Beautiful Feather Art

If you thought that painting on canvas is difficult, look at this:

(Thanks Raghu...)

Know Your Mushrooms

KNOW YOUR MUSHROOMS, a documentary by Ron Mann follows uber myco visionaries Gary Lincoff and Larry Evans (two of the more expert and unforgettably mercurial characters in the community) as they lead us on a hunt for the wild mushroom and the deeper cultural experiences attached to the mysterious fungi.
Combining material filmed at the Telluride Mushroom Fest with animation and archival footage along with a neo-psychedelic soundtrack by the Flaming Lips, KNOW YOUR MUSHROOMS opens the doors to perception, takes the audience on a longer, stranger trip and delivers them to a brave new world where the fungi might well guide humanity to a saner, safer place… with extra cheese…

Know your Mushrooms

(via BoingBoing)

A Message to You, Reader

Ok dear friends, my summer holidays are finally arrived. As always, going to extremely exotic and remote places (?!), I'll get some problems with Web connection, so my posts will be irregular, to say the least. Anyway I think I'll go to some Internet cafes to post something once or twice a week, so please be patient and check out Terra Incognita now and then. At the beginning of September Terra Incognita will be 'fully operative' again.

Take care and have a nice, funny and relaxing summertime.
Peace & Love,
Skywalker

(image by Plainme)

Yousef Khanfar's Magical Landscapes

The Web is full packed with beautiful photos and talented photographers, but sometimes you can still find something special. Few days ago one of my best friends pointed out the site of Yousef Khanfar, an international award-winning international author and photographer. Yousef is from Palestinian origin and was born in Kuwait; at 18 he left forUnited States, where he continues to live and work.
Check out Yousef's site to see more amazing, magical landscapes and click on images below to see larger format.
(thanks Maurizio)

Naoto's new paintings

New acrylic paintings available on Naoto Hattori's web store.

Fred Burkhart's Image Treasures

Wandering as usual in the Web, I stumbled upon the site of Fred Burkhart, an eclectic, self-taught artist who expresses himself in different areas, painting, photography and writing among other things. He's also the owner of a coffeehouse & art gallery in Chicago.
Give a (possibly long) look at his site, particularly at the section dedicated to Burkhart himself

(images below: Burkhart at work; Herbert Huncke; William S. Burroughs; Ken Kesey; Frank Zappa; Charles Bukowsky; Allen Ginsberg and Keith Richards)

Nierika

The Nierika is a form of spiritual art used by the Huicholes, a native population of the Western Central Mexico. These ritual artefacts consist in pieces of colored yarn glued with wax to round or square backings.
Showing symbols and images of the rich Huichol spiritual tradition (sun, moon, fire, peyote, mais, deer, etc.), the Nierika (term etymologically rooted in the verb "Nieriya", "to see") are true 'portals' used to meditate and access spiritual dimensions and communicate with anchestors and deities.
They're found in most Huichol sacred places like house shrines, caves, springs and temples and in more recent years have also become collection items for ethnic art lovers and people interested in shamanism and sacred plants.
The Web is packed with sites dedicated to Nierika and Huicholes, where one can see (and possibly buy) many works of different artists and get thorough infos about this interesting topics; among others indigoarts, latinamericanfolkart and artevisionario.

Michel Petrucciani: "Caravan" (piano solo live)

Michel Petrucciani (1969 - 1999) was an astounding French jazz pianist. He was born with osteogenesis imperfecta, a genetic disease that causes brittle bones and in his case short stature. It's also often linked to pulmonary ailments. In his early career his father and brother -musicians themself - occasionally carried him, literally, because he could not walk far on his own. He was universally considered one of the best pianists in the international jazz history. See here a short, engaging example of Michel's amazing technique and musical sensibility.

Ralph Heimans' Breathtaking Art

As you probably noticed, 'conventional' artists and realism in art aren't exactly my 'cup of tea'. That said, when I meet some astounding 'outsiders' in the genre - and Ralph Heimans is surely among them - I'm ready to change tastes and 'resonate'.

"Born in Sydney in 1970, Ralph Heimans studied Fine Arts and Pure Mathematics at the University of Sydney and later at the Julian Ashton Art School. He received his first commission in 1988, beginning a series of portraits, still lifes and figurative works for private collectors in Sydney. By 1996, his commissions included paintings of leading Australian public figures for institutions such as the Compensation Court of NSW and the Australian Army.
Ralph Heimans moved to Europe in 1997, following a commission from the European Court in Luxembourg and began a string of portraits for London-based collectors. Demand for his large-scale group portraits led to new commissions in New York, Boston, Santa Fe and Paris, whilst maintaining links with Australia ensured further commissions in Sydney and Melbourne. Amongst these works, Ralph Heimans' self portrait was exhibited in the National Portrait Gallery in London, and his portrait of the French National Rugby team was hung in the Hotel de Ville in Paris.
Recent projects include a major corporate commission in Dubai, portraits for the Australian National Trust and the University of Melbourne. The first official portrait of Princess Mary of Denmark (fig. 3) represents Ralph Heimans' most prestigious commission to date. Ralph Heimans' work has been described to have a disarming quality, recalling the methods and conventions of 16th and 17th century European portraiture, while at the same time playfully undermining those traditions. Although his technical approach pays homage to masters like Caravaggio and Velazquez, particularly in the use of chiaroscuro, his subject matter is distinctly contemporary, drawing inspiration from technology and images of modern life." (from Heimans' site)

If you like the few examples of Heimans' art ant technique posted here, visit his site

(don't forget to click on images to see larger format)

The Worlds and Creatures of Keith Thompson

Without a doubt we can define Keith Thompson's gothic and fantasy art as 'mind moving'. If you like the few examples posted here, don't hesitate to make a visit to this artist's site.
(click to see images in larger format)

Shaman's Drum new issue

The new issue of Shaman's Drum, "A Journal of Experiential Shamanism & Spiritual Healing" is now available.

It features:

Leo Panthera: When the Student Is Ready: Apprenticing with the Visionary Vine relates stories of a health care practitioner’s initial encounters with ayahuasqueros, and shares some of the lessons he has learned as an ayahuasca apprentice in the Shipibo tradition.

Vance Gellert, Ph.D.: Finding the Jaguar: Tracking the Spirit of Indigenous Healing recounts the evolution of an American photographer’s efforts to capture in interpretive fine art photographs the healing traditions of Andean and Amazonian shamans, folk healers, and ayahuasqueros.

Wade Davis, Ph.D.: On Preserving the Diversity of the Ethnosphere, adapted from the book Light at the Edge of the World, describes some of the author’s experiences as an ethnobotanist studying with shamans and indigenous healers around the world, and champions the idea that the well-being of our planet depends upon the preservation of indigenous languages and cultural diversity.

Rak Razam: Seekers of the Mystery on the Ayahuasca Trail relates a journalist’s insightful observations of presenters and participants at the 2nd International Amazonian Shamanism Conference, held in 2006 in Iquitos, Peru, and raises concerns about the potential impact of Western marketing on the integrity of ayahuasca ceremonies.

Plus the usual departments....

Please visit Shaman's Drum to order the new issue or, even better, to subscribe to this fascinating and interesting magazine, well worthy of all our support.

(Front cover photo by Rak Razam; back cover photo by Vance Gellert)

Corpus

Maybe you remember Richard Fleischer's 1966 classic sf movie Fantastic Voyage, where a group of 'miniaturized' scientists made a trip in the body of a man to operate an extremely difficult surgery. Nowadays something similar - a 'virtual' trip in the human body - is possible in The Netherlands.
CORPUS is a 'journey through the human body' during which the visitor can see, feel and hear how the human body works and what role healthy food, healthy life and plenty of exercise plays. CORPUS offers a variety of information and provides education and entertainment with this journey as well as a vast number of permanent and variable exhibitions. CORPUS has been realised in a 35-meter high transparent building with the contours of the human body projecting from it. The eye-catching building is situated along the A44 highway between Amsterdam and The Hague.
(thanks Raghu)

Hindu Sculpture Park in Ireland

"The unusual spiritual visions of an Irishman were created in stone by craftsmen in Mahabalipuram, India, and now populate a sculpture park in County Wicklow, Ireland. On 22 acres of grounds, the park includes a series of 9 black granite carvings of dancing and playing Ganesh, Shiva, Durga and other Hindu deities. It also includes more bizarre sculptures of a skeletal 'fasting' Buddha, an enormous disembodied finger, and a sculpture called "The Split Man" which shows a figure ripping itself in two, representing "the mental state of the dysfunctional human"."

Intended to represent the spiritual progression to enlightenment, the collection of 14 statues took 20 years to complete. (via Atlas Obscura)

Visit the park site here

Phenomenal Crop Formations

Personally I haven't a precise opinion about the so-called 'crop circles' and 'crop formations'...Cryptical alien messages? Bizarre art form? (particularly well-done) tricks? While waiting for a conclusive answer (?) I limit myself in enjoying their unusual and 'archaic' shapes and the strange effects they make in our mind (and collective unconscious...)
See more photos and read infos here
(thanks Albert...)

The Visionary Selfportraits of Julie Heffernan

Julie Heffernan (b. 1957, Peoria, IL, USA) and her lush, sensuous and visionary self-portraits, landscapes and environments...
See other works here