Technically speaking, the kind of cut and welded metal art that I make is referred to as Direct Metal Sculpture. This type of metalworking is in contrast to brass or bronze sculptures which are typically created using an indirect method such as the lost wax casting method.

The pieces that I create involve cutting, hammering, welding, shaping, and otherwise directly acting upon the metal to manipulate it into its final shape. In other words, there is no pouring of molten materials.

Some people have asked me about the actual process so I’ve taken the liberty of documenting the creation of a couple of pieces.
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This chair / art is totally awesome! The only problem is that I’ve scoured the Web and I can’t find anything about it anywhere. And as most of you know by now I’m normally pretty good at uncovering strange things on the Net.

If anyone knows or finds anything else about this chair please share it with the rest of us. Thanks!
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As many of you are aware, I am a Direct Metal Sculptor specializing in welded metal art. I have several older pieces on my other blog at JohnsArt.org, but it’s been over a year since I posted anything new there. So, instead of posting everything I do I figured I’ll just selectively share a few things with you guys here on OMB.

Several months ago I was asked to come up with some large freestanding star sculptures which could be used as a collaborative project for the school aged kids in my home town of Frisco, TX. The design requirements were:

• There was virtually no budget.
• The sculptures needed to be weatherproof.
• They needed to be portable.

Generally speaking these three things don’t really go together, but after quite a bit of brainstorming I designed and fabricated all of the star sculptures that follow.
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Denny Dent was an amazing and unique artist. Word’s don’t do him justice, but here is a little excerpt from his Web site followed by a video which will instantly let you know why his work was so unique.

Denny Dent has been described as the world’s only “rock and roll painter”. The painting was secondary to Denny. The message was most important. His message was to stir creativity in people.

His repertoire featured renderings of John Lennon, Jimi Hendrix, Elton John, Mick Jagger, Billy Joel, Frank Sinatra, and Tina Turner, to name a few.

With three brushes in each hand, Denny paints portraits on six foot canvasses in the time it takes to play a few carefully selected pieces of music. Whether painting Jimi Hendrix, General Colin Powell, Jack Niklaus or Martin Luther King, Jr.

The artist himself refers to his work as “a passionate dance on canvas,” and those who have seen his creations are compelled to agree.

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This is the highest rated video I’ve ever seen. It has been viewed 3 million times and has maintained a perfect 5 star rating from over 20,000 people! Just watch it and you’ll see why.

Be warned, the video is 13 minutes long, and once you start watching its impossible to stop! I’m not kidding, there is some amazing engineering at work here, and every time you think they can’t possibly come up with something new, they outdo themselves!
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I’m assuming that most people have seen the awesome photos of sidewalk chalk drawings that have floated around the Internet for years now, but almost no one has seen a time lapse video of the creation of one of these images!

So, here is noted sidewalk artist Julian Beever creating the Aveeno Fountain of Youth chalk drawing in Union Square, NYC on 01/15/07.
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Hi kids. Today’s art lesson comes in the form of England’s most popular and well known graffiti artist. How popular is he? Well, two men were actually convicted in a UK court for defacing one of his works. That’s right. He tagged a building, they covered it up, and they went to jail!

Banksy is no street thug. He is a serious artist that happens to have an addiction to spray painting his art in public places. His art features striking and humorous images occasionally combined with slogans. The message is usually anti-war, anti-capitalist, anti-establishment or pro-freedom.
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To say that George Vlosich can work an Etch-a-sketch is a bit of an understatement. In fact, he has become world famous for his abilities, having been featured in scores of magazine and TV interviews.

You can own a Vlosich original starting at $7,500. George also does paintings and sells signed prints. You can learn more at his website.
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Just a few days ago I read about yet another bit of unbelievable Internet censorship coming out of China. It seems they have decided to eliminate access to the popular blogging site LiveJournal - effectively shutting down access to 1.8 million blogs!

This got me thinking. Given that I routinely report on Chinese abuses I wondered how many - if any - of my readers were coming from China.

For those of you who are not aware, Web servers collect various generic statistics such as the IP address of visitors. These IPs can be traced back to the country of origin and I can view a report of where visitors are coming from.

As you can see in the attached image I haven’t had a single visitor from China. This simply cannot be a coincidence.

Now days, when I think of India I think of a hot dry climate, a billion people, call centers and engineers. But this is a country with a long, rich history that predates most Western civilizations.

Here is an interesting video which demonstrates many of the inventions from ancient India including things such as the number 0, cotton, art, and more. In fact, about 37 minutes into the video, they discuss the manufacture of Wootz - or Damascus - steel, used for making the finest swords ever created.
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Six months ago I blogged about Gapminder - a non-profit site funded by Google that shows some of the most interesting statistical analysis on the planet. Well, I just discovered that Hans Rosling, founder of Gapminder, gave an awesome demonstration of its use at the TED conference last year.

This discovery was followed by the discovery that all of the speakers from the most recent TED conference were video taped and each of their speeches is now available to be seen by everyone.
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I love photography. But only really good photography.

It is a skill that some people have elevated to an art, being a true admirer, I’ve decided to create a regular series of featured photographers with collections on the Web.

BE WARNED! Photographers take pictures of places, things and people. Sometimes naked people. If you are sensitive to nude men, naked women or wet fruit please move on to another article.
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