LIFE OF CROW

I have been driving down a busy street for the last month and I started noticing an injured crow on the side of the street for maybe a month now. He walks on the road side and appears ok except he drags one wing.  I have thought of him many times and didn't know what to do to help him, so I tossed out dog food a couple of times didn't see him for a week or so.  Then he appeared again yesterday, I tossed out some dog food this morning, crow was no where in sight.  I noticed a wooden shelter about 3x3 cube with an open board on top at that point it appeared that someone was helping crow, I looked up at the sound of other crows on a power pole gathering above me, watching, then others swooped down over me landing close on  a nearby roof, watching.  This was crows family also watching out for him, I drove home knowing that he was no matter what his destiny he was cared for by many. I will feed him again.

NBCs UNDER WILD SKYS CANCELED

NEWS FLASH  

 

The NBCs NRA sponsored Sports Show "Under Wild Skies" has been canceled.  thanks to the Americans that are tired of the Anthony Makis of the world 

 

I am not an expert on African wildlife only from my travels in Eastern Africa and my research on the animals I sculpt.  My first bronze was an African Elephant that I saw in an African hunting brochure for big game hunters.

I started to learn of the African Elephant when I read "The Roots of Heaven" in the 1960s about Ivory Hunters after the Second WW and the real beginning of the great extermination of Africa.  In my process I learned about elephants their behavior, their uncanny insights, their memories, their compassions for each other, other creatures and man.

I had a friend tell me how elephants could be saved by killing them for money or basically by harvesting them, he also told me about old elephants dying of starvation because their teeth were so warn down that they could no longer eat, that hunting them and their tusks would improve the environment and that hunters have done more for conservation than tree huggers ever have in Africa.  Soooooo I googled "Tourists vs. Hunters in Africa and came up with astoundingly high figures for tourist over hunting.
I also found a web on lies perpetrated by the African (and also American) hunting groups about hunting is good for the environment.

 At the death of a man that re-habilitated elephants after poaching traumas.  The elephants came from three days away to stand at his home they had never been to before. Standing in what seemed to be respect they waited  for several days then suddenly departed as silent as they had arrived.  I have read about proof of superior intelligence of elephants and their extraordinary perception of being.

 

approx. 11"h x 26" w x 11"d





"On His Ground"



970-290-4615

 

 

 

 

 

 



cont. NRAs MAKIS and AMERICA

If you read my last blog posted yesterday 9/26/13 about the killing of a bull elephant on  national television by NBCs Sports Series "Under Wild Skies" by an NRA lobbyist Tony Makis.  The shooting of this magnificent intelligent beast is bad enough but Makis's inability as a gun person and a hunter which he espouses caused undue stress and torture to a being under the pressure of Ivory poachers.  Added to this ineptness his comments should enrage true hunters by blaming the escaping elephant to be "cheeky" for Makis's poor shooting.  (Watch the outdoorchannel.com/under-wild-skies).
In my opinion Makis is a paying poacher that has less excuse than Al Shabaab that poach ivory for war. 
I don't blame people like Tony Makis for their blood lust and greed, I blame the American people for their indifference and support of NBC programs like this
I appeal to Americans to look into their souls and decide if we are tired of hate, greed and think, what do we stand for and how long will we support destruction of everything in the name of greed.  BOYCOTT NBC'S UNDER WILD SKIES by not watching crap like this.

Do you care about selfishness and greed or the wild free creatures of the world.

NRA AND THE THRILL OF THE KILL

I haven't written on my blog sight now for several months, but today I read something that demands my outrage to be expressed.  I read today that NBC Sports Network an NRA sponsored program "Under Wild Skies" about hunting in Africa. Tony Makris an NRA Lobbyist kills a bull Elephant on national TV and poses bravely with the dead bull.  See m.theaustralian.com.au 
I have in my past life been a hunter but I found no great pleasure in killing and only for food.  I cannot believe that Christian Conservatives fall for the NRAs line and support them for killing humans and animals.  I suggest that those of you that buy their line of BS that you drop the Christian part because you don't fit the description.  Tony Makris and the "Under Wild Skies" should be boycotted by the American people. 
I believe that part of America is in love with their guns, I hope that a smaller part of America is in love with killing.  This godless latter bunch that don't give a flying F for murdered children enough for any compromise, in false fear of their guns being taken, do not care for their own children's heritage of the world.

THE SCULPTURE PROCESS BEGINS WITH THE MAQUETTE

 

 

 

The process for making a large sculpture for me starts with a Maquette  or a smaller clay model of what the sculpture will approximately look like. The model I chose is approximately 20" x 6" x 8".  I want to tell the story of an incident that almost happened to me in 1948.  I was 8 years old and was filled with the desire to fly, as during the war, bombers and war planes flew high above daily on their way to war.  A couple of years later we lived in Poteau, a small town in Eastern Oklahoma. I spotted a couple of wooden crates that looked like the ticket for my aeroplane at Westbrook's Store.  The grocer Mr. Westbrook let me take the crates home.  Soon after I fashioned my plane with a prop and landing gear from an old kitty cart and painted it red.  I enlisted my best friend Ray Martin also 8 years old, Ray and I lifted the air machine to the garage roof, aligned it on the roof peak, I climbed into the cockpit and yelled the command go!!!!!.  Rays legs and feet thrust me forward to launch.

Another voice my DADS... stop right there.  Where do you think you are going.  I just pointed up.

After convincing me to lowering the airplane to the ground he explained to me I needed an engine to turn the prop. I set to work looking for a proper engine.

 

I am offering the bronze sculpture of this as "The Test Flight" in life and smaller sizes.

 

And I thank my dad for me being here today. 

 

 

 

 

STONE CARVING AND ME

 

 

 

 Several years back I took a course in stone carving from a Zimbabwe Sculptor, Colin Newengombo. Collin is from a family of famous Zimbabwean sculptors and approaches stone carving very spiritually in that the stone has a spirit and should be asked what it will be. I was carving a piece of alabaster a relatively soft stone and Collin in passing asked me "did you ask the stone" in his soft warm inquiring tone.  I responded  jokingly "I told the stone, Collin rolled his eyes and moved on.  Later while chipping away the alabaster broke rendering the sculpture scrap.  Collin returned looking wise and down his nose. "you should have asked the stone", in his soft wise tone, after that I always ask the stone.

  

 

 

  "Cattle Egret"19" x 10" x15"

 Colorado White Alabaster with bronze legs and feet

"Little  Crow"
Canadian Chlorite
10 " x 5" x 14"






"Little Crow"  I met Little Crow one Spring while carving wood in my back yard.  I was feeding the birds and squirrels peanuts when a small group of crows started hanging around in the trees around me.  I put the peanuts on the table in front of me for an old female squirrel that I had been friends for several years. She would shell the peanut in front of me watching me carve, I would talk to her while she ate and watched.  This was a daily routine so the squirrels and crows would appear while I carved.
 I would toss peanuts out a ways for the crows as they seemed to stay away at first.  I noticed one crow, a very small one compared to the others kept getting closes and closer, then she swooped down on the table grabbed a peanut and flu higher into the tree to eat the peanut, pretty soon  I noticed her standing on a limb 3 or so feet above my head.  I would talk to her and put peanuts on the limb just above me, she would side step out to the peanut take it and move to a higher limb to eat.  She would make soft crow sounds when I didn't notice her, mimicking my voice.  Later she returned with a normal crow sized baby that she fed the peanuts.  I named her Little Crow and her offspring Bubba.  That was the first year, she returned the next few springs then she didn't come back again.

THE SORROW OF AMERICA

I just read an article about the 1,0000th wolf that was killed since congress has dropped the endangered species status on the wolf.  During this same period of time thousands of wild horses/ mustangs are being rounded up from their home grounds to dirty holding pens at tax payers expense to make room for cattle via the BLM , ALL at the expense of the wild horses and their eventual slaughter.
 Two things to remember:   (1) The natural lands of the wild horse are not very suitable for cattle.  Their land is browsing land consisting of shrub brush and sparse rough grasses. We must let them live without interference of man, let nature take care of itself.
(2) The wolf balances wildlife in nature and is good for the land and the games health by natural culling the sick and the weak.  Hunting alone culls the healthy stock not the sick, thus weakening the herd.  Less than 1% of livestock kills are done by wolves.

I cannot understand the thinking of some American folks that put this great country after their own wants.  When will we begin to realize that this generation will cause the death of our American Heritage, If we don't stop this selfish consumption of the worlds resources in the name of greed.  Don't they care what will be left to the future generation that will have an inheritance of a wasted world, or will their ignorance and selfishness prevail.

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"THE LAST GOODBYE"

Bronze 16" x 11" x 6"

 



I ran across an article I believe in National Geographic about wild mustangs that were rounded up, segregated into holding pens.  The two horses were in a strike 3 pen meaning that were to be euthanized.  They touched heads as if they knew each other and were saying goodbye. 

The greed of a few effects the lives of all mankind.