“Hi! I'm Joel, I live in a valley in British Columbia's Rocky Mountains, as close to the forest as I could possibly be! I love to run, bike, jump, eat and create and I hope that you enjoy my work as much as I enjoy creating it!” – Joel Robison.

Photo: “Under Peaceful Skies”, 2011. (Photo by: Joel Robison; Source: Flickr)

To produce the images that convey his fatalistic and ironic approach to life, tinged with hope, he needed the environment and knowledge of Mother Russia, oiled with a bit of bribery to certain circus trainers. Enter the Great Russian Bear, the personification of Russia for the last several centuries, onto center stage and into his studio. The bear is recognized as both brutish and cute – Misha was the mascot for the 1980 Olympic Games – and has remained a symbol of Russia since Tsarist times. In 2009 it is the symbol of the United Russia Party.

A man takes a picture of part of what is set to be the UK's largest street art project on August 19, 2011 in Bristol, England. The See No Evil art project on Nelson Street in Bristol will see several multi story buildings in the street covered with art over the coming days. Organisers hope that the project, which has involved top graffiti artists from all over the world, will become a major tourist attraction for the west country city, often said to the spiritual home of Banksy. (Photo by Matt Cardy/Getty Images)

CANNES, FRANCE - NOVEMBER 03: Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi leaves the conference centre after the first day of the G20 Summit on November 3, 2011 in Cannes, France. World's top economic leaders are attending the G20 summit in Cannes on November 3rd and 4th, and are expected to debate current issues surrounding the global financial system in the hope of fending off a global recession and finding an answer to the Eurozone crisis. (Photo by Dan Kitwood/Getty Images)

In this undated handout photograph from the “Inside Out Project”, a poster bearing the image of a Pakistani girl whose parents, lawyers say, were killed in a drone strike, lies in a field at an undisclosed location in the northwestern Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province. A group of artists in Pakistan are hoping to generate “empathy” among US drone operators by placing giant posters of children in the country's troubled tribal regions. (Photo by AFP Photo)

Last Friday, in Afghanistan's mountainous northeastern province of Badakhshan, an enormous landslide took place, burying much of a small village, and killing hundreds. Officials say that at least 300 residents of Abi Barik village were killed, but are uncertain about exact numbers, cautioning that the final number could be 500 or more. Rescue teams gave up hope on Saturday of finding any survivors, focusing energy on helping the hundreds suddenly made homeless. Many of the surviving families have struggled to get aid. Some have gone to nearby villages to stay with relatives or friends, while others have slept in tents provided by aid groups.

Students at the Cuba's National Ballet School (ENB) watch a class from outside the classroom in Havana, Cuba, October 12, 2016. Catherine Conley, the first American full-time student at Cuba's prestigious National Ballet School, hopes to gain an edge back home by learning the powerful Cuban style with its dazzling turns and jumps. (Photo by Alexandre Meneghini/Reuters)

Family and friends sit in a vehicle trailer, where they will spend the night, near the enclosure for buffalos awaiting sacrifice on the eve of the sacrificial ceremony for the “Gadhimai Mela” festival in Bariyapur November 27, 2014. The festival renowned for its large number of animal sacrifices, is held every five years at the Gadhimai Temple where devotees from Nepal and bordering India will sacrifice buffaloes, goats and birds while offering prayers to Gadhimai, the goddess of power. (Photo by Navesh Chitrakar/Reuters)