People & Places10 places every art lover should visit in their lifetime

• Published: 16:25 
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Nature more often than not serves as inspiration for many artists who in turn express this via either paintings, sculptures or even music.

However, there are certain works that are not just inspired by the elements, but nature infact serves as the backdrop for the works.

These spots around the world will blow every art lover's mind not just for their sheer artistic genius but the seamless blend of art and nature.

Check them out.

play (Dia Foundation)

   

1. Spiral Jetty – Great Salt Lake, Utah:  Artist Robert Smithson created this jetty after he wandered out onto northeastern shore of the Great Salt Lake. He unfortunately however died 3 years after its completion.

play (Roads America)

2. Salvation Mountain – Niland, California: This was built by hand, day after day for years, by a man named Leonard Knight as a testament to his love for Jesus Christ.

play (John Cliett PR)

3. The Lightning Field – Catron County, New Mexico: Produced by American sculptor Walter De Maria, the Lighting Field  is an icon of an art movement known as “Land Art” and it comprises a field of 400 polished stainless steel poles – each an ideal conductor of electricity during passing lightning storms.

play (Commons/Wikimedia)

4. Cadillac Ranch, Amarillo Texas: This is an art installation built in 1974 by an art collective named ‘Ant Farm’. The cars have since been covered in graffii and the work served as the inspiration for “Cadillac Range” in Pixar’sCars as well as a classic track on Bruce Springsteen’s 1980 album The River.

play (Al Argueta / Via alargueta)

5. Marfa, Texas: With the belief that museums were restrictive and temporary, artist Donald Judd along with Dia Art Foundation purchased a large portion of land in Marfa, Texas, transforming the small desert town into a mecca of Minimal and Contemporary Art.

play (Ed Freeman / Getty Images)

6. The Sistine Chapel – Vatican City: This is unarguably one of the most iconic art destinations in the world. The chapel is home to several priceless works including the famed Last Judgement by Michelangelo.

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7. The Louvre – Paris, France: This iconic museum boasts over 400,000 works on view including  Leonardo da Vinci’s Mona Lisa and it’s said that it would take over three months to see everything on view in this museum!

Arrest made in shooting that prompted New Mexico 911 dispatcher to resign

Michaels update  26/8 2015

Police in New Mexico have arrested the 18-year-old son of a state lawmaker in connection with a drive-by shooting that made headlines after it was revealed that an emergency services dispatcher had hung up on a teenage girl who was trying to assist the victim.Seventeen-year-old Jaydon Chavez-Silver died in the June shooting in Albuquerque and the 911 dispatcher, Matthew Sanchez, resigned late last month. On Saturday, Albuquerque police said they had arrested the suspected shooter in the case, Donovan Maez of Albuquerque, late Friday night.
Stephanie Maez, a Democrat from Albuquerque, confirmed Saturday that her son had been arrested.
"Donovan is my son and I love him very very much," Maez said in a statement. "My heart is aching today and I am waiting to see how this difficult situation develops. As we go forward, the love of my family and my faith in God will see us through."
According to a criminal complaint filed against Maez, Chavez-Silver was at a house party with 16 others when about 10 shots were fired at the house in northeast Albuquerque.
Chavez-Silver, sitting on a kitchen counter, was the only person hit by a bullet. It struck him above the right collar bone.
The complaint did not offer a firm motive for the shooting, but police said there is no indication Chavez-Silver was the intended target.
The incident sparked controversy last month after the Albuquerque Fire Department released a tape of a 911 emergency call in which Sanchez is heard to tell a female caller to "deal with it herself" as she seeks help for a shooting victim.
The caller had told Sanchez she was doing cardiopulmonary resuscitation on the male. Sanchez twice asked if the teenager was breathing, according to a recording of the call released to the media.
"He's barely breathing. How many times do I have to fucking tell you?" the caller said.
"OK, you know what ma'am? You could deal with it yourself. I'm not gonna deal with this, OK?," he said, before hanging up on her.
Esperanza Quintero, 17, told Albuquerque television station KOAT that she was the 911 caller.
"Being on the phone and getting hung up on, that just made me more upset," she told the station.
Chavez-Silver was later taken to a hospital where he was pronounced dead, police said.
(Editing by Sharon Bernstein and Alan Crosby)

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Four new fires at China blast site, widespread safety hazards found

Four new fires have broken out at the site where two huge blasts last week killed 116 people,

Chinese state media reported Friday soon after officials said safety hazards were found at almost 70 percent of firms handling dangerous chemicals in Beijing.

The explosions in a warehouse storing dangerous chemicals devastated an industrial park in the northeastern port city of Tianjin late on Aug. 12. More than 700 people were injured and thousands were evacuated because of the risk posed by chemicals stored at the site.

The official Xinhua news agency said Friday rescue crews were rushing to the site after four new fires broke out. It said one of the "combustion points" was in a logistics site for automobiles near last week's blasts.

The other three were within the central blast area, it said without giving any explanation of the cause of the fires.

The news agency also said the death toll rose to 116 on Friday from a previously reported 114, and 60 people were still missing.

State authorities have confirmed that more than 700 tonnes of the deadly chemical sodium cyanide were stored at the Tianjin warehouse that blew up.

Nationwide inspections of facilities handling dangerous chemicals and explosives were ordered by China's State Council after the blasts last week.

More than 100 chemical firms across seven provinces have been told to suspend operations or shut down due to safety violations in the recent days, announcements by regional governments show.

That includes 19 companies in Hubei province, 26 firms in Anqing city in the southeastern province of Anhui, two in the capital, Beijing, and 39 in Zhejiang province.

Related Coverage

› China authorities place rabbits, chickens near Tianjin blast site

In Beijing alone, an inspection of 124 sites that stored dangerous chemicals found hazards at 85 firms, Xinhua said late on Thursday, citing Beijing's work safety bureau.

THOUSANDS OF DEAD FISH

The State Council said in a statement on Thursday that advanced equipment and the best expertise must be used to prevent major environmental incidents in the future.

Beijing finds most chemical facilities unsafe

Pictures taken by Reuters on Thursday showed workers scooping thousands of dead fish out of the Haihe river near Tianjin, a day after authorities had declared the city's drinking water was safe.

Tianjin officials said the dead fish were caused by regular seasonal low oxygen levels in the water and were not related to the blasts.

Authorities however have also warned that cyanide levels in waters around Tianjin port, the world's 10th-busiest and the gateway to China's industrial north, had risen to as much as 277 times acceptable levels.

The blasts at Tianjin also prompted a nationwide review of China's industrial safety record, which has struggled to keep pace with the breakneck speed of China's economic growth.

China has struggled in recent years with incidents ranging from mining disasters to factory fires, and President Xi Jinping has vowed that authorities should learn the lessons paid for with blood.

Related Coverage

• › China chemical safety problems highlighted before Tianjin blasts

Executives of Tianjin Dongjiang Port Ruihai International Logistics, the firm whose warehouse exploded, have said they used connections to obtain safety approvals. The site was found to be too close to nearby homes. {ID:nL3N10U37W]

Inspectors carrying out the safety reviews in Beijing found that security personnel at a branch of Sinopec Corp (0386.HK), Asia's largest refiner, were unfamiliar with how to handle an oil tank fire, Xinhua said.

"Companies that fail our inspections will be ordered to suspend operations, and their warehouses will be put under 24-hour surveillance," Xinhua quoted Qian Shan, vice-head of the Beijing work safety bureau, as saying.

Despite the infractions found at the Sinopec branch, Xinhua did not say that the facility would be shut.

Beijing has also suspended operations at firms that make or deal in highly toxic chemicals and explosives from Aug. 17 to Sept. 6 in preparation for a military parade and athletics event, Xinhua said.

On Wednesday, three oil and gas firms close to residences were told by authorities in the cities of Hangzhou and Shenzhen to halt operations.

(Additional Reporting by Michael Martina in BEIJING and Sue-Lin Wong and SHANGHAI Newsroom; Editing by Paul Tait and Ryan Woo)

Firefighters in protection suits carry a a man playing the role of a victim on a stretcher during an anti-chemical drill next to storage tanks of liquefied petroleum gas, at a factory in Haikou, Hainan province, China, August 21, 2015.

Reuters/Stringer