Shoppers walk down stairs featuring a five-metre-high reproduction of Vincent van Gogh's signature painting “Sunflowers”, at the entrance to Ocean Terminal in Hong Kong July 15, 2013. A premium three-dimensional reproduction of works of Van Gogh, the RELIEVO collection, approved by the curators of the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam, is on display at a gallery inside Harbour City shopping mall attached to the terminal. (Photo by Bobby Yip/Reuters)

Professor Xie Yong works on an art installation of a beaver, which is made out of plastic and around 300,000 needles, in Shenyang, Liaoning province, July 23, 2013. The needles, according to Xie, represent the pain felt by animals when their fur is taken off to produce clothing. (Photo by Reuters/Stringer)

A team from Woody's Ice Cream shop wrangle a large inflatable dinosaur down the street during the Independence Day Parade in Fairfax, Virginia July 4, 2015. Americans marched in star-spangled parades, ran relay races, gathered for fireworks shows and crowned a new world hot dog eating champion as they celebrated Independence Day in traditional style on Saturday. (Photo by Jonathan Ernst/Reuters)

Many people have seen feathers as decorative items before. Today, ostrich, peacock and bird of paradise feathers can be seen in haute couture and in the costumes of indigenous peoples. They can be colorful and spectacular in their own right, but how much more stunning might they be when used as canvases for artists, eager to demonstrate their talent for the unusual? Alaskan-born and -bred artist Julie Thompson is an astounding exponent of this incredible art form.

A reveler takes part in the 19th Gay Pride Parade at downtown Caracas, Venezuela on June 30, 2019. (Photo by Federico Parra/AFP Photo)

Demonstrators protest against bullfighting in front of the City Hall a day before of the famous San Fermin festival, in Pamplona, northern Spain, Friday, July 5, 2019. The festival will begin on July 6 with the “txupinazo” opening ceremony, with people participating in bull runs, music and dance, through the old city. (Photo by Alvaro Barrientos/AP Photo)

A boy doing chin-ups as he takes entrance exams at the Moscow Suvorov Military School in Moscow, Russia on July 11, 2019. (Photo by Sergei Karpukhin/Russian News Agency TASS via Getty Images)

Dario Sammartino, of Italy, competes at the final table during the World Series of Poker at the Rio hotel-casino in Las Vegas Sunday, July 14, 2019. (Photo by Steve Marcus/Las Vegas Sun via AP Photo)