Author Archives: makielb

And now on to the slimy art challenge – I’ll start with some of the slugs that are found in Michigan, and probably all of eastern North America. And now a fungus – this is a slime mold. we find them from early spring until late fall all over the place. A final virus noteContinue reading “The Friday funny pages and art challenge”

That really sums up me and my life. Just in our living room we have 45 feet of book shelves. But that’s how I like it. And yes, I have read most of them. And as a result of some of them, I can identify some of the insects that I find. On to theContinue reading “The art challenge and more”

For the threatened art challenge I’ll be using some illustrations of animals threatened with extinction. Kirtland’s Warbler nests mainly in Michigan with the heart of the breeding range in the Grayling and Mio areas. What threatens the warbler is the reduction in nesting habitat, extensive jack pines about 5-20 years old (5-20 feet high). OverContinue reading “Threatened art challenge”

More on Friday!

It was about 1995 in the winter that I decided to sketch people walking outside as they passed our house. I called the project “Who are the people in our neighborhood?” It was a lot of fun Many times I sketched neighbors out walking their dogs. But every sketch took less than a minute toContinue reading “The art challenge and the neighborhood”

The above photo of a gar is about as toothy as it can get. This will be one of the photos used for this “toothed” art challenge. With one exception these will all be zoo or aquarium photos. These two pine martins were found high in a spruce off Basnau Road, in Chippewa County, Michigan.Continue reading “Toothed art challenge”

So, I started taking photos in the mid-1950s with my Mickey Mouse Camera, which took 120 film. I put a roll of film through it in the early 1980s and it still worked fine. When I moved to Ann Arbor in the 1970s it was the first time in years that I didn’t have myContinue reading “The photography community in the 1970s”

This is a journal page where I was attempting to capture the essence of a soaring kettle of hawks. I used this effort to create the following watercolor painting. Painting clouds and the sky are a lot of fun for me. An illustration of a Swallow-tailed Kite that never went much further. A Scissor-tailed Flycatcher,Continue reading “Art in the sky”

The art challenge for today is “forest.” I managed to find a few things that I think qualify for this. All of the above watercolor sketches were done at Emily Lake at the base of the Keewenaw Peninsula in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. We were camping near the lake for a few days whileContinue reading “The Friday art challenge and the latest on Covid”