now and call it home
and just won’t go away.
Where groves of trees once stood in majestic sway
a shopping center now stands
catching monetary prey.
Track homes sit where fields of wild flowers grew
and ranches that went as far as the eye could see
are now history.
While surfing in cyberspace I discovered a series of wonderful blogs created by Ditty & Ernie.
Rated as some of the Funniest Sites on the Web by Internet Life, they all display satire an it's very best! As an avid satire user and observer, I was swept up by the artwork and the word work.
So...for the very first time, I'm going to do a profile on another blog. Kinda like a feature story. If this goes well with readers, then I might start doing it once a week (Month?)
President Bush looked slightly bemused after he ducked to avoid a shoe hurled at him during a news conference. Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Maliki looked mortified, and as the assailant's second shoe came flying Sunday, he did what any gracious host would do: reached out and tried to catch it before it hit his American guest.
Later, Iraqi journalists identified him as Muntather Zaidi, a correspondent for Baghdadiya, a satellite TV channel that broadcasts from Cairo.
Zaidi was one of several Iraqi journalists attending the Sunday evening news conference in Baghdad's heavily secured Green Zone. His outburst came without warning as Bush and Maliki prepared to answer questions.
The first shoe flew over the heads of other journalists and might have hit Bush square in the face had he not ducked to avoid it.
"This is a gift from the Iraqis. This is the farewell kiss, you dog," the man said, according to a pool translation.
Seconds later, the journalist hurled his other shoe with similar precision as another Iraqi journalist reached over in an attempt to stop him.
"This is from the widows, the orphans and those who were killed in Iraq," he said, according to the translation.
Bush's surprise visit to Iraq and Afghanistan didn't accomplish a damn thing, other than some interesting photo ops!
I've been reading articles about Frog populations around the world going down. Scientists are concerned about the impact of not having the Frogs in the ecosystem. They can rest easy now. I've discovered that the Frogs are joining motorcycle gangs and leaving the swamps and lily pads to hang out in biker bars!
For the record. I accused Andrew Ross Sorkin, of The New York Post, of being a Conservative. After further review (and a look at his column from last week - see below), it's apparent he's not. I stand corrected.
He also rightly pointed out that hourly costs that I sited weren't accurate (as I didn't add production costs into the equation). Once again, I stand corrected.
I'm pointing out my mistakes in all fairness.
It's the least I can do for not doing better research on this column ("Conservative media lying about auto worker's wages"). I appreciate his points and his professionalism.
Here's a copy of the email Mr. Sorkin sent me this morning.
Dave,
I just finished reading your article in The Times-Standard.
I was disappointed to see you place so much blame on me, in part,
because that facts are a bit different than you suggested.
First, I'm not a conservative columnist. Most people who read me
regularly would suggest I'm probably part of the "liberal media" --
though I don't like that label much either. Take a look at my column
from last week:
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/09/business/media/09sorkin.html?ref=media.
Second, and more importantly, I did not come up with the $70 figure.
It's been used by GM and analysts on Wall Street for years. I am
attaching a chart produced by Deutsche Bank's research department,
which was distributed widely prior to my column, that goes through
GM's hourly wage costs line by line. The chart might help explain the
issue a bit better. Please look at the left hand column marked
"2007GM." You'll see that the total price comes to $70.84 an hour.
Toyota, on the other hand, comes to $47.25 an hour (look at the
right hand column.) If you factor out OPEB, you could probably argue
the number is closer to $55, or more likely $61 an hour, which is
still twice the hourly wage of the average American worker. The
additional wages and benefits at GM add an average of $800 per vehicle
over the cost of rivals like Toyota and Honda, making it pretty hard
to compete on price -- which contradicts what you said in your piece.
Also, these hourly costs do not include production costs (steel,
components, etc), as you said in your article, but wage and benefits
costs.
I imagine you may have thought I started the $70 number because that's
what Keith Olbermann said on his program. Keith has since written me
to apologize. Indeed, if you do a search of articles prior to my
column, you'll find at least 143 references to the $70 an hour figure
by other journalists, analysts, etc.
I very much hope that the automobile makers survive – I don't want
them to falter. The column was an effort to offer a solution that
would allow the companies to continue long into the future and make
them stronger.
I hope this is helpful. Please let me know if you want to speak about
this issue further.
Best,
Andrew
The Senate rejected a bailout of the Big Three last Friday. Republicans passed memos that talked about busting unions in America, and making the UAW an example.
There's no doubts that those neo-cons want to use this opportunity to attack unions with every lie in their playbook.
The wages that UAW members make is just one front in their war of disinformation against the American auto worker.
They want to see a deal that precludes the union from even being involved with the new structure that the car companies are going to have to take on either after bankruptcy, or in a revised deal with Congress for a bailout.
Read today's AS IT STANDS by clicking here.
The last decade has been a turning point in American society where traditional norms and truth have fallen alongside the wayside and chaos ...
