There are some very creative people out there!
Just over a week ago, Dan Gomez sent me a link to an item on StumbleUpon. It was a feature called Don’t Believe Your Eyes featuring the work of Matthew Albanese.
I am not going to reproduce all the images despite them all being on that StumbleUpon webpage simply because I haven’t had time to ask Matthew’s permission. I will just offer a few of them so you may be wowed as I was.
oooOOOooo
Matthew Albanese is an artist who fascinates with special effects and magic. Matthew owns a stunning artwork collection of photographs that will blow your mind with their realistic presence. On the left side in the gallery you can see the final image and on the right you will be able to see how image was created using his special effects. Scroll down and enjoy today’s gallery of 15 beautiful artworks.
BOX OF LIGHTNING
Diorama for Box of Lightning.. Backlit etching in plexiglass painted black.
HOW TO BREATHE UNDERWATER
Diorama made out of walnuts, poured and cast candle wax, wire, glitter, peanut shells, flock, plaster, wire, dyed starfish, compressed moss,
jellybeans (anemones), sponges, wax coated seashells, toothpaste, clay, figs, feathers, Q-tips, nonpareils.
A NEW LIFE
Diorama made using painted parchment paper, thread, hand dyed ostrich feathers, carved chocolate, wire, raffia, masking tape, coffee, synthetic potting moss and cotton.
oooo
OK, if you want to see the whole set you will have to go Matthew’s website.
But I will just sneak in the last one from that series of fifteen.
Paprika Mars. Made out of 12 pounds paprika, cinnamon, nutmeg, chili powder and charcoal
oooo
Matthew Albanese’s fascination with film, special effects and movie magic—and the mechanics behind these illusions—began early. Born in northern New Jersey in 1983, Albanese spent a peripatetic childhood moving between New Jersey and upstate New York. An only child, Albanese enjoyed imaginative, solitary play. He loved miniatures and created scenarios intricately set with household objects and his extensive collection of action figures. After earning a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in Photography at the State University of New York, Purchase, Albanese worked as a fashion photographer, training his lens on bags, designer shoes and accessories—this small-object specialization is known in the retail trade as “table top photography.” Albanese’s creative eye soon turned to tabletop sets of a more wildly eclectic nature. In 2008, a spilled canister of paprika inspired him to create his first mini Mars landscape. More minute dioramas—made of spices, food and found objects—followed. In 2011, Albanese was invited to show at the Museum of Art and Design of New York. His work has also been exhibited at the Virginia Museum of Contemporary Art, Winkleman Gallery, and Muba, Tourcoing France. Matthew is represented at Bonni Benrubi Gallery in New York
Learning from Dogs 
Hi Paul,
Excellent blog (makes mine – http://josephfurtenbacher.wordpress.com – look positively amateurish, apart from my attempts (not entirely unsuccessful, I may say, though most of my work is scattered around many other websites; my Facebook timeline links to the bulk of it) to make the world a better place), and good advice here. Ever thought of applying it to the curious case of Patrice Ayme? I accused her of acting in bad faith (failing to tell the whole truth, what?); she, in her turn had this to say:
Ah, a genuine mentally challenged case I had to BING to find who he is! I leave it as a reminder of the reality that we are facing, out there. Refreshing… Apparently his latest post was in August…
PA
Well, I’ll leave you to be the judge, and, perhaps, have a word with her…
From: http://patriceayme.wordpress.com/2013/10/23/mad-bull-lost-its-way/#comments
Joseph Furtenbacher Says:
October 26, 2013 at 3:09 am | Reply
Say, Patrice, care to attempt to convince me that I shouldn’t start trashing you and Kruggers all over the Net for poaching my comments and serving them up piping hot to your own respective choirs without credit where credit is (long over)due? If so, my inbox – fs910@ncf.ca – or even my own WordPress blog – http://josephfurtenbacher.wordpress.com (where I promise not to approve for publication anything you say without your express written consent) – are always open to you, or at least they will be until I shut ‘em down for good when my ISP contract (paid yearly) runs out next spring. Bad enough that I pay $1.50/lb for catfood (fifty cents more than I pay for a pound of (admittedly, taurineless) chicken wieners for myself), without paying $5/month for a steady diet of bad faith (which, unlike on the upslope of a civilization, is *actually* the quickest way to Hell).
If not, no need to reply; I’ll take that (perhaps understandably) as a ‘No’. Would be nice, though, to be wrong for once – it’s been so long since any of my predictions failed to come true, I’m thinking I should change my name to Cassandra, though I probably won’t, since (unlike you) I’m not at all ashamed of my gender… Cassandro, perhaps? Hmm… I’m thinking most people probably wouldn’t get it…
Cheers – or perhaps I should say, Cheerio…
p.s. Oh, and as for ol’ G.W., I find from my records (during the time I was playing the stock market like a yo-yo, and it was, at the moment, DOWN) that I had this to say on Huffpo:
Dow Jones Plunges 513 Points, Suffering Worst Single-Day Drop Since October 2008
Commented Aug 4, 2011 at 21:06:56 in Business
Well, I heard that George W. Bush was seen in a shopping mall… don’t know if he was wearing his flightsuit or not.
HITO on Aug 4, 2011 at 21:09:04
he was looking for place to hang a banner
Needawinner on Aug 4, 2011 at 21:10:04
Lets hope he was taking the last train to the coast
Ha! Not bad, eh?
Patrice Ayme Says:
October 26, 2013 at 5:06 am | Reply
Ah, a genuine mentally challenged case I had to BING to find who he is! I leave it as a reminder of the reality that we are facing, out there. Refreshing… Apparently his latest post was in August…
PA
Joseph Furtenbacher Says:
October 26, 2013 at 7:34 am | Reply
‘Apparently’?
p.s. I got 299 votes when I ran for Mayor of Ottawa in 2010. Genuinely mentally challenged cases too? All of them?
…
Hmm… Bit of a short memory?
From: http://patriceayme.wordpress.com/2011/12/14/europhobia-plutophilia-go-well-together/#comments
Joseph Furtenbacher Says:
December 21, 2011 at 9:39 am | Reply
Feel better now? I hope so, since it’s hard to see what other good your essays could possibly accomplish. You’re one of the best-read people I’ve ever encountered, but if it comes down to changing any significant portion of the rest of humanity, I must say that to me, you look like a babe in the woods. Do you think the billions of addicts wrecking the planet care what you think of Kruggers, or that, assuming they ever lifted a finger to come here, they would read more than the first paragraph (or perhaps sentence) of your earnest prose? Is your idea of waging psychological warfare (I have no physical divisions, myself; do you?) sitting here firing your slings and arrows at *newts*, while *human* bodies pile up in the streets? Do you have any coherent vision of what you’d like the world to be like, eventually? Any ideas about how people *should* live their day-to-day lives, what they should *do* with their time, and how to get them to that point? (Hint: delivering your proposals (or your criticisms of others’ proposals) to them in a language that they don’t (or won’t) understand will do nothing.) If so, it’s news to me; you seem to have plenty of time and space to talk about idiots and their idiocy, none at all to talk about intelligent, compassionate people – people who actually spend their time out in the trenches, taking the battle to the frickin’ ENEMY (ever been to Townhall.com?) instead of merely calling them bad names from the safety of their own websites – people like ME, f’rinstance… And that indicates to me that, rather than actually trying to make the world a better place, you are, no less determinedly than (though rather less successfully than) the illustrious Dr. Krug-Krug, merely trying to demonstrate your undoubted (though far from ultimate) superiority.
Think! How can you expect people worse than you to discuss your ideas (assuming you actually *want* them to be discussed, something I must admit I’m by no means sure of any more), when you yourself can’t bring yourself to discuss *my* ideas, though they’re better than yours (I summed up Newt last spring (about the same time the space shuttle program was coming to an end), on a *Washington, D.C.* website (Slate? The Hill? The Washington Post?) with (as I recall) the following line: ‘Poor Newt… a relic from days gone by. No matter how hard he tried, unlike his competitors, he couldn’t get past low earth orbit.’), and though doing so would do you more good than it would me? Do you actually expect the status addicts known as humanity to change their ways simply because someone who seems equally addicted to status tells them to?
p.s. Please stop saying ‘all what’… it’s ‘all that’, ‘all who’, ‘all *of* what’, ‘all *of* whom’…
Patrice Ayme Says:
December 21, 2011 at 9:13 pm | Reply
Dear Joseph: Thanks for the style suggestions, I have a problem with “that”, indeed! Don’t hesitate to give more critiques about my lousy writing, I appreciate!
For the rest, I don’t know what to say. It’s all about ideas, as far as I am concerned. View me as a small idea factory. I have enjoyed coming across ideas which taught me, my entire life, and I enjoy reciprocating.
I also know that one idea can change a world.
It’s better when the original author profits from a new idea, but, as I explained, it is rarely the case… And there are obvious reasons for this.
PA
…
I’ve been reading her (and Kruggers!) with increasing irritation. Her latest post on Switzerland, for example? A comment I posted a few days ago:
From: http://www.alternet.org/comments/environment/meet-churchgoers-helping-lead-uprising-against-big-oil-texas#disqus_thread
Gosh! Too bad every ‘progressive’ in North America (except me, of course!) suffers from TSTS-TBTC (Too Small To Succeed – Too Big To Care) Syndrome, unlike in Switzerland, where, I understand, I already have a hundred thousand (partial…) followers on board the GSI (Guaranteed Sustainable Income) Express…
http://www.slate.com/blogs/business_insider/2013/10/19/swiss_government_giveaway_2_800_a_month_for_all_citizens.html#
http://www.salon.com/2013/10/11/rather_than_savage_cuts_switzerland_considers_star_trek_economics/
Ah, well; don’t let me distract you. Back to your fiddling – er, demonstrating (how much more intelligent and ethical you all are than everyone else), while the biosphere burns…
which in turn referred to a post I made last spring:
From: http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/backers-opponents-of-giant-keystone-xl-pipeline-face-off-in-nebraska/2013/04/18/22cd7592-a84e-11e2-a8e2-5b98cb59187f_allComments.html?ctab=all_&
JoeFurtenbacher
Well, I thought I could let it go, but no, ethically, I realized I had to try one last time, it having become obvious to me that if I didn’t, the pipeline would surely be approved, and I would face years of being forced to put the boots to you all – to the opponents for trying to play me, and to the President for having assumed that he could pretend to be more intelligent and ethical than me and get away with it.
As well, having reduced my policy prescriptions for reducing both poverty and environmental destruction to three that I believe are both necessary and sufficient, I thought I’d set them out, and let any psychologist/sociologist/economists explain to me, or to anyone, for that matter, why exactly they wouldn’t be. So,
1. Levy a stiff carbon tax, on both domestic sources and imports from countries that don’t ratify similar social contracts; stiff enough so that the fossil-fueled luxuries of the rich (roughly speaking, people who make more than the median per capita income) are reduced more than the fossil-fueled necessities of the poor are increased;
2. Implement wage and price controls; three percent per annum (including on financial transactions) seems more than generous to me;
3. Deposit $20,000 in the bank account (if they don’t have one, get them one) of anyone who’s willing to contract to work a maximum of 1,000 hours a year, if necessary (with the necessity to be decided by a majority of the contractees) to counter a deemed shortage of necessities, which I would define (to go on with) as: clean air, water, and energy, nourishing food, adequate clothing, shelter, health care, education, justice tempered with mercy…
Feel free to discuss, but I should warn you, I won’t be waiting on your decisions. Been there, done that, learned a lot since.
…
Sigh. I’ve looked long and hard for anyone who’s more intelligent and ethical than I am; if I’d found such a one, I’d have been spreading his or her name far and wide, unlike the many people who read me surreptitiously, then pass on whatever ideas they like as their own. What hope for any of us, in such a world?
p.s. I love dogs more than most, though half of them bark at me, seemingly even when I’m downwind. Competition? Cats (I have several)? Now that’s one thing I do not know…
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Dear Joseph,
Thank you for your very long comment and welcome to Learning from Dogs. I decided to approve your comment because you were clearly a real person not a spam bot!
However, I have attempted to understand your comment and struggled with it. Because despite the many words, they don’t seem relevant to today’s post topic and, in general, it’s difficult to understand the main points you are trying to make.
Would love to have your response to what I have written in this reply to you.
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Well, I could write a lengthy reply describing my efforts in the field of social engineering, which would be even longer and more off-topic *anywhere* (I still recall the Guardian removing my ‘Wisdom Quotient’ post, a handwritten copy of which, given to my next-door neighbour, having led him to encourage me to run for City Council, which led to the Mayoral run noted above, and numerous positive cascades thereafter), but I think instead, I’ll repost the reply I made to you over at Patrice’s, copied to my blog:
Paul Handover: A man of honour – and tact…
Mainly a test, you see – you’re one of the few who’ve passed, and that with flying colours…
Which reminds me: I’m off to Matthew’s now, though no doubt I’ll be green with envy, my little $50 digital Brownie – er, Cyberpix S-541S being, to put it mildly, painful to use. 8x digital zoom, 1x optical – need I say more?
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Wonderful! Your thoughts, ideas, or just idle musings always welcome. As with dogs, any benign attention makes my tail wag!
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Thanks, Paul – I’ll take that as an invitation. But though you may rest assured I’ll be stopping by regularly (your blog seems to me like a port in a particularly unruly storm), I’ve discovered that, unlike with cookies and emails (which, as far as I’ve been able to determine, are entirely safe), when trying to make the world a better place, saying too much in public fora is as bad as saying too little; in fact, from May of ’12 through March of ’13, I said not a word. So I’ll say, as Gandalf was reputed to have said (and for similar reasons), ‘Expect me when you see me!’
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That’s a deal then! Look forward.
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Cool! I would never have known.
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Presume you have been across to Matthew’s website and seen his collection? As you say, impossible to detect from the final image how it was generated.
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oh this is just way too cool!
( and interesting LONG comment, maybe he clicked the wrong blog?)
I will check out the blog…
Thanks Paul!
Take Care…
)0(
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You, too, LBR.
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Very Creative post and talented artist … Love those images .. Thank you for sharing them with us
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Aren’t they clever!
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Very cool stuff.
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Thanks Daniel, and welcome to Learning from Dogs. Lovely to have your comment.
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