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| John James Audubon. The Birds of America, from Drawings Made in the United States and Their Territories. Philadelphia, 1840-44 |
A Sri Yantra meditation mandala, with its geometry animated.
Yantras function as revelatory symbols of cosmic truths.
In general, the Sri-yantra is a 'cosmogram' - a graphic representation of the universal processes of emanation and reabsorption reduced to their essential outline. As Eliade puts it, the yantra: 'An expression in terms of linear symbolism of the cosmic manifestations, beginning with the primordial unity.'
Sublime, still, so profoundly moving, uplifting.
Micro Matter - Rosa de Jong, a Dutch artist, creates tiny islands inside test tubes.
Ooh, Paul Stankard
His glass sculptures are marvelous. Via Cat, with thanks.
This Bloomberg.com Pessimist's Guide to 2016 had some horrifyingly accurate predictions.
Donald Trump and Brexit shocked most of the world in 2016.
But not readers of last year’s Bloomberg Pessimist’s Guide, which warned that the unthinkable could happen in both cases. Now the authors are turning their attention to 2017.
And now:
The Pessimist’s Guide to 2017
‘City of Women’ turns the subway map into an homage to the city’s greatest females
Interactive graphic explores the diversity of Queens through its 59 endangered languages
Fr
Map Shows Where Foreign-Born New Yorkers Live
New Interactive Map Lets You Explore New York City’s Landmarks
Map Shows the Countries Other Than Mexico That Have the Most Immigrants in Each U.S. State
As of 2013, when roughly 38 percent of the city was foreign-born, the largest immigrant group in the city was from the Caribbean at 28 percent, followed by China at 12 percent. Russia, India, and Mexico tie for third at 6 percent.
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The Fairy's Birthday.Pen, ink and watercolour.
Published in Holly Leaves, Dec 1925, p21. |
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Ohara Koson: Swallow over the Ocean Wave |
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Mrs. Lawrance's Beautiful Roses
Preceding Redouté's more famous work by some twenty years, Mary Lawrance's Collection of Roses from Nature drew on the newfound popularity of roses as an element in English gardens. Less delicate in drawing and coloring than Redouté's Les Roses, Mrs. Lawrance's roses have about them a certain charm and prettiness that one associates with the efforts of a particularly English type, the extremely skilled "amateur."
Mary Lawrance. A Collection of Roses from Nature. London: Miss Lawrance, 1799. The New York Public Library, Rare Book Division. More Images from Mrs. Lawrance's Collection of Roses Collection Guide: Nature Illustrated: Flowers, Plants, and Trees, 1550-1900
Contemporary with Redouté's work, and equally famous, is Robert John Thornton's Temple of flora, or to provide the beginning of its official title, New Illustration of the Sexual System of Carolus von Linneaus: ... (1807 [i.e. 1799-1810]). The work is the result of a collaboration of a team of painters and engravers under Thornton's direction, but here too many cooks did not spoil the broth as the great florilegium they produced has a wonderful unity of tone and appearance. Unlike Redouté, whose exquisite portraits of individual plants appear against a white background, Thornton and his artists set their flowers in moody and evocative landscapes, symbolic of the plants being depicted.
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