"Roseate Spoonbill"

"Roseate Spoonbill"

2024

Roseate Spoonbill (Platalea ajaja)

"Self-portrait"

2024

Figured I'm due for a self-portrait. Featuring a beautiful black and gold keffiyeh that I got at a pro-Palestine protest earlier this month.

"Avatar State"

2023

Yip-yip

"Vanishing Homeland"

2024

Palestine Mountain Gazelle (Gazella gazella)

A Palestine Mountain Gazelle surveys the ravages of colonialism on its habitat. 

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The myth that Israeli settlers are indigenous to the land of Palestine is absurd on many fronts, among them being their mistreatment of that same land they claim to belong to. For starters, the state of Israel is highly dependant on and contributing to the military industrial complex, one of the most oppressive and polluting entities on the planet. They're also famous (or rather, infamous) for uprooting and destroying native crops and trees and replacing them with invasive plants that not only require more water to tend, but that are also more susceptible to fires. In attempts to greenwash their occupation, they raze Palestinian villages and neighborhoods and build natural parks and reserves on top of them, thus continuing on with a centuries-old colonial practice that has been put to use on stolen lands everywhere. And just like the US-Mexico border wall on my side of the world, the equally racist Apartheid Wall on the West Bank divides up the landscape and severely impedes the free movement of both people and wildlife. The list goes on.

I guess the ecological impact of the current genocidal aggression on Gaza will not be fully apparent until the smoke clears. But already we do know that the first months of the bombing released more emissions than 20 climate vulnerable nations do in a year...so there's that. 

All this to say that for people that are so zealous of their supposed "rights" to the land, Israeli Zionists really do seem to go out of their way to hurt it...to carve it up...to destroy it. And that's what colonizers, anytime, everywhere, do. 

"I Can Carry You"

2023

...and so Sam struggled on as best he could, having no guidance but the will to climb as high as might be before his strength gave out and his will broke.

-"The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King", by J.R.R. Tolkien

A scene that probably is a favorite for many; one that epitomizes more than any other the power of friendship; and in my opinion, Sam's most heroic moment.

It brings me back to the first film, when Saruman mocked Gandalf for thinking hobbits could ever contend with the will of Sauron. This scene proves that Gandalf was right, and Saruman wrong: in their own way, the willpower of hobbits IS strong enough to shake the foundations of evil itself.

"Nature's Spear"

2024

Black Rhinoceros (Diceros bicornis)

In the mood to draw rhinos. It's curious how in the two African species the horns sometimes grow ridiculously long.

The pose and perspective made this fellow challenging to draw and to shade, but it came out quite alright.