Men are held by Iraqi national security agents, to be interrogated at a checkpoint, as oil fields burn in Qayara, south of Mosul, Iraq, Saturday, November 5, 2016. Islamic State fighters launch counterattacks in the thin strip of territory Iraqi special forces have recaptured in eastern Mosul, highlighting the challenges ahead as the battle moves into more densely populated neighborhoods where coalition air power must be used more selectively. (Photo by Felipe Dana/AP Photo)

Sergei Bobkov, 59, paints Siberian cedar nut oil onto a life-size sculpture of Pallas's Cat, also known in Russia as Manul Cat, which he made from Siberian cedar wood shavings using more than 700 thousand pieces over four years, in the village of Kozhany, southwest of the Siberian city of Krasnoyarsk, Russia, April 28, 2017. (Photo by Ilya Naymushin/Reuters)

This aerial picture taken on August 16, 2020, shows the MV Wakashio bulk carrier that had run aground and broke into two parts near Blue Bay Marine Park, Mauritius. A ship that has leaked more than 1,000 tonnes of oil in pristine waters off the Mauritius coast has split into two, its Japanese operator said August 16, 2020. (Photo by AFP Photo/Stringer)

Bystanders look at MV Wakashio bulk carrier that had run aground and from which oil is leaking near Blue Bay Marine Park in south-east Mauritius on August 6, 2020. The carrier, belonging to a Japanese company but Panamanian-flagged, ran aground on July 25 and its crew was evacuated safely. The ship was empty at the time but was carrying 200 tonnes of diesel and 3,800 tonnes of bunker fuel, according to the local press. (Photo by Dev Ramkhelawon/L'Express Maurice/AFP Photo)

In this Friday, December 4, 2018 photo, a half sunken cruise ship lays on its side, in the Gulf of Elefsina, west of Athens. Dozens of abandoned cargo and passenger ships lie semi-submerged or completely sunken around the Gulf of Elefsina, near Greece’s major port of Piraeus. Now authorities are beginning to remove the dilapidated ships. Some of them have been there for decades, leaking hazards like oil into the environment and creating a danger to modern shipping. One expert calls the abandoned ships “an environmental bomb”. (Photo by Thanassis Stavrakis/AP Photo)

Maine-based Robert Dowling Jr. creates wonderfully whimsical stories with a slightly surreal touch. The self-taught artist, who works primarily in acrylics and oils, often paints characters with their faces covered or turned away. Love art like this that both children and adults can enjoy in their own unique way.

I would like to tell you why many artists, who like me, have painted portraits and landscapes in oils on canvas, worked with acrylics, watercolors, and pen and ink drawings, have turned to the art of gourd carving.

Israeli designer HIlla Shamia has found a way to mix “oil and water” or aluminum and wood – two materials I’ve never seen fused together. The product designer has created a novel way to meld both poured aluminum with irregular wood chunks to create modern tables and benches with a warm industrial feel. Old world and new world in one.