A view of the start of the 37th Gotland Grand National motocross race in Visby, Sweden on October 24, 2020. (Photo by Soren Andersson/TT News Agency via Reuters)

A woman tour skates on the frozen lake of Orlangen, south of Stockholm, Sweden, on December 23, 2016. Tour skating is recreational long distance ice skating on natural ice particularly popular in the Nordic countries. (Photo by Tobias Roestlund/AFP Photo/TT News Agency)

Students run out of their school celebrating their high school graduation at Nacka Gymnasium following the spread of the corona virus disease (COVID-19) in Stockholm, Sweden, June 3, 2020. (Photo by Jessica Gow/TT News Agency via Reuters)

Motorcycling, Gotland Grand National 2016 endure race, Gotland, Sweden on October 29, 2016. Riders compete. (Photo by Soren Andersson/Reuters/TT News Agency)

Kaleen from Austria during the press meeting ahead of the concert Nordic Eurovision Party held at Berns in Stockholm, Sweden April 14, 2024. (Photo by Fredrik Sandberg/TT News Agency via AFP Photo)

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.

A model in Mongolia costumes prepares backstage in Xiangshawan Desert, also called Sounding Sand Desert on July 18, 2013 in Ordos of Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, China. Xiangshawan is China's famous tourist resort in the desert. It is located along the middle section of Kubuqi Desert on the south tip of Dalate League under Ordos City. Sliding down from the 110-metre-high, 45-degree sand hill, running a course of 200 metres, the sands produce the sound of automobile engines, a natural phenomenon that nobody can explain. (Photo by Feng Li)

Thousands of furry creature have invaded Malmo in southern Swede on February 23, 2023 to attend the Nordic Fuzz Con, held at at Malmo Live. This year, the convention is expected to attract around 2,500 “furries” from all over the world. (Photo by Johan Nilsson/TT via Alamy Live News)