finding cain

Because sometimes you just have to work with what you've got, and all you've got are thousands of honey bees, this is a beeswax version of the Nefertiti Bust by Tomas Libertiny . Impressive, isn't it? The piece, which took two years to complete, is on view at Rademakers Gallery in Amsterdam until the end of January. Did I mention the sculpture is for sale ? Because it is. I have no idea what the buyer will do with it, but I think we can all agree beeswax makes great candles and smell divine.

There's a long list of things I can't do. One of them is inline skating. When I was twelve or so, I borrowed a Rollerblade from a friend. After way too many falls and injuries, I decided that I'd just have to get through life without it…and I've somehow managed to this day. So I'm at least a bit impressed with the balance and physical skill of anyone who can skate at all. And I'm really impressed with this young lady from Poland who can do this…

At first glance, these colorful three-legged stools look like they're made of wood, but the material is actually from used face masks. It is the brainchild of a South Korean design student named Kim Ha-neul , who also plans to make other furniture pieces such as chairs, tables and lights. Using a heat gun, Kim melts the masks down into moulds at temperatures of 300°C. It takes about 1,500 masks to create one stool, which he calls "Stack and Stack". WATCH:

I'm not happy unless my blog has a little Wes Anderson on it from time to time. Here's the trailer from Bottle Rocket , his feature-length directorial debut. As a teen, I owned — and come to think of it, still own because it's in a storage box here somewhere — a VHS copy of this movie. I'm not sure why I bought it. I guess I just love to watch funny, obscure films.

Elaine Chiu is an artist from Hong Kong who paints beautiful cityscapes. Looking at her art...I was overcome, not so much by awe - though I am in awe of her watercolor paintings - but by a surprising sense of calm. It is not often that cityscapes could cause me to feel the least bit peaceful. Thanks, Elaine for your beautiful creations. Your paintings clear my thoughts just by looking at them.

Édouard Chimot garnered considerable praise and caused some controversy when he exhibited his work in the 1920s. His erotically charged pieces revolved explicitly around hookers and junkies, who usually worked and lived near his studio in Paris. Throughout history, artists have used prostitutes as key subjects for their artwork, and Chimot was no different. He often paid these ladies of the night to sit for him—as hookers were often cheaper to hire than models. Many of his drawings, etchings and paintings have a dark, slightly sinister feel to them. I can imagine the scandal they caused back in the early 1900s.   Thanks, Bridgette.

Dua Lipa helped make 2020 a little more tolerable, and her latest album, Future Nostalgia , will definitely get you through the many traffic jams you have to endure this week.  Here, the 25-year-old British singer talks about her decision to leave home at a young age to pursue a music career; how her lyrics reflect her growing confidence as a young woman in the industry; and how she came up with the next best thing to a world tour during the pandemic. Somewhere Donna Summer is dancing.