Two men cross the street in front of a burned-out bus standing beneath a residential building, in the district Neukoelln in Berlin, Germany, Tuesday, January 3, 2023. People across Germany on Saturday resumed their tradition of setting off large numbers of fireworks in public places to see in the new year. The bus was set on fire during the New Year's celebrations. (Photo by Markus Schreiber/AP Photo)

Gerald Herbert is a staff photographer for the AP based in New Orleans, Louisiana. Before that he was a staff photographer for the Washington Times, the New York Daily News and a freelancer for the AP in New Orleans, Boston and New York. Photo: A worker grooms away tracks after an alligator crossed through a sand trap on the 14th hole during the first round of the PGA Tour Zurich Classic golf tournament at TPC Louisiana in Avondale, La., Thursday, April 25, 2013. (Photo by Gerald Herbert/AP Photo)

Protester Lauren Digioia wears police tape during an Occupy Wall Street protest in Union Square on March 19, 2012 in New York City. Protesters affiliated with the movement are gathering in Union Square today following 73 arrests at a six-month anniversary rally at Zuccotti Park over the weekend. (Photo by Mario Tama/Getty Images)

American sculptor Michael Alfano has been sculpting for over fifteen years. A native of New York, he now lives and works in Hopkinton, Massachusetts. His major influences are Salvador Dali, Jo Davidson, and Jean-Antoine Houdon, as well as Buddhist, Taoist, Sufi and other eastern philosophy and literature. He first studied at the Art Students League of New York, with an emphasis on life-size sculpture from the model. His formal education continued at Boston University and was augmented by internships with several prominent sculptors.

A model takes part in the “Trashion” fashion show on the roof of a building in the Brooklyn Navy Yard in the Brooklyn borough of New York May 31, 2014. The show featured designers who used recycled items such as coffee filters, tissue paper, grain sacks and window screens. (Photo by Carlo Allegri/Reuters)

People crowd onto 42nd Street as they take photos of the “Manhattanhenge” phenomenon in the Manhattan borough of New York July 11, 2014. Manhattanhenge, coined by astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson, occurs twice a year, when the setting sun aligns itself with the east-west grid of streets in Manhattan. (Photo by Carlo Allegri/Reuters)

American singer-songwriter Miley Cyrus attends the 2020 MTV Video Music Awards, broadcast on Sunday, August 30, 2020 in New York City. (Photo by Vijat Mohindra/MTV VMAs 2020/Vijat Mohindra/MTV VMAs 2020 via Getty Images)

A bronze statue of late singer Ella Fitzgerald is seen wearing a hat and protective face mask, as the global outbreak of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) continues, outside the Metro-North Railroad Station Plaza in Yonkers, New York, U.S., November 17, 2020. (Photo by Shannon Stapleton/Reuters)