Day 3468: Party Girl.

 

 

 "Party Girl": ink drawing, collage & digital

 

Want music?

Click here for Lionel Richie, Easy.

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 2GN2S ...

Some of the Wildlife Photographs of the Year

 

Andrés Luis Dominguez Blanco captured this image of a European stonechat near his home in Andalucia, Spain.

French photographer Frank Deschandol managed to capture a red-banded sand wasp (left) and a cuckoo wasp about to enter adjacent nest holes.

Spanish photographer Jaime Culebras photographed this Manduriacu glass frog eating a spider in the foothills of the Andes, northwestern Ecuador.

Young Wildlife Photographer of the Year winner Liina Heikkinen captured the moment a young fox made off to eat a barnacle goose without sharing with its siblings.

 

Danish photographer Mogens Trolle photographed this young male proboscis monkey striking a pose at a sanctuary in Sabah, Borneo.

Italian-American photographer Sam Sloss captured this picture of a clown fish while on a diving holiday in North Sulawesi, Indonesia.

 

Shanyuan Li managed to capture a rare picture of a family of Pallas's cats -- or manuls -- on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau in northwest China after six years' work at high altitude.

Jose Luis Ruiz Jiménez photographed this family of great crested grebes in a lagoon near Brozas, in his native Spain.

 

Overall winner Sergey Gorshkov got this rare tigress in her Siberian forest environment using a hidden camera in the Russian Far East.

 

 

A Feel Good ...

A bear of the world 

 
Every child knows the pain of forgetting a cherished toy and thinking it lost forever. When Grayson Mulligan left his bear on a Southwest flight over Thanksgiving holiday, his parents were desperate to find it. Sadly, the bear never turned up. A team of Southwest employees was so moved by the Mulligan's search they decided to offer up the next best thing: An adorable new bear, who seems to have quite a bit of experience in the air travel industry. That's perfect for Grayson because his mother says he's been interested in planes for years, and even wants to be a pilot someday. Southwest sent the bear to Grayson, along with photos of his new friends working on the tarmac, preparing the cabin of a flight and even inspecting the cockpit. Grayson named the bear Jack because, the boy said, "He looked like a Jack to me."

 

 

 

 

A 2-minute video, happiness/nature, here.

 

Just because ...

 

Belted Kingfisher

 

 

Smiles for Wednesday ...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

                                                               Thanks for coming by today.

 

Day 3458: Tulip.

"Tulip": photo, collage & digital.

Want music?

Click here for Al Green, Love & Happiness.

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 2GN2S ...

MacKenzie Scott donates $133.5 million to educational nonprofit, Communities in Schools

 

MacKenzie Scott, who just donated $133.5 million to educational nonprofit Communities in Schools, an organization that helps students navigate issues inside and outside of the classroom. Communities in Schools works in 2,900 schools in America across 26 states, reaching a total of about 1.6 million kids. Their goal is to support students at risk of dropping out and provide resources to help young people be successful. Since her divorce from Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, Scott has donated more than $8.5 billion to organizations.

 

A feel good ...

  

True loyalty

 

What did we ever do to deserve dogs? Look at this sweet girl, waiting patiently outside of a hospital in northeastern Turkey as her owner recovered from Covid-19. When Cemal Senturk was taken to the hospital on January 14 to receive treatment, his dog Boncuk managed to escape every single day and wait by the hospital's entrance. Hospital staff informed Senturk's family about her whereabouts, but every time they retrieved her she'd find a way out again. (Senturk lived nearby, but to this day, his family doesn't know how the dog did it.) The hospital staff was charmed by Boncuk's loyalty, and made sure she was fed and cared for during her visits. Senturk even got to see her through the window of the facility, and tried to reassure her. Still, Boncuk refused to leave until he did. Luckily, Senturk beat the disease, and was reunited with his loyal pup, who was, of course, waiting right outside for him.

 

 

 

 

A sweet
2-minute video, Beluga whales, here.

 

Just because ...

 

Eurasian Jay

 

 

Smiles for Saturday ...

 

 

 

 
 

 

 

 

 

 

  

                                                               Thanks for coming by today.

 

Day 3395: Flora

 

"Flora": ink brush drawing, photo, collage & digital.

 

Want music?

Click here for  Michael Jackson, Butterflies.

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2GN2S ...

 Indoor Rainbow Made of Thread

 

The colorful string explosions of Gabriel Dawe have been mesmerizing us for years. With Plexus 35, the Mexican artist brings his work to the Toledo Museum of Art, making a bold juxtaposition between old and new. The site-specific installation is composed of embroidery threads strung to create an indoor rainbow, one that plays with space—from interior architectural elements to light sources. As light streams through the glass ceiling of the museum, it filters through the colorful threads, creating a holographic look.

 

  Dawe's Plexus series grew out of his love for embroidery, yet frustration with the time it took to create a finished product. For him, the use of textiles in his work is also a subtle way to look at notions of gender identity.

“The Plexus installations started as a big experiment using the core material of my work with embroidery. Because of the material, there is a subtext of gender politics in them, albeit subtly,” Dawe shares. “Very early on, I realized that these architectural structures made out of sewing thread were very ethereal. It was almost as if they were rays of colored light frozen in space.”

 

  Using the full spectrum of color as a point of departure, the Toledo installation is the first in which the artist has played with breaking up the colors. “Sometimes I use only a fraction of the spectrum; others I choose a different starting and ending point which goes against what you’d find in nature if you were to break up light with a prism,” he explains. “Lately, I’ve felt the desire to break it up even more, and the piece at the Toledo Museum of Art will be the first piece where I really explore the breaking up of the spectrum.” 

 

 

Feel Good ...

 

  He released a swan hooked to a net: 

"When I was holding him, I felt his heart beating."

  He just relaxed and wrapped my neck with his.  

It's a precious moment when you see an animal trusts you completely”

 

 

 

 

 

A cute 4-minute video, The Walk, here.

 

Just because ...

 

Collared Trogon

 

 

 

Smiles for Monday ...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

                                                               Thanks for coming by today.