Un-earthly

I came across some of these photographs and it made me want to delve deeper. It makes me want to travel. To see the world. This planet is so huge and I can't fathom not discovering it. The following pictures are both inspiring and intriguing. Land that is so alien-like, it's hard to imagine that we can all go see and experience these places ourselves.

Black Rock Desert, Nevada - Best known as the place where Burning Man takes place, it's also home to alien features such as the Fly Geyser

Kauai, Hawaii - Seaside lava ledges make for otherworldly experiences

Cappadocia, Turkey - Fairy chimneys, smooth folding hills, and cave dwellings are the main features of this ethereal landscape

Salar de Uyuni, Bolivia - The largest salt flat in the world reflects the sky during the wet season (above). In the dry winter months, it becomes a mosaic of salt tiles (below)


Socotra Island, Yemen - Because of its isolation in the Indian Ocean, magical plant life lives here that you won’t see anywhere else. Behold the dragon’s blood tree.

The Richat Structure, near Ouadane, Mauritania - A circular feature, 50 km across, in the middle of the otherwise featureless Mauritanian Sahara

Four Corners region, USA - The Colorado Plateau gets funky at the Arizona-Utah border. That’s where you’ll find this called Vermilion Cliffs National Monument

Dead Sea, Israel/Jordan - Lowest point on Earth, deepest salt lake in the world, the list of the Dead Sea’s bizarreness is a long one. Being there and floating lifeless, is even more satisfying

The Sahara - he world’s largest hot desert is as big as the entire U.S. The deep red sand and its wave-like silhouette makes for an uncanny landscape

Polka Infinity

Everyone can relate to polka dots. They are fun and playful. They are simple. They remind us of being whole and together, part of something bigger. Everything in life is a dot. I am a dot. You are a dot. We are all connected. This universe has an infinite number of dots. Maybe that's why I enjoy Yayoi Kusama's work so much. There is more to it than what you see.

Yayoi Kusama is a japanese artist who arrived in New york in the late 50's, when pop art was just a thought ready to take the world by storm. She quickly became well-known for her large paintings which featured circular repetitive patterns. Since than, her work includes sculptures, books, performance art, photography and installations. But one thing has remained the same. Her subject. She has constantly pushed the boundries on the same image. The dot.

She has made headlines for her 'out of the box' ideas which include various street performances where she painted polka dots on nude men and women. Kasuma is also known for her covered furniture and other objects, in which she covered with stuffed fabric phallic shapes, macaroni, mirrors and paint. Sadly, Kusama was semi-forgotten after returning to Japan, after discovering that she was suffering from a mental illness. It is said that she began hallucinating the dots, flowers and nets that often appear in her work. She was committed to a mental institution, where she remains to this day. Any way you look at it, the art world is greatly changed because of her vision.
Her remarkable life is imitated in her art.
We are able to be connected to her this way.
And I happen to like what I see.