3d illusion arts: Oddity Central

Oddity Central

Guy Is Suing His Parents for Not Loving Him Enough, Wants $200,000
Steve Casino’s Celebrity Figurines Are Nuts, Literally!
Woman Spends a Year Building Hogwarts Replica from 400,000 LEGO Pieces

Guy Is Suing His Parents for Not Loving Him Enough, Wants $200,000

Posted: 27 Feb 2013 08:42 AM PST

Bernard Bey, a homeless man from Brooklyn, New York, is suing his parents for not loving him and supporting him enough. He is actually asking for $200,000 in compensation. This is not a joke…

32-year-old Bernard Bey is an aspiring rapper from Brooklyn. He’s also homeless, and blames his parents for his current situation. In a recent interview, he says he ran away from home wen he was just 12 years old, because his family abused him both physically and verbally, and he’s been in and out of the shelter system for the last twelve years. He’s also spent time behind bars. And since he believes his parents are responsible for everything he’s been through, he’s just filed a lawsuit against them in Brooklyn Court, in which he accuses them of making him feel “unloved and beaten by the world”. In the self-written lawsuit, Bey is asking for $200,000 in damages and demands his family mortgage their brownstone in the Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood, to help him open two franchises “like Domino’s Pizza”.

"I don't feel like my parents love me, they aren't supportive, they're emotionally abusive, verbally abusive," the 32-year-old said. "We don't have a family bond that a family should have." He claims that when he went to his family’s house, they made him wait for up to 45 minutes before letting him in. About his claims, the homeless man says: "Why not start a family business and start securing wealth for ourselves? Anybody that's logical is not going to sit on an asset and let it deteriorate and live poor when they don't have to. Why would you do that? Why would you live off the state and get public assistance and food stamps? Why would you allow your children to live like that?" He claims that the extra $200,000 he’s asking for would go to helping out the whole family.

Bernard’s mother, told reporters things are not like her son described. They are in no position to give him that kind of money, seeing as they are currently living in public housing themselves, and the Brooklyn building he’s asking them to mortgage is only partly owned by them. She also says Bernard hasn’t worked a day in his life and needs to go out and get a job.

"I'm hoping that I can come to some type of resolution with my parents and we don't have to go through this at all; we could just work together," Bey said. ”Let’s work together, and definitely, I’ll drop the suit.” Bernard’s other family members said he has psychological issues…

Source: MStarz

Guy Is Suing His Parents for Not Loving Him Enough, Wants $200,000 was originally posted at OddityCentral.com

Steve Casino’s Celebrity Figurines Are Nuts, Literally!

Posted: 27 Feb 2013 04:30 AM PST

Steve Casino, better known as the “Painter of Nuts” creates detailed celebrity figurines out of peanut shells and mixed media. His collection includes big names like James Brown, Andy Warhol or Elton John.

One day, Steve Casino was eating peanuts, when he noticed one was kind of looked like him. So he started painting a cartoon version of himself on the shell and showed it to his friend, Neil. He thought it was pretty funny, and this inspired Steve to pursue this idea further. He decided to try a celebrity next, so he picked out another peanut and did Joey Ramone, of punk rock band The Ramones. It turned out pretty good for a first attempts, but he got much better at it with each new peanut figurine he made. Trying o perfect the technique, looking for the right materials and painting detailed faces was a lot of fun, and Steve was hooked. Now he’s known as the Painter of Nuts and his work is starting to get some much-deserved publicity on the Internet.

James Brown

Although these nut figurines might seem pretty simplistic, they require a lot of patience and time. After studying his subject, Steve sometimes goes through hundreds of peanuts trying to find one that looks like them. Then, he cracks open the shell carefully, removes the nuts inside and glues it back shut. After that he covers the front side with wood filler and smooths it with sand paper. He adds legs, a base and feet and proceeds to making the peanut look like the celebrity of his choice. He draws a sketch based on photos and starts to add layers of paint. It can take up to 10 hours per peanut until he achieves the desired effect. The last thing he adds is the arms. The Painter of Nuts always leaves the back untouched, and loves to show people the peanut side of his figurines first, just so he can see their reactions when he slowly turns them around revealing the detailed portraits.

Johnny Cash & June Carter Cash

Each of Steve’s celebrity figurines is made by hand out of a peanut or two and preserved with a polyurethane coating. He takes commissions with a turnaround time of 4-6 weeks and charges around $500 per piece. It’s not exactly peanuts, but considering they’re all unique, I think the price is justified.

Spock & James T. Kirk

The Sex Pistols

Wonder Woman

Trent Reznor

via Laughing Squid

Steve Casino’s Celebrity Figurines Are Nuts, Literally! was originally posted at OddityCentral.com

Woman Spends a Year Building Hogwarts Replica from 400,000 LEGO Pieces

Posted: 27 Feb 2013 03:02 AM PST

LEGO master Alice Finch has spent over 12 months piecing together an impressive model of the Hogwarts school of magic, from the Harry Potter movies, complete with decorated and populated interiors.

LEGO makes its own official Harry Potter sets, but they weren’t enough for master builder Alice Finch. While the mother of two understands why the Danish toy company makes sets that are only finished on one side and accessible on the back, she wanted to build her own version that was architecturally accurate with 4 walls and a roof, minifigs scale, and also playable for big and little hands. She had been to many of the places in Oxford were some of the movie scenes were shot, so she already knew what it should look like. Still, Alice did plenty of research for her LEGO Hogwarts: she consulted J.K. Rowling’s books, watched the blockbuster Harry Potter movies and even went to the Harry Potter studio tour in London to see the sets in person. Many times, the details in the books and those in the films didn’t coincide, so she had to choose what worked best. But, after 12 months of piecing together her monumental model from around 400,000 LEGO pieces, she had created every Harry Potter fan‘s dream – her very own Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.

At last year’s BrickCon LEGO convention, Alice Finch took home both "People's Choice" and "Best in Show" awards for her incredible replica of Hogwarts, but the official online unveiling of the 400,000-brick model took place just a few days ago. That’s because it took Alice five months to reassemble her masterpiece in the living room of her Seattle home, and post some decent photos on her Flickr page. Apart from building her very own piece of the Harry Potter universe, she wanted her two boys to be able to play in all the spaces where the story takes place, and now her eldest son is already staging his little adventures in this fantastic play set. Her other son is too young too read the books, but when he grows up, Alice plans on offering him the chance to experience the magic of Harry Potter in the comfort of his own home.

Although she doesn’t know exactly how much the LEGO Hogwarts cost to make, Alice says she ordered thousands of bricks and accessories from all over the world.