Students attend the first day of in-person classes, at a flooded school due to high tide, in Macabebe, Pampanga province, Philippines on August 22, 2022. (Photo by Lisa Marie David/Reuters)

Mary Pickford takes a picture of husband Douglas Fairbanks, Sr., who is executing a handstand on the roof of a building on December 19, 1920. (Photo by Bettmann Archive/Getty Images)

A worker roasts a row of pigs on bamboo poles at a roasting pit, in Manila, Philippines, December 21, 2020. (Photo by Lisa Marie David/Reuters)

A view through mist shows the Kirk of Saint Mary Magdalene in Primorsk, Leningrad Region, Russia on March 24, 2019. (Photo by Anton Vaganov/Reuters)

Dutch driver Hans Jos Liefhebber on his KTM drives next to a seal during the fifth stage of the 2018 Dakar Rally, between San Juan de Marcona and Arequipa, on the beach of Puerto Lomas, Peru, 10 January 2018. The 2018 Dakar says goodbye to the dunes with its fifth and final stage over the Peruvian desert and begins to take height as it enters the Andean mountain range, heading for Bolivia. (Photo by David Fernandez/EPA/EFE)

American sculptor Michael Alfano has been sculpting for over fifteen years. A native of New York, he now lives and works in Hopkinton, Massachusetts. His major influences are Salvador Dali, Jo Davidson, and Jean-Antoine Houdon, as well as Buddhist, Taoist, Sufi and other eastern philosophy and literature. He first studied at the Art Students League of New York, with an emphasis on life-size sculpture from the model. His formal education continued at Boston University and was augmented by internships with several prominent sculptors.

Taronga Zoo's elephant baby, as yet unnamed, is seen at Taronga Zoo on March 12, 2010 in Sydney, Australia. The Asian Elephant calf has continued to make progress following a protracted labour that spanned six days. The calf was originally believed to have died in the womb during labour but surprised veterinarians and zoo staff with an unexpected delivery early Wednesday morning. (Photo by Bobby-Jo Vial/Taronga Zoo via Getty Images)

Dove Jo (L) and HJ Kim kiss beneath a 26-foot statue inspired by the iconic kiss between a nurse and a sailor in Times Square August 12, 2010 in New York City. Alfred Eisenstaedt took the famous photograph on V-J Day marking the end of World War II. (Photo by Mario Tama/Getty Images)