tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-75546320907236635932024-03-13T09:23:04.214-07:00On animals, painting, and nature...to see more work, visit www.jackiedorage.com Jackiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08543403097032052956noreply@blogger.comBlogger58125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7554632090723663593.post-49849771015143283802015-06-14T12:51:00.000-07:002015-06-17T10:20:55.069-07:00O, Florida...<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #666666; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Florida: A</span></td></tr>
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<span style="color: #666666;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Rising
seas has the Greater Miami region's aquifers in danger of salty
contamination with flooding, old infrastructure, and underwater
ground flow through porous limestone bedrock. Already, in some
places throughout Florida, blurry ribbons of saline cloud the bottom of pristine
freshwater springs. Already, in some places limestone bedrock
caves in forming sinkholes, swallowing houses and depleting property
value. Already, we know that the thin, porous bedrock is
weakened from irresponsible irrigation practices, reckless property
developers, and an overall disregard for the health of the land.</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #666666;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Worries
of depleted drinking water, flooding, and sinkholes fall to silence
in the dense, egocentric discussions of politicians and a
greed-laced, shortsightedness of developers and businesses. </span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #666666;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">To
see the extent of Florida's self inflicted societal wounds and
complete lack of regard for homeowners financial and physical safety,
I point to the existence of what some local papers began calling
"Zombie pools"--the festering swimming pools of foreclosed
homes, neglected for sometimes years in legal limbo between its'
owners eviction and banks reclaiming the property. </span></span></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #666666; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Florida: B</span></td></tr>
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<span style="color: #666666;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">While
foreclosed homes sitting in limbo is a national issue, Florida's
tropical location complicates things. The cesspools formed in
backyards across the state are attracting hoards of mosquitoes and,
in turn, mosquito-borne viruses. Dengue Fever, Chikungunya, and
West Nile have been the most recent threats and seeing that political
action is about as stagnant as the zombie pools themselves, more are
likely to pop up.</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #666666;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Some
steps have been taken. Depending on the location of the pools,
Mosquito Control can use insecticide in spray or pill form, or even
release mosquito-eating fish depending on the state of the water.</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #666666;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">But
all of this is subsequent to the issues at hand -- people being
evicted from their homes long before banks can even take full
responsibility of them. Then, the responsibility falls on the
hands of the state, and the pockets of tax payers. Top it off
with a massive influx of new year-round mosquito nesting grounds and
nature proves again that in the tropics, human error comes at an even
higher cost than elsewhere.</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #666666; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">It's
about time Florida starts acknowledging it's geography and enacting
policies and protections that reflect the uniqueness of its'
location. Mini-mansions can't be built on porous land, known to
be prone to sink holes. Golf courses and farms can't routinely
suck water straight out of underground aquifers without strategic
planning and infrastructure to protect the land and water supply.
Politicians and developers can't continue ignoring the
incredibly unique geography and climate of their state, and
homeowners can't sit idly by, willingly blind to the contradictions
of their tropical paradise, while they foot the bill for a broken
system.
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<span style="color: #666666; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Hmm...does Florida has a case of DE(west)NIAL?? Good one, right?!</span><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #666666; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Florida: C</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-yisMXG-0Epc/VX3X2WPawpI/AAAAAAAAAVo/WTTjtptuZVM/s1600/IMG_3131.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="color: #666666; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-yisMXG-0Epc/VX3X2WPawpI/AAAAAAAAAVo/WTTjtptuZVM/s320/IMG_3131.JPG" width="222" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #666666; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Florida: D</span></td></tr>
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-2k3us73tpKw/VX3X2UImgII/AAAAAAAAAVw/4mVKAI7YmTs/s1600/IMG_3130.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><span style="color: #666666; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-2k3us73tpKw/VX3X2UImgII/AAAAAAAAAVw/4mVKAI7YmTs/s320/IMG_3130.JPG" width="226" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #666666; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">This is the original Florida painting. Ouch. </span></td></tr>
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<span style="color: #666666; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Here are links to some of the articles and things I read to get my info:</span><br />
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<span style="color: #666666; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">http://www.floridatoday.com/story/news/local/2014/07/20/zombie-pools-raise-specter-mosquito-borne-viruses/12896579/</span><br />
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<span style="color: #666666; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/earth/sinkholes.html</span><br />
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<span style="color: #666666; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">http://www.marketplace.org/topics/sustainability/water-high-price-cheap/rising-seas-threaten-south-floridas-drinking-water</span><br />
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<span style="color: #666666; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">http://www.businessinsider.com/how-sinkholes-form-2015-1</span>Jackiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08543403097032052956noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7554632090723663593.post-64972469186889578762015-06-14T12:27:00.004-07:002015-06-14T12:36:12.050-07:00Re Learn<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
What do you do when your brain feels deflated? How do you keep up with the pace of the world when all momentum, body and mind, wants to take a multi year long break? </div>
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You re-learn to paint! </div>
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I have used water colors before, but only for school assignment--never anything personal. So I sat down a month or two ago with a pile of water color poster board and some cheap water colors and here's what I found:</div>
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Water colors are difficult, beautiful, and instantly gratifying. In one sitting, I could start and complete a painting. Did they look nice? No. Regardless, it's done, and you move on. </div>
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This was my first one:</div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A jelly fish? Abstracted?</td></tr>
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In this instance, I was seeing what the materials can do. How saturated can they get? How dark, and how light? What does white do? My favorite part of this piece-of-shit painting is the upper left corner. Somehow an underwater kelp forest appeared, which I will probably turn into a piece on its' own. </div>
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Playtime is so important. </div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A glass sponge...practice for an upcoming commission.</td></tr>
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These next few, I might have posted earlier. I've managed to collect a small assortment of Calcite crystals in my studio that, along with laser pointers, have been a fun source of inspiration for me recently. I painted a few and learned along the way the importance of simplifying what you see and making committed decisions about lines:<br />
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<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-Na9rOSQDybc/VX3OYgCQ4LI/AAAAAAAAAUw/ZwyYFunHOKM/s1600/IMG_3143.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="230" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-Na9rOSQDybc/VX3OYgCQ4LI/AAAAAAAAAUw/ZwyYFunHOKM/s320/IMG_3143.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>
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Another great thing about water colors -- blank space can be utilized as an important part of composition. You know, serious zen stuff. </div>
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The last of my "early" water colors is this weird little gem. It's supposed to be the water table under New York City and the pipelines leading up through our buildings. I wish I hadn't included a badly painted plant on the side, but now I know. <br />
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More to come soon....</div>
<br />Jackiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08543403097032052956noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7554632090723663593.post-78388265891787655332015-06-04T12:53:00.001-07:002015-06-04T12:53:05.534-07:00Paintings for Gma<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
Last week was my grandma's 80th birthday! So, I painted her some images from the English countryside on small wooden planks. Enjoy!</div>
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<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-Rl4jTArWBB8/VXCsL6nG0uI/AAAAAAAAATs/4JF95FUkN1Y/s1600/photo%2B1%2B%25286%2529.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="176" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-Rl4jTArWBB8/VXCsL6nG0uI/AAAAAAAAATs/4JF95FUkN1Y/s320/photo%2B1%2B%25286%2529.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-uDlcn3uJq6I/VXCsMHNyjPI/AAAAAAAAATw/PF_ZDVgXu6c/s1600/photo%2B2%2B%25286%2529.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="185" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-uDlcn3uJq6I/VXCsMHNyjPI/AAAAAAAAATw/PF_ZDVgXu6c/s320/photo%2B2%2B%25286%2529.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-6PAY8roABw4/VXCsMLmCEcI/AAAAAAAAAT0/TnZ7J-YtPgg/s1600/photo%2B3%2B%25283%2529.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="298" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-6PAY8roABw4/VXCsMLmCEcI/AAAAAAAAAT0/TnZ7J-YtPgg/s320/photo%2B3%2B%25283%2529.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />Jackiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08543403097032052956noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7554632090723663593.post-21439524230883402772015-03-09T12:28:00.000-07:002015-06-15T06:59:24.259-07:00Art block, Life block<div class="separator" style="clear: both;">
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Since the start of the year, I've found myself in the midst of an artistic moment of change. New York, being the unforgiving aggressive city that it is, isn't the best place to have a second to reflect or figure things out. </div>
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My 2014 ended after quitting my job, going to an AMAZING artist residency, then working for around 70 days straight at an exhausting retail gig that ended in early January. Then I treated myself to a week-long trip to Puerto Rico. </div>
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These are all great things. Really, really great. But now, I've found myself in a mirror of 2012 --unemployed-ish and artistically stuck -- just slightly older and slightly less tolerant of shitty work of both the artistic and money-making kind. There will always be moments like this in my life, I'm pretty aware of that now, but the good thing is that now I might have the tools to make the best of it. </div>
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I've been running after any and all interests that I have. No plan, just diving blindly: </div>
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-XtP1xbrinkw/VP3whZ9ZkxI/AAAAAAAAARg/TlzdtnoDoqQ/s1600/photo%2B(2).JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" height="240" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-XtP1xbrinkw/VP3whZ9ZkxI/AAAAAAAAARg/TlzdtnoDoqQ/s1600/photo%2B(2).JPG" width="320" /></a> Sculpted a whale bulla (ear bone), bought some calcite and optical spar crystals, and a painted sketch of crystals in the background. </div>
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-8RSRFp8_GHU/VP3u7h_GglI/AAAAAAAAAQs/lmOBOEs39xU/s1600/photo%2B1%2B(5).JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-8RSRFp8_GHU/VP3u7h_GglI/AAAAAAAAAQs/lmOBOEs39xU/s1600/photo%2B1%2B(5).JPG" width="320" /></a> Fossils (Megladon teeth, a Trilobite, some weird oceanic things), a U.S. map with the Mississippi River marked, and a sketch of the whale ear bone. </div>
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Then I bought laser pointers:</div>
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<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-EnmjQjPWKrY/VP3u7nzdlrI/AAAAAAAAAQo/uQsbFeJgy4s/s1600/photo%2B2%2B(4).JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-EnmjQjPWKrY/VP3u7nzdlrI/AAAAAAAAAQo/uQsbFeJgy4s/s1600/photo%2B2%2B(4).JPG" width="320" /></a> Oooo, look at that purple laser turn green in the calcite!</div>
<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-5C4pAphPuEA/VP3u8HFcmlI/AAAAAAAAARM/OZkD-2jJ3tA/s1600/photo%2B3%2B(2).JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-5C4pAphPuEA/VP3u8HFcmlI/AAAAAAAAARM/OZkD-2jJ3tA/s1600/photo%2B3%2B(2).JPG" width="320" /></a><br />
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-Mzj9AznBks8/VP3u8ZX_ICI/AAAAAAAAAQ4/cXTmpNsmMzk/s1600/photo%2B4%2B(1).JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-Mzj9AznBks8/VP3u8ZX_ICI/AAAAAAAAAQ4/cXTmpNsmMzk/s1600/photo%2B4%2B(1).JPG" width="320" /></a><br />
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-sbVAWfHHqWs/VP3u7hU0xkI/AAAAAAAAAQw/lXHhbFjV9dE/s1600/photo%2B2%2B(5).JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-sbVAWfHHqWs/VP3u7hU0xkI/AAAAAAAAAQw/lXHhbFjV9dE/s1600/photo%2B2%2B(5).JPG" width="320" /></a>It's hard to see, but this green laser turns orange. They change to their complimentary color, I suppose.</div>
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-Oa3Dj20WgJY/VP3u8arnS8I/AAAAAAAAARA/8cn0jPrhEuY/s1600/photo%2B5.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-Oa3Dj20WgJY/VP3u8arnS8I/AAAAAAAAARA/8cn0jPrhEuY/s1600/photo%2B5.JPG" width="320" /></a>Red stays red, though.</div>
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Will this lead somewhere? Who knows...</div>
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Jackiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08543403097032052956noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7554632090723663593.post-91415038119667925562015-03-09T11:46:00.002-07:002015-03-09T11:46:58.610-07:00Wolf paintings<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
Here are the final paintings and prints from my project with the Wolf Conservation Center!</div>
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-ZMC_n_VNmvY/VP3SgP37NII/AAAAAAAAAQA/HTab1JBe4O0/s1600/Card_Back.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-ZMC_n_VNmvY/VP3SgP37NII/AAAAAAAAAQA/HTab1JBe4O0/s1600/Card_Back.jpg" height="218" width="320" /></a></div>
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<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-Va8D1uD4jGI/VP3SgBseRrI/AAAAAAAAAP4/2mev3o6Pbhs/s1600/Card_Front1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-Va8D1uD4jGI/VP3SgBseRrI/AAAAAAAAAP4/2mev3o6Pbhs/s1600/Card_Front1.jpg" height="320" width="213" /></a></div>
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<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-cnR64jYdHuc/VP3Sgcyd2lI/AAAAAAAAAP8/wWpI0deRWb0/s1600/CardSet_1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-cnR64jYdHuc/VP3Sgcyd2lI/AAAAAAAAAP8/wWpI0deRWb0/s1600/CardSet_1.jpg" height="273" width="320" /></a></div>
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These packs of cards were really well-received. I'll probably bring them back and expand on it next winter.<br />
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<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-4ImAt-ezEec/VP3RnR2RqeI/AAAAAAAAAPw/s9hLy_19GrE/s1600/MythologyPrevails_30x24.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-4ImAt-ezEec/VP3RnR2RqeI/AAAAAAAAAPw/s9hLy_19GrE/s1600/MythologyPrevails_30x24.jpg" height="255" width="320" /></a></div>
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This is the largest wolf painting I did for this project. It's around 24 x 30 inches and depicts a Mexican Grey Wolf which has had a shaky reintroduction in the Southwestern U.S. The constant battle with wolf reintroduction is how they're viewed culturally, which has changed from one of god-like wisdom and strength to fear, gluttony, and deviousness. Both views are based in spirituality and are at the heart of the wolf debate. </div>
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<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-F0D-n6F-HSo/VP3RZOlVR2I/AAAAAAAAAO4/ETpDc7dier0/s1600/Wolves_buffalo%5B1%5D.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-F0D-n6F-HSo/VP3RZOlVR2I/AAAAAAAAAO4/ETpDc7dier0/s1600/Wolves_buffalo%5B1%5D.jpg" height="238" width="320" /></a></div>
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It can take minutes, hours, or days—a delicate balance of physical and mental strength by the entire pack is needed to overwhelm a 1 - 2,000 lb animal. This painting, and the rest, are all small, around 8 x 10 inch.<br />
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<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-sJzLGOu68dA/VP3SlaY9ByI/AAAAAAAAAQQ/I3qDdGwQv00/s1600/Wild_8x6.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-sJzLGOu68dA/VP3SlaY9ByI/AAAAAAAAAQQ/I3qDdGwQv00/s1600/Wild_8x6.jpg" height="250" width="320" /></a></div>
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The precious land encased in
Yellowstone National Park lays against land owned by states pushing
for less regulation on wolf hunting and species protection. Though
their legal protection changes past the parks invisible boundary,
wolves recognize no sovereign line. </div>
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This is Atka, resting and being sweet. Fear and misunderstanding are the
largest threats to a thriving wolf population.</div>
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<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-72_xhbn251c/VP3Rbz7LxTI/AAAAAAAAAPI/4wyGc5L1GJ0/s1600/Wolves_redwolf%5B1%5D.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-72_xhbn251c/VP3Rbz7LxTI/AAAAAAAAAPI/4wyGc5L1GJ0/s1600/Wolves_redwolf%5B1%5D.jpg" height="240" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span style="text-align: start;">The Red Wolf became extinct around 1980 because of intensive predator control programs. 14 were captured by biologists before their extinction for breeding programs. </span></div>
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Deforestation, road building, and persecution of the Red Wolves in
the South Eastern United States pushed the species into extinction
in the wild by the 1980's. They were reintroduction to Alligator River Wildlife Refuge in coastal North Carolina where approximately 100 exist today in an unsteady and uncertain climb to a healthy population.<br />
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-AiXbiMgqSu0/VP3SlS6oVlI/AAAAAAAAAQU/PfmItBkDsMQ/s1600/Nikai_8x10.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-AiXbiMgqSu0/VP3SlS6oVlI/AAAAAAAAAQU/PfmItBkDsMQ/s1600/Nikai_8x10.jpg" height="320" width="265" /></a></div>
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This is the new puppy, Nikaii. </div>
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To reintroduce a wolf into the wild, a pup of the same species is released outside of a den housing pups of a similar age. The mother will always adopt the new pup and raise it as her own. </div>
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<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-7zqq4M0P4dM/VP3RgQHTUVI/AAAAAAAAAPo/fKMQ0EswRV0/s1600/Wolves_Zephyr%5B1%5D.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-7zqq4M0P4dM/VP3RgQHTUVI/AAAAAAAAAPo/fKMQ0EswRV0/s1600/Wolves_Zephyr%5B1%5D.jpg" height="319" width="320" /></a></div>
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This is Zyphyr! He's may be my favorite. </div>
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<br />Jackiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08543403097032052956noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7554632090723663593.post-54312224870672647102014-09-20T16:28:00.000-07:002014-09-20T16:28:08.669-07:00Moose with Ticks<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Lately, environmentalists, residents,
and tourists from New Hampshire to Minnesota have been distraught
over the relatively sudden decline of their iconic lone herbivore,
the moose. Theories were raised—have wolves killed off the
population? Over-hunting? Disease?
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The answer? Ticks.</div>
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Conservationists have repeatedly found
moose who have chewed off chunks of fur, exposing pale skin, abraded
and pocked with sometimes over 100,000 plump winter ticks. These
“zombie-moose” are quite literally sucked dry of blood, only to
fade away, anemic, weak, and manic from the thousands of parasites
biting at their skin. Given that moose are solitary animals, they
end up dying alone deep in the woods, making them difficult to find for scientific research.
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Typically, along the southern fringe of
American moose territory, long, snowy winters keep the moose
population abundant and ticks in check. But with global warming, the
balance is tipping. Deer, who can live in warmer climates, have
evolved to constantly groom, a practice ridding them of excessive
parasites. Moose however, don't have this instinctual habit and have
not been given the time to develop it.
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I heard this story first on PBS
Newshour, and was immediately hooked. I love the mystery of it—the
allure of a silent killer—and resounding shock and disgust of a
harmful species gluttonous and cheering at our warming planet. The threat to us is real. Ticks spread disease, as do many other parasitic creatures. As their numbers rise, the possibility of getting bit and infected by a virus or bacteria will surely increase. </div>
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Perhaps it's time to shed the imagery
of polar bears and icebergs and adopt a new poster-child for global warming: pests and parasites—the silent and
stealthy vectors of disease.
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-ss9UKIDCA6A/VB4MWfpR2hI/AAAAAAAAAMU/B3W0Xp8ZWas/s1600/moose2014small.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-ss9UKIDCA6A/VB4MWfpR2hI/AAAAAAAAAMU/B3W0Xp8ZWas/s1600/moose2014small.jpg" height="640" width="344" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">"Moose with Ticks" 48x26 inch, oil on canvas</td></tr>
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Hope you enjoy the painting! I will post my preliminary drawings later...I left my sketchbook in Georgia...it's currently in the mail on its way back to me.
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Here is the PBS Newshour clip: </div>
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<br />Jackiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08543403097032052956noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7554632090723663593.post-69725024293138519502014-08-15T10:35:00.004-07:002014-08-15T10:36:19.881-07:00Surfing Swans<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
A refreshing reminder that not everything has to be backed by concrete biological reasoning. Fun is fun! </div>
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<br />Jackiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08543403097032052956noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7554632090723663593.post-61960606287024021012014-07-23T17:54:00.001-07:002014-07-23T17:54:51.336-07:00Stay strong, Boreal forest. <br /><br />
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<a href="http://switchboard.nrdc.org/blogs/lizbb/satellite_images_show_tar_sand.html#.U9BZIuZUG1c.blogger">Satellite images show tar sands extraction obliterating Boreal forest right before our eyes | Liz Barratt-Brown's Blog | Switchboard, from NRDC</a>Jackiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08543403097032052956noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7554632090723663593.post-8535754048698649912014-06-22T12:05:00.002-07:002014-06-22T12:21:01.644-07:00The Cave Goat<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
A few months ago, I got really
interested in dinosaurs (see previous blog posts). </div>
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Specifically of
interest to me, were all of the things we don't know about them,
which, as it turns out, is a lot. The facts of dinosaurs are so vague and debatable especially when compared to how casually willing we are to reproduce the long-necked, scaley, dumb beasts on tv and movies time after time. </div>
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For Paleontologists, having a stagnant (regardless how false) dinosaur mascot could be a good marketing move. But, is it that hard for us to accept unknowns? Can't our brains resist categorizing and defining for the sake of accuracy? </div>
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Thinking about this lead me to look for species that obstruct our assumptions of how we like to envision animals to be. That's how I stumbled across the Myotragus, or Cave Goat, a mammal, who is, or was, cold blooded. Here's what the internet told me: </div>
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The Myotragus lived about 5,000 years ago on the Balearic Islands, in the Mediterranean. The goat crossed over on a land bridge that later eroded leaving him on a hostile island with little food and no predators. So, it evolved. First, it shrunk, which is a fairly normal for island mammal evolution. Then it grew a huge jaw, two rat-like bottom teeth, forward facing eyes, and a fairly long life-span--some say around 30 years. And finally, somewhere along the way, it also became cold blooded, meaning its' body heat, energy, and growth was totally dependent on the outside temperature. Why? No clue. What effect did it have? Well, it was slow, couldn't jump, couldn't really run, and we don't know how it managed to give birth given its lack of energy. </div>
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This. is. bizarre. </div>
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Cold blooded and warm blooded are things I've always thought is cut and dry--mammals versus reptiles, egg laying versus live birth, scaly less-human things
versus fluffy and more-human things. As it turns out, like with everything else, there is a knotted gray
area the dichotomy. </div>
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When an assumption is exposed as something porous and malleable, it begs for reflection. If the Cave Goat was a cold-blooded mammal, living only 5,000 years ago, chances are it wasn't the only one. Chances are words like mammal, reptile, cold-blooded, warm-blooded, feathers, fur, and even animal and plant, are not and have never been so excruciatingly separate.</div>
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Knowingly or not, we've outlined fairly strict standards for animal biology based on a tiny slice of witnessed history and tireless research. Thank goodness for the Myotragus. Findings like these remind us of the complexities of life, the lightness of evolutionary order, and have us reeling in humility toward the impenetrable secrets of time and biology. </div>
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Side note--the woman who discovered the Cave Goat was <i>amazing</i>...<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dorothea_Bate" target="_blank">Dorothea Bate</a>, check her out. Seriously. </div>
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"Cave Goat", 23 x 30 inch, oil on canvas</div>
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Notes on Goats</div>
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Lil sketches</div>
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Original sketch</div>
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Jackiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08543403097032052956noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7554632090723663593.post-38089840469854792562014-06-20T21:41:00.000-07:002014-06-20T21:41:16.338-07:00I like Amy Bennett's trees. <br />
There's an artist who I have just loved lately and her name is Amy Bennett. <br />
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She paints from miniature scenes that she creates, stages, and lights. It almost looks like paper or clay--everything has a soft, puffy quality. So, it's hyper realistic, but in a weird fake way because of the miniature set that it's based off of. Really awesome. <br />
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<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-BnR4rj6oLFU/U6T-xyu368I/AAAAAAAAAJM/fpU2ELJDAmk/s1600/amy_bennett.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-BnR4rj6oLFU/U6T-xyu368I/AAAAAAAAAJM/fpU2ELJDAmk/s1600/amy_bennett.jpg" height="320" width="247" /></a>I'm always struggling with how to simplify nature visually in a way that keeps the energy and organic qualities intact. I'm finding more and more that the way I want my version of nature to feel is massive, empty, and deep, which for me seems to mean large spaces of solid color, heightened contrast, less line-work and more shapes. With each painting I make, I'm starting to see the details that I want to include and deciding to leave out other earlier. My brush strokes are slowly becoming more intentional, but with the complexity of landscapes, it's a gradual and experimental process.<br />
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I <i>love</i> how Amy Bennett has done it. They're incredible, simple without losing any detail, and not overworked. Her topics range from architectural work, to people and group settings, to nature, but I'm specifically drawn to her trees and skies.<br />
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Taking a lesson from Amy's work, observation is incredibly important and, I'll admit, I'm horrible at taking the time to work from real life. <br />
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Goal: This week, I am going to sit outside and paint trees. Thanks Amy.<br />
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<br />Jackiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08543403097032052956noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7554632090723663593.post-64970127833150411692014-06-20T20:28:00.001-07:002014-06-20T20:28:16.013-07:00Paper SculpturesI'm a bit late on this, but am now officially obsessed with Li Hongbo's paper sculptures. Sit back and enjoy:<br />
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<br />Jackiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08543403097032052956noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7554632090723663593.post-33205770812924386202014-04-04T09:04:00.000-07:002014-04-04T09:04:26.712-07:00<h1 class="post-title single" style="background-color: white; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 20pt; letter-spacing: -1px; line-height: 1.2em; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">
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<span style="color: #222222; font-size: 13.333333969116211px; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 18px;"> Thanks familyguiding.com! <a href="http://familyguiding.com/arts-earthly-iridium-and-my-creative-process" target="_blank">Click here for the original page</a>....</span></h1>
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<span class="meta-author"><a href="http://familyguiding.com/author/jackie" rel="author" style="color: #336699; outline: none; text-decoration: none;" title="Posts by Jackie Dorage">Jackie Dorage</a> | </span><span class="meta-date">April 1, 2014 </span><span class="meta-comments">| <a href="http://familyguiding.com/arts-earthly-iridium-and-my-creative-process#comments" rel="bookmark" style="color: #336699; outline: none; text-decoration: none;" title="Comments for Arts – Earthly Iridium and my Creative Process">0 Comments</a></span></div>
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<img alt="ArtsApr14" class="size-medium wp-image-9557" height="326" src="http://familyguiding.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/ArtsApr14-400x326.jpg" style="border: 0px none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" width="400" /><div class="wp-caption-text" style="font-size: 8pt; padding: 5px;">
“K-Pg Boundary,” Jackie Dorage, oil on canvas.</div>
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Throughout the earth is a thin band of Iridium—an element denser than iron that’s only found in large quantities at our planet’s molten core. It rests among the dirt and rocks, accompanying them on their slow techtonic trip to form mountains and canyons, make earthquakes, and re-define oceans. Visible as a black line etched among the earth tones, the strip of Iridium, known as the K-Pg Boundary, sits as a relic of the asteroid that decimated the dinosaurs over 60 million years ago.</div>
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There it is, sliced and shuffled into our ground, bookmarking geologic time, reminding us of our blind kinship with the universe, and flippantly noting the irrepressible facets of life.</div>
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What do you do with information so large in scale and grim in outcome? How do you cope when you’re reminded of the magnitude everything? For people naturally inclined toward the sciences and math, the answer would be a life of testing questions, fixating on the rational, and inspecting the unknown with a meticulous eye. They have it so lucky. As for the rest of us, we can turn away, look toward religion, or have incredible zen-power to accept the unknown and be OK with our limited mental capacity. For me though, I’ve attempted to deal with it creatively.</div>
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Here we are, in a world completely made up of elements that got spit out by an exploding star, flung through space as an asteroid sling-shooting around on gravitational forces, colliding and tumbling until it crashes on an earth, exploding into stardust all over again, mimicking its creation and dusting a new land with space-made elements. They settled, reacted, heated, cooled, and connected to create cells, microorganisms, DNA, fins, sensory glands, antennae, eyeballs, stomachs, sex, bones, brains, societies, culture and technology. Through all of this, the building blocks have stayed the exact same—the same in history, formation, and structure—but given a unique set of circumstances. It’s somewhat common knowledge and a familiar pop-science narrative, but the simplicity and scale of it will forever be mind boggling.</div>
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<span style="color: #333333;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', 'Bitstream Charter', Times, serif;">All I ever need to inspire a creative mindset is to expand my thoughts outward and upward. I envision the earth as it is—a malleable space rock, pulled and tugged by the moon and sun, with a magnitude of diverse creatures fumbling around on its surface, relatively unaware of anything outside of them. With this macro way of thinking, the world is a spectacle to be explored, a pallet for the imagination. But whether your interest is in nature and science, like mine, or in society, politics, or the psyche, ask questions and find answers. Whatever your topic, research, learn, imagine, and create–be a scientist, and use your canvas as your lab.</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', 'Bitstream Charter', Times, serif;">The K-pg Boundary, quilting our planet in super-nova explosion dust, acts as a visible testament to the incredible complexity of life and death that space has given us. To be creative is to not be disillusioned, and for me, space, earth, and nature give me more than enough intrigue to last a lifetime.</span></span></div>
Jackiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08543403097032052956noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7554632090723663593.post-65209610287011465732014-01-12T10:15:00.002-08:002014-01-12T10:15:03.410-08:00Ice Balls<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Crazy things happen when it gets cold enough. </div>
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<br />Jackiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08543403097032052956noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7554632090723663593.post-29586360809219491752014-01-10T10:28:00.002-08:002014-01-10T10:28:18.258-08:00 The Cretaceous–Paleogene (K–Pg) boundary / The Cretaceous–Tertiary (K–T) boundary<br />
All around us is a concentrated layer of iridium compacted deep in the earths soil. It's seen as a dark line, twisted and crooked from the undulating magma beneath it. Iridium, a non corrosive mental, is found at these high concentrations in three places: the earth's core, in space, and here--at the K-T boundary.<br />
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Running in homogeny with the tan, red, and brown compressed rocks and minerals, the dark K-T boundary (also the K-Pg boundary, but I don't think that sounds as nice) stands out as a lone ranger, the product of catastrophe and our universe. Who is responsible for such an obtrusive scar in our geography? Most likely an asteroid. Who got the shit end of the deal? The Dinosaurs. But on the plus side, we exist. <br />
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-bboZp6NGttg/UtA6pOcfjaI/AAAAAAAAAHA/7kTG9oh6vqw/s1600/k-t-boundary-john-isbell-uwm.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-bboZp6NGttg/UtA6pOcfjaI/AAAAAAAAAHA/7kTG9oh6vqw/s1600/k-t-boundary-john-isbell-uwm.jpg" height="224" width="320" /></a>It's a fascinating marker of time and a reminder of our place in the universe. In the same way astronauts look at our meager planet from outer space, observing our disposition against broader universe and maybe for the first time grasping time and distance with some universal perspective, the K-T boundary is our reminder the circumstances of our existence. Where we are, who we are, and how we're here. We see the passing of time--the 66 million year old event bluntly displayed along side the relative calm geology of the rest of our history. We see the reality of our place among the stars, part of the stars, and admit our ignorance to the events of the past, future, and everything outside our planet. Staring at us from our cliffs and valleys, it taunts us to examine our broader history and our acknowledgement of being inseparable from space and nature. <br />
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Mysterious, peaceful, and powerful--how nice that Time bookmarked a page for us, only to erase all the words.<br />
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<br />Jackiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08543403097032052956noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7554632090723663593.post-64434699358052687292014-01-03T18:50:00.002-08:002014-01-03T18:50:36.119-08:00Evolutionary time hurts my brain.<br />
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I found myself getting really frustrated while watching "nature" video's on Dinosaurs. Imagine a CG animated Velociraptor bouncing around in the woods cocking his head like a cute puppy, squeaking and grunting to display emotion. The voice-over would say something like "The Velociraptor is a very <i>curious</i> dinosaur. But don't get in the way when he's hungry!"<br />
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What?! Stupid/annoying. I wanted to learn some hard facts about new findings on dinosaurs but all I keep getting is catered toward ages 5+<br />
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I recently read Stephen Jay Gould's essay "Were Dinosaurs Dumb?" and it began an obsession with dinosaurs that I've really never <i>ever </i>had before. When we take into account the 200 million years that dinosaurs existed, the image of a slow, lumbering beast just doesn't make sense for all that evolutionary time.<br />
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Yes, during those 200 million years some dinosaur species died out, some evolved, some stayed put, but what we're slowly finding out is how bizarre and diverse of a species they are. Dinosaurs are closely related to birds (we all probably know that theory) but then there's this gem: They were possibly warm blooded. Plus, some might have had social structures more similar to that of large mammals like elephants and lions rather than birds or reptiles. That could mean sophisticated hunting methods, mating rituals, and social structures, really changing the typical imagery from your elementary school science text book.<br />
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Of course, all of these theories are totally arguable, but it really makes one thing clear, we have no idea what dinosaurs were really like.<br />
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So, look at this scale that we've all seen in high school or college bio 101:<br />
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<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-TMC8rQ41wdk/UrHbdSjIFOI/AAAAAAAAAE4/z6cpUxrWB8w/s1600/GeologicTimeScale.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-TMC8rQ41wdk/UrHbdSjIFOI/AAAAAAAAAE4/z6cpUxrWB8w/s1600/GeologicTimeScale.jpg" height="312" width="640" /></a></div>
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Now try and really grasp how many living species would clutter this list if we could write ever single one down--the approximate year of evolving and appearing, and the approximate year of extinction, throughout Earths entire history. The number would be infinite. And then there we are, the last thin slice of the graph. What we see, know, and experience in a blink in evolutionary time.<br />
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Now think about the labels we use to define living things. Cold blooded, warm blooded; mammal, reptile; live birth, laying eggs; plant, animal. With all of the millions and billions of animals that have walked, slithered, or swam on earth, are these groupings forcing extinct species into a present-day mold we've set up for them? Are we pigeonholing our extinct or alive-but-weird creatures? I've looked around and found some animals that muddle our understanding of traditional species categorization. So, now I present, <u>ROGUE SPECIES OF 2014!</u><br />
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<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-4k_eiRX9nfY/Uscor-pD1DI/AAAAAAAAAFI/M5eez-UUMs8/s1600/Platapus.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-4k_eiRX9nfY/Uscor-pD1DI/AAAAAAAAAFI/M5eez-UUMs8/s1600/Platapus.jpg" height="212" width="320" /></a></div>
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Startin' off simple with the popular <b>Platypus</b>! Underwater, furry, warm-blooded, egg-laying, with poisonous talons and excreting milk-pores instead of nipples?? Yup! Un-categorisable. I wonder though, given all of the many bizarre creatures in the world, how the Platypus got to be the one that got turned into mascots and stuffed animals? I suppose duck-bills are pretty funny. <br />
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Ok, I admit, the Platypus is an obvious one. Then I find the <b>Echidna,</b> which just looks like a mini Anteater at first. Like the Platapus, they're warm-blooded, egg-laying, duck-billed critters that milk their young out of milk-patches. Then I read this nugget from a <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-20323753" target="_blank">BBC article</a>:<br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Helmet, Freesans, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px;"><i>"Half of an echidna's brain is made up of neocortex - the so-called grey matter that allows mammals to reason, learn and remember. A human brain is about one third neocortex."</i></span><br />
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Wait, what?! Are they brilliant? Is that the reason that they are the<b> longest surviving mammal, "existing for over 120 million years"? </b> Or is it because they're the only land mammal that can sense the electromagnetic signals emitted by all living things? Sharks can also sense elecromagnetic signals, but they're totally lacking a neocortex (Echidna - 1; Sharks - 0). These little guys could hunt you down, outwit you, then lick your face with their long anteater tongue. <br />
Endangered, incredibly rare, and only surviving in Papau New Guinea (and maybe Australia?), the Echidna has proved difficult for scientists to study. <br />
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Side note: Read the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Echidna" target="_blank">Wikipedia article</a> if you want to hear about its <i>terrifying</i> penis. </div>
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So far, we've seen the pairing of mammal, furry, and warm-blooded. Then we meet the extinct C<b>ave Goat</b>.<br />
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<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-ge05LNHMXkA/UsdieJ4NJwI/AAAAAAAAAFk/bIiwD94OnSU/s1600/CaveGoat.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-ge05LNHMXkA/UsdieJ4NJwI/AAAAAAAAAFk/bIiwD94OnSU/s1600/CaveGoat.jpg" height="205" width="320" /></a></div>
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Looks normal, right? Wrong! Cold-blooded! Yup, a cold-blooded "mammal". At a foot and a half tall, the cave goat grew super slowly, moved super slowly, and would have pretty much been extinct in a second (rather than living for 5 million years) had it lived on an island with any major predators. The particular island in the Mediterranean where the goat lived was super barren. So, with little food and no predators, apparently the cave goat adjusted a super slow and flexible metabolism, like a reptile. So slow, in fact, that rather than growing at a consistent pace, like warm-blooded animals, it grew in spurts based around food availability, as cold-blooded animals do. <br />
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Other things the Cave Goat had to save energy:<br />
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<li>super small eyes</li>
<li>tiny brain</li>
<li>inability to run, jump, or move fast</li>
<li>super, super small babies that take a really long time to reach maturity</li>
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Obviously, the lil fella was killed off pretty easily when humans arrived. </div>
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What else lived around the Cave Goat? Just a<b> giant doormouse, </b>no big deal! Oh, the evolutionary beauty that is a predator-less island...<br />
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Next we have the<b> Adactylidium</b>, a mite with strange birthing habits. So...um...in lieu of shock and a loss of words, here is the Wikipedia article:<br />
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<i><span style="background-color: white; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.1875px; text-align: start;">"The pregnant female mite feeds upon a single </span><a class="mw-redirect" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Egg_(biology)" style="background-color: white; background-image: none; color: #0b0080; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.1875px; text-align: start; text-decoration: none;" title="Egg (biology)">egg</a><span style="background-color: white; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.1875px; text-align: start;"> of a </span><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thrips" style="background-color: white; background-image: none; color: #0b0080; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.1875px; text-align: start; text-decoration: none;" title="Thrips">thrips</a><span style="background-color: white; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.1875px; text-align: start;">, growing five to eight female offspring and one male in her body. The offspring devour their mother from the inside out,</span><sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-pmid7042533_2-0" style="background-color: white; font-family: sans-serif; line-height: 1em; text-align: start; unicode-bidi: -webkit-isolate;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adactylidium#cite_note-pmid7042533-2" style="background-image: none; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; color: #0b0080; text-decoration: none; white-space: nowrap;">[2]</a></sup><span style="background-color: white; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.1875px; text-align: start;"> and the single male mite mates with all the daughters when they are still in the mother. The females, now impregnated, cut holes in their mother's body so that they can emerge to find new thrips eggs. The male emerges as well, but does not look for food or new mates, and dies after a few hours. The females die at the age of 4 days, when their own offspring </span><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cannibalism_(zoology)" style="background-color: white; background-image: none; color: #0b0080; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.1875px; text-align: start; text-decoration: none;" title="Cannibalism (zoology)">eat them alive from the inside</a><span style="background-color: white; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.1875px; text-align: start;">."</span></i></div>
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And there you have it! Would you even consider this "birthing"? I just...I just have no words. But, what all of this--Platapus, Echnida, Cave Goat, Adactylidium--says to me, is that I don't think I've ever grasped the massive life span of the earth clearly enough. And I don't know if I ever will be able to. I can't expand my mind enough to imagine what other animals could have lived, what earth could have been. It's really beyond my comprehension and imagination. What if there were tons of tiny cold-blooded, furry, live birthing critters running around for millions of years? Small animal fossils are quite hard to find due to their fragility and size, so we easily wouldn't know. If we know electromagnetism is the way the Echnida and sharks find prey, what other chemical or physical senses have animals had in the past? Rather than the past, what about now? And my god, what other methods of birthing have there been?!?<br />
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I'll end with an awesome quote from Stephen Jay Gould comparing our small glimpse of live on earth to the day-long life of a Mayfly in April:<br />
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<i>Human consciousness arose but a minute before midnight on the geological clock. Yet we mayflies try to bend an ancient world to our purposes, ignorant perhaps of the messages burried in its long history. Let us hope that we are still in the early morning of our April day. </i></div>
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I'm totally going to paint a cave goat:</div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-rpWB-nueoAI/Usd0wSw6IHI/AAAAAAAAAGI/peRi8rek3Aw/s1600/photo+2.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-rpWB-nueoAI/Usd0wSw6IHI/AAAAAAAAAGI/peRi8rek3Aw/s1600/photo+2.JPG" height="240" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">These are normal warm blooded goats.</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-1p-QfqSGnkQ/Usd0xLj7lCI/AAAAAAAAAGQ/iFKN3m1U0nQ/s1600/photo+1.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-1p-QfqSGnkQ/Usd0xLj7lCI/AAAAAAAAAGQ/iFKN3m1U0nQ/s1600/photo+1.JPG" height="240" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Possible Cave Goat painting. Lil odd-one-out cutie...</td></tr>
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Jackiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08543403097032052956noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7554632090723663593.post-78307425326521739932014-01-03T18:48:00.000-08:002014-01-03T18:48:04.875-08:00Walrus....<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Ew, I wish they didn't have stupid music playing, but I think this is pretty incredible. Look at that walrus bod!!</div>
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<br />Jackiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08543403097032052956noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7554632090723663593.post-24964381627108484932014-01-03T18:46:00.001-08:002014-01-03T18:46:15.757-08:00Family Guiding and New Years!<br />
Here's my<a href="http://familyguiding.com/arts-a-toast-to-being-human" target="_blank"> January article</a> for familyguiding.com! <br />
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<u>A Toast to Being Human</u><br />
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New Year’s Eve was always my favorite holiday. No presents to worry about, no high-pressured feasts to prepare—just champagne and good company. Of course, the one thing that always seemed to impede on my fun was the question of the new years resolution.</div>
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Bringing that kind of pressure into my favorite flippant holiday really bummed me out. To me, resolutions seemed fake and the timing, forced. How do you contemplate a new beginning when nothing “new” has actually happened? How do you declare a new principle on one day out of the year when life’s events aren’t timed by the calendar? Do we make resolutions just as a way to kill time until spring? Or, to help with small-talk at New Years Eve parties? Does anyone actually follow through with this?</div>
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I sit here with the clock ticking behind me and facts about mammals looping in my head.</div>
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<em>The length of a mammal’s life corresponds almost equally to its size and heart rate. All mammals live for about the same biological length of time. <em>All mammals breathe about 200 million times in their lifetime. </em>The year is almost over, I have so many things to do, there’s not enough time.</em></div>
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A mouse, with its heart pumping fast to keep its little body replenished with blood, only lives for around two human years. A humpback whale (massive body, slow heart) can live 50-100 years. Both breath about 200 million times throughout their life, just one breathes fast, the other slow. But, two years or eighty, we can assume that both animals live very full lives on their own biological time. The slow, aching, 30 minute song of a humpback whale could equate to our memorization of a minute long commercial jingle, or a mouse’s memorization of a very quick set of squeaks. The lifespan of a creature is only accurately measurable by that creature alone.</div>
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Humans are different, though. Considering our size, we take more breaths, develop much slower, and experience far more throughout our lives than most other mammals. We stretch our breath to fill almost a century, small bodies living at our own tempo, constructing our lives at the pace of our own personalized biological clock.</div>
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The tension of life compresses me until I feel half my size, a portion of my age. As my mind skims through the unfinished paintings, unconnected facts, and patchy ideas of animal imagery in my head, I squeeze my eyelids in effort to slow my thoughts. Like the shifting prisms of a kaleidoscope, my brain shuffles through ideas and imagery, colors and composition.</div>
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I hear the clock again, and think of all the things I didn’t accomplish this year–not painting fast enough, not writing fast enough, not calling friends often enough, not eating healthy enough. The New Years resolution, in all its oversimplified, whimsical glory, may be exactly what I need to shake off some of the negative, burdening thoughts and clear my mind to be at peace with the past.</div>
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So, this year, I’m giving myself the selfish privilege of developing on my own clock and letting others do the same. We can run, jump, and play, contemplate, create, and stress−we’re blessed with these little agile bodies that endure lives the length of whales. Molding and bending through phases, we have the time and mental capacity to explore our brains and souls as our lives gracefully tick on. Feeling off track? That’s ok, there’s actually time to get back on. Seems like college was just yesterday? You lucky human and your incredibly memory, chill out.</div>
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The pressure’s off. It’s time to take advantage of the amazing, slow, long, and malleable lives that we were born with. Pour some champagne and make a toast−we’re all human.</div>
Jackiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08543403097032052956noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7554632090723663593.post-67817442013787017122013-11-27T12:10:00.001-08:002013-11-27T12:10:50.631-08:00Sculpture<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
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I try to blend art, nature, and science and am sometimes slightly successful. But this, <i>this, </i>is the real deal. </div>
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I've been thinking a lot about sculpture lately--how I would sculpt, what materials I would use--and it's tricky for me. Like my paintings, I would want my 3D work to have a deeper narrative that's not always apparent at first. <br />
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This ant colony "sculpture" is exactly what I want my 3D art to be. It's a product of interdisciplinary exploration. It's abstracted, but upon closer examination, completely honest. It's beautiful, but terrifying in reality. And, just like my paintings, it highlights the spirit of discovery.<br />
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So, now that I'm thoroughly inspired, time to think of my own sculptural work. My brain twists and strains for stability in such a boundless medium. Jackiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08543403097032052956noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7554632090723663593.post-44450552252711411482013-11-06T09:20:00.000-08:002013-11-06T09:20:51.765-08:00Thanks again familyguiding.com !This month topic for www.familyguiding.com was "Gratitude for Grandparents". Luckily for me, as a contributor for their arts page, my grandmother was a painter, and a very good one.<br />
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Around the age of 50, when she began her undergrad education, she picked up painting and loved it. Now, my parents house is filled with Ruth Papin paintings that show the 30 year transition from realistic still-life vases, to thick impressionistic sun-lit gardens, and finally, lively, raw abstract paintings opening up fluctuating emotion as it is translated through oil paint. Toward the end, the image mattered less than the act.<br />
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Here's the article from www.familyguiding.com :<br />
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<a href="http://familyguiding.com/arts-memories-of-grandma-at-70-miles-per-hour" rel="bookmark" style="color: #333333; outline: none; text-decoration: none;" title="Permanent Link to Arts – Memories of Grandma at 70 Miles Per Hour">Arts – Memories of Grandma at 70 Miles Per Hour</a></h2>
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Last month, I embarked on a 10-day long road trip from Washington D.C. to Tahoe, California. My sister and her fiance were moving from East to West coast, and my boyfriend and I decided that helping to drive was a great excuse to escape the horizonless confines of New York City.</div>
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Moving 70 miles an hour across the country, my eyes tried to absorb every geographic change, from the dead and heavy 100 degree plains, to the commanding puffed chest of the rockies. We felt the mass of being circled by the earths edge, and the vulnerability of seeing canyon walls pinch the clouds above our car.</div>
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On the third day of our trip, my grandmother passed away. She, my mother, and I all paint and I have, and still use, some of her art supplies. I’ve learned about her through seeing the tools she used to interpret the world. Lots of blue and green paint, stiff wide brushes, and a thickening medium. I oddly feel like an extension of her work by using the materials she used. Growing up with her paintings on the wall, I knew that our personalities were different, that we didn’t always see eye-to-eye, but we somehow possessed the same hobby −the same love of color and nature.</div>
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Do we all see the world the same? We definitely don’t recount the world the same. Does my body become euphoric when I see bright green because I’m from a city where concrete grey is the dominant shade? Or, is it something inherent in the mechanics of my vision and mind? Am I like my grandmother more than I like to think I am?</div>
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Scrape away the generational gap, forget the petty judgements that last beyond rough holiday dinners, and family members offer us answers to questions about our being that even close friends can’t. I wonder now if she painted like I paint, if her methods were like mine, and if she would see and feel the same impact from a certain pale green succulent in Utah that I did. And then, if she’d start to mimic it in her art like I have.</div>
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With air beating against my ears, the desert that is so absent from my daily life and thoughts, became all too present after the first hundred long, empty miles. And, driving toward a city at night shining like christmas lights tangled on the horizon, my sister and I shared stories. We share a family, we share a history, and we share DNA−that importance can’t be understated. The people that you can learn the most from, and who can learn the most from you, are family members. Open up, be forgiving, and listen hard−you’re closer than you might realize.</div>
Jackiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08543403097032052956noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7554632090723663593.post-55669880480415031372013-10-18T11:51:00.002-07:002014-01-03T19:03:06.506-08:00The Dung Beetle <div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
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<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-XFM7QQooNxg/Ul8BN_w12VI/AAAAAAAAAEY/YkbOKxV70R0/s1600/Dungbeetle_24x26.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-XFM7QQooNxg/Ul8BN_w12VI/AAAAAAAAAEY/YkbOKxV70R0/s1600/Dungbeetle_24x26.jpg" height="295" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I’ve always liked exploring the bizarre hard wiring of insects. Their tiny brains have had millions of years to perfect survival in its most efficient and direct ways. Non-individualistic and mechanical, their pattern of “eat and procreate” can be both mundane and beautiful. That’s why, when I heard the news that <a href="http://www.npr.org/2013/01/29/170588505/scientists-discover-dung-beetles-use-the-milky-way-for-gps" target="_blank">dung beetles navigate by using the Milky Way Galaxy</a>, there was no question that I had to paint it. </span></div>
<b id="docs-internal-guid-10050f36-c31c-6622-c264-eaa8ce574376" style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The poo pile--a competitive, thriving, and temporary ecosystem. The creatures that depend on it are always in search, and willing to fight, for a share of steaming leftover nutrients. And, mandible deep in shit, the Dung Beetle emerges as a creature beautifully evolved for the sole purpose of scavenging and transporting fresh feces. </span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">In a rush to escape the chaotic fight for food, they sculpt their ball of dung and roll it away with focus and accuracy, standing upside down and backwards and heading straight toward their den. We now know that their four sets of eyes are watching both the ground and sky--sun in the day, and the rough glow of the Milky Way Galaxy at night--allowing them the ability to travel straight, with intention and precision. Scientists tried manipulating their location, swiveling them around, and adjusting their surroundings, but it was only after putting the Dung Beetle in a planetarium and altering the fake night sky that the Milky Way was recognized as their compass. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 17px; white-space: pre-wrap;">Watch the <a href="http://www.ted.com/talks/marcus_byrne_the_dance_of_the_dung_beetle.html" target="_blank">awesome Dung Beetle Ted Talk here.</a></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">So, why should we be impressed? No other animal that we know of uses the Milky Way specifically as its compass, but there are plenty of crazy animal navigation stories involving everything from magnetic fields to highly tuned memorization abilities. The difference for me though, is that insects often get overlooked. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Unfortunately, most of us have a hard time relating to alien exoskeletal mini-beings. If it's not cute and cuddly, it probably won't get much love from the general public. So, in these occasional moments where we discover that an insect does something that seems loaded with intent and human-like rationale, we’re blown away. Our own biases toward the stupidest things like "poop" and "beetles" are exposed and our eyes open to the vast spectrum of perfectly relatable and fascinating intelligence contained in all sizes of brains and in varying degrees of "cute" animals. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I'm guilty of the judgement, too. I don't think snakes are cute, I think kittens are cute. Therefore I care much more about kittens than snakes. But when you see a lack of funding or attention given to animals like snakes, sharks and spiders, or (maybe to a lesser degree) fish, frogs, and bees, you realize how harmful and pivotal these ridiculous discriminations can be. </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; white-space: pre-wrap;">If creating anthropomorphic view of an animal can mean the difference between extinction and survival, knowledge and dead air, then by all means go right ahead. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Maybe the Dung Beetle, with the galaxy reflecting on its wings and the earth moving tediously past, has not immediately given us life changing scientific answers through its navigational methods. But there are about 400,000 species of beetle in the world. If you allot equal importance to each of those 400,000, and were somehow given the funds, man-power and time study each bug, imagine the change in attitude from the resulting knowledge bank of bug facts. Imagine the respect and conservation efforts that could come from thinking of bugs like we think of mammals. </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; white-space: pre-wrap;">Different genus? Definitely. Less significant? No. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">If only there were time to know each one personally.</span><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Dung Beetle page from my notebook</td></tr>
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Jackiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08543403097032052956noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7554632090723663593.post-90830687414756228012013-09-04T19:43:00.000-07:002013-09-04T19:43:48.718-07:00Family Guiding article<br />
Thank you www.familyguiding.com for inviting me to be a guest author for the month of September! It was so exciting and such a new, fun experience for me, and I must say--I really enjoyed it! Hopefully more opportunities like this will come my way...<br />
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Here's the link <a href="http://familyguiding.com/arts-embrace-your-evolution">http://familyguiding.com/arts-embrace-your-evolution</a><br />
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And here's the article! Hope you like it:<br />
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A few years ago, I started a painting about vampire bats. The end product looked like a psychedelic cartoon of pink gremlins in an apocalyptic candyland. I very quickly despised everything about it and rolled it up to be banished under the couch, a gift to the dust, never to be seen again.</div>
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Some days, my work flows through me like casual conversation. I make the right decisions without distinctly deciding anything at all. Then, there are the days, like with my vampire bats, when I look at my painting and see a complete stranger. Where an intricately laid thin line turns into a lightning strike fracturing my piece in two, or a beautifully textured wash, that took hours, dissolves into a flat aimless smear. Or worse, when the meaning of my piece that seemed so thought-out does not come through at all, leaving a boring, random animal painting: vampire bats.</div>
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<img alt="antfire" class="size-medium wp-image-8401 " height="320" src="http://familyguiding.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/antfire-400x320.jpg" style="border: 0px none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" width="400" /><div class="wp-caption-text" style="font-size: 8pt; padding: 5px;">
“Fire Ant Raft” Jackie Dorage, 16in x 20in Oil on Canvas</div>
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Wasted time, unaccomplished, distracted, unable, delusional, untalented, subpar—the negativity born from perceived “mistakes” can crumble the delicate momentum of the creative process.</div>
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When I come to these moments of frustration over my creative mistakes and I am reminded of Pandas—the bamboo-eating, cow-spotted, fat, fluffy, notoriously cute six-fingered bears. Yes, four fingers and two thumbs (one opposable like ours and one stagnant like other bears) for a total of six fingers. This funny little Panda fact baffled scientists for a long time, until a comprehensive study on Panda anatomy was done only to find out that one of the thumbs was not a thumb at all, but an extension of the wrist bone that had grown to be so big and muscular that it acted and moved like an opposable thumb.</div>
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Our own sacred opposable thumb that we hold at such high esteem as a distinctive trait in our dominance, was recreated by a Panda’s wrist bone so it can eat bamboo faster. Why did the Panda not evolve to make the already existing thumb, opposable? Why not evolve another thumb bone altogether? While it may go against all logic, the wrist-thumb works. And in times when I look at my work and the self critic in me gets up in arms, I have to remember the many paths to finding a viable solution.</div>
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<img alt=""Elephants" Jackie Dorage, oil on canvas 40x28in" class="size-medium wp-image-8403" height="400" src="http://familyguiding.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/Elephants-sm-298x400.jpg" style="border: 0px none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" width="298" /><div class="wp-caption-text" style="font-size: 8pt; padding: 5px;">
“Elephants” Jackie Dorage, oil on canvas 40x28in</div>
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It’s not “the best”, “the worst”, “right” or “wrong”; it’s a non-stop, improvised process that flows slowly with time, stretching, struggling, and twisting down a jury-rigged path.</div>
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You may see a mutation, but give it time, and it could lead to best thing you’ve ever created.</div>
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My anger over the vampire bat painting is over. Yes, it’s still rolled up, but it’s in my studio now and I occasionally take it out and look at it with admiration. I think about it without a grimace on my face, considering each awkward brushstrokes as a step that bridges my past work to my current and future work. We’ll all experience deviations, mess-ups, break-ups, regrettable words, and embarrassing paintings. These bumps in our lives can be disgraced as unwanted mutations, unorthodox and shameful, or be highlighted and accepted as a new change, a chance to evolve and create something greater.</div>
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So, the next time you feel you’re dealt a bad hand, there is a choice: pass, fold, or make an opposable thumb.</div>
Jackiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08543403097032052956noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7554632090723663593.post-71228603912077232142013-09-04T19:26:00.005-07:002013-09-04T19:26:59.513-07:00THIS animal<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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I know little to nothing about this animal. What I do know is that it's a type of porcupine found in the rain forests in and around Brazil, and it's kind of bizarre looking. Also, it apparently loves bananas and makes child-like sounds when you poke it in the nose.<br />
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I don't usually post an animal for the sole purpose of commenting about how cute it is, but really, SO CUTE! I mean, my god what is this?!? i have no words!<br />
<br />Jackiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08543403097032052956noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7554632090723663593.post-29040686780128261922013-08-23T10:12:00.000-07:002014-01-03T19:04:04.320-08:00Silkworms<br />
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I was browsing the internet, not even searching animal things like I usually do, when I came across this video of the "Silk Pavilion":<br />
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<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="281" mozallowfullscreen="" src="http://player.vimeo.com/video/67177328?title=0&byline=0&portrait=0&badge=0" webkitallowfullscreen="" width="500"></iframe> <br />
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To read about it, <a href="http://www.nbcnews.com/technology/man-made-dome-built-harnessing-6-500-silkworms-6C10222992">click here</a>.<br />
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When I first watched this video, I didn't quite get the magnitude of it. I thought the students just made a dome, released a bunch of silk worms, and Bam! Silk-covered-dome. In actuality, everything about this dome is complete purposeful, planned, and mapped out through analyzing how silkworms build and mimicking these geometric patterns on a massive scale. The end product is an alien-looking pavilion with translucent undulating<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">MIT's silk pavilion </td></tr>
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patterns and holes, trimmed by a delicately spiked profile. It's a beautiful mix of science, nature, math and art and ohhhh my goodness I love it.<br />
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(For a more complete understanding and appreciation, goggle "Silk Pavilion" and read one of the many articles explaining the process.)<br />
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All of this got me thinking about the bizarre, bizarre world of silkworms. <br />
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So, here's the first crazy bit of information that I found out: Silkworms are domesticated, and have been for around 5,000 years. Their ability to fly is gone, making them completely vulnerable in the wild. There might still be some varieties of wild un-domesticated Silkworm, but most of those have gone extinct.<br />
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They are also one of the most genetically modified animals. Of course, through the domestication came an increase in cocoon size and silk strength, but in a more creepy sci-fi way, look below:<br />
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-SA77e6BcelE/UhLcO7RU6TI/AAAAAAAAACo/OkWFeR9w_v0/s1600/neonsilk.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-SA77e6BcelE/UhLcO7RU6TI/AAAAAAAAACo/OkWFeR9w_v0/s1600/neonsilk.jpg" height="233" width="320" /></a></div>
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<----Fluorescent Silk.<br />
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Come and get it ladies! Everyone is dying for a fluffy glow-in-the-dark wedding dress for the big day! Yes, this could be a big economic benefit and yes, silk makes fabric and fabric makes clothes and people like wearing florescent clothes (I guess). If the Holy Grail of the fashion industry is the "wow" factor, and that certainly was a word that crossed my mind when seeing this photo, then fashion industry, meet science. But, what kind of injection did this?! Maybe just a good dose of the 80's.<br />
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The next crazy genetic modification of the Silkworm is the adjustment to have it make human collagen (I chose <i>not</i> to search this on google image). There's a lot of scientific terminology going on in<a href="http://www.nature.com/nbt/journal/v21/n1/full/nbt771.html"> this article </a>about it, but basically it has to do with proteins. I tried to grasp it all but I couldn't stop thinking about an unnaturally big-lipped lady bragging at a dinner party about her latest cosmetic treatments ("It's silk").<br />
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Along with the trend of Silkworm modifications fit for a reality TV show, there's also a funny caterpillar v. spider competition going on to see who can create the strongest silk. Right now, spiders are winning. However, at the rate that genetic modification is going, I have no doubt that our talented little caterpillar friends will be busting out with some kevlar army ropes pretty soon.<br />
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I can't believe my premonition! Headline: <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/01/04/spider-silkworm-can-spin-spider-silk_n_1184744.html">Hybrid Silkworm Can Spin Spider Silk</a>. And yes, mass production of army kevlar-strength materials is mentioned.<br />
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<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-ZB8TTB-l5ho/UheGi-rXD4I/AAAAAAAAADM/BpfEfAKppAQ/s1600/r-SILKWORMS-large570.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-ZB8TTB-l5ho/UheGi-rXD4I/AAAAAAAAADM/BpfEfAKppAQ/s320/r-SILKWORMS-large570.jpg" height="133" width="320" /></a></div>
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The last (not-so-fun) fact is that silk isn't vegan.<br />
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Once Silkworms are resting their tired, fat bodies inside genetically enlarged cocoons, waiting patiently to transform into a genetically weirdo Silkmoth, they release an enzyme that breaks through the silk allowing for freedom--wing-stretching, silk-ending, freedom! But not anymore (I should write for PETA).<br />
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Since this enzyme destroys the silk, Silkworms rarely get to see their adulthood. Instead the cocoons are boiled, killing the caterpillar inside and preventing the harmful enzyme from being released.<br />
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Don't worry vegans, Peace Silk is there to give you your vegan-friendly fabric with no animals harmed in the process.<br />
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But here is a major bright side to the story--all of the Silkworm larvae that get boiled in the process to make us what we want, becomes a food source for millions of people. "Beondegi", or Silkworm Pupae, is a popular snack that comes boiled or steamed, has zero carbs and is full of protein. Plus, farming insects is incredibly eco-friendly using minimal water, space, and transportation energy.<br />
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<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-5k5CHaNTLGs/UheLwmnP83I/AAAAAAAAADc/SR7SnuZXnnI/s1600/Unknown.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-5k5CHaNTLGs/UheLwmnP83I/AAAAAAAAADc/SR7SnuZXnnI/s1600/Unknown.jpeg" /></a></div>
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The ancient concept of using animals whole and considering this abundance of meat, material, and companionship as sacred has certainly dwindled over the past hundreds or thousands of years. However, with the known decrease in natural resources and increase in population, going back to cherished thriftiness is definitely a compelling thought. From birth to death, Silkworms bodies and abilities assist us, feed us, clothe us, create for us, and invent with us--without taking anything in return. Could our modern day sacred animal be the Silkworm? I think so.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Page from my notebook about Silkworms</td></tr>
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Jackiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08543403097032052956noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7554632090723663593.post-28947458576803523482013-06-12T19:32:00.000-07:002013-07-31T19:32:28.753-07:002nd Friday Art Walk!<span style="background-color: white; color: #555555; font-family: Georgia, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px; text-align: left;">Come to Muchmore's at 2 Havemeyer Street in Brooklyn this Friday! My art will be on the walls and the crowd should be a good one because of the Northside Festival. It should be great!</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #555555; font-family: Georgia, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px; text-align: left;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #555555; font-family: Georgia, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px; text-align: left;"></span><br style="background-color: white; color: #555555; font-family: Georgia, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px; text-align: left;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #555555; font-family: Georgia, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px; text-align: left;"></span><a href="http://www.artslant.com/ny/events/show/281641-paintings-by-jackie-dorage" style="background-color: white; color: #0f6fb1; font-family: Georgia, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px; text-align: left; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank"><u>http://www.artslant.com/ny/events/show/281641-paintings-by-jackie-dorage</u></a><br style="background-color: white; color: #555555; font-family: Georgia, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px; text-align: left;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #555555; font-family: Georgia, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px; text-align: left;" /><a href="https://www.facebook.com/Every2ndFriday" style="background-color: white; color: #0f6fb1; font-family: Georgia, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px; text-align: left; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank"><u>https://www.facebook.com/Every2ndFriday</u></a>Jackiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08543403097032052956noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7554632090723663593.post-84305958701778588202013-05-31T19:31:00.000-07:002013-08-23T10:29:40.657-07:00Elephants<span style="background-color: white; clear: left; color: #555555; float: left; font-family: Georgia, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin-top: 0px; position: relative; text-align: justify; z-index: 10;"><a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=7554632090723663593" style="color: #0f6fb1; text-decoration: underline;"><img alt="Picture" class="galleryImageBorder" src="http://jackiedorage.com/uploads/3/0/7/4/3074701/9443065.jpg?385" style="border-color: rgb(204, 204, 204) rgb(170, 170, 170) rgb(170, 170, 170) rgb(204, 204, 204); border-style: solid; border-width: 1px; margin: 5px 10px 10px 0px; padding: 3px;" /></a></span><br />
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"Elephants" oil on canvas 40x28in</div>
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I have been wanting to paint elephants for about two years.<br />
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But every time I started developing ideas, I hit a block. There is a massive amount of information, cultural and factual, about elephants that spans the spectrum from a completely anthropomorphized Dumbo to the ivory trade. And a lot of this information is strong, emotionally powerful, and deeply image related.<br />
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So, there's where the difficulty was. Elephants are such a loaded topic with such iconic imagery that there's hardly room beyond that. Then again, going too far beyond the imagery and conservation issues becomes dishonest and ignorant. This middle ground is where most of my art is and where my elephant painting came from.</div>
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Elephants are unique among threatened animal. The obvious difference is that they're huge land dwellers. So, unlike the Snow Leopard or the Golden Frog, being cryptic is not an option. Also, they don't have the dangerous mystique of other threatened animals like the Polar Bear. This, paired with their ability to live in captivity, makes them a trophy pet for parades, circuses and zoo's. Also, it allows scientists study them immensely to the point where we have a good understanding of their emotional habits, their social structures, and the way they live--all things that are super fashionable in popular science. And, after all of this knowledge, interaction, contact, popularization, they still get wiped out by the masses for ivory. <br />
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I'm not wondering why this happens (I get it), it's just an interesting case and frustrating to digest. It's a sad truth--a loved animal, that can't seem to survive. <span style="line-height: 1.5;"><br /></span><br />
Their size is another thing I wanted to focus on. They remind us that in our world right now, animal size can do more harm than good. They're massive, but could be swashed like a bug if we don't pay attention. And by "pay attention" I mean rigorous funding, ad campaigns, and political involvement from multiple countries including the U.S. and China (high hopes?). <span style="line-height: 1.5;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="line-height: 1.5;">With my painting I wanted to restore the distance and mystery of the elephant. The sad calm that comes from being too big to hide and the isolation of a </span>species<span style="line-height: 1.5;"> under threat. I want to </span><span style="line-height: 1.5;">have a momentary </span>appreciation<span style="line-height: 1.5;"> for elephants where the danger of their situation doesn't </span>trump<span style="line-height: 1.5;"> the beauty. To me, my painting is sad--I could hardly handle researching elephants because of the constant stream of horrifying images and stories that the internet had for me (don't google "ivory"). With all the economics, national interests, international codes, </span>sovereignty<span style="line-height: 1.5;">, trade regulations, </span>government<span style="line-height: 1.5;">, and politics in general--it is a sad story. Because in the middle of all of that noise, is a species that is struggling. </span><br />
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Hope you like it!</div>
Jackiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08543403097032052956noreply@blogger.com0