Illustration Friday - Satellite

Lunar Horizon

12 x 12 Acrylic on Panel

This weeks submission has a dual purpose.  In addition to being my IF submission, this painting will be donated to Stephen F Austin State University's art department as part of its 12 x 12 scholarship fundraiser.  I participated in this event last year and really enjoyed the event as well as the opportunity to exhibit alongside quite a few very talented East Texas artists.  I also brought home a beautiful painting by Peter Andrews, a very gifted artist and instructor at SFA.

Now if I could just get someone to offer me a scholarship to finish my MAAE degree.  If anyone knows of scholarships for middle-aged high school art teachers, with excellent grades, working on a Masters degree, let me know!

Below is a second painting that I am donating as well.  This was inspired by a bird that has built a nest in my bicycle basket.   I have agreed to let her stay there until her babies have fledged.  It is too hot to ride a bicycle now anyway.  :)

Genesis Renewed
12 x 12 Acrylic on Panel

Illustration Friday - Ripple

 

A Spoonful of Tragedy - A Louisiana Roseate Spoonbill

2.5 x 3.5

mixed media

The folks at Illustration Friday are doing something meaningful this week.  Penelope Dullaghan has chosen the word "ripple" for this weeks theme.  She is encouraging all participants to submit and donate an ATC sized sketch card to a special project that is  raising funds to help wildlife injured by the Deep Water Horizon, Gulf of Mexico oil spill.  This project is being organized by  Kelly Light at http://ripplesketches.blogspot.com/ .  For a $10 donation you will be able to find this as well as many other original and digital artworks available.  This particular card will be sent directly from me to the purchaser when Kelly receives confirmation of a donation made to either the Institute for Marine Mammal Studies or  The International Bird Rescue Research Center .

I hope everyone who sees this blog will consider helping out by either making a donation or creating and submitting artwork to Kelly.  We all use oil.  We drive our cars, we heat our homes, we use tons of plastics and other petroleum products.  We are all responsible for this tragedy.  Perhaps this will be the thing that will help us finally decide to wean ourselves off of fossil fuels.  There are other clean options available, we just need to be willing to change.   True, it will be expensive.  It will be painful to those who need to find jobs in other industries.   But we will come to a point when we cannot afford the consequences of failure to change.  In the meantime, let's clean up this mess as best we can and save as much of our precious wildlife as is humanly possible.

By the way, the coastal marsh dwelling Roseate Spoonbill was just beginning to make a strong recovery from endangerment.  Most of this recovery was occurring in Louisiana....