Clyde Peeling's Reptiland, part 1

As part of my birthday present, yesterday my wonderful, fabulous, knows-me-oh-so-well husband took me to Clyde Peeling's REPTILAND!!
(No... we didn't participate in their birthday party package but we did see them setting one up and it looked pretty cool, hehe.)

Reptiland was awesome. One thing that I enjoyed most about it was that it was big enough to see lots of different animals, yet not so overwhelmingly huuuuge that you felt like you had to rush if you wanted to get to see EVERYTHING. I liked that we could stay at an exhibit for as long as we wanted and just take everything in.

When we arrived, we got a quick bite to eat at the Crocodile Creek Deli and then headed out to see the outdoor exhibits. The first things we saw were turtles:

SOOOOO CUTE!!

I feel like this composition is just screaming to be
created into a drawing or painting!

Last but not least, check it out. Turtle snuggling, or probably the closest thing to snuggling that turtles do. Can you say, Awwwwwwww?

I'm sure some of these will become drawings or paintings in the relatively near future.... Reptile and amphibian fans, stay tuned!
I got lots of fantastic pictures that I'd like to share, but will create several Reptiland posts for them so as not to make one post too overwhelming.

If you're going to be in PA and you'd like to plan a trip to Reptiland yourself, go here:
http://www.reptiland.com/

Back home.....

Mendenhall Glacier

Normally I would have guessed that I would be sad upon returning home from Alaska, a place I've always wanted to go, and knew I'd fall in love with. In fact, I am ready to plan my next trip to Denali.... But I'm happy to be home!! For one thing, I missed my pets!

Besides missing the pets, Alaska Airlines made coming home a lot easier to look forward to! I want to thank them for the delight of rearranging our travel plans without informing us, which then allowed me the luxury of burning off calories by making me run with my carry-on across 3 different airports end-to-end, sometimes more than once! (with some asthma issues thrown in for good measure), an unplanned flight to and night spent in Chicago, missing a half day of work on Wednesday, eating no actual meals on Tuesday (dinner consisted of 1/3 a bag of Cheezits! YUM!), and conveniently having no customer service desk in Minneapolis.
You silly airline!
I mean I love Cheezits and all, and I have been trying to exercise more, so I'm really thankful that they conveniently removed us from that flight that would have gotten us to Minneapolis, thus connecting to get back home, on schedule.

After a day like that, anyone would be glad to come home from where ever they are.

And now, what I know you've been waiting for.....

PICTURES
OF ALASKAN BEES!!!!!

A bumblebee on a giant Dandelion.
His fuzzy bee butt was a neat reddish color!



Is this a bee?
It looks like a bee.
He buzzed like a bee.

But I can't find a picture of him anywhere online to confirm what he is. He must be in the bee family, I just want to know what kind he is. I just LOVED his yellow knobby antennae!

It's A Livin' Thing...

Or at least it is until I kill it!... Well, them.

Observe:



I have found new love.
In the form of succulents.

I've had an aloe plant for a couple of years now, as well as a jade plant. The jade plant took a lot of trial and error but I finally found success with it in bright sunny windows with a tiny bit of water once a week or so... and most importantly out of reach of the dog.

I believe the one in the green pot is a member of Haworthias. The other two look similar to my jade plant, so maybe it belongs to that Family (Genus? Order? Whatever)? They look like a jade with fatter, pointier leaves.

They've been surviving in this spot for about a week now with no signs of ill health, and the dog hasn't discovered them. Or maybe he HAS discovered the bitter stuff I sprayed all over them. At any rate, I've officially taken them off suicide watch for now.

I bought them to compliment the Carribbean wall my husband and I just finished up, here:


We finally got to hang up some of the pottery we painted on vacation in Cancun, back in 2007! (Which happens to be the same trip where I took the inspiration photo for my Palmera del Coco painting.)
I had gotten these great teal stained picture frames a while back, so I put some tropical pictures in them.


Here are some photos of the ridiculousness during the painting process.




What an awful photo, but I'm sharing it anyway since it's funneh.

Seriously.... It's done now.

Talk about taking forever! I signed it though, so unless I decide not to frame this, then it's done. If I decide not to frame it, I need to paint the sides of the canvas...

So now I'm sitting here uploading this, and will post a poll on my blog about the frame- I'm not sure if I should leave it unframed, frame it in white, or frame it with wood. So if you're reading this, check out the poll on the right and let me know with a vote :)

I'm leaning toward white. White looks good with everything.

Now I sit and wonder what I should paint next. I got some GREAT pictures at the Chicago Botanic Garden last weekend, and feel a little overwhelmed and am not sure where to begin. I have a canvas with a Hawaiian Ginger started- it's the same as my drawing actually, but I got it printed on canvas and wanted to make a couple of changes. I took some pictures of banana trees, similar to this palm tree. I also have pictures of some great tropical leaves, and a whole bunch of grapes, too!

Tis the Season: Giving back to the Rainforest

It seemed like when I was growing up, around 2nd or 3rd grade (1985-ish), us kids started hearing more and more about the rainforest. "Save the Rainforest! The rainforest is disappearing at an alarming rate, and it must be saved NOW!" And our teachers taught us a little about recycling here and there, but... that was about it.

So as a kid I thought, "Okay. Recycle and turn of the water while you brush your teeth and you're 'doing your part.' Cool! The rainforest and all the animals will be saved."

But over the years, it seemed like I was still constantly hearing about the rainforest and how one day it would be completely gone. It even got to a point, at least for me as a kid, where I almost got sick of hearing about it. I mean, here I was recycling (when I could, since many public places don't even offer recycling bins alongside their trash) and trying not to waste water and all... and apparently the rainforest wasn't doing any better.

Fast forward about 15 years, to a time when my husband and I took a trip to Hawaii, and I got to experience a tropical rainforest for the very first time.
And then another 4 months after that, and I was on my honeymoon in Puerto Rico, hiking in the El Yunque rainforest.
4 days from there, and I was in St. Lucia, hiking around near the Pitons and exploring various water falls.

After visiting these places and experiencing it for myself, after all those years, it finally clicked. "Wow. So THIS is what they're trying to save and making such a big deal over. I get it now."

It's really easy to to just dismiss things that you hear about but have never personally experienced.


It may sound cliche, but I think all that travelling and hiking around really changed my life.

It definitely changed my art. And right now, my art is a big part of my life.
The giant, over sized leaves on so many tropical rainforest plants almost make you feel like a tiny minuatureized version of yourself walking around in someone's greenhouse. Plants that may look slightly familiar (houseplants you'd find in most stores, a lot of which I already had at home myself) are 10 times larger than what you might be accustomed to seeing.
But that's just the foliage....
Wait till you see the flowers.
The brightest of colors all combined on a form that looks almost alien (if you don't live in the tropics)... simply amazing. Heliconicas of all shapes and sizes.

If you're ever somewhere and within a few hours of a rainforest, and you've never seen one for yourself- you simply must go. (Even if you don't hike, there are usually areas where you can drive and see things, and easy access to a visitor center.)
Be sure to stop in at the visitor center (if one is available). They will have information on that particular rain forest, and sometimes you can see a short film about the area you are visiting. It may seem like a sort of hokey thing to do, but the films that I've seen in the visitor centers tend to be about 20 minutes long and they really are very interesting and educational. You'll learn a lot in a very short period of time.

I felt so inspired upon my return from these tropical places. I wanted to take all the beautiful things I had seen and put them onto canvas. I did with a couple, but I still haven't had the time to paint all the rainforest plants that I'd like to.

So now I've got all these ideas and a few drawings and paintings, and I've sold a few prints. I recently began to think, "here I am with all these ideas and inspiration- But the things I'm painting aren't even things that I created. They were created by Nature."
In a way it felt sort of like cheating, because it's too easy. Nature just puts it out there for all of us to see. So now I really feel like I need to give something back.

I've decided to start by taking a percentage of all my rainforest related prints and paintings and when I sell them, I can donate that. Since right now that wouldn't be anything very substantial... at all.... I'm thinking about other options- and I need to research some charities, too.