Springtime and the HERPING is Fine!

Happy Herping one and all! It's that time of year when we run outdoors in search of eggs and hidden surprises. OK, if you're me that's what you do.

And last week was no exception--especially after having done a brief hospital stay. I was more than ready to get UP and get OUT and the Brighton Rec. Area, our first choice, is one of our favorite hiking and herping places.

So, Lori, what the heck is a herp? A herp (short for herpetology--the study of amphibians and reptiles) is a turtle, frog, salamander, or snake. The day had warmed nicely, (remember warm weather?) so by the time we hit the trail the frogs were in tune and were having a grand ol time. There were the chorus frogs (sounds like a thumb running over a comb) and the spring peepers (high, shrill peeping song) and wood frogs (sounds like quacking ducks). I could tell it would be a good hike if I kept my ears and eyes open .

When herp hunting and hiking don't forget to do some "log rolling". This is a great way to spot tiny red-backed salamanders. I was successful in finding a few this day. It was Marie and Lisa's first time to see a "red-back" and were surprised to see that the lil guys are no bigger than a worm. Tightly coiled under rotting logs they stay cool and moist. While you're investigating look the red-back salamander neighbors, worms, mites, sow bugs and of course the small white, round "sally" eggs.
And, while you're "log rolling" don't forget to "roll back", meaning replace the cover material over the herp to keep it safe and moist. If the cover item is too heavy, roll it as close as possible and keep the disturbance of the habitat to a minimum.

Spring creepy crawlers

As the day went on, I sprawled out on a fallen oak and took in the sights, smells and frog song and watched vernal pond life waking. Water mites, mosquito larva and beetles danced in the sun on the water surface and below. Very hypnotizing and calming. That's when Marie, who was on her own wildflower hike, called me over to see a Blanding's turtle making her way to the trail through the leaves.

Spring Hide and Seek

This turtle, Michigan's species of special concern, is known for their bright lemon-yellow throat. Whew! I knew this female was safe out here in the woods, but out in suburban areas her kinfolk would be crossing the roads to lay eggs and dodging cars. I've seen so many of these beautiful Blanding's end up a scarred and dead turtles. It's not pretty. And it's not like they are a small turtle and easily missed. Some folks seem to think of them as a disposable, moving target and this valuable herp is at risk this time of year. So keep an eye out for turtles as you go about your day.

As this was a day of "sally's", frogs and turtles--and no snakes, I decided to go back the next day and try my luck at another vernal pond.

Crossing a stream and up through whispering pines I came to another popular frog pond and went into the woods.

I had taken my exploring equipment and a McDonald's yogurt parfait (which after emptying and wiping clean, makes an excellent mini aquarium for observation) into the woods for a relaxing pond sit. I was kept company by racing chipmunks and thumbnail-sized spring peepers who hopped like popcorn through the leaves.

Sitting there, I was entertained by the wood frogs and their never ending circular spinning and chasing and warbling song, I noticed EGGS in the oak leaf-carpeted water! Round, jelly-like globs with dark centers were attached to submerged oak leaves here and there. What a find!

After scooping and sketching the eggs I placed them carefully back in the water and collected a take-home water sample in my official "McDonald's parfait and specimen observation container" for my microscope.

Once home with my sample, I was amazed to see creatures doing their own springtime dance under a 40x power microscope objective on the glass slide.

Squirming, jerking, zipping, rolling, squeezing and propelling endlessly.

All in all it, was a fascinating and complete look of vernal pond life and end of adventure. Life above, below and on the surface.

I hope you take time to GET UP and GET OUT for an egg and treasure hunt this month and see your own Spring Show while it's still playing at a pond nearest you!

Hospital ART!

"When I was sick and lay abed, and had two hospital pillows at my head,

All about me pen and paper lay

And my new NOOKcolor on which to play!"



Down to my "beaver boxers"!

HOSPITAL! Disrobe and put on this crazy cool gown. Now lie still as nurses plaster more sticky pieces on you than checkers on a game board!

The weekend went from going to Barnes & Noble for Advanced Nookcolor classes to a trip to the Urgent Care clinic in a heartbeat (pun intended). After battling 8 weeks of a bronchitis thing I got light-headed whilst driving myself to the Nook class. And to make a painfully long story short, I went in with heart palpitations, low pulse, chest pressure...and VOILA! I ended up with an Ambulance ride to St. Joe's in Howell when it was suspected that I might have a blood clot in my lungs or legs.

Marie and Lisa were in Saline doing a show there and hurried their tushes down to the hospital with my sketchbook (bless you girls!!) and my NEW Nookcolor (bless you again girls) and underwear. I can honestly say, I could not have made it through without my Nook, and perhaps my underwear. But the Nook certainly made the stay fun.

While nurses were poking me with needles every two hours and keeping my arm straight with my IV in, I had my Nook. Now let me say here, that I had until two weeks ago, SWORE that I WOULD NEVER own one of those new-fangled contraptions. Wrong! It turned out to be a fab marketing tool. "Here let me show you my website, Nurse Margaret!"
From, soothing Pandora tunes, to downloading new ebooks from the big kid book on the caves of Jean Auel to mid-grade kid fiction of Katie Kazoo, to checking my email and updating friends and family on my condition on Facebook. I was spellbound. And I had the time to explore my Nook and all of its crannies and apps more. I am hooked on my Nook!

Then reality set in. Dum-Dum-DUM!!!

What am I in here for anyway? Health scare! ARGH!

It hit me. I better take care of myself better! I had just gotten an all clear on my chest x-ray and was awaiting a heart echogram. I better lose weight. So who did I turn to? My Nook. I downloaded the 17 Day Diet. I had been reading the sample pages and everything seemed to jive with me. And while waiting for heart tech Frank to show up with his machine, I read Dr. Phil's book on my nook.

Rest, relaxation, eat right, and some butt-scratching exercise!

OK, maybe not butt-scratching exercise. But you get my drift. Get OUT and move is the key here. I have been having leg problems (which the prednisone has been helping now, too) and this was a good scare to get me going and resting occasionally. We here at Bear Track Studios, like most folks, sit at a desk or work too durned much! Not good, especially for artists and advocates of nature. Oh, for shame! Tsk, tsk.

A Happy Ending! Daylight at the end of the tunnel!

So after my ride home from the health hoosegow, it hit me:  what matters is family & friends and most of all--YOUR SELF and Your HEALTH! And having a sketchbook and Nook close at hand doesn't hurt either!


Take care of YOU!

Florida UNLEASHED!

Just got back from a whirlwind trip that consisted of visiting the swamps and shores of Florida, on foot and in kayak.

The first place to visit by kayak was Blue Springs State Park. Blue skies, beautiful weather and the rush of a gator toward us made for a breathtaking trip. We were watching local turtles performing their ballet when the gator splashed us back into reality. We were in the water with things bigger than us! Including manatees that could knock us over in a heartbeat.

This event preceded a spooky trip down a canal through floating plants of water celery and green beds of large duckweed. As we worked our way--usually pushing our kayaks with the paddles through the green stuff and around, over and under fallen trees--the thought came to mind of snakes. I wanted to see snakes on this trip--maybe dangling from branches, but became more disappointed as we went along.

Plenty of anhinga, black-crowned night heron and even wild turkey--but no snake. Until... We were hungry, exhausted and tired of sitting in our "yaks", when out of the corner of my eye, in a hole in the bank, a face stuck out and stared at me. Huh! Strange--almost toy-like, with a black band. Something told me NOT to go back and check it out. Which is good that I listened to that voice--as water moccasins live here--or cottonmouth. Whew! I'm glad I didn't investigate the snake that watched me.

Next, on to the beach. How dangerous can that be? OK, so the rip tide was strong and I did get in to the ocean, but I also didn't want to mess up my knee again like I did last summer, so I sat out on swimming. But while sitting on the beach--hello, what's this? Floating on the water, a curious thing that looked like a puffed up Jiffy Pop container. Maybe it was a message in a bottle. So I followed it in to shore with binocs. I got up to investigate and was quickly thwarted by Lisa and Marie who informed me that it was a Portuguese Man-o-war--very dangerous. I stayed clear of the long six foot tentacles but was still intrigued by the rich color and wanted to get a closer look. Oh, that urge to touch! Dang. Not this time either. (The prickly pear cactus was nothing compared to this guy.)

So the next trip was hiking a path filthy with 'Beware Gator' signs. Here I got to see a ring-necked snake and a water snake. Tons of little lizards, the green anoles, and of course a larger three foot lizard, a gator sunning itself. Pretty cool. But there was more to explore. Pelican Island, the very first National Wildlife Refuge and Merritt Island and Barrier Island Sanctuary and finally the Intracoastal waterway of the Indian River Lagoon.

This was the most fantastic trip yet. To be in a kayak and having dolphins fishing mere feet from your vessel. It was breathtaking as osprey dove, pelicans dive-bombed and herons lunged for breakfast. Dolphins were everywhere as were the mullets and snooks leaping clear of the water in the clear blue sky.

THIS was Florida UNLEASHED!

NEW Spring Release of LISSY-LOST!

I haven't gotten around to blogging in the last week because of the tumult of activity here at Bear Track Studios. Usually projects fly in and out the door, but this past week has been a doozie! Bear Track Press, now a new subsidiary of Bear Track Studios, LLC, is about to re-release, Lissy-Lost!

THE NEW COVER



THE NEW Lissy

I wrote and illustrated
Lissy-Lost! over 8 years
ago, and as an idea and suggestion from friends, got the story published.
However, the original story came along 3 years

prior to the publishing. It was

all about three little old witches, then after taking classes at the Institute for Children's Literature, and my daughter's insistence, a child hero character entered the tale--Lissy.



THE NEW Witches Three

When it was decided this year to redo the book, the

race was on!  Lissy-Lost! went through somecosmetic

clean-up work and got a new face--new  cover, new art,

new publisher--all of which happened in the last 3 weeks!

This project, though fun, had me at my drawing table at
6am redoing and redesigning--everything. Then to
complete the book, it took MUCH work from many
people. Combining the time and talents of an excellent
editorial team (Lisa Ramlow, Marie Rust, and Karin Fish)
we had to rush to get this book finished in time for

MARCH IS READING MONTH! and spring
school programs. 
  

What I've posted here are a few original scans of the new book art. The new characters have an updated, warm, humorous look. I had great fun in re-creating this new cast.

When I started playing around with Lissy's new look last year, I never imagined that the book would ever be redone (Publish America took it out of print). This year, when I started toying around with the serious notion of a Lissy-Lost! sequel I figured that they all needed a little primping.



THE NEW Twiggedy Jig

And so, next week, Lissy-Lost!, will once again, wander the wild with wonder!

PS: Many thanks Editorial Team!







Golden Spring on My Drawing Table

Oh, the surprise of realizing that the snow had pretty much vanished when I looked outside this morning. Ah, the ever approaching golden spring nears!

But wait, that means art work needs to get finished for shows this summer. I had started a series of art pieces, Sisters of the Earth:  Honoring Michigan Habitats, this past winter when inspiration hit like a bolt of Lori Lightning. In usual fashion, paper flew, paint spattered, knives and scissors flashed liked Edward Scissorhands, and gel mediums spillethed over as various sized rocks and stones held pieces in place to dry. Then they sat. For two months.

Today, after a slew of writing and county projects near completion, I got up the nerve to walk into my studio and ready myself to be reinspired to work on them again. I tried. Really. But something keeps pulling me away. Maybe something was not working in the current stage that they were in so what better thing to do than take photos to see at a distance. That's kinda working on them, right? Well, it did give me something to blog about.

Here they are. Pieces that sit on my studio drawing table. Artwork in progress.


Northern Fen-Promise of New Life 



Northern Fen (detail)

I took the experiences and photos of our Rifle River trip last spring and creating watercolors, I cut and layered them onto Aquaboard that I had previously prepped with Daniel Smith watercolors.



River of Life (work in progress)

 


Detail



This piece was reworked from a previous painting I had done and sold around seven years ago. It was a personal favorite and I have tried redoing it several times--but could never quite be satisfied with them. So I pulled out the image again and changed the theme to the river.

This shot, taken without a flash, shows the layers of watercolor images more clearly. The watercolor cast of river characters were cut and torn and then I altered them with colored pencil and gouache. I found that using the Aquaboard as a substrate was fun and sturdy for my layered process. I can use different
watercolor techniques to get the look I want. It was the first time using this board and I was happy with the results.

Now if I can finish the panels that would be great. Maybe they will get done by the time dragonflies fly and pitcher plants bloom and certainly by the time rose hips drop. 

Shiver on the Detroit River!

Brrr! Cold, early--I better see something good. We, Marie and I, were headed to Detroit's Belle Isle for a Saturday morning of "Audubon" birding. A rush to get out of the house and into a warm van is usually chaotic at best, but boy did we screw up today! To start with, neither one of us brought warm hats. I don't know if you've ever been in Detroit in the winter, but DANG the wind is horrible cold. At home, I can run out to the chickens and scoop their coop in nothing but my wool shirt, longjohns and bandana--no problem, but Detroit--it's a different story.


Along with not bringing hats (this is winter, right?), neither one of us brought a bird book, (waiting for sighs and gasps here! This is a birding trip--yeesh!!!) and Marie forgot binocs (more sighs and gasps--"What are they thinking?" I can hear you saying--BUT luckily I brought mine), and we did pack snacks. Hey, important stuff like that counts, right? A birding expedition and no binocs, no hats, no books, but we had Triscuts and cream cheese and nuts and water!

When we arrived, die-hard birders (the real deal) were flinging Latin names around of birds I never knew existed. I suddenly became quite interested in squirrels and tried to watch them intently in case anyone wanted a comment from me on some specie I knew nothing of. I kept looking at trees and saying things like, "Oh, a sycamore tree. Ah!" or "Look, a melanistic-phased gray squirrel". I did alot of squirrel watching.

So as my feet turned to ice blocks standing and waiting outside (Marie had had the heat on in the van--and we got too warm) we at last piled into vehicles to drive out to see the fabulous birds and waterfowl Detroit has to offer at this frigid time of the year. The leader mentioned that the birds are here at Belle Isle because the river is the last to freeze so this is where they hang out. Now I need to tell you, that the leader of this group also mentioned that it would be good to have spotting scopes as opposed to binocs (remember I brought mine) which were not strong enough to see the birds today. Look Mister, I had my binocs and by golly I was going to use them. I would simply make up detail.

Well, by Jim, he was right. We pulled to the side of the river and the pepper flakes in the distance near the Ren Cen were geese and gulls. Now, that does not excite me. Geese and gulls. All they do is eat and poop--all over. Why these birders were so excited, I could not imagine. More Latin spilled out at the thrill and excitement of their spotting a Greater and Lesser Black-backed Gull. A gull, I thought. Those annoying guys that eat McDonald's fries and rip up donut bags in the parking lot of Walmart?



 After that stop, my cheeks became so numb from the needle-poking icy wind that I did my "birding" and sketching in the van. Every so often I would yell out the window to Marie, a real trooper, "Whatcha got? Anything interesting?" There were some golden-eyes out there--somewhere--I think. In my binocs they looked like paint flecks spattered across the water.
But it was the dang gulls that seemed to have everyone in awe. Folks blissfully withstood the cold to gaze at them--long, long gazes. Sure, I did get out once and took a peek. But come on, how long can you stare at a gull?

Suddenly, a Long-tailed duck was spotted! Marie's camera clicked continually as she swung from left to right, shooting in the direction of their cries of delight. (We never spotted it in her photos when we got home.) Finally, we moved cars over to the Canada side. Aha! Canada! Surely there must be some wild and rare specie here! It's Canada for crying out loud. The home of wolves and wolverines and bears and--mute swans! Those guys that--never mind--I won't get into it.

At this point, I must say that my morning cup and a half of coffee was getting to me. The trip had started at 9am and certainly it must almost be done. No. It was 10:30 by the time we got to the "mutes". Then around 11a.m., the Audubon leader told us we were going to look for a saw-whet owl in the nearby "forest of Detroit" on Belle Isle. Aha! Just what I have been waiting for! An owl! Yes!


Marie drove the van past the porta-johns and parked up the road--a long ways. Um. I had to really go, by now. The group started off through the foot deep snow to the trail to owl-spotting, while I trekked to the porta-john. Cold plastic. That's all I can say. ('m surprised that the group didn't hear me HOOT!) When I got out of the the lil blue house, the group was looong gone.

I will track them--the group, I thought. Huffing and puffing over snow drifts, down the trail, through the woods--alone. (A helicopter flying overhead made me nervous.) I walked and walked. Then I spotted our group! But they were heading back. What? I fell in line behind Marie who was hauling her camera and tripod.
"No owl," she said.
"What do you mean?"  I wheezed and coughed and used my abdominal breathing to get back to the van.
"They didn't see it where they thought it was, so they turned around," she said marching with the group.
At this point--left behind again--I was so warm I had taken off my baseball cap, and my coat, and had rolled up the sleeves up my wool shirt (I still had two other shirts on underneath and my longjohns, too).

To sum up the morning: Owl-0, Gulls, geese and swans-450,402.
But I did get my cheese and crackers and watched alot of squirrels.
Birding in Detroit--for me--not so much. At least not in the winter!

Cabin Fever? Go Hunting!



Birds at the feeder...



Lisa Making Fire...(tee-hee)













What are some things an artist can sketch while stuck inside during those post blizzard, pre-spring wintery days?

Go hunting! Sometimes the best material may be hidden out in the open or sitting right next to you!


Lisa Napping...(tee-hee)






WARNING! Those living with artists have to put up with us sketching them when they least expect it. It's fun for us having ready models at beck and call.






Then again you can always sit and stare at the four walls or chimney bricks and find scenes hidden there. I did these last winter recuperating from my toe surgery. It was like artist television--sitting in the winter quiet and letting the shadows and your imagination do all the work.
BTW, we are NOT nuts, we are creative!

Ideas for Graphic Novel Story and Character!





What will you and your sketchbook find in the
shadows or corners in the next few weeks?


A Stalking Quilt Lion!





There maybe a character
or story waiting to be told right there in front of you!

Set your sights. Happy hunting!