Diviner inspiration: Australian artist sizes up silos for huge murals

 By Jill Gralow, Jonathan Barrett

www.reuters.com 

 

BARRABA, Australia (Reuters) - When Fintan Magee was asked to paint a mural on a trio of 40-metre high grain silos in the small Australian town of Barraba, he decided against an archetypal image of sheep and cattle.

 

Instead he painted a water diviner, a practice still used in parts of Australia where proponents believe they can find ground water with two metal rods or, as pictured in the mural, sticks.

Painted last year, it is one of dozens of large-scale murals to appear across rural Australia, turning sides of buildings, water tanks and old grain silos into striking canvasses.

“Painting walls is a bit like surfing, every wave is different, every wall is different. That’s the biggest challenge for me,” Magee told Reuters from his art studio in Sydney’s inner-western suburbs.

“Scaling and the technical things are just part of the job now.”

 

Many of the works were painted during a long drought that devastated communities and led to widespread water restrictions including in agricultural towns like Barraba in central New South Wales.

Magee said that during a research trip he saw a diviner working with water bore drillers during the drought, which only started to ease early this year.

While broadly considered street art, the sheer size of the murals makes them a phenomenon of their own.

Many artists use cherry picker cranes or lifts to reach their canvasses, go through hundreds of litres of paint, and spend weeks on their murals.

“It wasn’t really until the last three or four years that projects have been growing bigger and bigger - more stuff happening in Sydney and Melbourne and also the silo thing has exploded,” said Magee.

The size has one great advantage over other forms of art - it’s almost impossible for passersby not to take it in.

“It’s absolutely gorgeous - it wasn’t here last time we came through,” said Cathy Skinner, one of several people who stopped at the Barraba mural when Reuters visited last week.

“I think he looks like Prince Harry, I think he’s wonderful,” Skinner said of the water diviner.

The resemblance to the British prince is often remarked upon. Magee said while he didn’t see the likeness, other than the red hair, people were free to come to their own conclusions.

“I don’t see why Prince Harry would be divining in central New South Wales, but who knows, he might have been through town on a royal trip one time,” he said.

Reporting by Jill Gralow and Jonathan Barrett; Editing by Robert Birsel

 

 

 

South Africa: Free State farmer fatally shot in the head, son wounded in stabbing

A farmer was shot dead and his son stabbed during a farm attack in Hennenman in the Free State, police said.

The 56-year-old man and his 26-year-old son were attacked at their Swartpan farm in the early hours of Friday morning.

Police spokesperson Brig Motantsi Makhele said a domestic worker who arrived at the farm at around 5am made the gruesome discovery.

“It is alleged the farmer was attacked in the house and shot in the head while the son was overpowered on his arrival and stabbed in the back.”

Makhele said neighbouring farmers and police responded to the scene.

The man was declared dead on the scene and his son was transported to hospital.

Makhele said two to three handguns were stolen during the robbery.

“It is unknown how many suspects are involved and if they used transportation to flee from the crime scene,” he said.

TimesLIVE

https://www.sowetanlive.co.za/news/south-africa/2020-11-06-free-state-farmer-fatally-shot-in-the-head-son-wounded-in-stabbing/

New Study Suggests van Gogh Suffered from ‘Several Comorbid Disorders’

Claire Selvin

November 3, 2020 11:14am

www.artnews.com 

 

 Vincent van Gogh, Self-Portrait, 1889. AP Photo/Peter Dejong

 

A new study by the International Journal of Bipolar Disorders claims that the Dutch Post-Impressionist artist Vincent van Gogh likely suffered from delirium associated with alcohol withdrawal in the years leading up to his suicide in 1890. Rather than assign a single illness to the artist, as some previous studies have, the paper attempts “to assess all mental symptoms ever reported by Van Gogh in his letters or as found in other sources.”

In addition to interviewing art historians about the artist’s life and work, researchers used hundreds of van Gogh’s letters, many written to his brother, Theo, and other family members, to better understand his condition. The study suggests that the artist experienced “brief psychosis in Arles on the days after the ear incident during which he likely stopped drinking abruptly” and that, between 1874 and 1888, “he almost certainly suffered from several depressive episodes.” It argues that van Gogh likely suffered from a bipolar disorder, a diagnosis that has been assigned to the artist by previous studies of his mental condition, and refutes past diagnoses of schizophrenia as “highly unlikely.”

The study’s key conclusions are that van Gogh “suffered from several comorbid disorders,” and “no single disorder” can account for the state of his mental health. It describes the artist’s “enormous willpower, resilience, and perseverance” in the face of such struggles, and points out, “Over the years he kept on painting, also during most difficult periods in his life. Only during the most severe psychotic episodes he temporarily stopped working, but in intervals with less symptoms he was able to paint.”

This is not the only research on van Gogh to be released this year. In July, Wouter van der Veen, scientific director of the Van Gogh Institute in France, revealed details about where the artist may have created his final painting, Tree Roots.

 

Raise the woof for the new mayor of Rabbit Hash, Kentucky

Posted at 8:52 AM, Nov 04, 2020 

By: Zach McAuliffe

www.wcpo.com 

 

 

RABBIT HASH, Ky. — It was the ultimutt pawlitical showdown, but one dog proved he was the most pupular pooch in Rabbit Hash, Kentucky.

Wilbur, a French bulldog, won the race for mayor Tuesday night with 13,143 votes, unseating incumbent Brynneth Pawltro.

Second- and third-place finishers, Jack Rabbit, the beagle, and Poppy, the golden retriever, respectively, will both be Rabbit Hash Ambassadors. Lady Stone will continue to be a Rabbit Hash Ambassador as well.

Since 1998, the mayor of Rabbit Hash has been a dog. Rabbit Hash’s canine mayors don’t make legislative decisions for the town, which is owned by the Rabbit Hash Historical Society, but their elections raise money to keep the town’s historic buildings in good condition.

 

 

42 Farm attacks and 7 farm murders in South Africa, 1-31 October 2020

The Rome Research Institute of South Africa

During October 2020 there have been 42 farm attacks, 7 farm murders in South Africa, whilst 5 farm attacks were successfully averted. The onslaught against the white minority, especially farmers, continues unabated with no action from government. During September 2020 there were 48 farm attacks and 5 farm murders in the country and one attack was successfully averted.

Numerous protests have taken place around the country in an effort to raise international awareness the plight of the minority group of whites in South Africa. And to also try and force the ANC government and the police to take some action, they however are accused of complicity in these attacks.

The onslaught is not only against farmers, whites are being murdered in the most violent and atrocious ways imaginable in their homes across South Africa.

The left mainstream media is just as complicit by not driving the message but rather avoiding the topic as they kneel to their liberal bosses.

Farm attacks and farm murders – the year so far:

October 2020- 42 farm attacks, 7 farm murders.
September 2020- 48 farm attacks, 5 farm murders.
August 2020- 52 farm attacks, 9 farm murders.
July 2020- 55 farm attacks, 9 farm murders.
June 2020- 56 farm attacks, 7 farm murders.
May 2020- 15 farm attacks, 4 farm murders.
April 2020- 17 farm attacks, 1 farm murder.
March 2020- 35 farm attacks, 6 farm murders.
February 2020- 31 farm attacks, 8 farm murders.
January 2020- 17 farm attacks.

https://www.blogger.com/blog/post/edit/4000105380692891751/5030887535241825628

Information supplied by The Rome Research Institute of South Africa

South Africa Today – South Africa News

Scientists find Madagascar chameleon last seen 100 years ago

 apnews.com

October 30, 2020      

 This photos taken on Thursday, March 12, 2020 and provide by the Staatliche Naturwissenschftliche Sammlung Bayerns, SNSB, shows a Voeltzkow-Chameleon in Madagascar. Scientists say they have found an elusive chameleon species that was last spotted in Madagascar 100 years ago. Researchers from Madagascar and Germany said that they discovered several living specimens of Voeltzkow's chameleon during an expedition to the northwest of the African island nation. (SNSB/Frank Glaw via AP)

 

 Talk about good camouflage!

Scientists say they have found an elusive chameleon species that was last spotted in Madagascar 100 years ago.

Researchers from Madagascar and Germany said Friday that they discovered several living specimens of Voeltzkow’s chameleon during an expedition to the northwest of the African island nation.

In a report published in the journal Salamandra, the team led by scientists from the Bavarian Natural History Collections ZSM said genetic analysis determined that the species is closely related to Labord’s chameleon.

Researchers believe that both reptiles only live during the rainy season — hatching from eggs, growing rapidly, sparring with rivals, mating and then dying during a few short months.

“These animals are basically the mayflies among vertebrates,” said Frank Glaw, curator for reptiles and amphibians at the ZSM.

Researchers said the female of the species, which had never previously been documented, displayed particularly colorful patterns during pregnancy, when encountering males and when stressed.

The scientists say that the Voeltzkow’s chameleon’s habitat is under threat from deforestation.