The stone for the BAPS Temple in Atlanta, Georgia was shipped piece by piece from India, where craftsmen had sculptured it into more than 500 designs including rosettes, leaves, feathers and lacy geometric patterns. The thousands of sections, ranging from five ounces to five tons, each with its own bar code, have been assembled like a giant jigsaw puzzle based on instructions for religious buildings written into scripture thousands of years old.
Staircase to the Temple
A peacock sculpture welcomes visitors to the BAPS Temple in Atlanta, Georgia. Peacocks symbolize grace, pride, and beauty. They are a sign of joy for all who see them. Peacocks are often used in Indian mythology and folk stories.
A Peacock Welcome
An antique, intricate sculpture of Mahavira in India. Mahavira was born a little before the Buddha. While the Buddha was the founder of Buddhism, Mahavira did not establish Jainism, but gave the religion its present-day form. Mahavira, like the Buddha, was born as a prince but renounced his royal life at the age of 30 and became an ascetic.
An Antique Buddha
Remnants of ancient art sculpture in Poshina including colorful stonework
Ancient Art in Poshina
Nataraja is a depiction of the Hindu god Shiva as the divine dancer. The sculpture is symbolic of Shiva as the lord of dance and dramatic arts, with its style and proportions made according to Hindu texts on arts.
The dwarf (not a baby) under Nataraja’s feet is Apasmāra, which represents ‘tamas’; ignorance and nonsensical speech. Since then Lord Shiva is also known as ‘Hara’, which means destroyer of ‘Tamas’.
A statue of Nataraja at Shilparamam, Hyderabad …..
Nataraja
A metal sculpture of Buddha on a lotus at Shilparamam, Hyderabad
Buddha on a Lotus
The Road Untraveled, an art sculpture by Diane Maclean in the grounds of Salisbury Cathedral, England
The Road Untraveled at Salisbury Cathedral
National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, London displays Nelson’s Ship in a Bottle by Yinka Shonibare, a 1:30 replica of Nelson’s flagship, HMS ‘Victory’ on which he died during the Battle of Trafalgar on 21 October 1805. It has 80 guns and 37 sails set as on the day of battle. The richly patterned sails were inspired by Indonesian batik, mass-produced by Dutch traders and sold in West Africa. The sculpture is 15.4 ft long and measures 7.7 ft from the keel to the top of the main mast.
Nelson’s Ship in a Bottle by Yinka Shonibare
Yinka Shonibare ‘Ship in a Bottle’
Sculptures displayed at Raleigh’s City Plaza add to the vibrant atmosphere
Striking in Red
Sculpture in Red
Driftwood on the beach forms nature’s sculpture against sand dunes and a cloudy sky
Nature’s Beach Sculpture
Metalmorphosis, by Czech artist David Černýa, is a mirrored sculpture housed in the Whitehall Technology Park in Charlotte, North Carolina. The creation consists of nearly 40 steel pieces grouped into 7 segments which independently rotate 360 degrees. When the segments are aligned, the sculpture appears to be a giant, silver head with all of the usual fixtures in their regular places.
Charlotte – Metalmorphosis Face On
Affectionately known as “Disco Chicken” by area residents, the shimmering Firebird sculpture was installed in 2009, and stands at the entrance of the Bechtler Museum of Modern Art in Charlotte, North Carolina. The statue stands over 17 feet tall and weighs over 1,400 pounds. The entire statue is covered from top to bottom in over 7,500 pieces of mirrored and colored glass. The piece was created in 1991 by French-American artist Niki de Saint Phalle.
Charlotte – Firebird Sculpture
An appropriate quote on man being on harmony with the rhythm of nature on a sculpture at a park in Belfast, Maine
Belfast – Rhythm in the Universe
Belfast – Rhythm in the Universe by Quimby
Variations of Chihuly glass sculptures at Pergola Garden Fiori at Biltmore, Asheville, North Carolina
Chihuly at Biltmore – Art in Glass
The Milwaukee Art Museum addition, known as the Quadracci Pavilion, was architect Santiago Calatrava’s first built U.S. project, completed in 2001 on the shore of Lake Michigan in Wisconsin, USA. Perhaps its most dramatic feature is a set of “wings” – the Burke Brise Soleil (from the French for “sun breaker”). The Brise Soleil forms a movable sunscreen with a 217-foot that is raised and lowered throughout the day to provide shade to the interior of the museum, while creating a sort of kinetic urban sculpture. The brise soleil is made up of 72 steel fins, ranging in length from 26 to 105 feet, weighing 90 tons. It takes three and a half minutes for the wings to open or close. Sensors on the fins continuously monitor wind speed and direction, and whenever winds exceed 23 mph for more than three seconds, the wings close automatically.
The images show the wings in the open and closed positions.
Burke Brise Soleil
Elephant Sighting in Ulm
It was surprising to see an elephant sculpture on a historical building in Ulm, Germany
Sculpture of Imagination
One can imagine a mother bear holding a cub in this nature-made sculpture at the Garden of Gods in Colorado Springs
