DaVinci

Jesus Stops Traffic on 5th Ave

Filed under: Art

A row of cars waiting for a green light was concealed by four large canvases proceeding across New York's busy Fifth Ave., creating the appearance of emptiness from W. 51st St to Central Park and beyond. Artist Nelson Diaz chose Palm Sunday to reveal his latest project, "The Isolated Christ," to the people of New York. The response to this unique mix of street art, performance art and oil on canvas was nothing short of astounding.

Five years in the making, The Isolated Christ is a four-part rendering of the most famous figure in one of Leonardo Da Vinci's most recognized works. Diaz "isolated" the image of Jesus Christ from the apostles in DaV inci's "The Last Supper" and plotted thousands of points on the image by hand. Then, using advanced calculus techniques, he fed the point into an equation that exposes "hidden" four dimensional space in the original image and used the results as the foundation for his signature perspective.

The result is four faces of DaVinci's Jesus, reflecting various situations. The final canvas – transcendence – offers an obscure, almost headless presentation, signifying the departure from the norm. The meaning is left to the viewer, with the religious assuming resurrection and the atheist likely to posit obsolescence. Diaz remains coy with his intention, believing that interpretation (like faith) is a personal affair.

With half a decade spent on the vision and production of The Isolated Christ (all four paintings were completed by hand – sans brushes, literally with his fingers), Diaz spent the last few months struggling with venue. He decided last summer to skip the traditional alternatives (such as art galleries) during his protest against the treatment of art as a commodity, during which he auctioned 10 paintings on eBay for the princely starting bid of $1 each.

"The old way of doing things is dead," he explained during several of our meetings. Deep-pocketed buyers writing checks for pieces they don't understand, he believed, would not be able to sustain itself ... a lesson to which the art market was treated last September. Diaz wanted a public setting. As with his eBay experiment, he wanted to return the aesthetic to everybody, not a self-proclaimed elite.

That left only one "gallery" from which to choose: the streets of Manhattan.

Gallery: Nelson Diaz and The Isolated Christ

Tags: art, art galleries, art gallery, ArtGalleries, ArtGallery, artist, artwork, cathedral, davinci, fifth avenue, FifthAvenue, gallery, leonardo da vinci, leonardo davinci, LeonardoDaVinci, manhattan, moma, museum, museum of modern art, MuseumOfModernArt, museums, new york, new york city, NewYork, NewYorkCity, painting, paintings, st. patricks day cat, street art, street artist, street artists, StreetArt, StreetArtist, StreetArtists

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IWC Da Vinci Perpetual Calendar Chronograph Watch

by Ariel Adams (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Timepieces / Watches

This IWC presents a first (in my knowledge) complication for watches. This is the first perpetual calendar with a "big" date and month display. I really like how this looks on the face, having the two large display windows polarized horizontally on the dial. While it is easier for me to read the month as a three letter abbreviation, this style will be more convenient when you write out the date in the European style: "25/8/09," as for us Americans, we will have to switch around the numbers in our head. While this Da Vinci Perpetual Calendar watch does not display the day of the week, if you aren't aware of that, you've got other problems. Instead, there is a tastefully small leap year indicator at 6 o'clock, and a full 12 hour chronograph to satisfy you. The chronograph combines both the hours and minute counter into one dial (with two hands) in the 12 o'clock position. This is one of the most simple looking, complex watches out there.

The watch comes in a limited edition of 500 with pieces in 18k rose gold or platinum. The newer Da Vinci style tonneau case measures 44mm wide by 16mm tall. This watch has an automatic in-house IWC caliber 89800 movement that has 474 parts (very complex) and a massive power reserve of 68 hours. Knowing this will help you justify the price of this beautiful IWC Da Vinci watch, which is likely to be $40,000 plus.

Ariel Adams publishes the watch review site aBlogtoRead.com.

Tags: Chronograph, Da Vinci, DaVinci, IWC, Perpetual Calendar, PerpetualCalendar, sihh 2009, Sihh2009, timepiece, watch

The DaVinci Collection, Designed by Charlie Sheen

by Lisa Palladino (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Apparel, Men's Style, Celebrity Design

For every celebrity who closes down a clothing line, there's one just starting up. Charlie Sheen is the next celebrity to launch a line, after Scott Weiland, that is. Sheen's line of short-sleeved, button-up shirts, dubbed Da Vinci Collection by Charlie Sheen, aims to emulate retro casual shirts inspired by 1950s rockabilly culture. The shirts feature agoya shell buttons, retro patterns and contrasting color combos. They're set to go on sale in June at GlobalRebels.com. Sheen hopes to eventually sell them in major department stores as well. $59 - $79

Check out the New York Daily News's gallery of celebrities who wear their own lines: "Look! I wear my designs, too!"

Tags: celebrity design, celebrity designers, CelebrityDesign, CelebrityDesigners, Charlie Sheen, CharlieSheen, DaVinci, mens apparel, mens clothing, mens shirts, mens style, MensApparel, MensClothing, MensShirts, MensStyle, shirts

Da Vinci LED Swarovski Crystal Chandelier

by Rigel Celeste (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Decor

Not a chandelier for a timid room or for a timid decorator, the new Da Vinci LED Crystal Chandelier from Schonbek "puts on a dazzling light show." And it's no wonder, since it's both enormous (available in 3 foot and 5 foot diameters) and is made up of hundreds of Swarovski crystals illuminated by either halogen or LED lights from within. The different lighting options mean you can either have a gently glittering moon hovering over your party or (by switching to LED mode) bursts of brightly changing color instead.

It's gorgeous, but I'm sure there are few with a place to put it!

Via Trendir

Source

Tags: bulb, bulbs, chandeleir, chandelier, crystal, crystals, da vinci, DaVinci, halogen, illumination, LED, light, lighting, schonbeck, schonbek, swarovski

Dishwasher Safe Chandelier

by Nicole Weston (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Decor

The vast majority of chandeliers do not get cleaned on a regular basis and with good reason: it is a huge hassle to take the thing down, disassemble it, clean each piece and reverse the process. It's a shame, because few things are as beautiful as light reflected through perfectly cleaned crystal. The Schonbek Da Vinci Chandelier could make the whole process much more convenient. It is the first ever machine washable chandelier. The spherical, crystal-covered org is built on a metal frame that separates into several pieces, allowing the chandelier to fit into a standard-sized dishwasher for easily cleaning. Sizes range from 10"-24" in diameter and you can opt to have the Da Vinci built with Swarovski Spectra crystal ($1,750 to $8,795) or Swarovski Strauss ($2,625 to $15,295).