Vangelis Vlepakis, Διακοσμημένες πέτρινες κατασκευές στον Κεφαλά / Decorated stone structures in Kefalas

the Monument of Kefalas
this picture and the next five
courtesy of Laura Piri from her weblog

Vangelis Vlepakis, an inhabitant of the community of Kefalas, located on the far east coast of the Greek island of Crete, as a non-professional artist has enriched the community with a number of shell and otherwise decorated stone structures, such as the Monument of Kefalas (as in above picture), a chapel dedicated to Agios Phaourios and a site named Love the forest. 

He also embellished the garden around his house with stone structures and other decorations.

Who is Vangelis?

The internet has just a few sources about these art environments and the non-professional artist who created them in general is just referred to as Vangelis. There is one source (on a geocaching website) which mentions a more complete name, which is Vangelis Vlepakis (O Erimitis). In this post the designation Vangelis will be used.

Born in Kefalas, in his younger years Vangelis lived for ten years in a cave by the sea, which he had furnished as living quarters with his own hands. He then lived and worked in Athens and returned to Kefalas around 1990.

Vangelis then began making creations from locally available natural stones and after a visit to Barcelona, where he saw Gaudi's work, he started decorating his own creations with all kinds of colorful elements

Vangelis is the curator of a museum located in the center of Kefala named Politistiki Estia Kefala (Kefala Cultural Center).

This museum, housed in an old building in the center of the village, displays all kinds of items donated by the villagers, such as photographs, examples of textile art and objects of daily life from a bygone era, that give and impression of life in the village in former times.

In an outbuilding farm implements and various tools are on display.

The Monumento Kefalas

This creation by Vangelis is located just outside the built-up area of Kefalas, along the road to Vamos. Texts on the structure welcome visitors to Kefalas, and because many tourists drive along this road, the Monument is relatively well known and many photos are taken.

The art environment includes a number of more or less triangular vertical stone structures, resembling facades of small chapels. These facades are provided with recesses in which smaller decorations can find a place.

The facades have drawings of stars and various inscriptions. One of these inscriptions mentions the year 1999, which could be the year in which the Monument was completed.

The art environment is not one whole, but it has different parts, each of which has been given a specific shape, such as the structure in the image below, which is composed of a number of tower-like parts.

In addition to the decoration with shells that is characteristic of the entire site, what is striking about this part of the creation is the decoration with blue pots, a decoration that also can be seen in other areas of the site.

The house of stone creations

The House of Stone Creations in Kefalas. where Vangelis lives with his wife Jan. is a special place.

this image and the next one screenprints
from the video in the documentation

The house was built in 1995 and over the next ten years the exterior around the house has been transformed into in art environment, full of stone structures with the same characteristic as the Monumento Kefalas. 

The house is also referred to as Villa Jan.

The video in the documentation -at the bottom of this post- gives an impression of the spacious design of the art environment, and the many elements that indicate that this is a site in the garden of a house.

Chapel dedicated to Agios Phanourios

this image and the next one by Kreizweh from
the website Geocaching (see documentation)

An open air chapel, created by Vangelis in his characteristic style, is dedicated to Saint Agios Phanourios, who lived in Crete around 1400. About him has been said that he saved many inhabitants of Crete from death when the Ottomans invaded the isle.

An inscription on the creation says it is 700 meters away from Vangelis' residence.

Love the Forest

The stone structure Love the Forest is the most recent of all creations made by Vangelis. The characteristic way in which the artist gives shape to his creations is once again clearly recognizable.

Exact locations of this site, the Chapel of Saint Agios and the House of Stone Creations are not known.

Documentation

* Website Piristys by Laura Piri 

* Article about Kefalas on the touristic website Kreta Griekenland 

* Website of the Greek Branch of the Mediterranean Garden Society, with a referral to Vangelis' garden

* Entry about the House of Stone Creations on website Geocaching

* Entry about the Chapel dedicated to Agios Phanourios on website Geocaching

* Entry about the stone structure Love the Forest on website Geocaching

* Article in Wikipedia

Video

* Video (May 2016, 3'42", YouTube) by Martin Preedy

Vangelis Vlepakis

Decorated stone structures in Kefalas

The creation Monumento Kefalas is 

located just outside the village on the route to Vamos

About the locations of the other creations no information is available

Kefalas, Crete, Greece

Sergey Tokarev, Музей самодельных деревянных лодок и других деревянных творений / Museum of homemade wooden boats and other wooden creations

this image and the next one by "Titz of the Vologda region
as on Facebook  (August 2020)

Sergey Tokarev's art environment in the village of Galinskoye in the Vologda region in Russia, in addition to a number of wooden sculptures, for the most part includes all kinds of handmade wooden boats.

Life and works

Sergei Alekseevich Tokarev was born in the 1950s in Cherepovets, a town in the Vologda region, north of Moscow in northwestern Russia. He got a technical education, and for some time worked in the navy and as a car mechanic.

He was very interested in ships and this interest became so great that in his thirties he moved to the village of Galinskoye, where he set up a woodworking workshop on a piece of land that over time would be transformed into an art environment.

Galinskoye is a small village, some 70 km from Cherepovets. In 2010 it had some ten inhabitants. 

this image and the next ones by Misha Besfomilny
as on Facebook (June 28, 2021)

The way Tokarev processed logs into wooden sculptures, can be seen in the picture above, a shed on his property decorated with a large blue fish, installed beneath a parade of small wooden personalities.  

The image below seems to depict two somewhat older characters

But in addition to these wooden sculptures of various characters, from the time he started the site in the 1980s or 1990s, Tokarev mainly produced models of boats, both larger and smaller ones..

The small models, of which he made at least some 700 over the years, were stored on shelves on the wall of the workshop or in sheds on the property.

The large models were given a berth on the site.

In the course of the 2010s, the collection had grown to such an extent and Tokarev was so eager to share his knowledge of boats with others, that he decided to give the collection a public character by designating it as a museum, named Interaktivnyy Muzey "Galinskiye Parusa" (Interactive Museum "Galinskie Sails").

The museum was officially opened in June 2016.

Tokarev welcomes visitors

The designation Museum implies of course that visitors are welcome, and indeed Sergey Tokarev especially welcomed groups of people, with whom he shared his interest in boats by offering them a special program.

Conversely, certain groups, such as families with children, school classes or people celebrating a birthday, like to visit the site because it provides an enjoyable outing.

Tokarev has put together a well designed program to introduce visitors, both old and young, in a fun, playful way to the history of shipbuilding and all kinds of transport with ships.

He not only explains various kinds of boat models, as in the image above, but visitors can actively participate in, for example, paddling a boat on dry land, this being done standing upright, an activity that is often undertaken with great pleasure.

Tokarev, who introduces himself as the jetty commander, actively informs both the youngest and the adult visitors to all things boating, both small log boats and larger models, as can be seen in the images above and below.

He manages to create a festive atmosphere, fluttering with flags. It is also a special moment when one of the visitors is asked to fire a joy shot from an old cannon.

An organized visit with guided tour and explanation, and in between all kinds of assignments and activities, lasts about three hours and most visitors experience the atmosphere and the program as very pleasant and informative.

The program ends in a tea house with a drink and a bowl of goodies..

In the Vologda region, an annual competition in the manufacture of wooden boats takes place in the Ulst-Kubensky district. Sergey Tokarev has been participating in this competition since 2005, and in 2009 he won the first prize.

Documentation

* Pictures on Instagram

* On Russian website VK a variety of reactions and photos by visitors of the site

* Article (July 2016) on website Moyastrana

* Article (May 2016) in a regional newspaper

Sergey Tokarev

Interactive Museum "Galinskie Sails"
Village of Galinskoye (near Kirillov), region Vologda, Russia

visitors welcome (groups on appointment0

Google Maps (with a series of pictures of the site)

Joseph Ress, Le logis des nains / The shelter of gnomes

pictures (2018)  courtesy of Sophie Lepetit,
from her weblog

In the Haut-Rhin department in the Alsace region in France the town of Zillisheim is home to a rather special art environment, namely a rather large collection of gnomes, spread over various areas of a private house.

Life and works

This site was created by Joseph Ress (1934-2008), who was a farmer during his working life.    

Joseph Ress was a special person. He felt most comfortable during periods such as around Christmas, when the house could be lavishly decorated and most people would be in a good mood. 

And so he probably got the idea that the house could also be decorated in a more permanent way. When exactly he started collecting gnomes is not known, but seeing the size of the collection, it seems that he started at a young age.

The gnomes were grouped in all kinds of places in and around the house, not only in the garden, but also in various courtyards, in the garage and in the sheds.

The images above and below of the garden show that in addition to the gnomes, other decorations were also placed, such as small-scale windmills, small sculptures, and the like.

In addition to various arrangements of gnomes, several walls of the house were also provided with all kinds of colorful decorations. 

The two images below give an impression of this. 

The first image shows oil lamps hung in a row in front of a wall that is painted with pictures of fairytale figures and some gnomes.

The other image (below) also shows an arrangement of gnomes on a table, from which also hang some oil lamps. The table stands in front of a decorated wall, this time with horseshoes and other decorations, including attributes from the farm.

On a blog started by Joseph Ress in February 2007, he writes in July of the same year that, stricken with cancer, he finds it more and more difficult to care for his gnomes.

Aged 74, he passed away on November 16, 2008,

The family continued to take care of the collection of gnomes, which - as can be seen on Google Streetview - was still in good condition in 2019. A granddaughter has continued the weblog, adding a variety of colorful photos.

Documentation

* Post (August 14, 2021) on the weblog of Sophie Lepetit

* Weblog Le logis des nains .(created February 2007), continued after Ress died by a granddaughter

Joseph Ress

The shelter of gnomes

8 Grand Rue

68720 Zillisheim, dept Haut Rhin, region Grand Est, France

can be seen from the street

streetview (2019)

Lyudmila Kneller, Мозаичные украшения на внешней стене / Mosaic decorations on the outside wall

all pictures courtesy of Lyudmila Kneller
from her Facebook account

The above photo gives a global impression of an elongated mosaic decoration applied to the rear of a house in Yekaterinburg, the fourth-largest and a main cultural and industrial city in Russia.

Life an works

It's a creation made by Lyudmila Kneller, who was born in March 1979 and after her education and studies became a lawyer in Yekaterinburg.

As a lawyer Lyudmila has a busy job, so she opts for soothing activities in her spare time, such as making photographs, making kind of paintings by arranging all kinds of buttons and decorating flower pots with mosaics.

In 2019 she came up with a special idea regarding the creative activities in her spare time. It so happened, that at that time, quite a lot of material was available to work up in mosaics and the idea arose to transform the part of the rear wall of the house located under the windows, into a large-scale mosaic decoration. Incidentally, the stock of shards turned out to be insufficient and neighbors and acquaintances had to help with required material to make the entire mosaic of 15 m².

Assisted by a friend, Lyudmila made a series of sketches of the scenes she wanted to portray in mosaic. Initially she fixed the mosaic pieces on the wall using stencils made from the drawings, later the decorations were established more freehand.

In the design of the mosaic clever use has been made of the gas pipes that run along the wall, a horizontal pipe delimits the decoration at the top, and a vertical one has turned into the trunk and a branch of a tree.

The second image from the top shows a window with the inscription "destruam et aedificabo", Latin for "destroy and build", a concise description of what creating a mosaic implies.

The rather dominant arch bridge in the mosaic is reminiscent of Amsterdam. In the past offering traders in a boat an easy passage with their merchandise, but almost impossible to pass without assistance for traders with a pushcart, these bridges still dominate the scene in the center of Amsterdam. 

Following a suggestion from her mother, Lyudmila provided a lamppost in the mosaic with a red-colored piece of mosaic, reinforcing the suggestion that this part of the mosaic depicts Amsterdam's red light district.

A scene with a mill (top left) and vessels (top right), one will not find in the red light district of Amsterdam, but just north of the city is the Zaanse Schans, an area with a variety of mills along the busy river Zaan.

Making this mosaic decoration was a one-off project for Lyudmila.  It took her 2,5 month in the summer of 2019 to complete it.

The creation is located on private property and cannot be visited by the public, so no address is mentioned below.

Documentation

* Article (July 2020) in regional newspaper E1, with pictures of the mosaic decorated wall and of some paintings made from buttons and other specific materials

* Article (July 2020) on Nastroy net, also with pictures of the decorated wall and of some paintings 

Lyudmila Kneller

Mosaic decorations on an outside wall

Yekaterinburg, region Sverdlovsk, Russia

no public visits