My Travelling Dream

Upon returning from the journey to distant lands I wanted to make a piece that captured my whole experience. Easier said than done. After playing with the idea of Buddha imagery and Baobabs I took a step back. Throughout Laos and Thailand, dragons adorned temples, buildings, and art work. The ancient, mythical creatures were alive and well in modern day Asian culture. I took ideas from various sculptures and paintings from around the two Asian countries I visited and added some Malagasy influence. Needless to say one of my favorite creatures fit the bill perfectly. I turned the Chameleon into a dragon like figure and had two of the colorful beasts doing battle in the sky. The piece is 11" x 17" and is made up of various Prismacolor inks and markers. INSPIRED

Thailand and Laos

After 6 weeks in the Littoral forests of Madagascar I took a few long plane rides and ended up in Bangkok. I met more people than I could count and it was a total change of pace from camp life in Mada. Bangkok is a city of 8+ million people and is non stop. After some sight seeing and partying I made my way up to Chiang Mai on a bus from the 1970s. Met more wonderful people, went to CHiang Khong, went down the Mekong River to Laos and to Luang Prabang. The city was incredible. From there we meandered down to Vang Vieng and explored the Karst mountain formations that towered over the river town. After that it was the capital city of Vientienne and back to Bangkok on a 15 hour long bus ride.
This trip was full of colorful characters, amazing temples, and lessons learned on travelling experiences. There was so much history and the appreciation for art in various realms of society made it that much better. I learned an incredible amount and was inspired every day,

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                         

The Journey

The first stop was to do work in Madagascar with an organization called Azafady. This beautiful and mysterious island is full of endemic plants and animals that have always fascinated me (as well as countless others). Unfortunately this amazing place is being devastated by human activity. From slash and burn farming to a planned mine by Rio Tinto, the flora and fauna is suffering immensely. Up to 90% of the original forests have been cleared and reduced to mere fragments.
With Azafady in the small coastal village of St. Luce volunteers and locals researched how this human activity is impacting local species. Brown Lemurs, Geckos, Pandanus trees, frogs, and various other organisms were studied.Along with this research we taught the importance of the environment to local children in what we called Club Atsataki. For may of these children this was their only formal education. It was an enlightening and humbling experience.

A Blogger's Hiatus

It has been a while since I updated. My last post was about raising funds for a trip abroad. My goal was to raise funds for a trip to Madagascar and SE Asia. Well....the fundraiser was fantastic. I nearly doubled my goal and jetted off to do conservation work in the South East corner of Madagascar. But not before I had an art show. The show featured collaborative work from George Gundlach, Dixon Barton, and myself. It was a hit and sold a few pieces along with a handful of prints.