The Fantasy Coffins of Ghana

For the Ga tribe in coastal Ghana, funerals are a time of mourning, but also of celebration. The Ga people believe that when their loved ones die, they move on into another life -- and the Ga make sure they do so in style. They honor their dead with brightly colored coffins that celebrate the way they lived.


The coffins are designed to represent an aspect of the dead person's life -- such as a car if they were a driver, a fish if their livelihood was the sea -- or a sewing machine for a seamstress. They might also symbolize a vice -- such as a bottle of beer or a cigarette. On the hot and crowded streets of Accra, the capital of Ghana, one can find numerous coffin vendors. Coffins crafted as hammers, fish, cars, mobile phones, hens, roosters, leopards, lions, canoes, cocoa beans and elephants. It's a huge industry in Accra — and expensive. A coffin can cost $400 dollars, which is equivalent to one year's salary.
Ghana’s relatively new tradition of Fantasy Coffin has now become a tourist attraction for the country.












[via Ghana Web]

Ceramics of Horror by Jessica Harrison

While the tradition of decorative ceramic figurines is filled with beautiful and serene subject, UK ceramic artist Jessica Harrison takes a decidedly darker approach. Her eccentric and gothic tastes are revealed in her recent ceramic works that are both bizarre and awesome at the same time.















[via Design Boom]

Paul Gauguin - Painting Nude Females

Paul Gauguin - Painting Nude Females

Were we to make a list of the main post-Impressionist painters, the name of Paul Gauguin would be on top of the list. He is known for his innovative and bold experimental use of colours.

But the prime thing that made Paul Gauguin such a renowned artist was his capability to understand the inherent meaning of the subjects he painted. He caught the very meaning of the subjects he painted; and then he uploaded that onto the canvas, expressing the same with his impressionist style of painting.
The subject of painting human body has remained the most beautiful and perfect subject for depiction of their artistic prowess. The artists since the ages have exploited this subject and the human form through its depiction in their paintings. The human body, especially nude female body is a subject of first choice among the artists for the element of mysterious allure. But very few of these artists have done perfect justice to the natural beauty of women's body as the master painter Paul Gauguin has done through his artistic nude paintings.
Many painters have spent their entire life painting nude bodies of the female models. They respected and adored the women sitting for them; and they tried hard to beautify their looks. These painters tried laboriously for injecting liveliness into the portraits of the nude females they painted. The great painters from the time of renaissance have done much artistic endeavours to immortalise a simple smile on the face of the beautiful women or the alluring curves of the bodies of those fatal fames. Numbers of painters have used this subject of painting natural beauties of women, but very few have succeeded in the job as Paul Gauguin.

Beautiful Sculptures at the Staglieno Cemetery, Italy

Staglieno owes its popularity and historic value not only to the fame of the great personalities who rest there but, above all, to its many sculptural and architectural monuments. Covering an area of more than a square kilometer, it is one of the largest cemeteries in Europe.
Although still unfinished, the cemetery was officially inaugurated on January 1, 1851. The cemetery contains the graves of Oscar Wilde's wife Constance Lloyd, Ferruccio Parri, Fabrizio De André, Nino Bixio, and Giuseppe Mazzini. Significant sculptors with work here include Leonardo Bistolfi, Giulio Monteverde, and Edoardo Alfieri.
In this gallery we present you some of the most hauntingly beautiful sculptures that are currently in the Staglieno.

The Creative Office of Inventionland

Inventionland is the creative work environment of Davison, a new product development firm located in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Inventionland, turns out 2,000-2,400 new inventions each year with a license being secured with a corporation every three business days. In order to inspire creativity, Inventionland provides one of the most intuitive work environment ever.

It’s 75,000-square-foot design facility houses numerous themed sets, including a pirate ship, tree house and giant robot, in which creative personnel design and develop new products. The January/February 2008 issue of I.D. Magazine recognized Inventionland as one of "40 Amazing-Looking Design Offices.











[via Office Snapshots]