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.

Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, a member of the feminist punk band, p*ssy Riot, right, reads papers at a district court in Zubova Polyana 440 km southeast of Moscow in Russia's province of Mordovia, Friday, April 26, 2013. A Russian court is to consider whether one of the jailed p*ssy Riot members is eligible for early release. Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, in custody since her arrest in March 2012, is serving a two-year sentence for the band's irreverent protest against President Vladimir Putin in Moscow's main cathedral. Tolokonnikova's lawyer Irina Khrunova is at right. (Photo by Mikhail Metzel/AP Photo)

Veterans Day is right around the corner, so it’s nice to see that one of the time-lapses making the most impact online over the past couple of days is one showing a homeless US Army veteran being given a makeover and, in some ways, a new lease on life.

Naturally, it is important that a baby learn the right habits. This woman demonstrates that smoking is wrong for babies. From a series of images parodying women's lifestyle and beauty magazines. (Photo by Jacobsen/Getty Images). 1955

“NASA's Mars rover Opportunity just celebrated its ninth anniversary on Mars – a mission that was originally meant to last just 90 days...” – The Atlantic. Photo: NASA's rover Opportunity visits Victoria Crater, viewed from orbit by the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter in october of 2006. Opportunity is a small dot on the crater's lip, at top right. Opportunity first reached the crater's rim on September 27, 2006. (Photo by NASA/JPL-Caltech/University of Arizona via The Atlantic)

In this Friday, November 6, 2015 photo dancers Alba Ibanez, right, and Luis Chavez, both from Spain, dress up backstage before taking part in the World Salsa Master dance competition in Madrid. Ten dance couples from different countries around the world performed in front of an audience of around 2,000 people. Participants – who wore bright, colorful outfits – came from the United States, Italy, Spain, Portugal, Mexico, Chile, Uruguay, Czech Republic and Venezuela. (Photo by Francisco Seco/AP Photo)

Lamon Reccord, right, stares and yells at a Chicago police officer "Shoot me 16 times" as he and others march through Chicago's Loop Wednesday, November 25, 2015, one day after murder charges were brought against police officer Jason Van Dyke in the killing of 17-year-old Laquan McDonald. (Photo by Charles Rex Arbogast/AP Photo)