i (heart) odd-toed ungulates

"Tropical Forest" - Now in Print!

After so many fantastic mornings sketching at the Franklin Park Zoo last year - and being introduced to so many wonderful animals by their stellar keepers - I really wanted to collect the resulting drawings and paintings into a portfolio that I could share offline. So, I laid out a book this winter and have spent the last few months familiarizing myself with the self-publishing process. At long last, I have a small first edition of 40 or so books that I am offering for purchase.

Self-publishing can be an inexpensive way to make a quick paperback book, but it gets pricey fast if you start with full color content and choose to add "pro" options (hardcover, custom end pages, high-quality paper, etc). I wanted this project to feel like a little work of art in and of itself, so I chose options that unfortunately bumped up the cost. One day I'll work on a professionally published book that I can offer at a competitive price... until then, consider this an investment in the artist, and an opportunity to own somewhat of an "original". Thank you to everyone who has already expressed enthusiasm for this project!  

If you'd like your own copy of Tropical Forest, you can preview the book (19 of 38 pages) using the blurb widget below, then visit my online shop to place your order.

For those curious about the printing: I used blurb and highly recommend it. After researching a number of options, I chose blurb for their emphasis on good design, thorough online support/tutorial system, and range of customizable options for designers (in addition to tasteful, easy-to-use templates for individuals not keen on creating their own layouts) - not to mention the super cool preview widget above! I couldn't be happier with the results and won't hesitate to use them again.

Lucian Freud, 1922-2011

Regarded as one of the greatest modern figurative painters, Lucian Freud's career was defined largely by his penetratingly raw, nude portraits, painted with thick brushstrokes and an almost putridly warm palette of yellows and browns. Discomforting at times to peer into, his human subjects reveal exhaustion, vulnerability, and even distress. By contrast - and one of the things I have always been drawn to in his work - his depictions of his dogs, Pluto and Eli (whippets, who appeared regularly in his paintings and prints) have an exceptionally sensitive, grounded quality to them - not that they are any less exposed or gritty than the humans they sit with, but their honesty is of a different brand. They're achingly beautiful. Perhaps Lucian inherited a special empathy for canines from his grandfather, the iconic psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud. The elder Freud had a soft spot for Chows and believed strongly that dogs possess a keen sense for determining character - an astute ability for stripping away exterior defenses and projections to reveal a deeper, more vulnerable truth... 

The exceptional Lucian Freud passed away yesterday at 88, in his home in London. 

Above: Double Portrait, 1985-1986 (oil); Below. clockwise:
Eli and David, 2005 (oil), Pluto, 1989 (etching); Eli, 2002 (etching).

Glorious Headwear

Breathtaking work from young milliner Ashley Lloyd... A woman after my own heart, and a recent graduate of the Maryland Institute College of Art, she uses a seductive combination of  traditional ribbons, feathers, and flowers, alongside skulls, horns, and taxidermy to emphasize the "contrast between decoration and decay". Excuse me now while I fantasize about grand entrances and masquerade balls - I like a little more coverage than nude-colored nickers, but I know what I'd be wearing on my head... 


Photos by Ned & Aya Rosen and Manolo Ceron - see www.ashleydlloyd.com for more info.

NZed Sketchbook: the Pukeko

Pukeko is the native New Zealand (Maori) name for the purple swamp hen, or purple coot (it's genus name, Porphyrio, means "purple" in Greek). Common marsh birds, pukekos can be found delicately stalking through wetlands on their long, bright red gams. Keeping them neatly buoyed above soggy marsh environments are somewhat ridiculously long toes - not an unusual trait among birds that make their living at water's edge - they're a bit like snowshoes for summer sinking conditions - but the pukeko's particular proportions make such elongated digits a bit of a contradiction to an otherwise blunt, chicken-like body. They are quite beautiful birds, renowned for a lack of street sense - visitors are likely to catch their first glimpse of a pukeko in mostly 2-dimensional form by the roadside - but the regularity of collisions isn't all due to stupidity. Like any animal intent on thriving, swamp hens are drawn to the richest feeding areas they can find, and for the contemporary pukeko, this often means drainage ditches beside road shoulders (where insects, spiders, frogs and the like can be abundant)... apparently being flattened under a tire while nosing about for extra tasty noms is a worthwhile risk.
 

Purple swamp hens belong to the rail family (Rallidae) and can be found plentifully in numerous subspecies throughout Australasia, Indonesia, Asia, Africa, as well as Europe - France's variant is known as the Sultana Bird. Representing North America is the Purple Gallinule, which shares pukeko form factor but is distinctly smaller, and with slightly different colored "makeup" (see Audubon painting below). Having been blessed by mother nature with such a vibrant cherry red beak, purple swamp hens were favored by numerous ancient cultures - the color red has long been a symbol of nobility, and ages before they became popular pets of the Maori they were distinguished groundskeepers of Roman villas. One would think a bird as substantial in size and with such relatively poor flight (their landing gear is a pip "challenging" to tuck up...) would have made excellent eating, but the purple swamp hen is one of those rare examples of lucky phenotype that just so happened to coincide with the rosy side of human aesthetic.

Despite the car strikes that plague it today, that attractive ultramarine plumage, unmistakable thick, red beak, and ungainly legs continue to provide pukekos with a soft spot in the hearts of modern Kiwis - their graphic silhouette has become the mascot of many a New Zealand business; cartoonish sculptural likenesses populate gardens, tchotchke shelves, and plush toy collections; and their amusing behavior makes them a popular subject for children's books. I guess being known as the avian village idiot is a small price to pay for otherwise good looks, good fortune, and commercial success... well played, pukeko, well played.


Above, clockwise: 1. pukeko photo by Dr. Kerry Rodgers; 2. an ornamental metal pukeko; 3. a "gumboot" featuring a pukeko scene; 4. a dizzying pukeko pattern; and 5. an 1840 painting of an American Purple Gallinule - the US equivalent of the pukeko, by the great John James Audubon (notice the light blue forehead shield, yellow tipped beak, and yellow legs).

Return, from the Land of Merino

After an incredible 2 weeks on the other side of the world, I am finally back on the East Coast again - a little worn out, but thoroughly inspired. New Zealand. Is. Amazing. Travels began in the North Island's metropolis of Auckland, rippled out to a number of destinations within a half day's drive of the city, and then hopped to Queenstown on the South Island, where more road-tripping brought me to epic Milford Sound, the grand Mt Cook, and some curious little towns in between. While it's winter in the southern hemisphere, New Zealand is experiencing a sadly snowless start to the season this year - a mighty bummer to all who flocked to the South Island to ski last month, but an unexpected benefit for me, since taking the place of snow-laden storm clouds were brilliant clear skies, warmer than usual temps, and open (or at least much more easily traversed) hiking trails in areas that would normally be snowbound.

Best of all, I was able this trip to do what I couldn't really manage on my last trip to NZ - closely explore the country's animals: from the now symbolic domestic sheep, to the astonishingly unique endemic birds (most of them poster species for the wonders of island biogeography), to the invasive introduced mammals that are threatening so many irreplaceable native species... I was fortunate to be traveling with a like-minded naturalist, so, in addition to stopping freely for roadside bird and critter ID, we enthusiastically made time for an agriculture show, the Auckland zoo, a wildlife sanctuary, and a number of dumpsters at the base of Mt Cook - a favorite hangout for the world's only alpine parrot (and New Zealand's most famous wild pest) - the charmingly devious Kea. Naturally, my sketchbook followed suit.
 

I'm going to be posting a series of entries from my trip in the next week or two - to start things off, the photo and drawing above come from the Rotorua Agrodome (North Island) - it's like a county fair set on repeat, with daily sheep shearing and herding demos, cow-milking, lambs and goat kids to snuggle, and an impressive breed pageant featuring New Zealand's 19 most popularly farmed sheep types. The main attraction/performance culminates with two wildly excited and barking sheep dogs running laps over the backs of the aforementioned 19 sheep, each canine finally settling - loudly - onto the wooly haunches of one poor beast (who is so obviously bored with the whole spectacle at this point in his career that his expression looks more like that of an animal with an annoyingly ill fitting collar than the anticipated fright of a defenseless prey animal literally wearing it's worst natural enemy). I would imagine this kind of attraction may not delight every tourist, but as anyone who knows me well can imagine... I was seriously riveted.