be different art

A set of four trees makes a lovely addition to your holiday decor. Costa Rican artisan Blanca Padilla handcrafts these stars out of the fiber extracted from cabuya, a succulent that looks like agave. The artisan works with the cabuya's natural texture to form the trees, each a different color and topped with a red ribbon bow.

The art and skill of creating handicrafts from cabuya has been handed down through Blanca Padilla's family for generations. The artisan sources her material herself, growing and harvesting the cabuya, extracting the fiber, and preparing it for use in the handicrafts. Blanca Padilla hopes to help revitalize the cabuya craft industry with the success of her designs.

Bharti Dayal celebrates nature's perfect harmony in the ancient style of Madhubani painting. Dayal mixes vegetable dyes with acrylics to paint a luscious tree of life on handmade paper. Butterflies appear within the trunk, while fish swim among the tree's roots. Peacocks nest under the leafy branches while two more pose on the top corners of this colorful painting. Traditionally painted by women from Mithila on the walls and floor of their homes, Madhubani paintings usually depict ancient mythological themes.

Bharti Dayal signs her name on the back.

"We as God's creatures must have peaceful feelings and hearts. A peaceful heart allows us to forgive each other for all mistakes, maintain good relations with fellow creatures of God and be grateful for what we have and are. If we can live from the heart, we will feel grateful and will always be at peace" says Aldi.

In his painting, free-flying doves symbolize world peace, and two hands shake in accord, forming a united, yet diverse forest in this dreamy acrylic painting fashioned in the surrealist style.

"Standing as a metaphor for the process of globalization and free movement of people, the greeting of hands is the unification of all continents of the globe, while the trees bridge the gap as the diverse population of the globe."

The artist says his painting interprets world peace as the only way for the relationship between God, humans and the environment to prosper — to be able to forgive each other and set aside common differences.