FELIZ ANIVERSÁRIO, SÃO PAULO! HAPPY BIRTHDAY, SÃO PAULO!

January 25, São Paulo's Birthday!
Happy 453 years!

I was born and raised in the city of São Paulo. São Paulo (in English, Saint Paul) is the capital of the State of São Paulo in south eastern Brazil. This post is an homage to the Birthday of São Paulo! I chose these photos out of the hundreds my husband took from São Paulo because they are beautiful and also because they bring back some lovely memories for me. When I was young I studied for six years in this School called Instituto de Educação Caetano de Campos, at Praça da República, near those buildings you can see below. I hope you all enjoy these pictures.




Instituto de Educação Caetano de Campos (School)


Praça da República (Square)

You see in this panoramic photo the Escola Caetano de Campos (School), Itália Building, Copan Building and Hilton Building, in the center of the city. Photo by www.fotosedm.hpg.ig.com.br

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The "S" shaped building is one of Niemeyer's buildings named Edifício Copan. About five thousand people living in this building. Oscar Niemeyer (1907-) is the most famous Brazilian architect wich among many other things designed the whole Brasilia town, capital of the country since 1960. These photos were taken by Carlos Mascaro from the top of the Itália Building.





Itália Building

Building at Avenida São Luís

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Avenida São Luís (Avenue)

Praça Dom José Gaspar (Square)

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Photos by Carlos Mascaro

Another photos of São Paulo you can see here and here.

Click on photos to enlarge

A WALK IN THE PARK - UM PASSEIO NO BOSQUE

Photos by Carlos Mascaro

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"Cerrado" is the regional name given to the Brazilian ecosystem which is similar to savannas. "Cerrado" is formed by vegetal formations of variable aspects and physiognomy, mainly of small and twisted trees that become covered to an exuberant creeping plants.

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"The Cerrado is 1,916,900 km² (740,100 sq mi) in size, covering the Brazilian states of Goiás, the Federal District, most of Mato Grosso, Mato Grosso do Sul, and Tocantins, the western portions of Minas Gerais and Bahia, the southern portions of Maranhão and Piauí, small portions of São Paulo, Roraima and Paraná. The Cerrado also extends into northeastern Paraguay and eastern Bolivia. The Cerrado accounts for 22% of Brazil's area, an area the size of Alaska. It is the largest savanna in South America."

"The Cerrado is characterised by an enormous range of plant and animal biodiversity. According to the World Wide Fund for Nature, it is biologically the richest savanna in the world. The region is increasingly threatened by single-crop monoculture plantations (particularly soybeans), the expansion of agriculture in general, and the burning of the vegetation for charcoal."

"The "cerrado" are not homogenous. There is great variation between the amount of woody and herbaceous vegetation, forming a gradient from completely open "cerrado" — open fields dominated by grasses — to the closed, forest-like "cerrado" and the "cerradão" ("big cerrado"), a closed canopy forest. Intermediate forms include the dirty field, the "cerrado" field, and the "cerrado" sensu stricto, according to a growing density of trees."

"The "cerrado" trees have characteristic twisted trunks covered by a thick bark, and leaves which are usually broad and rigid. Many herbaceous plants have extensive roots to store water and nutrients. The plant's thick bark and roots serve as adaptations for the periodic fires which sweep the cerrado landscape. The adaptations protect the plants from destruction and make them capable of sprouting again after the fire."

"Despite the fact that the "cerrado" covers an area equal to that of Western Europe (2 million km²), the cerrado's importance has been overshadowed by its more emotive cousin, the Amazon rainforest."

You can read more about "Cerrado" and also see beautiful photos in this great site.

Click on photos to enlarge

SCULPTORS

I think that my post about Street Art enjoyed many visitors. There are much more amazing and creative artists I saw on Wooster Collective, but just today I would like to share with all of you, four artists, three of them suggested by friends. Nancy Bea which has a web site of her paintings and also has a blog , named GenreCookShop, mention on her commentary, the sculptor Duane Hanson. Naomi, from Here In The Hills, made a mention to the sculptor George Segal. Pam in Tucson, from Tortoise Trail, mention the realistic sculptures by J. Seward Johnson . I also have constantly seen in the Internet the sculptures of the artist Ron Mueck. His sculptures are so amazing and so provoking that I thought you all might enjoy looking at his work as much as I do. (Click on photos to see the details). Last but not least, Fran aka Redondowriter, from Sacred Ordinary, mention the big project called Art in Public Places, in Downtown Los Angeles. But the last suggestion would be for a next time! Thank you all very much!

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"In Bed", 2005 (Ron Mueck)

"Mask II" (Ron Mueck)

"Wild Men" (Ron Mueck)

"Two Women", 2005 (Ron Mueck)

"Boy", Bienal de Veneza 2001 (Ron Mueck)

"Ron Mueck, (1958- ) is a London-based photo-realist artist. Born in Melbourne, Australia, to parents who were toy makers. He started out as a puppet maker for Australian children's TV, and settled in London (via the United States) working for Jim Henson on Sesame Street and The Muppets and supervising the special effects for two feature films: Dreamchild (1985) and Labyrinth (1986) a fantasy epic starring David Bowie. Mueck then started his own company in London, making models to be photographed for advertisements. In the early 1990s, still in his advertising days, Mueck was commissioned to make something highly realistic, and was wondering what material would do the trick. Fiberglass resin was the answer, and Mueck has made it his bronze and marble ever since." "Ron Mueck’s work became world-famous when a poignant sculpture of his dead father’s small, naked body caused shockwaves in the Royal Academy’s Sensation exhibition in 1997. The attention to detail and sheer technical brilliance of his figures are incredible, but it is Mueck’s use of scale that takes your breath away. He still lives and works in London."

On Flickr you can see 287 amazing Mueck's photos all sized and on Washington Post you can see photos, too.

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"Traveller" (Duane Hanson)

"Young Shopper" (Duane Hanson)

"Queenie II" (Duane Hanson)

"Tourist II" (Duane Hanson)

"Duane Hanson (January 17, 1925 - January 6, 1996) was an American post-modern sculptor known for his life-sized photorealistic works of humans, cast in various materials, including polyester resin, fiberglass, even Bondo®. Later works, starting in the mid-1980s, were cast in bronze. Most of his sculptures are direct three-dimensional casts of his models, a technique known as life casting. The surface of the cast is carefully painted in skin tones; he adds clothing, jewelry, and other props, lending to a trompe l'oeil or almost hyper-realistic effect. Duane Hanson’s sculptures of people are just too believable."

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"Abraham and Isaac" (George Segal)

"The Holocaust" (George Segal)

The George Segal Monument sits in Legion of Honor Park in San Francisco overlooking a beautiful view of the Pacific Ocean

"The Dancers" (George Segal)

"Gay Liberation" (George Segal)

"George Segal (November 26, 1924 - June 9, 2000) was an American painter and sculptor associated with the Pop Art movement. Although Segal started his art career as a painter, his best known works are cast life size figures and the tableaux the figures inhabited. In place of traditional casting techniques, Segal pioneered the use of plaster bandages (plaster-impregnated gauze strips designed for making orthopedic casts) as a sculptural medium. Initially, Segal kept the sculptures stark white, but a few years later he began painting them (usually in bright monochrome). Eventually he started having the final forms cast in bronze, sometimes patinated white to resemble the original plaster. Segal's figures had minimal color and detail, which gave them a ghostly, melancholic appearance. In larger works, one or more figures were placed in anonymous, typically urban environments such as a street corner, bus, or diner. In contrast to the figures, the environments were built using found objects."

"Lunch Break" (J. Seward Johnson)

"Making a Point" (J. Seward Johnson)

"Taxi" (J. Seward Johnson)

"Painter with Dog" (J. Seward Johnson)

John Seward Johnson II (born 1930), "also known as J. Seward Johnson, Jr. and Seward Johnson is an American sculptor known for his trompe l'oeil bronze painted sculptures. While early in his life, his artistic life focused on painting, he turned his talents to sculpture in 1968. Johnson is most well known for his life-size cast bronze statues of people of all ages engaged in day-to-day activities such as a father teaching his child to ride a bike, a woman sunbathing, and two people on a park bench. "

Click on photos to enlarge

STREET ART

I found an amazing, awesome site, Wooster Collective, founded in 2001 by Marc and Sarah Schiller and dedicated to showcasing and celebrating ephemeral art placed on streets in cities around the world. You can read the Marc Schiller interview talking about Street Art and Outsider Art, here and here. Through Wooster Collective I found another great site of the artist Mark Jenkins. Today I like to share some of his amazing street works.

“Mark Jenkins, a world-renown street artist has been creating these unique works of art across the globe for the last several years. Based in Washington DC, Marks' process of cling wrap to packing tape is documented on the Tape Sculpture website. The pieces are installed on the street, in nature, for gallery installations, and even as part of a High School project in Elwood, Kansas. Recently, Mark branched out into clothed tape sculptures which gives the pieces an eery yet comical emptiness.” (information from Jungle Life San Francisco)

On Wooster Collective you can see How to Make a Plastic Bag Eating Giraffe

Praia de Copacabana, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

Rua Pompeu Loureiro, Copacabana, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil (2003)

"In the words of Mark Jenkins: Making casts with tape is a trick I figured out how to do in the fourth grade but didn't make a full-time project out of it until 2003 when I started doing street and gallery installations with the Tape Men in Rio de Janeiro. "( information from Jungle Life San Francisco)

Mark Jenkins series "Embeds", the sculptures are made of tape and then clothes are added. You can see the video on Wooster Collective, and it’s great fun to see how people react to them.

Mark Jenkins street art

Update 1: The first experience in plastic wrap and tape made by Mark Jenkins was made in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, in 2003. Take a look in this Wasington Post's interview.

Update 2: My friend and painter Nancy Bea gave me an interesting information about the work of the artist Duane Hanson (January 17, 1925 - January 6, 1996). He was an American post-modern sculptor known for his life-sized photorealistic works of humans, cast in various materials, including polyester resin and fiberglass. Worth to take a look here and here.

Click on photos to enlarge