The days surrounding my birthday.

Drawings/Paintings

Aplomado Falcon, pastel, 9"x12"

Sri Lanka, oil on raw canvas, 5'x5'

This painting is moving along.  It and St. Addax (the painting I just completed) have sprouted a collection called The Hunting Series.  So far this cast consists of an asian elephant, wild boar, jungle fowl, black-headed ibis, gray lemur, flying fox, and an asiatic long-tailed climbing mouse.

Experiences

The more days that I have on this planet, the more I realize that time spent outside of the studio is just as vital as time spent inside of the studio.  My birthday was this past weekend and I was lucky enough to share it with a group of wonderful women.  First we gorged on pizza and then we ventured to the Fort  Worth Nature Center.  

Putting one foot in front of the other along a hiking trail can change a life in my opinion.  I sure know it can change a day and definitely an outlook.  It's an enormous think tank, playground, and therapist's couch all rolled into one.  It is a place I need to visit to make the time in the studio productive.  And so I did...

Fort Worth Nature Center 2013

birthday hike treasures

A second enormous experiential inspiration as of late is my job.  I work at a zoo.  I can meander around the park on my lunch break which has given me this really amazing opportunity to savor little nooks and crannies that I would otherwise miss if I were just blowing through on a regular park visit.  I can take bite size pieces of the park to explore.  

Take for instance the bug habitat below. It's in one of my favorite buildings which houses bats, snakes, insects, and other critters a lot of people find slightly frightful (but I super love).  It seems that most people move pretty quickly through the space, I imagine to shorten their time amongst creepy crawlers so they can get to the next cute furry mammal exhibit.  Well that's fine with me because it's a pretty awesome environment to have all to your human self.  I fell in love with this particular habitat...

 lunchbreak excursions

Films

Apparently my work day can't go without making a mini movie - Desktop Film-style...

lemur man

sick

sweet freedom