The builders of single Bashny.Net

Between passion and obsession is no clear edge, but some people do fall in the second, they can not stop. These brave souls have invested in construction all my life, and the results are simply amazing.

23 photos + video.





1. Caves Ra Paulette

Some people sculpt sculpture, while others build the house. A Ra Paulette digs cathedrals in the mountains. Over the past 25 years he has carved a huge and intricately decorated caves in the sandstone of New Mexico, working completely alone. He uses only hand tools, including a pick, a shovel and a wheelbarrow. He completed 14 of these bands, one of which you can buy for $ 995 000.



If the price tag does not give you a sense of scale, look at the pictures. Space by Paulette justify the word "cathedral" in size and beauty. Curved walls, decorated with shells, leaves and patterns look very exciting. Paulette has no plans to advance its work, he simply says: "I feel a void."



Paulette stubbornness is almost as famous as his cave. His relationship with clients notoriously difficult, as documentary films nominated for "Oscar". Since Paulette tired that it is used more as a "brush" and not as an artist, a masterpiece on which he is working, is in the secret place - a project that he started to work before, but collapsed during digging. It is expected that on completion will leave it for ten years.



2. Opus 40

In 1938, sculptor Harvey Fite bought an abandoned copper-vitriolic careers in New York for $ 250. The site was abandoned when the concrete has killed the demand for the breed. Veit location was needed as a source of materials for the job, but a trip to the restored Mayan ruins in Honduras inspired him to something else - to transform itself into a work of art careers.



The result was a 6, 5-acre sculptural ensemble, which one critic described as "the most attractive piece of art throughout the continent." Veit has worked for several decades, using only hand tools to place the stones in the maze of twisty passages, in the center of which is a monolithic stone. In Veit took 12 years for permission to take it from a nearby stream after its discovery. Among stairways and passageways is also an amphitheater and a creek.



In addition, the sculptural ensemble Veit took the time to build a museum in the neighborhood. In 1972, he named his creation "Opus 40", because he believed that at the completion of the work he will leave as much as 40 years. He died from a fall on the ensemble in 1976, after 37 years of construction.



3. Gate dreamer

Not every artist can realize his vision. Australian artist Tony Phantastes spent six years working in the city collector, New South Wales, with a population of about 400 people. In the photographs of his work does not look very impressive and seems to be just a beautiful fence. But if you notice a spiral staircase in one of its end or a photo of someone standing next to you numb sense of scale: the height of the construction of seven meters, and length - 24 meters.



According Phantastes, "gates themselves up from the landscape." Their curved shape designed to reflect the natural world around the gate, especially the nearby trees.



In 1999, the authorities were worried about the structural integrity of the sculpture and ordered to demolish it. After litigation Phantastes agreed to make changes to prevent the demolition, but was saddled with huge legal costs, so his work remains unfinished.



4. Castle Moussa

In 1945 Moussa Abdel Karim al Maamari was 14-year-old boy who dreamed of building a castle. Despite the ridicule teachers and classmates, he, along with his uncle got a job on the restoration of the fortress in the nearby town. His enthusiasm brought him real skills, and the next 17 years he spent on the reconstruction of castles and palaces. In 1962, the year Moussa bought land and 6,000 stones to spend the next 60 years at an autograph construction of the castle.



Many of the blocks in a carved keys Sun, animals and other symbols. Skills and experience Moussa obvious. The castle has a moat and drawbridge, and everything inside literally comes to life as the animatronic figures reproduce life Libya XIX-th and XX-th centuries. Among them - the playback of a scene from the life of Musa, when his teacher punished him for his drawing of the castle in the class and said that he would amount to nothing.



5. Smith Mansion

Smith Mansion in Wyoming nicknamed "madhouse." One look at the five-story building, located 24 km from Yellowstone and you will understand why. If the building was constructed to embody the mess we would have it. It looks like a pagoda in the midst of destruction.
The house became part of local folklore. There are many rumors concerning his appointment - from the observation tower of the volcano before the incarnation of sleep a madman. People who know the builder, Francis Lee Smith, insisting that he was an artist and that "he had nothing to do with the madness." The building was built as a family home, and it continued to grow, becoming an obsession Smith.



Frame of the building is made of pine, which Smith found after a forest fire, and the floor once belonged to the school gym hall. Smith worked without a plan. The house does not provide for the bedroom, but there is a miniature basketball court built for his son. Smith is sleeping in a giant swing, suspended from the ceiling in the house, which is buried in the hillside.
Smith died after falling from the roof in 1992. The house soon became the victim of vandalism and criminal elements, but Smith's daughter has recently launched a project for the conservation and conversion into a museum.



6. Enchanted Highway

Regent - a small town in North Dakota with a population of about 160-year-man who has reached a maximum of 400 people in 1950, but one resident is not going to allow the city to die without a fight. Gary Graff - a retired teacher, decided to save the city, turning it into a solely tourist center in 1990.



Despite the fact that he had no experience with metal Graff built ten giant metal sculptures along the highway in the Regent, who earned the name of "Enchanted Highway".



Among the sculptures there are tin family, a huge metal grasshopper and Teddy Roosevelt on horseback. Graff was the record for the world's largest metal statue sculpture thanks goose in flight. Image Canadian goose has 33, 5 meters long, one and a half times greater in width and weighs over 71 tons.



Graff added picnic areas and playgrounds around the sculptures, he oversees parking and fences and even self mows the lawn. Recently, he turned to close the primary school in Regent's castle-themed hotel with a drawbridge and armor. Graff still engaged in sculpture and has no plans to stop his personal project to transform the city. "It will end when the end, but until I try to bring it to perfection", - he said.



7. Casa de Piedra

In 1907 a bricklayer Lino Bueno was hired by the city of Al * Olea del Pinar to excavate limestone blocks for use in public buildings. He worked for seven years and during that time has created a large enough space to call home, and moved there with his wife and five children.



Over the next 20 years, he continued to expand, cut out the kitchen and two bedrooms in the limestone. His work attracted the attention of the Spanish King Alfonso XIII, and Bueno was rewarded for his work and perform their civic duty Medal of Merit. He continued to work until his death in the eighth decade. The house became a refuge during the Spanish Civil War, and in 1978 King Juan Carlos placed a plaque on it.



8. Head Filippo Bentiveni

Filippo Bentivenya was a Sicilian immigrant who arrived in the US in 1913 in search of work. After six years of his tenure, he was involved in a fight and got hit on the head. Injury affected his mental state, which is why he was unable to work. In 1919, the year Bentivenya was sent back to Italy for the trial for desertion and non-participation in hostilities in the First World War. He was spared jail because he was found insane and spent the money earned in America to buy the farm.



On the farm Bentivenya started carving. Each stone on his farm, he turned to the head. When he ran out of stones on the surface, he dug a cave in the ground and cut the head into the walls. He also cut a person's olive trees. He created thousands of individuals, seemingly for no reason. His obsession with not only earned him a reputation as a madman, but also made him a celebrity.



9. topiary Pearl Freire

When Pearl Freire moved to Bishopville, South Carolina, in 1982, he was not yet a garden sculptor. While they searched the house, Freire and his wife, the former African Americans are rejected due to racial stereotypes, because people believed that they would not be able to keep the house clean. In Freire had no experience of gardening, but he was determined to prove them wrong by winning the award for "Yard of the Month".



It quickly became a passion, and in the last 30 years of his garden has become a world attraction with more than 300 plants. Freire spent years cultivating plants beautiful complex shapes, following his instinct. His message of "Love, peace and goodwill" is carved on the ground. Despite his success Freire remains modest. Thinking about visiting from Japan, he said: "In my wildest dreams I could not imagine that people would go so far as to look at the clipped bushes."



10. Castle Bishop

In 1959, 15-year-old Jim Bishop bought 2, 5 acres of land in Colorado and ten years later began to build the house. He still continues, and the result was the largest building ever built by one person. The main tower of the castle Bishop - 49 meters in height. Each part of the 50,000-ton building was put into place by the Bishop. He worked without direction, without a plan, or - as it seems - a lot of respect in the construction industry.



The result was that you could find somewhere between the "Lord of the Rings" and "Mad Max". Wrought iron bridges and walkways wrap around and are connected at the tops of the towers. The most exciting feature of the castle - the dragon's head sticking out of the stained-glass window of the main hall. It's made of old metal hospital trays, but actually breathes fire from a burner of a hot air balloon in the castle fireplaces produce smoke through her nostrils. Now breathing dragon shoots two meters, but plans to increase the range of up to nine meters.



Bishop claims that mastered the art work and talk at the same time, so visitors are pleased, but they should not forget that it works without insurance, so they should resign from liability by signing the guest book. Currently working on Bishop dungeon, though it was not planned, like everything else. According to Bishop, "that's really true about the work without drawings - is the fact that if you make a mistake, you call it art».

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