All Times Best 35 Female Body Painting Designs (Amazing Photos)

If you’re like most people, you have visited a modern art museum at some point in your life and formed a personal connection with a painting mounted upon a wall in a large, ornate frame. What you may have never considered is that your body could also be the canvas for an incredible piece of art.






While visions of tattoo parlors come to mind when most people hear the phrase “body art,” body painting allows you the opportunity to express your creativity without the permanence of tattoos. Whether you are looking to temporarily bathe your skin in a breathtaking landscape scene or a quirky design, we have plenty of photos to inspire you.





A woman is ready to take on the world with this beautiful, full-body art design that is deeply rooted in navigation and maps.




Bright pink wings are just as stunning when painted upon human skin as when a butterfly flutters by with them.





There’s nothing hotter than a warm-toned oriental dragon snaking itself along a female frame.





At first glance, it seems that gorgeous model Kate Upton is rocking a bikini on her laser smoothened legs from one of the most popular fashion designers in the world. In reality, she’s donning a fabulous but temporary piece of art from a talented painter who stroked it upon her frame with a paintbrush.




A gorgeous snowy mountain scene with tones of gray and blue looks even more stunning on a human canvas than it would in a traditional frame.



There’s no better way to exercise your American freedom to make art of your choosing than by painting a patriotic flag design like this one onto a human form.





Body painting is often associated with sexuality and pornography, but that doesn’t have to be the case. Artist Phyllis Cohen is famous for her ability to make a woman appear to be fully outfitted in physical clothing. When you first take a look at this design, the amazingly realistic pinstriped suit appears to be made of fabric rather than paint.

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The Best Tips for Buying Art in India

Very often people are hesitant about buying art for the fist time. Not only is there a hesitancy in entering a gallery premises but there is an overall sense of awe and apprehension when considering the entire process of buying art. Clients wonder if it is all right to purchase a single artwork, should they negotiate on the price or is it going to be embarrassing! Then there are questions about where should the buy from and would they be able to resell it when required. Also, there are doubts regarding how to go about buying art for the sake of starting a collection, should they consider it as a financial investment or should they only consider enhancing aesthetics from an interior decor perspective.

Research on Art 

One of the first things to do before buying art is to empower yourself by reading up on art, visiting local art galleries, meeting artists and other people who are actively involved in this field. Talk to artists, consultants and curators to get insights about the functioning of the art market and to also network with like-minded people. 

Find out about current trends, read about exhibitions and reviews, and try to get a sense of the art market, prices and resale options. 

Look at images and artworks to get an idea about the kind of art that you prefer. Are you inclined towards traditional paintings, contemporary art or perhaps experimental art? It helps to be clear about what you enjoy and what kind of art engages you. 

Next find out about reputed galleries and dealers. Visit galleries to see how comfortable you feel while interacting with them. If you are planning to buy art from an online source, find out about safe and credible sites who deliver authentic works. Check with galleries if there is a buy back clause or if they will help you in reselling at a future date. 

Get familiar with provenance and authenticity and all the necessary precautions that you must take to ensure you buy an original artwork which is authentic. 

Why are you buying? 

I find that it is also important to establish your reasons for buying art – is it to cover up a vacant wall or floor space, is it a part of your investment portfolio or do you want to start building an art collection? It helps in deciding the kind of art that you should buy and also in planning a budget for it. 

It is always a good idea to begin in a small way and put in only a small amount of money in the artwork initially. You could then see how you feel about the entire process, how the artwork engages you and how confident you feel about investing larger sums in art. 

Budget 

Perhaps the most important criterion, allocate a budget for art and put in sufficient effort to stay within it. It is often easy to get carried away and spend much more than you had initially intended. 

Decide if you are going to spend small sums over a period of time or whether it is going to be a one-time investment for you. 

Do make sure that it is only a small percentage of your disposable income and not a portion of your primary investment portfolio. 

One of the major reasons why it is advised to buy art that you enjoy is that unlike any other asset class, art has a distinct advantage where it can engage you intellectually and emotionally. It is not just another piece of paper in which you have invested but has the potential to enrich your life and affect the ambiance of your surroundings.

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Why and How India has become a land of rich art and culture

The online Indian art galleries – the new step to a rich cultural world 

online art gallery of My Indian Art. 

India is a land of rich art and culture. Since the ancient times, India has encountered many famous artists, who have contributed in building the nation’s heritage. In forms of visual arts like paintings on cave walls or textiles, to gradually painting on the paper and canvas, art has travelled a long way and still has to go further. However, preserving the art and cultural heritage of India is a very important factor to consider. And that is what an Indian art online gallery does.

What do they do?

The initiative to build online Indian art gallery is a very wise decision that the art-conscious people have taken. This way, people who are interested in the Indian art and culture and want to express their vision and understanding of art, can portray their creations to the country and the world.

As online is the new real, it is the best vehicle to reach out to maximum people. It is a difficult truth to accept, but the fact that one has to admit that the trend to go to the traditional brick and mortar art galleries and check out the works of the renowned as well as upcoming and promising artists, is dying. That is the reason, why many of the promising artists, who have the potential in them to do something worth contributing to the cultural richness is also obliterating day by day.

Indian online art gallery 

However, with and Indian online art gallery, they will again get the scope to portray their creations to the people in their country and to the rest of the world. It is an amazing platform that will help the artists from the entire country to come out to lime light and showcase their works and creations. This is not only a platform for the artists to bring their works to notice of the art lovers, but also portraying the richness and depth of Indian art to the world market and hence, make it more acceptable and get the worth it deserves.

How does it work?

Various exhibitions of finest repute take place in India every year. However, not all of them succeed to reach the art collectors. Therefore, creating awareness amongst them is a very important task that an online art gallery in India has the potential to do. An online art gallery is, to put into simple words, a website for a traditional art gallery. A good online art gallery will have its own team of experts, who have the knowledge and skill to recognise the arts that have the potential to create a revolution and leave its mark. They handpick these pieces of arts that can be anything from an oil painting or a landscape painting, a charcoal painting or even a water colour painting.

When you visit an online art gallery in India, you will be introduced to the profile of the artist along with their resumes. If they are available for auction or sale or only for display purpose, all the details will be mentioned there. Each and every piece is original and is portrayed with their original details mentioned. By categorising them according to the genre, subject, size, price as well as artist, the galleries make sure that you find the convenience to enjoy Indian art. It is truly an innovative step in the art and cultural life of India.

Summary:

The online Indian art galleries are a new step towards making the world a better receptor of Indian art and culture and building a platform for new artists to showcase their works.

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The Best Combination of Exquisiteness and Aesthetic Beauty

Art is nothing but a reflection of one’s true self. Although aesthetic tastes and requirements vary from person to person, still one of the main attractions that is found to be common in most of the art is an endeavor to find beauty in life. Indian contemporary artists who were who were restricted to Indian sub-continent only and disregarded by Western media made a way to reach Europe even before IT aspirants were seen to swarm in the United Kingdom.

The Quintessential of India art:

Over the years, Indian art has completely changed the typecast image of India into vibrant hues and caught the interest of thousands of art lovers. Nowadays, Indian contemporary art has started experiencing exceptional growth both ethnically and commercially, broadening the path for the art lovers to get a true tint of amazing artwork. Although Indian art has seen several transitional periods right from the ancient art of Mughal period to the art of post independence period, it has managed to grow without losing its unique factor and this is the main reason why Indian contemporary art has been able to touch the international level.

Some images of Indian contemporary art are presented here through which you can get a fair idea of the matchless hue it offers:

Some Contemporary Indian artists who have been widely acclaimed include: 

Anup Giri 

Deepankar Majumdar 

Shekhar Ballari 

Shrikant W Kolhe 

Anup Giri: The art works he created speak of the facts that eyes can not get to perceive. He was seen to twit on his twitter page that.

Sometimes the heart sees what is invisible to the eye..

To See All his Work Click

Deepankar Majumdar: The paintings truly depict the mixture of aesthetic excellence and exquisite brilliance.

To See All his Works Click 

Shekhar Ballari: The main two things the artist has tried to emphasize on are the art and the style of art. 

To See All his Work Click 

Shrikant W Kolhe: The artist is seen to believe in the fact that “Darkness is not the opposite of light; rather, it is the absence of light.” His paintings happen to take inspiration from this thought and have now become highly popular. 

Now, if you are looking for Indian contemporary art online, it’s time for you to heave a deep sigh of relief. With the running stride of time, numbers of online shops have popped up, presenting an excellent collection of a myriad of stunning art works. The art galleries are not only fraught with a striking amalgamation of beauty and splendor, but have also enabled to touch the satisfaction level of a plethora of art lovers. The paintings of Indian artists are now in high demand and if you are an art lover looking for art of exquisite stance, all you are required to do is browse through online, visit the store of the particular venture that you have found to be interesting and finally, opt for the art work that reaches your mind with a full sway.

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Modern and ancient Indian Contemporary Art: The Rise and Rise of the Style

What is extraordinary about contemporary art is the energy – it has our energy. New energy. Pieces hundreds of years old are beautiful from an aesthetic point of view, but without our modern energy. -Victor Pinchuk

The rise of Modern Indian Art dates back to the times when India was under the British Raj. A time had come when the craft and techniques were just on the verge of extinction. Traditional paintings by Indian artists were losing their significance and the artisans were struggling to incorporate innovation in their creations.

Pages from History:

It was during this period that noted painters like Raja Ravi Varma of Kerela and Abanindranath Tagore of Bengal had come to the forefront. The former sincerely attempted to earn a name by taking up mythological subjects as his area of interest. The latter, on the other hand, was struggling to establish a style of his own, revealing nationalism in his work. Inspired by his attempts, others soon followed, leading to the establishment of the Bengal School toward the beginning of the 20th century.

Ravi Varma Paiting of Ravana Sita Jathayu | Source: Wikipedia 

To say the word Romanticism is to say modern art – that is, intimacy, spirituality, colour, aspiration towards the infinite, expressed by every means available to the arts. – Charles Baudelaire.

Inspirations, of course, remained the same; subjects revolved around mythology and the classics. Eminent people like Jamini Roy and Rabindranath Tagore came up to give folk art a modern touch and introduced the concept of expression. A lot was experimented with colours and techniques. Chinese styles were welcomed and the lost craft of miniatures and frescoes was revived. This was the baby step of Indian contemporary art back then, which has only seen a mammoth growth in today’s world. Visit any art gallery in Kolkata, today. You’ll observe how their influences have not only remained strong, but also continued to inspire artists of modern times.

People always make the mistake of thinking art is created for them. But really, art is a private language for sophisticates to congratulate themselves on their superiority to the rest of the world. As my artist’s statement explains, my work is utterly incomprehensible and is therefore full of deep significance. – Bill Watterson

Later Developments of the Craft:

In the later years, artists like Amrita Shergill had successfully managed to merge the Western styles with Indian trends. She was the first lady to set foot in the world of modern Indian art and has set benchmarks for many. A large number of her works have been preserved by the National Gallery of Modern Art in New Delhi, and has been acknowledged by the Government as National Art Treasures. Indian contemporary original art of today, owes a lot to this lady.

The expanding canvas:

Modern paintings are like women, you’ll never enjoy them if you try to understand them. ― Freddie Mercury

Cross-over and mixing have become mainstream today. Foreign collaborations are common and the blend, in fact, is interesting, eye-catching. Amalgamation of culture is being encouraged more and more, fresh ideas are popping in, and the style is going global. The concept of surrealism has found its way into the style. Trends no longer bother artists; sharing of cultural differences and similarities does.

I feel like contemporary art is everywhere now and with the rise of the Internet, it’s so much easier to see what artists are doing and to follow their careers. – China Chow

Yes, the Internet is playing a huge role in promoting the popularity of the art form. You can now buy Indian art online. Galleries have hopped on from the physical world to the big web. Pick up any website that lets you buy Indian original art. The array that you perceive shall be wide and vibrant. Browse through sites like MyIndianArt.com. You’ll be received with a plethora of paintings and modern art designs that, each better than the other.

The strangeness will wear off and I think we will discover the deeper meanings in modern art. – Jackson Pollock

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Caves and Rocks for Indian Paintings Rock in various era

Indian contemporary art forms that you see today, have actually branched out from the paintings of cave men. Know more about the magnificence of these early precursors and how they still manage to woo artists of modern times.

Why did the early man take to painting and when? What prompted him to conjure up colours? Was it a mere desire to depict the vistas he has perceived, or was it something else? Even though we can never get the hang of why and how the craft started, we now know how he had made use of his cave walls as his canvas and every earthly element possible as his tools. And, it gave birth to the amazing art, eventually.

How Could the Mystical Land of India Escape the Trend?

Prehistory has witnessed the growth of fine Indian artists who have availed themselves to the rock media. The most pronounced examples can be found in the Ajanta and Ellora caves where the murals stand to this day. Other evidences include the paintings of the Bagh caves and those in the Sittanavasal monastery.

Of course, the geography of the land and the diversity of cultures were two huge factors that had encouraged the art to flourish in the country. An interesting fact here is, the paintings have been amazingly preserved over time, although such creations are often believed to be short-lived.

The Art had then Travelled Down from Prehistory to Ancient and Medieval Times.

If you travel to every nook and corner of the country, you are sure to find thousands of little caves and rock shelters that still depict the prehistoric paintings that were carved on their walls. Some of these creations are as old as 30,000 years, or perhaps even more. From the mighty Himalayas to the coastline of Tamil Nadu, you will discover that the trend had spread all over the land of that time. Mentioned below are some of the places, where the craft initiated by the early man influenced people to carry forward the legacy in its purest form.

The Ezhuthola Paintings of Kerala:

Almost in a dilapidated state now, the Ezhuthola cave paintings are perhaps the most beautiful creations of the prehistoric times. The cave is located in the Marayur-Chinnar forest belt of Kerala and contains twenty-one amazing depictions in red ochre. Although they still stay away from the interest of researchers, the Ezhuthola paintings, mostly speak about life during the prehistoric times, with humans and animals being the prime subjects.

The Exquisite Jogimara Cave Art of Chattisgarh:

The cave is a home to some of the most exquisite paintings of the first century BC. The creations are clear hints toward the first ever, planned attempt to beautify the premises of a land. There are depictions on the walls and ceilings and they have been created in two layers. Line drawings are very prominent, along with the use of red, black, yellow and white colours. A red outline, in fact, is very typical of these drawings. There are human figures, fishes, elephants, flowers, birds, and chariots painted everywhere. However, they speak nothing about religion.

The Frescoes of Ajanta:

Located in the district of Aurangabad in Maharashtra, these creations date back to the ancient period of Mahayana Buddhism. If you study them closely, you will notice how they focus primarily on the life and teachings of Gautam Buddha. Depiction of mythical characters is common. So, you will see a lot of goddesses, Nagas, Yakshas, Vrikshikas, and other beings who were integral parts of that era’s supernatural essence. Cave 10 of the entire lot, has the oldest Indian paintings created around the first century BC.

The creations are unique. They are frescoes done on mud plaster and with earth colours. You will find them practically everywhere – on the walls and even on ceilings, speaking about the life of that period in the court, for feasts and celebrations, for men and women, of festivals, and of flora and fauna, too. The most important aspect of these paintings is that, the artists of those times had made use of shading techniques to impart a three-dimensional effect, which is a huge advancement of the art.

The Mural Paintings in Kailasa Temple of Ellora:

Although the paintings were present in five of the caves of Ellora, only the ones present in the Kailasa temple could be successfully preserved. The most intriguing thing about the mural paintings of Ellora is, there were not completed in one go, and were carried out in two series. The initial round was during the carving of the caves and the final round happened centuries later.

The drawings depict very discrete features of pointed noses and sharp, sturdy figures. Prominent, protruding eyes, a typical facial characteristic of the people of Gujarat, was first seen in these creations within the caves of Ellora. This is a big evidence about the inter-regional influences that were dominating in that era. The latter series portrays a lot of Shaivism, which indicates that years later, the influence of religion was full-on.

The Paintings in Bagh Caves:

Situated on the banks of River Bagh in Madhya Pradesh is a group of nine rock-cut caves, together known as the Bagh caves. Within the sturdy walls are present, some stupendous paintings that date back to the period between the fifth and seventh century. Interestingly, the medium, which has been used to create them, is tempera, something very unusual in that era. The drawings have been prepared on a reddish-brown mud plaster applied to the walls and ceilings. This plaster has been primed with lime and the creations executed on them. Buddhism has been a big influence for the artists of that era.

The Sittanavasal Frescoes:

The Sittanavasal caves are located in the Pudukottai district of Tamil Nadu. These creations in the walls are very similar to those present in Ajanta, and are believed to be a link between them and the Chola illustrations of Thanjavur. They also show the deep impact of the ninth century Pandyan period. The themes are mostly of animals, birds, lotuses and dancing human figures.

The drawings have been composed mostly with the colour white, which has been prepared from lime. Other colours include black, prepared from wood charcoal, red from red ochre, yellow from yellow ochre, blue from Lapis Lazuli stones, and olive-green from terre verte (earth green).

The Kanker Cave Paintings:

These drawings have been very recently discovered, and are believed to be 10,000 years old, hinting that they belong to the prehistoric era. The creations are done using natural earth colours and have astonishingly remained intact all these centuries. The carvings are strange, and depict human-like figures with weapon-like things in their hands. Eerily, these figures lack a nose and mouth. Scientists strongly believe that the depiction is about aliens because some of the drawings show the figures wearing dresses that resemble space suits. If all these claims come true, this is going to be a groundbreaking discovery, which will give us an insight into the connection of prehistoric men with life from beyond the Earth.

These Ancient Creations Have Shaped Contemporary Art of Today:

Prehistoric paintings are in fact, an alternative trend to the contemporary creations of today. What is new is actually a revival of the old that has flourished with the inspiration of ancient ideas. Take up any Indian art gallery online, and you will see how ‘abstraction’ is a huge aspect of the beautiful paintings of today. In addition, there are colours that are superimposed and non-representational – prehistoric styles in every way.

The relation between the two forms of two different periods of time is, indeed, very dynamic. And, the evolution is still on. May be the purposes have changed. But, the wish to create masterpieces, still remains the same.

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Using deep and dark web links search engines for academic and painting scholarly research

You may have heard the term in passing before, the rumored-but-rarely-talked-about topic of the “deep web”. A web underneath the web, filled with petabytes of data and information that’s out of the reach of your standard Google, Bing, or Yahoo search bar. But what is the deep web exactly, and what purpose does it serve for the greater research community as a whole? 

Read the guide which was published on THE DARK WEB LINKS  to find out everything you need to know about the deep web, including what it means, where it lives, and how you can use it to your advantage.

The Deep Web: A Proper Definition

Google utilizes what’s known as a “spider-based crawler” to trawl the web for static webpage results, and then return them to you when you punch the right terms into the search bar. This only covers a very small portion of the actual information that’s available on the web.

Any results you get back from a basic Google search are from what’s known as the “Surface Web”. The Surface Web covers your basics: social media, news sites, shopping, blogs, etc.

Then there’s the Deep Web, which is not to be confused with the “Dark Web”, a portion of the internet most often associated with privacy protection connection services like TOR and online drug marketplaces like the now-defunct Silk Road.

The deep web contains a constantly updated torrent of raw, unchecked information, surging with complex technical terms and so many diagrams it’s enough to make Google’s Deep Dream AI blow a circuitboard. These are documents that keep records for things like census data, NASA mission data, patents, and academic paper databases.

It’s estimated that the whole of the entire surface web only amounts to about 20 terabytes of information, or 5 percent of the information available for open search. On the other hand, the deep web occupies about 7.5 petabytes of information, or just around 95 percent of the total.

How to Search the Deep Web

Knowing where to look when diving into the deep end of the web is the first, and probably most important step you should take before starting anything else. While the deep web is almost infinitely vast when it comes to the amount of information you can find, unlike what most people are used to when searching for something in Google, all of that data isn’t centralized in the same place.

This means for as many different subjects you can think of (finance, software, business, economics, academia, etc), there are an equal number of search engines designed to dive into the deep web archives of those particular subjects.

One issue that some researchers run into though is the problem of paywalls. There’s no getting around it; in order to run these websites/databases and keep the lights on, many of the sites mentioned below will keep their content hidden behind a paywall that can cost upwards of $50 to read a single document, or monthly subscription plans that get you access to all content for a flat fee.

If paywalls are a problem for you, one tool we recommend checking out is the Google Chrome browser extension Unpaywall. Unpaywall automatically scours the web for a free version of any content you’re trying to access that says it’s behind a paywall. You may not always get back a free result for every paper you search, however it’s still nice to the know the option is there if you need it in a pinch.

Below we’ve included a list of some of the services we think do the best job of cataloging all the information  you might need during your next research project, making special note to highlight those that make it easier to search through than most.

JSTOR – The first – and probably most obvious – addition to this list is the JSTOR database. Established in 1995, this treasure trove of research continues to be one of the first stops for any academic researcher on their way down the rabbit hole. Offering full-text searches for over 2,000 individual journals and 15,000+ books, JSTOR is a must-have for anyone who prefers a more “one-stop shop” approach during their data deep dives. JSTOR allows you access to up to three books for free, while a subscription to the JPASS service ($19.50 a month/$199 per year) will give you unlimited reading and 10 PDF downloads every 30 days (up to 120 per year). If you can’t afford that, many universities (more specifically, their professors) should have a subscription they’d be willing to let you use as long as you ask nicely enough!

Archive.org – A gigantic database of media that’s been entered into the public domain. Sound recordings, old videos, rare books, pretty much anything you might need to build your next great presentation at school, work, or both! Partnered with the Wayback Machine, which has over 280 billion webpages that have been indexed since nearly the inception of the internet itself.

Library of Congress – Digitized archives of everything that’s entered the Library of Congress. Over 200 years of historical information as well as up-to-date volumes

Osti.gov – Government research archives, complete with a history of all studies undertaken by the government. Your tax dollars paid for these, so why shouldn’t they belong to you? 100 percent searchable, and capable of returning results from within any document you’re trying to search for.

General

GPO’s Catalog of US Government Publications — Federal publications database.

The National Archives — National Archives’ research tools and online database. If there is anything you need to know about America’s history or the current state of the nation, this is the place.

HighWire Press —  Online catalog of the largest repository of free full-text and non-free text, peer-reviewed content, from over 1,000 different journals. It’s hit or miss as far as what’s behind a paywall and what isn’t. The only way to find out is to filter down your search terms to a point where you can see enough publications on both the paid and non-paid side of the aisle to decide whether or not you’ll need to pull out that wallet.

Encyclopedia Britannica – The original Google, now online with all the great pictures and text you still remember from the books!

FRED – Up-to-date financial data covering 470,000 time series from 85 different resources, this database is provided free of charge thanks to the helping hands over at the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis. FRED links out to a number of other equally impressive resources for economic data. It should be the primary resource for anyone doing research in the fields of finance and economic theory in the US.

Books

Google Books – The most obvious choice. Though the other listings below are fine for what they do, but none can quite measure up to Google’s book-scanning prowess. Some books will have partial previews, others fully available, and even more still won’t let you see anything at all. All text is digitized (and searchable), but whether or not you’ll be able to read your results depends entirely on the state of the copyright license on that particular piece of text.

Scribd – This may not exactly fill the role of your ultimate academic research database, however the monthly subscription service is still a good way to stay up to date on any new articles that might be running in your favorite magazines or be able to search through books that just hit the shelves. The documents section allows users to upload pretty much anything with few restrictions, so it’s become a repository for many textbooks and other academic content. 

Project Gutenberg — 53,000 free e-books available online, also part of the Archive.org searchable database.

The Online Books Page — A searchable database of more than 28,000 English books with the complete text available online.

Getty Research Institute – The Getty Research Institute library collections include over one million books, study photographs, periodicals and auction catalogs. There’s also a pretty deep collection of rare or unique materials that focus on art history and architecture.

Law and Politics

Law Library of Congress — Claims to be the largest collection of legal materials in the world, over 2 million volumes available.

THOMAS (Library of Congress) — Legislative information from the Library of Congress. All current and past bills that have ever been presented on the floor of the House of Representatives are archived here.

LexisNexis – Solid resource for any aspiring law student or practicing lawyer. Daily updated database of information, though it doesn’t come cheap. Prices for different services offered by LexisNexis will vary depending on the service and even what state you’re searching in, but expect to spend upwards of $125/month for services like Lexis Advance, which let you search through millions of court and legal documents submitted in actual cases from all around the United States. Your local library or university might have a subscription you can use.

Medical and Health

Science.gov — Gateway to science info provided by US government agencies. Searches an aggregated database of 200 million different publications and journals, best for anyone trying to do research on topics that are covered specifically under the “science” category.

PubMed  — The U.S. National Library of Medicine contains over 16 million citations from MEDLINE and other life science journals reaching all the way back to the 1950’s. One of the first, and still one of the best medical databases available online today.

Globalhealthfacts.org – Indexed database of world health information, searchable by disease type, country, conditions, symptoms, and more. Great resource complete with hundreds of infographics that can be used to explain the statistics of certain health problems on a broader scale.

New England Journal of Medicine – One of the leading medical journals with full text past issues available online. Be ready to pay for some content, but quite a bit is available for free as well.

Science and Academic

Geography and Geology

US Geologic Survey – Packed with as many maps and images as you can stomach, covering many different aspects of the the US geological topography.

US National Map by USGS – The source for current geospatial data from the USGS. All maps provided are both interactively available on the web, as well as in their downloadable formats.

USGS Real-Time Water Data — A map of the United States showing realtime water quality data of the country’s rivers and reservoirs.

USGS Earthquake Hazards Program — Maps of the world showing realtime earthquake data. Uses an interactive map that you can use to jump from location to location, fun for anyone who’s even got a passing level of interest in what’s really happening just under our feet.

Physics and Astronomy

The SAO/NASA Astrophysics Data System – A physics and astronomy data engine for academic papers. Every paper you want to read must be individually requested, which can be a hassle, but still one of the best ways to get your hands on the raw data pouring out from telescopes and physics experiments from all around the globe.

Academic Index – Splits into two different types of searches: the main search which basically returns more fine-tuned Google results, and the other that searches deep web academic troves.

Engineering and Technology

IEEE Xplore Digital Library – Contains over 1.4 million documents from the Institute of Electronics and Electrical Engineers. Searchable database of up-to-date materials regarding almost anything and everything to do with electrical engineering and technology as a whole.

TechXtra — Free access to reports, e-materials, research, industry news, and even job listings in the math, science, and engineering fields.

Misc

Core — The world’s largest searchable database of open access research papers. Huge database of aggregated papers and research, all text-searchable. Should be your first stop for any early research that may not require as deep of a dive as somewhere else.

Arxiv – Cornell University repository. Access to 700,000+  technical papers on everything from quantitative biology to computer science. Appears to offer full text in several formats.

DeepDyve – DeepDyve is a commercial trawler that has aggregated quite literally millions of articles across thousands of scientific journals. If you’re searching for anything in the way of STEM projects, this is a great place to start (you’ll have to pay for the privilege, however).

Video Resources 

VideoLectures.net – Really strong set of video lectures from high authority sources, nearly 20,000 lectures to choose from and over 22,000 informational videos in total.

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Leisure Travels discovers travel as a sort of spiritual discipline and entertainment method

Travel is one of the most commonly listed interests of people, and it comes in all forms. Some people travel only when they need to visit relatives or friends, others travel on business, and some travel as a sort of spiritual discipline, to discover new things about the world and its cultures and to learn more about themselves in the crucible that is travel. Yet for some, none of these things is that important: to these people, travel is about fun and excitement, about rest and relaxation, and about whatever they want it to be about.

Identification

Leisure travels is travel agency via which the primary motivation is to take a vacation from everyday life. Leisure travels is often characterized by staying in nice hotels or resorts, relaxing on beaches or in a room, or going on guided tours and experiencing local tourist attractions. Most meals are eaten out when traveling for pleasure, and often more expensive modes of transportation, such as taxis, are used to get around. In some cases, leisure travels might be used to refer to any trip that lasts more than a week, regardless of the primary focus. Leisure travel is generally seen as the opposite of business travel.

Considerations

Leisure travel can be many things, but besides being a vacation, it doesn’t have to be any one of them. Although many leisure travelers spend more money than they would in their everyday life, others might choose to travel frugally. These backpacker leisure travelers might stay in hostels, cook their own meals and take public transit – as long as the main focus is on leisure, they are still leisure travelers. Similarly, a leisure traveler might make a business contact at a bar, acquire a new client, or work on a proposal for when she returns home. If the focus still is mainly on vacation, it is leisure travel.

Potential

It is becoming more common for people to take "working vacations," in which they split their time between work and play. Unlike a business trip, this sort of travel still incorporates many aspects of leisure travel. A number of tour agencies have begun offering "volunteer vacations," which combine aspects of the leisure travel lifestyle with volunteering one’s time to an organization in need. This type of traveling allows vacationers to enjoy the beauty of a new place while giving something back to it.

Rationale

There are many benefits to leisure travel. Stepping outside of a busy lifestyle can give people space to unwind and release their stress, returning to their jobs and everyday lives rejuvenated and refreshed. It also can give people the opportunity to experience parts of the world they have never seen before, enriching their understanding of life on the planet. Traveling can be an excellent way to meet new people and make new connections, and leisure travel gives people the space and time they need to really forge those bonds.

Costs

Even for those unwilling to embark on truly budget leisure travel, there are many ways to limit costs. Popular leisure travel destinations will often see a wide swing in prices among hotels, restaurants, travel, and activities, depending on the season. Locations in the Caribbean or Mediterranean, for example, might be twice as expensive during winter, as millions of visitors from Europe and the United States try to escape cold weather.

It’s not uncommon to hear travelers return from trips and say things like, “The place was great, but it was the people there who truly made it special.” And that’s because meeting the locals wherever you go is pretty much always a good idea. 

Fortunately, with all the new technology and startups around today, it’s easier than ever to get in with the locals and become immersed in the culture. The sharing economy — i.e., the collaborative economy in which everyone works with each other to share resources — is definitely on the rise. Bonus: Sharing your way through your trip also tends to be cheaper than staying in hotels and eating out at restaurants all the time.  

To help you plan a budget-friendly and culturally immersive trip, here are 10 new and exciting ways to get in and share with the locals. 

1. Look for an Airbnb whose host will be there with you.

This bed also comes with a spare set of sheets — and a killer host. (Photo: Jessica Festa/Jessie on a Journey)

Of course, you can rent out an entire place on Airbnb, all for you and you only (unless you bring friends). But to truly get in with the locals, it’s best to look for a room where the host will be there with you. For instance, I rent out the spare room in my New York City apartment on Airbnb, and love showing my guests — who hail from South Korea to Italy to Poland and beyond — around the city. I hang out with them on the couch, and we share stories from our travels and home countries. In this way, it ends up being a cultural experience for my guests and for me. So chances are, if you rent a room from a local through Airbnb, he or she may just give you the same local-knowledge treatment that I give my guests.

2. Tell your couch-surfing host that you want to hang out.

You’re probably familiar with Couchsurfing, the home-stay program that lets travelers sleep on local couches free of charge. Granted, it’s a bit less comfortable than other places because you usually don’t have your own bed, but the main point is that it allows you to stay, cook, and explore with locals.

Most of the time.

If you’re really interested in spending a lot of time with your host — i.e., you’re staying there not just to save money but also to use your stay as a main way to get to know the local culture, I recommend being honest with your host beforehand. While most Couchsurfing hosts love getting to know their guests, not all do, so let them know that this is what you’re looking for, then act accordingly. Uncomfortable with staying on a stranger’s couch? You can also use the forums in Couchsurfing to plan meet-ups with locals.  

3. Eat at a local’s home.

There’s nothing like a homemade meal when you’re traveling. (Photo: Jessica Festa/Jessie on a Journey)

By now, it’s a well-known fact that you can stay in other people’s homes when you travel. What’s not so well-known is the fact that you can eat meals in a local chef’s home, too.

First, there’s Eat With. Professional chefs can sign up to be an EatWith host, and that means that you can go to their homes, and they will prepare local fare for you and your fellow travelers. All you have to do is cruise the website and find a meal that appeals to you. Only about 4 percent of people who apply to be EatWith hosts are accepted, so you know you’ll be getting something delicious. Picture a hedonistic feast with a yogi in San Francisco, a traditional Shabbat dinner with a restaurant-owning couple in Jerusalem, or a homemade picnic with an organic chef at a Buenos Aires park.

Another great option: Feastly. This company has the same idea as EatWith, but it isn’t international — it’s available only in NYC, Washington, D.C., Chicago, and San Francisco so far. Still a steal if you’re stateside!  

4. Get rides from locals.

Lyft isn’t your average ride-sharing app or car service. Like Uber and Sidecar, Lyft is an app through which local drivers offer rides to those nearby for an economical price. While Uber is great, what makes Lyft different is that its drivers — who operate their own personal vehicles — are encouraged to bring their personalities to the ride, and riders are made to feel comfortable sitting in the front.  

What’s more, Lyft has a particularly interesting initiative called Lyft Creatives, whereby specific community drivers provide fun and atypical experiences through themes like Cookie Wars Lyft, Harry Potter Lyft, and the Lebowski Lyft. In the Cookie Wars Lyft, for example, entrepreneur Chris Biggs bakes two batches of fresh cookies every morning before he hits the road, and the riders choose their favorite flavor. In the Lebowski Lyft, riders are greeted by “The Dude” in the front, who does not offer them White Russians but does crank the CCR and give away some other Dude-like items. Clearly, Lyft is the type of car service where the friendship between the driver and the passenger doesn’t end with a ride. It’s not uncommon for community drivers and passengers to go out for coffee or see a show later on. 

Another option: Sidecar, which is a new site that lets you pay for shared rides. So far, it’s in Los Angeles, San Diego, Long Beach, Seattle, Chicago, Boston, Washington, D.C., and Charlotte. I’ve haven’t yet used Sidecar, but I do know that according to their rates, they’re cheaper than Uber and Lyft. 

If you’re not into being driven around, you can also rent a car from a local using Getaround.

5. Ask locals your most burning travel questions.

I first mentioned Ask a Stranger in my post on apps that make travel more social. Travelers can use this app to ask travel questions that are then sent out to knowledgeable locals, who earn points when they provide answers. Fifty credits is 99 cents, and it costs 10 cents to ask a question; users are given 100 free credits just for signing up. More points are given for quicker answers that receive positive feedback from askers. What’s particularly interesting is the private-chat feature, which allows travelers to make friends with locals and even meet up to explore together.

Another option is Localfu, a website where you can ask locals absolutely anything for $5 — where to hike, eat, enjoy a great wine list, see beautiful architecture … anything, really.

6. Take classes with locals.

You don’t have to be at home to take classes. In fact, it’s even more fun to take them while you’re traveling. One easy way to do so: Use Skillshare, which offers both online and offline classes with locals in cities around the United States, on topics like writing, film, photography, and cooking. It offers a way to explore a facet of local culture that you’re particularly interested in. I love taking classes wherever I go — I usually take at least one cooking class and one dance class. It’s a great way to explore culture in an active way and spend quality time with locals.

7. Go on tours with locals.

As someone who’s gone on excursions by big companies as well as tours with local guides, I’ve found that the big-company ones tend to have a more scripted feel. That’s not to say they’re bad, but when you’re looking to immerse yourself in local culture — really and truly immerse — tours created and led by locals are usually the better choice. One resource I like for this is ToursByLocals, which offers everything from cranberry harvesting at a Massachusetts farm to a safari day in South Africa.

Another option? Withlocals, an Asian company that lets you choose a local guide to lead you around Asia. I haven’t tried it yet, but it looks as though it has some great tours. It’s available in Cambodia, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Nepal, the Philippines, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Thailand, and Vietnam. The site blends tours, dining experiences, and classes. Think boot-camp-style exercise classes in Bangkok parks, having a greasy-spoon breakfast in Singapore, and cycling in Nepal. Right now the site seems a bit food-centric; however, as it grows, I suspect it will provide more nonculinary experiences.

Other sharing sites offering local tours include Adventure, Adventure Local, and Vayable.

8. Get goods and gear from locals.

When you need gear, goods, or apparel, there’s no need to go to a store. You can get it from locals instead with Yerdle. Yerdle allows you to use credits to bid on and buy everything from acrylic paint to backpacks. You get 250 credits just for signing up, and you can earn credits by listing your own goods to rent. It’s like eBay, except that you pay nothing for your purchase, and shipping is through UPS.

It’s also free to pick up your stuff locally, which could be a great way to meet new friends in your area. I haven’t used it yet, but I can definitely picture myself using this app while traveling when I forget extra hiking pants or need a pair of gloves!

9. Have a local plan your entire trip.

It’s actually possible. Enter VoomaGo, which is sort of like local travel agent meets local tour guide. When you go to the site, you can browse local experiences offered by locals, listed under the “Experiences” tab. Some that looked interesting to me were the Day With a Local Farmer in Dominica, Sea Urchin Fishing & Snorkeling Off the Ionic Coast, and Lisbon to Cascals: Gastronomic Delights and Electric Bikes.

The VoomaPass is another interesting feature. You purchase the pass for $299 and then receive all-access travel planning from a local. As someone who worked as a travel agent for a short time — I quit because I felt it was more of a sales job where I was selling packages than planning cool trips — I think the chance to have a local organize your trip is pretty awesome. You’ll also hang with said local when you arrive and will get a prepaid phone to stay in contact with him or her — so you’ll always have on-the-ground support. 

10. Enjoy local treats. 

When you’re traveling to a new place, it’s easy to rely on Yelp to tell you about the hottest new restaurants. But what about those hole-in-the-wall places? Enter LocalEats, a website that’s focused on independently-owned restaurants in cities across the country. 

Another option: Check out Doughbies, a site where you can order freshly-baked pastries that are made in supersmall batches locally. It just started up in San Francisco, but they are growing quickly, and they may be in your city of choice soon. All you have to do is enter your zip code and let the website know if you’re interested in “pickup” or “delivery”; tasty treats will be delivered to your place in fewer than 20 minutes. Whichever option you choose, you know you’ll be eating some local goodness—and you can always chat up the local owners and chefs, too as it is said by the CEO of the Leisure Travels.

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Modern Art: Vogue presents A to Z about the MET exhibition 2018

The Metropolitan Museum of Art’s upcoming spring exhibition, without a doubt one of the most anticipated of 2018, has just unveiled its theme: 

‘Heavenly Bodies: Fashion and the Catholic Imagination’, or the relationship between fashion and the Catholic religion. From Balenciaga to Dolce & Gabbana and Valentino, the exhibition will explore the history of fashion through Christianity’s dogmas and codes, an infinite source of inspiration for designers past and present.

 

Défilé Dolce & Gabbana automne-hiver 2013/2014

 

©The Metropolitan Museum of Art/Katerina Jebbof

© Metropolitan Museum of Art

Religion has always inspired designers. After last year’s Rei Kawakubo and Comme des Garçons’, theme, the Metropolitan Museum of Art is turning to Christian imagery in fashion for its spring 2018 exhibition, supported by Christine and Stephen A. Schwarzmann, Versace and Condé Nast, and named Heavenly Bodies: Fashion and the Catholic Imagination. From delicate, byzantine-inspired Chanel and Dolce & Gabbana dresses, the haute couture Garden of Eden à la Valentino and Balenciaga’s reinterpretation of a cardinal’s cloak, Christian imagery, history and symbols, given their place in the collection imagination, constantly inspire designers who don’t hesitate to draw on the Testaments for their collections.

 

© Metropolitan Museum of Art

 

©The Metropolitan Museum of Art/Katerina Jebbof

Metropolitan Museum of Art

 

Défilé Valentino haute couture printemps-été 2014

 

Valentino S.p.A MET/Katerina Jebb

The Costume Institute, the MET’s extensive fashion department, is set to display over 150 pieces playing on the powerful link between Catholicism and fashion this spring. Dresses, coats, jewelry pieces and accessories straight from the wardrobe of a Christian princess will be exhibited across three large spaces from May 10 to October 8, 2018. In an exceptional gesture, the Vatican will be lending the exhibition around 50 pieces, some of which come from the Sistine Chapel, including Papal robes, jewelry pieces, tiaras and other ecclesiastical treasures dating from the 18th Century to the present day.

As the theme of the MET’s fashion exhibition also dictates the theme of its prestigious annual gala, guests of the party will have to inspire their dress with Christian imagery. Who out of Rihanna, Amal Clooney and Donatella Versace, the evening’s hosts, will make the biggest impression on the red carpet? Find out May 7, 2018.

Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Edwin L. Weisl, Jr., 1994 (1994.516) Image © Metropolitan Museum of Art

 

Gift of J. Pierpoint Morgan, 1917© MET

The Metropolitan Museum of Art/Katerina Jebb Heavenly Bodies: Fashion and the Catholic Imagination, May 10 to October 8, 2018, Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1000 5th Ave, New York, NY 10028, USA

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