Starling Mystery

The deaths of 75 starlings which appeared to fall from the sky and crash land on to a driveway in Somerset has mystified the RSPCA animal charity.

Natural Wonders

This photo of light hail on Loch Lomond by Lorna Cochrane.

We recently got a membership to the Denver Botanic Gardens and it is quickly becoming one of my favorite places in Denver - certainly my favorite place in the neighborhood. The gardens are a lush, sprawling oasis that offers a degree of natural solitude without having to drive into the mountains. The Gardens currently have a beautifully installed collection of Henry Moore sculptures on view.

Hiking weekend

We had a busy weekend of hiking:

Loch Lomond near Alice, Colorado
Our hike to Bison Peak - photo by Lorna Cochrane
more on the trail to Bison Peak
nearing the summit of Bison Peak
Bison Peak

Bison Peak

To top it all off we saw a black bear from the highway on the way home!

Photos from the Weekend

Photos from our weekend in Estes Park/Rocky Mountain National Park:

Fern Falls Trail:

Elk in Estes Park lake:

We also had a close encounter with a moose on the trail. Had we been walking just a little faster we might have run right into him coming around the corner on our hike. Whew!

Richard Barlow

Images from the Covers series by Richard Barlow - silver leaf on vellum.

A Pair: Two thoughts on nature

Gerhard Richter
Originally uploaded by SuperErnie

"Nature is neither beautiful nor ugly, neither good nor bad. It is fantastic, monstrous, and infinitely unrestrained. It knows no reason, but it listens to reason when it meets with resistance. Nature wants to exist and develop, that is all. Being in harmony with nature is the same as being in harmony with madness."

- Dada writer Hugo Ball (1886-1927)

"Nature, which in all its forms is always against us, because it knows no meaning, no pity, no sympathy, because it knows nothing and is absolutely mindless, the total antithesis of ourselves."

- Gerhard Richter (here)

Mary Weatherford; Vines

Mary Weatherford

Mary Weatherford, Vines, 2007, Flashe on linen, 37 x 44 inches

Mary Weatherford, Vines, 2008, Flashe on linen, 37 x 44 inches

I love it when realism looks like abstraction and vice versa.

Follow Up: Jaguars in Arizona

I posted on February 26th about a wild Jaguar caught in Arizona named Macho B...well on March 3rd, National Geographic wrote that Macho B had been put down after finding severe kidney failure in the old cat. RIP Macho B.

Thrill of Permanence

photo by flickr member azsublime

"Everything we see falls apart, vanishes. Nature is always the same, but nothing in her that appears to us, lasts. Our art must render the thrill of her permanence along with her elements, the appearance of all her changes. It must give us the taste of her eternity."

--Paul Cezanne

One year in 40 seconds

One year in 40 seconds from Eirik Solheim on Vimeo.

found via Fubiz.

On the rocks

Here are a few images I took in Rocky Mountain National Park this weekend.

Not live

These are screen captures of web-cams at night. Here are the live versions.

Fall

photo by Nathan Abels

A couple of weeks ago I flew over the mountains and I could see some small pockets of aspen trees changing colors (see this post) - well just yesterday I flew over the foothills by Boulder and you could see the yellow leaves of the aspens are in full effect.

I was debating whether I've been posting too much lately about trees and nature and not enough about art, but it is fall and it's my favorite time of year to be outside. So I suppose I would be posting more about these subjects. That and all the stuff I've been working on is in-process.

Bobcats claim foreclosed home

Headline today: "Bobcats claim foreclosed house" (photo via LA Times)

I'm certainly not the only one interested in the topic of nature taking back man-made constructions. When I posted about Scott Silvey's work back in April I explored the concept, referencing Josh Keyes as well. Then just yesterday I saw a great show on the history channel (future channel?) called "Life After People". If you get a chance to see this - do. I really enjoyed the show and it was especially interesting with all of the computer generated time-lapsed decaying cities.

Time for a Change

Isn't it time you change your desktop background? I took this photo of mountain moss and wildflowers on the shore of Loch Lomond above 11,000 ft this afternoon, and it looks great on my background...

Goodbye, 20th Century

Patte Loper, "Goodbye, 20th Century"
2006
Animated Video
9 seconds, shown as a loop

This video is based on a scene from a
David Attenborough nature documentary in
which a deer is filmed with infrared
light while walking in a completely dark
cave. The original unpublished video
contains audio of Steve Reich's
Composition for Three Microphones
performed by Sonic Youth .

Some Mystery Left

Peter Jackson's King Kong was on TV the other day, and there's a point when Jack Black's character- Carl Denham says of their recently killed-by-dinosaur colleague, "He died believing there is still some mystery left in this world - and we can all have a piece of it - for the price of an admission ticket!" Sadly, this seems to be the state of affairs in the film's setting (1930s New York) and perhaps more tragically, not much has changed. In a recent New York Times op-ed about man's control/influence over wolf populations, the writer states, "The more we think about it, the more we believe the only nature that matters anymore is human nature." The wolves of North America and the plight of the buffalo may be the most obvious examples of the concerns of human nature given preference over wildlife, but mountain lions have been in increasingly closer contact with people lately. Here in Colorado, the generally reclusive mountain lion has been seen more frequently because of the closer proximity of housing to the cougar's habitat, as well as evidence that the cougars are moving farther east - check out this footage shot in Evergreen, CO just this winter:



I think people still want to believe there are things and places that are undiscovered or unexplained (there certainly are), and on April 14, 2008 something happened in a Chicago suburb that helped keep that spirit alive - a mountain lion was roaming the streets in Chicagoland. I came across this story in Cryptomundo, and I tend to avoid re-posting things, but I was so intrigued by the story and the strangely beautiful photos that I had to share it. As you can see, it did not end well for the cougar. These pictures are by The Chicago Tribune’s photographer Candice C. Cusic:



A 150 pound cat in Chicago area. I love these photos - they seem haunting and poetic to me. To add to the bizarre nature of this story - the animal was shot down in the streets like a criminal, complete with crime-scene red tape. Of course, everyone's asking how it got there, and as far as I know there are no real answers. I guess there's still some mystery left...

Amy Stein

There's a very worthwhile and recommended interview with Amy Stein here. She provides the reader with interesting insights into her image-making process including her discussion of the research and collaboration involved in making her most recent series, "Domesticated". When asked about her working process, she simply states, " Interest is piqued, research is done, locations are scouted, pictures are taken." Well put Amy.

Amy Stein, "Inbetween"- 24 x 30 inches, Edition of 12 - 30 x 40 inches, Edition of 3Nathan Abels, "Street Lights, Fog and Trees" - notice how similar my photo is to Amy Stein's photo below - but how much better her photo is...one small element changes the entire image - making it much more conceptual, provocative and in my opinion - much more interesting.

Amy Stein, "Untitled"(?)
(I love this photo)

Amy Stein, "Hillside" - 24 x 30 inches, Edition of 12 - 30 x 40 inches, Edition of 3