Big Red

Houston, Texas ~ February 4, 2011

Houston seems to have a wealth of sculptures that have no apparent reason for existing other than fact that someone wanted to put it there. In other words, the big red chicken isn't necessarily advertising a restaurant or any other business. I'm sorry I didn't get a better angle, and yet it's too good not to post. I think I caught it "on the fly" out of the car window. My thanks to Barbara for taking us where we could see many, many unexpected sights.

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Phoenix and Chimera at Warwick Castle

Warwick Castle, England ~ February 17, 2010

Designs of phoenix and chimera adorn this bold leaded glass window in an upper hallway of Warwick Castle.

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Devil Dogs of Houston

Houston, Texas ~ February 7, 2011

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A Tiger in a Roman Villa

Villa Romana del Casale near Piazza Armerina, Sicily ~

April 28, 2004

Please click the photo to enlarge

Here a tiger strides through one of the rooms in the Villa Romana del Casale. Visitors tread on raised walkways under the watchful eye of a guide. All of the floors were covered in a thin layer of mud on the day we visited, so I imagine the colors of all of the mosaics are actually brighter than you see here. I've also posted a few photos of this Roman ruin on my Tapirgal's Daily Image blog.

This blog is sponsored by Tapir and Friends Animal Store.

Animal Baskets of the Embera People

Panama ~ January 7, 2006

These beautiful baskets using animal designs are made by the Embera people of Panama. See this post on Tapirgal's Daily Image for a photo of an Embera woman selling some of her village's jewelry and baskets. There is also a longer explanation about the Embera people, who live along the Chagres River and in the Darien area of Panama.

Oops. I see I posted this photo on Animal Art last June, but it was cropped differently. I love the colors and the artwork, and I'm going to leave it. I started a system once of re-naming photos to indicated that I'd used them on blog posts, but I only used it for a few days because it required going back to the original photo after I'd saved the copy elsewhere and I'd simply forget to do it. Does anyone have a great system to share for avoiding duplicate postings?

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Another Elephant Sculpture at the Zoo in Tucson

Tucson, Arizona ~ December 26, 2004

Reid Park Zoo

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"The Dragon of Sant'Elia"

I painted this dragon in about 1978. It's probably the largest canvas I've ever done. Through a number of moves and lack of care, it is gone now, but I photographed it before it disappeared. I'm guessing it was about five feet tall. The dragon, the street sign, and the doorway come from a photo I took of the Town Hall (Rathaus) in Munich. I would have to hunt for that photo, so I'll link to photos that someone else put online. Here is one of the dragon sculpture, and here is one showing the dragon showing more of the Rathaus.

I didn't like the way the painting was going when I tried to paint it to look like the original building and sculpture, so I changed the color of the dragon and obliterated the setting except for the street sign. So, what to use for a background? I took the design from a drawing of by Antonio Sant'Elia for building in the Futurist style. Somewhat modified, but not much, I thought it was the perfect setting for my dragon. Although realistic street sign was now totally out of place, I liked the balance and couldn't think of anything I'd prefer to put there, so I left it. It's the tail end of "Weinstrasse" with a German double "s."

Since the sign has a story behind it, I thought I'd link with "Signs, Signs" today.

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