The Stone Forest or Shilin is a notable set of limestone formations located in Shilin Yi Autonomous County, Yunnan Province, People's Republic of China, near Shilin approximately 120 km (75 mi) from the provincial capital Kunming. The tall rocks seem to emanate from the ground in the manner of stalagmites, with many looking like petrified trees thereby creating the illusion of a forest made of stone. Since 2007, two parts of the site, the Naigu Stone Forest (乃古石林) and Suogeyi Village (所各邑村), have been UNESCO World Heritage Sites as part of the South China Karst.

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.

“Keep On Trucking, Mr. Lynx!”. Canadian Lynx Study. (Photo by Josef)

Musician Kirk Hammett of Metallica performs onstage during The Big 4 held at the Empire Polo Club on April 23, 2011 in Indio, California.

An F/A-18 Hornet assigned to Strike Fighter Squadron One Five One (VFA-151) emerges from a cloud created when it broke the sound barrier in the skies over the Pacific Ocean, July 7, 1999. (Photo by John Gay/US Navy)

“José Doroteo Arango Arámbula (5 June 1878 – 20 July 1923) – better known by his pseudonym Francisco Villa or its hypocorism Pancho Villa – was one of the most prominent Mexican Revolutionary generals”. – Wikipedia

Photo: Mexican rebel leader Francisco “Pancho” Villa with one of the motorcycles used in the Battle of Torrero. (Photo by Topical Press Agency/Getty Images). August 1914

A resident looks at a wildfire in Vina del Mar, Chile, March 12, 2017. Forest fires are a regular feature of Chile's hot, arid summers, but a nearly decade-long drought combined with historically high temperatures have created tinder-like conditions in the nation's central regions. (Photo by Rodrigo Garrido/Reuters)

Devotees attend the annual voodoo festival in Ouidah January 10, 2016. The national voodoo holiday in the West African country of Benin had a distinctively political accent this year as practitioners from Africa and the Americas gathered on Sunday to offer prayers and sacrifices for peace. Hundreds of followers of the traditional religion gathered in the Atlantic coast town of Ouidah, once an important port in the slave trade, to pray for calm during the tiny country's presidential election scheduled for February. (Photo by Akintunde Akinleye/Reuters)