Maybe I should draw more abominations of nature. They’re fun!

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Photo #366: CatsharkTime Drawn: April 2010

I rarely do commissions. I don’t care for the back-and-forth of figuring out what exactly the person wants. It’s far too social for me, and my creativity gets lost somewhere in the middle of the process.

So I only make art for people who give me lots of wiggle room and who aren’t expecting any specific thing. Which basically means my parents, but hey…

In this case, one of my Dad’s coworkers was retiring and he wanted to give her a present. So he asked me to paint something involving two of her favorite things, cats and scuba diving. Or something like that, it’s been a while.

And well, this is what popped into my head.

That’s still the best scuba-mouse I’ve ever drawn.

Though I wish my blue paints scanned better. The colors got shifted a little when I digitized the image, and you can really see the brush marks in the water now…

  

Two Views of the Yellowstone Trees

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Photo #365: Reflective YellowstoneLocation Taken: Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming
Time Taken: October 2012

The water of the Yellowstone River flowing north from Yellowstone Lake heading towards the magnificent Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone is magnificently clear once the snows come.

You know, I think I detect a naming theme there…

But still, the water at this particular stretch of the river was so strikingly reflective (not to mention reflecting a rather pretty scenery) that I immediately asked my mom to pull off on the side of the road so I could grab a few photos, of which this is the best.

It was rather easy to pull off, actually. Yellowstone park is full of small turn-offs on the side of the road, every hundred feet or so. With the large amount of territory contained within the park, and the random nature of the wildlife who live there, and the even more random nature of the tourists who flock to see said wildlife, adding places for cars to stop without backing up traffic just makes so much sense.

Not that there was any traffic when I took this photo. I’m not sure there was even any cars within a mile of us. For some odd reason, Halloween day isn’t the hottest day for visitors to Yellowstone. Can’t imagine why.

  

Bubble Bubble, Toil and Trouble

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Photo #364: Bubbling PitsLocation Taken: Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming
Time Taken: October 2012

It’s interesting how quickly you get used to repeating phenomena.

I mean, after the sixth or so boiling hot pit of steaming water and mud bubbling out of the ground, powered by heat coming up from a giant pool of magma that will eventually find its way to the surface and plunge the country into darkness, they just seem so everyday.

After that, well, you just have to find the interesting ones, with odd colors or good lighting.

Both of which were available, mind you. So even that became not too surprising before long.

These particular pools have a lovely blue color, don’t you think?

Well, blue-green. Or is that turquoise? It’s tough to decide what to call colors on the edge of the large color categories.

Whatever that is, at least it goes well with the white-red-purple-brown of the ground.

  

Moss-Covered Branch, Moss-Covered Mind, sounds good to me.

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Photo #363: Mossy BranchLocation Taken: Frankfort, Michigan
Time Taken: May 2008

I like moss and lichen on bark. It’s so nice and green and damp. A good kind of damp, mind you.

A large part of it is just that if the climate supports moss growing on trees, it’s frequently a climate that works for me. I like cool, green, damp climates. They’re comfortable.

It also usually requires an older tree. Younger trees have smoother bark to help keep parasites and the like away during those crucial early years. It’s only as the tree matures that it develops a rougher bark for, um, whatever evolutionary benefit such bark imparts. It might be a necessary part of having a thick bark, with outer layers that fall off if damaged, or something.

I really don’t know as much as I’d like about trees. Most of my botany knowledge comes from reading books from the library, and well, there aren’t many people writing good books about trees. There’s a few field guides and the like, but they don’t exactly make for enthralling reading. Most of the good botany books are on flashier plants, like flowers and crops and poisonous plants.

The humble, moss-covered tree is just too common and everyday to attract enough scientists for that small percentage of writer-scientists to crop up in the field or something. Pity, really. This world needs a lot more good scientists who are also good writers. Or good film editors, or good podcasters, or whatever your favorite medium for learning science is.

You do have a favorite science-learning medium, right?

  

Dude, whatcha looking at?

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Photo #362: Curious CardinalLocation Taken: Arcadia, Michigan
Time Taken: December 2007

Dude, do you see this snow?! It’s awesome, dude!

So’s this tree!

Whatcha doing inside that building-thing anyway? You could be out here with me, dude! There’s all this great snow!

You’re really missing out, dude. Come on out, the weather’s great! And the nice old lady left a bunch of tasty seeds, dude!

I ate the best ones already. You can have the rest!

Well, if you can chase off the squirrels. Dude, squirrels are tricky, aren’t they? All that tail-twitching and seed-eating and that fur!

Wait, you don’t have feathers. Dude, are you a squirrel?!