Today I'm re-publishing a mugshot: Return of the Mystery Fish for as of yet, no one has left a comment identifying this little blue and yellow fellow. Please ID him if you can!
Yes, naturally I learned my lesson after I had neglected to add Mystery Fish's name to the back of the paper so I've made certain ever since that each fish I draw has both its common and Latin names penciled on back before any portrait is complete - though technically, this drawing has a missing bit toward the fish's tail - have a go @ spotting it if you can!
Well, all the Dreamyfish in this art collection have properly fussed me out for not being aware that today, October 15, is annual Blog Action Day. I did not know that, I told them, and to make amends, I'm posting an excellent observance by my astrologer friend, Donna Cunningham, whose brilliant Skywriter blog is focused today on what we all need in abundance: clean water and how we can preserve it.
Thanks, Donna, from me and from every little Dreamyfish Art denizen who heartily approves your message! I grew up drinking artesian well water and wish I had a glass this very minute. Good times!
The Two Fish of Pisces, a drawing by Jude Cowell 2010
Heads up! A movement is underway for taking action on climate change issues. Check out the 10.10.10 website for more information and find out what you can do to participate.
Yes, October 10, 2010 will be here very soon and our little Bengal sergeant is calling us to arms!
And for all manner of science and environmental news Bengal sergeant also recommends to you the Earth and Sky website.
A personal fave of mine in the animal kingdom has always been otters for who doesn't love to watch the charming little critters play and play and play?
Well, I simply had to post this HuffPo link so you will be certain not to miss this collection of otter photos. Especially check out the first image of Ol Stink Eye - it's hilarious!
And from a Dreamyfish Art post of August 2008, here's a National Geographic video of a playful otter tangling with a pufferfish which defended itself quite well, thank you.
Names are being named for their poor safety decisions that issued from BP's Houston Texas offices just prior to the April 20, 2010 Deepwater Horizon Oil and Methane Gas Blowout in the Gulf of Mexico, and frankly I and my little Dreamyfish Art denizens are glad the truth is finally coming out.
More truth, please! And how about some personal accountability while you're at it?
Well, the official committee report is said to be due out in January 2011 and perhaps we'll hear more info as the months go on.
Meanwhile, here's one of my pencil portraits of a denizen of Western Australia for you now...lone reader, I present to you the Honorable Knightfish!
Hurrah! It's good news for oil-covered sea turtle victims of the BP-Gulf Oil disaster. They've been cleaned and spruced up and are now released to seek their fortunes in the Atlantic Ocean!
Hope it works out for them. They may be better off than the human victims of this freakish fiasco though BP reports today that the newly installed cap is working - no oil is gushing into Gulf waters as of today's efforts.
Well, that news deserves a (very cautious) Hurrah as well.
Wonder if 'cautious hurrah' is an oxymoron of sorts?
Ready or not, America, here it comes: the US FDA is about to okay genetically modified salmon for our suppers.
Well, since salmon is my very very favorite fish for dinner and since Frankentein food is one of my worst nightmares, I am decidely not dreaming of GM salmon on my din din menu. And their increased size is hardly the issue.
In fact, this sounds like a lousy gene-altering idea to me.
How does it sound to you, little Spotted boxfish?
(He doesn't look remotely interested, does he? But every salmon-eating bi-ped should be.)
Good news! The June 18 Red Sea Oil Spill is now successfully contained and under control, reports the excellent X-RAY MAG.
And here you see a portrait of a little Western footballer from Western Australia who's very pleased to hear the good news concerning his Red Sea cousins.
Wonder if there are any lessons from the Red Sea for cleaning up the BP-Gulf Oil disaster in the Gulf of Mexico? For there seems to be no mop big enough to contain the worst environmental disaster is US history (so far.)
Well, The Daily Green provides freshly updated reports on how the Gulf Coast and ocean clean-up efforts are going and how the folks in the devastated region are managing (to the extent that they are.)
But one person didn't manage at all, for I'm very sorry to note that the BP Oil disaster and its dire effects have caused one ship captain to commit suicide. He'd been helping with BP's clean up efforts but it was all too much for him.
How very very sad and this blogger sends out heartfelt condolences to his family.
As you see from this blog of botanical fish illustrations, I adore fish of all stripes and hues. So just when I think dealing with the Carnage on the Gulf Coast due to the marine and shoreline assault from the BP Oil disaster of April 20, 2010 is getting a little easier, I run across this heart-tugger:
Sea Creatures Flee Oil Spill, Gather Near Shore
By JAY REEVES, JOHN FLESHER and TAMARA LUSH
Dolphins and sharks are showing up in surprisingly shallow just off the Florida coast. Mullets, crabs, rays and small fish congregate by the thousands off an Alabama pier. Birds covered in oil are crawling deep into marshes, never to be seen again. #
They're gathering near shore as if we can help them while the US Congress pretends to fuss out BP's CEO Tony Hayward who says he's 'distraught.'
I have to stop blogging now. There's much praying to do.
Today's good news is that Breaksea cod is now appearing on cool stickers to remind us all to Save Our Oceans!
The bad news is that there's a lot of saving that needs to be done - even before the ongoing Gulf oil spill fiasco occurred. If someone wanted to break some hearts by way of sabotage or by negligence, they succeeded too well, didn't they?
Turns out that Halliburton was involved in the recent setting up of the oil platform that "exploded" so we'll see if the corporation's role is honestly and fully investigated, and if it amounts to anything.
Well, click above to view Breaksea cod's 'sticker debut' then visit Jude's Zazzle Art Shop to discover more fishy items fit for browsing, plus, a whole bunch of other designs besides...
Here's a little Knightfish swimming in from Western Australia and wondering if we'll ever get our act together enough to...
Save Our Oceans!
So now this lovely underwater photo of a Knightfish (aka, Pineapple Fish for obvious reasons) has turned up so you may wish to snag yourself a view while you still can.
When Cardinalfish comes out to play the smaller fishies speed away!
Actually I don't know if all the smaller fishies speed away. Perhaps some of them mosey away but no one could blame them for this yellow Cardinalfish seems poised for quick action...even if only in his private dreams here in the Dreamyfish Art Gallery!
Now I am about to do something I don't think I've ever done on this Save Our Oceans blog: pass along a link to a site that sells fish: their page displays photos of reputedly available Cardinalfish of which there are many in glorious colors and stripes. J'adore the blue one!
Personally I'd want to research a fish-procuring company's policies and methods concerning how they procure their offerings to the public of tropical and other fish. Sounds quite lucrative, doesn't it? Especially if certain other wildlife specimen are included in their product line.
However, one reason the link is being included is the paragraph at the bottom of its webpage with info (which has nothing to do with stalking, Australian dentists stealing Clownfish, or with denuding coral reefs of their denizens) that tells how various lighting in aquariums affect the colors of the fish you might order online - and the fact that AquaCon cannot gurantee your fish will look or be the same color or shade of color as you saw online. So there. Seems fair to me.
But tell me: why do some companies use the word con in their names if they want the public to trust them? Oh well. Enjoy the fish photos, they're lovely. But our yellow fellow's mugshot is not among the finny panoply!
On Saturday, Feb 20, 2010, my family and I attended Planet Shark Blogger Day at Atlanta's Georgia Aquarium with a complimentary ticket I received just for being a blogger!
Cameras snapped (though not in the Planet Shark exhibit - photos are not allowed - never annoy sharks!) and charming formally-dressed African Penguins greeted us as we entered the main area, with their good looks fully on display (myself was quite dishevelled, but never mind.)
Attending with a four-year-old was a real treat as she stooped down to go behind some of the fish tanks with the other kids to snag herself a different perspective. Viewing fishes and sharks swimming in tanks over our heads was quite marvelous, although if I had to make a suggestion for the Aquarium it would be for cleaner glass on display cases so that photos would turn out clearer.
An Emerald Tree boa, Corallus caninus, curled around a tropical tree limb in one exhibit that held so much greenery it made me want to climb in (if only the boa would vamoose!) for jungle scenery is my idea of earth's luscious beauty worth curling up in.
Another exhibit sported a very long alligator that seemed to swim by to pose for his daily camera ops - he's obviously an old hand at meeting the public. Spanish Moss hanging from the trees made a lovely accompaniment for the alligator's prehistoric countenance along with his tank mate, a massive-sized snapping turtle lurking in a nearby cove...no young whippersnapper there.
The Aquarium's Electric Fish exhibit was very popular, and its eels, Electrophorus electricus, and Catfish, Malapterurus electricus, stole the show - yet the Coldwater Quest display was one of my favorites because of its Kelp Forest tank (Kelp grows about a foot a day - kind of like a four-year-old!) and I adored the lovely Sea Anemones and Urchins. But the Crustaceans? Not so much, although they are a curiosity. (How people manage to consume them and like it is way beyond me...I prefer my fish dinners to have fins, thanks very much.)
And as you may expect, the played-out otters all asleep and piled upon one another, were favorites, too, and our cat-loving young lady fell in love with the furry fellows. Yet since I tend to draw botanical portraits of tropical fish from Southern Australia, you may imagine that the Aquarium's Rockfishes and the Tropical Diver exhibit - The Coral Kingdom - hit big home runs with this artist.
And what would any Aquarium be without orange and white Clown fish, model for Pixar's character in the popular Finding Nemo film? (One of my personal favorites, and yes, I've owned a copy since its release...just keep swimming...)
Plus, 'common' or not, who doesn't love an amazing color-changing Common cuttlefish, Sepia officinalis, to go along with your Atlantic - or Pacific - sea nettles? But always stay on their good side if you can figure out which side that is!
Well, thanks for browsing the Georgia Aquarium with me, and do make plans for a visit if you're ever in the Atlanta, GA area, okay?
Now here's a handy $2-off coupon which you may wish to print out for Planet Shark!
~~Offer expires March 14, 2010 -- 4 ticket maximum~~
~:~
Here's a drawing of a clump of Giant Red Kelp that I rendered some time ago for you in case you missed it. jc
