Sad but True...

Another news story has inspired me to make some art...   the latest, a story about a young bear that gets hooked on people food...  "Bear falls through skylight, eats cupcakes."  Of course it ends badly for the bear as is often the case when people and wild life cross paths.

Previously (in 2012) I made this piece inspired by another animal tragedy "Alligator bites hand off of tour boat guide" .  The insult to injury in that story is eventually the guide is charged with having fed the gators for the benefit of his business.

 

 I doubt people will ever be satisfied with their urge to sprawl and consume every parcel of land for their own use leaving nowhere for wildlife to be wild. Encroachment and using animals for entertainment are serious concerns.  Maybe someday we'll all learn to coexist. Until then I guess I'll keep immortalizing these stories in images.  Long live Cupcake.

then and now... the german printmaking thing persists

I started learning German in college after my first trip to Germany and because of my penpal in Hamburg...and my family heritage... and it just seemed to fit...  at the same time I was learning printmaking which too has ties to Germany...  I made the image on the left "Ich Habe So Oft Von Deutschland Geträumt" (translation: I so often dreamed of Germany) at that time and just have now finished my version of "Rotkäppchen" (Red Riding Hood) shown on the right.   Now German is such a normal part of my life I can't believe I didn't always speak it-not that I'm fluent but I can get by at a party if the opportunity presents itself and it helps that usually people are kind enough to overlook my limited vocabulary and dodgy grammar...   and printmaking likewise is integral to who I've become. 

For fun you can read Red Riding Hood in both English and German simultaneously with this side by side comparison of text and translation: http://germanstories.vcu.edu/grimm/rot_dual.html
Enjoy!