Wednesday, October 5, 2011

Greatest Art Heists in History

Art is one of those items of value which criminals consider to be the most impressive to steal. Compared to cash and other valuables, art is one of the most highly prized and most difficult to steal for a number of reasons. For starters unique famous art is very well protected. So to be able to rob a painting from a gallery is most impressive. Getting into a vault-like gallery is one thing, but being able to successfully remove it in one piece is another often due to the sheer size, shape and awkwardness of the item being stolen. Another reason is that art is sought for not just monetary reasons. For some it is the history and the legacy of the image and its artist which is so vigorously desired, while for others it is the prestige of owning something which is wanted by so many others. This is why collectors have been known to commission art thieves to attempt a heist.

Here are some of the most famous art heists in history:

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Rembrandt's Jacob de Gheyn III

This has been dubbed the 'Most Stolen Painting in the World'. This is of course because it has been stolen more times than any other famous painting. While this is not really the victim of a great art heist on its own, the collective series of thefts makes it one of the greatest. The painting has been recovered every time and has been found in a taxi, on the luggage rack of a train, attached to a bike and under a bench in a graveyard. The most common excuse for its repeated theft is the fact that it measures only 29.9cm x 24.9cm!

Vermeer's The Concert

This was stolen as part of the largest in the world ever when it was taken, along with 13 other pieces from Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston in 1990. Collectively the items are worth 0 million with Vermeer's The Concert making up 0 million. There is a reward offered for information leading to their recovery which stands at million. A substantial amount when you consider that they consist of nothing more than a few brush strokes of paint or drawing inks bashed out on a canvas on a field easel over the last few hundred years.

Nazi Thefts and Looting during World War 2

Throughout the course of the Second World War, tens of thousands of pieces of art were stolen by the Reichsleiter Rosenberg Institute for the Occupied Territories which in the ended stole over 20% of the art in Europe. The value of this is almost incalculable, but must be something in the 100s of billions.

Greatest Art Heists in History

Tuesday, October 4, 2011

The Grand Canal by Francesco Guardi

In the galleries of the Art Institute of Chicago hangs "The Grand Canal" by Francesco Guardi. This painting is a lovely landscape of the churches and buildings around the Grand Canal in Venice.

Immediately upon looking at this wonderful work you are struck by the activity in it. On the right side of the painting near the stairs of the church are people gather and talking or entering the structure. To the left side of the painting you see the canal filled with boats and gondolas all of which have people on-board.

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Guardi uses the technique of one-point perspective to draw the viewer into the painting, if you look at the landing on the right side of the painting that leads to the church you will notice that a line is formed that points to the center of the painting at the horizon. Further to the right the top of the buildings in the background form a line that also meets at the same point on the horizon, this same line can also be detected on the edges of the decorative trim and molding on the church, these are more difficult to denote because there is not a long line to assist your eye see the angle.

The dome of the church is not executed correctly in terms of perspective for the base of the dome curves too much and should be a thinner parabola than what is rendered here, however, the technical precision is not what the painting is about, the painting is about the Grand Canal and the abundance of life there. Guardi has gone into great detail to bring out the feeling of the site, the details are remarkable in that they are not sterile drafting renderings of architectural design, rather, this is a work of art that is able of infuse the beauty of the architecture with the people in the surroundings. Everyone is well dress and in good spirits.

There are many boats and sea worthy vessels in the Grand Canal and Guardi has done a masterful job of detail so well the figures and structures of the boats. In the background along the horizon you can see a number of large churches and public buildings. The detail, however, is in the smaller structures, which Guardi is very much interested in.

This work bears all the fruit of the Italian Baroque style and is a pleasure to spend time with.

Stephen F. Condren - Artist

The Grand Canal by Francesco Guardi

Monday, October 3, 2011

Master Chef - The Highest Achievement For an American Chef

A Master-Chef is a professionally certified chef who has received the title of Certified Master-Chef - an honor which is held by less than 100 people in the United States of America. This certification is given out only to those chefs who have received a lot of training and have demonstrated a recognizable level of excellence in culinary arts programs.

A Master-Chef is a professional qualification that is earned by a chef - they are Certified Master-Chefs who have completed the requisite examination conducted by the American Culinary Federation. The Master-Chef examination was started in the year 1981 as a method of encouraging chefs to work towards achieving excellence in the culinary arts.

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The Certified Master-Chef program requires for the chefs to attend a eight days long practical examination which is rigorous and tests the culinary knowledge and skills of a chef. The chefs are tested on subjects which include skills and techniques involved in cooking, use of ingredients in cooking, presentation of the food, the timing of service, safety and sanitation involved in the maintenance of a restaurant. After the course is completed, there is a final test that the chef must pass.

The course costs ,000 and takes place only on two approved test sites: one is The Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, New York, and the second site is the California Campus of The Culinary Institute of America, which is based in Napa Valley.

To begin to work towards the Master-Chef qualification you would have to start with a degree in the culinary arts. You can either start with a two year Associate Degree or a four year Bachelors Degree to start working your way towards a career in the culinary arts. After the degree, you would have to gain a deeper foundation in the culinary arts, which includes practical, hands-on experience in the culinary field.

Most hotels and restaurants are very keen on hiring those chefs who have earned their certification as a Master-Chef. Typically, the annual salary of a Certified Master-Chef can range from ,000 to ,000.

So if you want to really make your mark in the culinary industry, then working towards getting your Certification as a Master-Chef is certainly a goal to be working for.

Master Chef - The Highest Achievement For an American Chef

Sunday, October 2, 2011

Carving Flowers From Vegetables

Food is a universal need; all human beings require sustenance to survive. But food doesn't always have to be utilitarian in nature. When presented in a special way, food can even become a work of art. Carving flowers from vegetables is one means of creating art out of food. A beautiful presentation can make food look more expensive, more appropriate for a formal function, and can even give people the illusion that it tastes better! Vegetable carvings are great because they are not only beautiful, they are also edible. The diner can enjoy the adornment and also get the nutritional value as well.

The art of beautiful food presentation is practiced in fine restaurants all over the country and taught at culinary institutes all over the world. Top chefs are taught the art of carving flowers from vegetables and they bring that knowledge to their restaurants and to other dining establishments such as cruise ships and buffets. For a fancy food buffet, vegetables flowers serve as a perfect decoration that is both beautiful and functional. Guests will enjoy the presentation, and be pleasantly surprised that it is edible!

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Even though this craft can give food a more expensive feel, in reality it's not expensive at all. Vegetables are very affordable and all it takes to complete is a set of knifes. In fact, anyone can do it in their own home with a little instruction and some practice! If you're interested in learning the art, you can find information and instructions on the internet. You can also look into classes at a local culinary institute or family arts center. Even children can learn carving flowers from vegetables if they are properly supervised!

The vegetables that can be used for carving include radishes, tomatoes, onions, carrots, and cucumbers,and some fruits such as melons also lend themselves well to carving. Each vegetable should be carefully prepped for optimal freshness prior to carving, by washing, peeling if necessary, and preserving by mixing salt or lime with water to spray on the vegetables. If you intend the vegetables for consumption, however, you might want to skip this step. Afterwards the carvings should be stored properly to keep them looking crisp for as long as possible.

The arrangement of the vegetable flowers is also an important part of the process. You can arrange an entire plate full of the carvings, or you can use them sparingly as adornment for other dishes. Choose colors that complement the meal you are decorating. Make sure the size of the vegetable flower is in appropriate proportion to the food it accompanies. With a little research and instruction, you can create beautiful art out of vegetables just like the world's top chefs.

Carving Flowers From Vegetables

Saturday, October 1, 2011

The Art Of Fast Money Making

In the immortal words of the great Zig Ziglar, "Money isn't the most important thing in life, but it's reasonably close to oxygen on the "gotta have it" scale"

I am going to, in this article, refine your understanding about money. One of my greatest insights and valuable observations is to accept that money is not all the same. There are different species of money, you can divide money into 3 groups. Fast money, hourly money and credit money. The first is not based or connected to time, the other two are completely based around time.

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Immediately we can observe when looking at these three species of money that one is very desire-able and the other two are worse and much worse. One stands head and shoulders above the other two and is the key to wealth. The other two lead to a life of daily roil and the poor house respectively.

Credit money, money you borrow to buy certain pleasures in life is the worst kind of money. Not surprisingly it is very closely connected to "hourly money" because to get credit money you must prove that you have hourly money....a job. Then you can have access to credit money.

The point of credit money is to exchange time for the interest you pay. In other words, you can buy that car today and pay for it later. For a compounded interest rate of 10% to 20% you buy tomorrow's savings today. For people that prefer "hourly money" this type of transaction can seem highly desire-able. You don't have to wait 5 years to save for that car because you can have it now. The problem with "credit money" is the same problem that one gets with "hourly money" but much worse. Not only are we selling our precious time for money, but now we are selling and committing tomorrow's time for money today.

Hourly Money is the most obvious way to make money for people. Hourly labor for hourly money. 90% of the worlds population gets their money this way. A very inefficient way to get your money but you get it for sure. Security of a pay check is the number one reason why people strive to get hourly money.

Before reading this article, you may have never even thought about the three species of money. You may have not even considered that there is another type of money but hourly money and credit money. But there is. Fast money is what the 10% wealthy people strive for. The financial owners of planet Earth, the 10% cream of financial circles create money they dont work for it.

Fast Money - The art of authentic creation
The art of fast money can be boiled down to one specific and it's that it's not connected to time. In this strange world, 0,000 in 10 minutes is nothing unusual. A million dollars in an afternoon is typical. ,000 in 2 days is nothing special. You may balk at these time frames and amounts but that is the point of this species of money. The TIME component is totally irrelevant.

So if hourly money and credit money are instrinsicaly centered around time...what is fast money centered around?

SOLUTIONS

Fast money is not made by mindless time counting. Fast money is made by delivering solutions. An example of this can be found in the old dentists joke. A guy goes in to have a tooth removed and the dentist tells the fellow it will cost 00 to remove. The fellow replies, well how long will it take? The dentist replies 2 minutes. The poor guy is incredulous, you mean to tell me that you want 00 for 2 minutes work? The dentist replies, well sir, if u want me to take an hour doing it I can do that too.

You see the old fellow needed a solution to his problem. The dentist had that solution and had the tools to achieve the solution in 2 minutes. The fellow wanted a solution to his problem and THAT is what he was paying for, not the time spent, as his dentist adeptly pointed out.

Fast money and the art of finding and getting fast money can be found by finding people with urgent and pressing problems.

To get involved in this amazing fast money world, you must seek out these types of people. Find these types situations and begin providing your own unique and authentic solutions to get paid fast.

The Art Of Fast Money Making

Thursday, September 29, 2011

Conservatory of Dramatic Arts

The conservatory of Dramatic Arts gives training for actors who want to establish their acting skills in theater, television and films. There are wide variety of Conservatory of Dramatic Arts institutions are available. These institutions gives class, which taken by professionals. The leading actors also came to take classes for students. Some Conservatory of Dramatic Arts institute gives students vehicle, and they also give dedicated professionals and take classes and make live drama shows to ingress the confidence of students.

The actor should know how to act and how to use their mind, boy and voices to improve their acting skills. So the Conservatory of Dramatic Arts Institutes helps the students to understand their mind and body and its gives physical and mental strength to students. Some actors do over acting and if they didn't get a proper training they cant get their goal in their acting carrier. The conservatory of Dramatic Arts Institutes gives training to concentrate on their acting and should be disciplined in their acting. Some students can act but they have stage fear. These types of dramatic arts institute help to ingress their confidence and their will power.

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The Conservatory of Dramatic Arts Institutes gives proper training in body movement, because body movement is the major part in acting. If the actor doesn't know how to use the body in acting he or she cant do any character perfectly. The institutes also gives script analysis courses which gives the students the strength to manage the character, script reading is the essential part of acting. If the actors do know everything about character he can act naturally. The students also know the technical parts of acting, if they know the whole technical parts they can be became a true professional.

Conservatory of Dramatic Arts institutes ingress the student's self-confidence and ingress the positive attitude and help to develop a positive thinking mind, which can help the actor during his acting carrier. These types of training sections ingress the actors' ability in cooperative work. And they also can learn from others. Conservatory of Dramatic Arts helps to explore their dramatic literature. The students give rehearsal and some sort of shows under the guidance of experts which ingress the acting skills. These institutes also give proper guidance about the acting world, if the students don't get the proper information about the acting world, the actor can't survive there. These institutes help the students in taking right step to acting career.

Conservatory of Dramatic Arts

Wednesday, September 28, 2011

Killer Video Game Design Training

What would be the perfect storm for any student wanting to take classes on game creation? The game development and design schools would likely employ award winning designers with real world experience, provide complimentary access to a wide range of industry specific tools, and enroll students bent on learning the trade at any cost. Many, many schools deploy all of these offerings to students each and every semester. In fact, many design schools have much more in store for their student body.

Many of the game design schools may be names we hear all the time, but never associated with video game design degrees, like ITT Technical Institute. The School of Drafting and Design launched the video game design program through courses like game level design, technology, and animation. The Art Institutes and DeVry also offer design related coursework so individuals can enter the gaming industry upon graduation. The Art Institutes have campuses in the US and Canada, while DeVry University offers online classes as well as US and Canada based locations.

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Most video game training schools offer various avenues into the industry. A student can study software engineering, programming, or delve into game art and design through specialized courses. Of course to receive a degree other coursework must be taken and passed as well. A training in video game programming and design can mean a career in a fast-paced, exciting industry that continues to grow with each passing year. The design degrees can be pursued both in offline institutions, but also through online ones.

Killer Video Game Design Training

Tuesday, September 27, 2011

Vincent Van Gogh - An Artist For Humanity

Vincent Van Gogh holds a place in not only in the History of Art but in all Humanity. There are few individuals known to us in history that have had such a personal impact on us than Vincent Van Gogh.

Vincent was not a great general leading troops into victory and saving the oppressed, rather Vincent was a quiet figure in a turbulent time that did not stand out at all, even among his peer. In his own short life-time he only sold one painting and that was through the aid of his art dealer brother Theo.

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This great artist is able to speak to us today in a personal way that no other artist can. Few people in any category be it, Military, Literary, or Philosophical have the capacity to actually reach out to us today and speak to us on our terms and have impact in our lives.

He left us a legacy of drawings and paintings that have inspired the world shortly after he created them until now and his influence is growing stronger with the passing of time. For example if you merely scan the Internet for artwork you will see more images by Van Gogh appear than any other. Why is this? It is because of the profound psychology impact that his work has on us. His work is not photographic by any measure. If you were looking to compare photo-realistic images with Vincent's work he would surely fail the test. But to fail that test is a victory for the photo-realistic artists are slaves to static imagery created by both a machine and a person all at once. It is the greatest of crimes for an artist to resort to copying photographs so as to boast of his or her skills.

Vincent Van Gogh was not at all about illustration and rendering, what he was interested in was the soul a mankind and he spent that last of years of his life searching for that. When you are trying to express a deep and powerful emotion you cannot possibly manifest that in carefully guided lines and brush strokes. This kind of art needs to be free with spontaneity and freedom.

If there is one thing that can be said of the work of Vincent Van Gogh is it that it lunges out at you when you behold it. Only in the work of Vincent Van Gogh is everything the subject!

Stephen F. Condren - Artist
Fine Arts, House Portraits, Skyline Paintings.

Vincent Van Gogh - An Artist For Humanity

Monday, September 26, 2011

His Most Famous Assemblage (Canyon) - Robert Rauschenberg

Born into a family of Fundamentalist Christians on October 22, 1925, Milton Ernst Rauschenberg or Robert Rauschenberg was one of America's most prolific and significant artists. He got his art training from the Kansas City Art Institute and at New York's Art Students League. Robert Rauschenberg hands worked at various creative mediums and styles, such as photography, printmaking, papermaking, performance, and dance. He gained fame in the 1950s for his atypical transition of 'Abstract Expressionism' to 'Pop Art.' Robert Rauschenberg is well known for his "Combines," especially "Canyon," an innovative and somewhat chaotic compilation of painting and sculpture, using eclectic everyday provisions and items.

Robert Rauschenberg's "Canyon" (1959), a mural 'Combine,' is an assemblage of buttons, photographs, a stuffed bald eagle, carrying a rope attached to a pillow that is perched from the main panel and tied to a string. The 87" x 70" x 24" mural is promptly pulled down to the ground with an assured gentle landing. "Canyon" is a soft insinuation towards Rembrandt's 'The Rape of Ganymede' (1635). To maintain a relentless rapport amongst the pictorial subjects in "Canyon," Rauschenberg delved greatly to bring out new items such as, sheet metal and enamel on wood. The artist once said, "I think a painting is more like the real world if it's made out of the real world."

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Art that was appealing and interesting, created out of the banal, formed the core & the emphasis of Robert's creation over beauty, a fact well corroborated through his "Canyon." The 'Combine' employed a broad spectrum of elements, such as oil, house & tube paints, pencil, paper, metal, photographs, fabric, wood on canvas, buttons, mirror, stuffed eagle, cardboard box, pillow, and nails. This diverse work of multiple connotations, unifies just one creative philosophy, that of free & independent randomness. To clear his understanding of art, Robert once commented, "It is neither Art for Art, nor Art against Art. I am for Art, but for Art that has nothing to do with Art. Art has everything to do with life, but it has nothing to do with Art."

All through his artistic journey, Robert Rauschenberg urged to communicate to the audience through objects and items that played as representational aids, giving American contemporary art and sculpture a new meaning and aspect. Robert Rauschenberg's other famous assemblages, other than "Canyon" are 'Gloria' (1956), 'Summer Rental III' (1960), and the famous 'Monogram' (1959). The master of creative experimentation, Robert Rauschenberg, died on May 12, 2008 due to heart failure in Captiva Island, Florida. His 'Contemporary Art' piece "Canyon" presently graces the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.

His Most Famous Assemblage (Canyon) - Robert Rauschenberg

Sunday, September 25, 2011

The history of culinary arts

Cooking was once seen as either a hobby or a chore. Until now, it's like a line of highly qualified work within a multi-billion dollars. Students who are cooking with different skills and knowledge, but all share the same thing and the passion for cooking. You will never go further and to study culinary arts, if not primarily interested in the kitchen now?

The food is the only thing that has always been andis still a big part of our daily lives because of family recipes that we take great care to be transmitted for generations. For some people, learn new dishes, while others even go to culinary school to perfect their skills and experience and obtain a degree in culinary arts. Knowing that all need to understand much food is simple, but you are not interested in how, when and where different types of tastes, presentations and functions to identify the food? IfIt is, then we can discover the history of gastronomy.

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The history of the kitchen can go back to 1800, when the first cooking school in Boston, has taught the art of the kitchen and preparing students to pass their knowledge to others. The first book ever published, Fannie Merritt Farmer was written in 1896, which is also at the Boston Cooking School and his book is still widely used as a reference, and remains in printtoday.

The next phase in the history of culinary art was taken from television, where in 1946 James Beard, who is also recognized as the father of American cuisine, that has been taking cooking lessons on the art of the kitchen. On the other hand, the French cuisine to life in American society, which led to Julia Child in 1960, when the power of radio, has placed all national cuisines.

Later, the history of cooking, the Culinary Institute ofAmerica (CIA) was founded and was the first culinary school career-based courses on the art of cooking to maintain. Its first location was on the campus of Yale University in Connecticut, which was later moved to New York in 1972. But before the CIA was founded, those seeking a career in the kitchen was usually required for teaching with expert chefs go to gain on-the-job training. This method of learning has been a traditional course in Europe, but the sophisticatedorganized training were a very new concept in the history of gastronomy in the United States. But now offer training places to continue a superb dining experience for aspiring chefs.

The history of culinary arts

The Canvas Art of Kazimir Malevich - Abstract Expressionism Artist

Kazimir Malevich was an art theoretician and designer is considered to be one of the 20th century's most influential artists. He is regarded as the originator of Suprematism - a Russian abstract art movement that was characterized by the use of just a small number of colours and a few fundamental geometric shapes. Suprematism focused on pure form and its spiritual qualities. Malevich was one of the Russian avant-garde movement's most prominent members. He was also a pioneer of geometric abstract art.

Kazimir Severinovich Malevich was born near Kiev of Polish parents on the 11th of February 1878 and was the eldest of fourteen children. Malevich's father was an expert in sugar beet processing machinery. The family had to move frequently as sugar beet processing plants were generally built far away from big cities. Malevich's formal education was only rudimentary. At the age of fifteen he got his first paints and started painting. He took up studies at the Kiev School of Art in 1895.

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While living in Kursk Malevich painted his earliest landscapes. In 1903 he joined the Moscow Institute of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture. The early years of Malevich's career were characterized by his participation in various avant-garde exhibitions. At the Donkey's Tail exhibition in 1912, he exhibited his Primitivist depictions of peasants.

It was in 1913 that Malevich began painting in the abstract art style which he named Suprematism, making abstract geometric patterns in the process. That same year, he had created the first ever suprematist painting - 'Black Square on White' which in his words conveyed "the supremacy of pure feeling in creative art". Only two years earlier, he had painted 'Morning in the Country' in a cubic abstract art style with cylindrical shapes of peasants being a prominent part of this painting.

1913 was also the year when Malevich was swayed by the way Mikhail Larionov interpreted futurism, an important abstract art movement, resulting in works such as 'Woodcutter', 'Peasant Woman with Buckets', and 'Morning after a Snowstorm in a Village'. These works incorporated shapes that looked as though they were enveloped in metal. Malevich designed the costumes and sets of the first Futurist opera - Victory over the Sun. At an exhibition held in 1915 in Petrograd, Malevich exhibited his geometric non-objective Suprematist paintings. After a sequence of White on White paintings in 1918, Malevich practically withdrew from abstract art painting and devoted more time to teaching and writing. He also created three-dimensional models that played a significant role in the development of Constructivism.

The year 1919 saw Malevich investigating how Suprematism could be applied in a three-dimensional way in architectural models. In 1922 he went to Leningrad where he was to remain for the final years of his life. He was given a solo exhibition in Moscow in 1929 in the Tretiakov gallery. Malevich used the representational painting style in the works he created during his last period. He passed away on May 15, 1935, a victim of cancer. The coffin he was buried in was one which Malevich himself had adorned with suprematist patterns.

The Canvas Art of Kazimir Malevich - Abstract Expressionism Artist

Friday, September 23, 2011

List of some famous art schools

Schools of art or art schools are the institutions that are established for the teaching and development of art with an emphasis on the visual arts. Almost all wings of the visual arts such as graphic design, are illustration, painting, photography and sculpture, taught in these institutions. Regular institutions also offer diploma and certificate in fine arts and similar streams, but they do so only as part of the core curriculum of humanities and natural sciences.Ecole des Beaux-Arts de France is his, as the first art school of this type. Schools of art, culture and all the lifestyle is among the art-freak. Since art is the domain of creativity, a lot of space and time for trainees. Bachelor of Fine Arts (BFA) and Master of Fine Arts (MFA) degrees are usually available at these institutions.

Some renowned art schools (United States) are as follows:

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Art Academy of Cincinnati
Lyme Academy College ofFine Arts
O'More College of Design

Maine College of Art

Montserrat College of Art

Minneapolis College of Art and Design

Pacific Northwest College of Art
Rhode School of Design in Iceland

Maryland Institute College of Art

Art Center College of Design
Savannah College of Art and Design

Art Institute of Fort Lauderdale
Pratt Institute
New York Academy of Art

University of the Arts, Philadelphia

School of Art Institute ofChicago

Otis College of Art and Design

The School of Visual Arts

List of some famous art schools