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Casualties Of War: Provocative and Compelling Versions of Plastic Toy Soldiers.




These tiny sculptures, created by Dorothy, were designed for a Colorado Springs Gazette article entitled “Casualties of War.” The two-part article in which these toy soldiers were featured focused on a single battalion based at Fort Carson in Colorado Springs, who since returning from duty in Iraq had been involved in brawls, beatings, rapes, drunk driving, drug deals, domestic violence, shootings, stabbings, kidnapping and suicides. Returning soldiers were committing murder at a rate 20 times greater than other young American males.



A separate investigation into the high suicide rate among veterans published in the New York Times in October 2010 revealed that three times as many California veterans and active service members were dying soon after returning home than those being killed in Iraq and Afghanistan combined.

The soldiers have been generating a lot of interest in the USA and Canada and the art collective has been contacted by a number of war veterans making them both proud and humble. The toy soldiers were also recently featured in an article in the Irish Times.

Here's a look at the provocative versions of small molded plastic soldiers:









These limited edition figures are now available for purchase in boxed sets for £2,000 each here




Casualties of War
Box set of 4 plastic moulded figurines with bases
7cm high


36 Of The Best Artist & Architect Google Doodles Since 1998.




above Google Art Doodle by Laura Sweet

Referred to as 'Google Doodles', I gathered my personal fine art and architecture favorites since their inception in 1998 and wanted to share them with you, along with a little history of how they began. I hope you enjoy them.

The Google Doodle during their beta phase in 1998:




First, a brief history.
The Google Doodle has come a long way since their first in August of 1998 when Google founders Larry and Sergey played with the corporate logo to indicate their attendance at the Burning Man festival in the Nevada desert.

The very first Google Doodle:


The crudely drawn homepage doodle was hardly impressive. During the years following, namely 1998-2008, the homepage Google Doodles were very simple, and hardly blogworthy, iterations where in most cases one of the letters was replaced by an object or a small drawing was added to the logo.

The 2004 Leap Year Google Doodle was typical of the logos during 2002-2008:


Occasionally series of Doodles were created. Changing daily but honoring the same theme as in the case of the Summer and Winter Olympic Games, The World Cup, Dilbert cartoons and a few other examples. But these, too, were largely unimpressive.

As the years passed, the Google Doodles became more inventive and more imaginative. Some were even interactive, some animated and some so intensely illustrated, it was hard to make out the word Google.

The Happy Holidays Google Doodle in 2010:


Today, in the first post of this ongoing series, are the best of the Google Doodles honoring artists, designers and architects since 1998. They are listed in alphabetical order by surname. Some ran in selected countries only, so you may not recognize all of them, but they are all worth a look.

The Best Google Doodles - Part I Artists, Architects and Designers

Karen Appel, Netherlands:

James Audubon, world renowned nature artist:

Arthur Boyd, Australian painter:

Constantin Brancusi, Romanian sculptor:

Mary Cassatt, American painter:

Paul Cezanne, French painter:

Marc Chagall, Russian-French painter and stained glass artist:

Leonardo Da Vinci, Italian painter, writer and inventor:

Will Eisner, American comic writer and artist:

M.C. Escher, Dutch illustrator and graphic designer:

Josef Frank, Austrian architect and artist:

Walter Gropius, German architect:

Hokusai, Japanese wood cut artist:

Robert Indiana (for Valentine's Day), American painter:

Frida Kahlo, Mexican painter:

Peder Severin Krøyer, Norwegian-Danish painter:

Charles Rennie Mackintosh, Scottish architect and designer:

Rene Magritte, Belgian painter:

Michelangelo, Italian sculptor and painter:

Piet Mondrian, Dutch painter:

Claude Monet, French Impressionist painter:

Alphonse Mucha, Czech Art Nouveau painter and artist:

Isamu Noguchi, Japanese-American sculptor, painter, architect and designer:

Taro Okamoto, Japanese painter and sculptor:

Nam June Paik, Korean video artist:

Pablo Picasso, Spanish painter and sculptor:

Jackson Pollock, American painter:

Ilya Repin, Russian painter:

Norman Rockwell. American illustrator and painter:

Mimar Sinan, Turkish architect:

Wayne Thiebaud (for Google's 10th birthday), American painter:

Vincent Van Gogh, Dutch painter:

Diego Velasquez, Spanish Painter:

Andy Warhol, American artist:

Frank Lloyd Wright, American architect:

Zhang Daqian, Asian painter:


The Doodle team, which consists of Marissa Mayer, Dennis Hwang, Mike Dutton, Susie Sahim, and Jenifer Hom has created over 300 doodles for Google.com in the United States. In addition, over 700 have been designed internationally and submissions by guest doodlers, Google Doodle contest winners and the general public have also been produced.

Meet The Doodlers (video):


Want to take a whack at designing your own Google Doodle? Go ahead, you can submit your own to proposals@google.com

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