Artist Robert Mickelson is an expert sculptor whose medium of choice happens to be glass. There's something so pure and serene about glass. Perhaps it's the material's transparency coupled with its fragility. Whatever it may be, Mickelson knows how to accentuate the element's most appealing qualities. Each of his life-like sculptural pieces exude realism with a refined quality.

Scaffolding holding a remnant of the Soviet Union, the hammer and sickle, is seen on a rooftop of an abandoned building in the town of Pripyat on January 25, 2006 near Chernobyl, Ukraine. The town of Pripyat, deserted since the 1986 catastrophe, once housed 30,000 people, the majority of being workers from the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant. Days after the catastrophe the inhabitants were relocated to other locations in the Soviet Union. The town of Pripyat has remained uninhabited since. Prypyat and the surrounding area will not be safe for human habitation for several centuries. Scientists estimate that the most dangerous radioactive elements will take up to 900 years to decay sufficiently to render the area safe.

“The Crimean War (October 1853 – February 1856) was a conflict fought between the Russian Empire and an alliance of the French Empire, the British Empire, the Ottoman Empire, and the Kingdom of Sardinia. The war was part of a long-running contest between the major European powers for influence over territories of the declining Ottoman Empire. Most of the conflict took place on the Crimean Peninsula, but there were smaller campaigns in western Anatolia, Caucasus, the Baltic Sea, the Pacific Ocean and the White Sea”. – Wikipedia

Photo: A vivandiere, a female soldier selling provisions and spirits, with the Allied forces during the Crimean War. (Photo by Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

It might have been foggy in the Willamette Valley, but Cerridwen Martin was able to revel in a view of the top of the clouds from the summit of Spencer Butte in Eugene, Ore., on Tuesday, December 16, 2014. Martin was joined by Joe Martinson, right, for the 1.1 mile trek. Fog shrouded much of the city for most of the day. (Photo by Andy Nelson/AP Photo/The Register-Guard)

Filippo Negroli (ca. 1510–1579) was an armourer from Milan. He was renowned as being extremely skilled, and may be considered the most famous armourer of all time. Working together with his younger brothers Giovan Battista (ca. 1511-1591) and Francesco (ca. 1522-1600) in the Negroli family workshop headed by their father Gian Giacomo Negroli (ca. 1463-1543), Filippo was specialized in repoussé of armour, whereas his brother Francesco was renowned for his damascening skills.

A cat Loki with a pair of distinctive fangs has quickly become one of the most famous felines on Instagram thanks to evil-looking face. Loki, who now has more than 23,000 followers online, was adopted from a cat shelter by her owner Kaet, who explained on in a posting that she knows very little about the cat’s distinctive appearance. Adopted from a cat shelter, nothing was mentioned to his owner Kaet about her kitten's unique features.

Christopher Wheeldon’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland is the biggest production the Australian Ballet has ever undertaken and it’s also one of the most spectacular. Created for the Royal Ballet and designed by Bob Crowley, it involves puppetry, optical illusions, major setpieces and immersive projections, as well as costumes that some dancers have to actually climb into. Here: Ako Kondo as Alice, on stage September 11, 2017 in Melbourne, Australia. (Photo by Jeff Busby/The Guardian)

Auditioning performers follow resident choreographer Erik Sorensen, center back, at the Sydney Dance Company in a routine during castings in Moulin Rouge's current show “Féerie”, in Sydney, Australia, Thursday, July 28, 2016. The show's artistic team is in Australia to choose new talent to perform with one of the most famous cabarets that has been illuminating Paris since 1889. (Photo by Rob Griffith/AP Photo)