klaus pichler

This photo is part of the Skeletons in the Closet project by Klaus Pichler. All the photographs were taken in museums, not of the exhibitions themselves, but behind the scenes. There is an appealing sort of jumble to the specimens, most of which are thrown together with little are. They make for a compelling composition but this lone wing-tip is my favourite.

Fungus

Fungi by Groundwork found on Etsy.com.

Here in Vancouver, as the rain sets in, it is Fungus season.
Last weeks walk in the woods revealed many fascinating varieties, none of which I have the skill to identify. However, I'm grateful that someone can, as wild crafted mushrooms are appearing at the market and making me hungry.
I was also lucky enough to stumble across this gem a few weeks ago.
Know your Mushrooms the 2009 documentary by Ron Mann. It's bit silly at times but filled with some fascinating bits of information and very knowledgeable nutty old guys tramping about in the woods animatedly spouting the wonders of fungi. They really do know their stuff and the section of the film that was predictably devoted to Psilocybin (magic) mushrooms was not the bulk of the narrative.


I found these beautiful leather mushrooms at wherethelovelythingsare.com but they were reposted from nuno magazine where you can subscribe and find the tutorial.

If you prefer a look at Fungi that is more serious and educational (and narrated by David Attenborough-who you will come to learn is one of my great heroes) here is a clip from the BBC I'm enchanted by the magical dance of the time-lapse filming. And by the many forms that the fungi can take. The white-netted fungus (Phallus indusiatus) being one of the loveliest, and most surprising to watch unfold.

Here it is again in this gorgeous vintage botanical available here.

Giant Penguin

Fossil evidence of a giant penguin were found recently. Inkayacu paracasensis or Water King, had brown and grey plumage instead of the modern white and black. Along with the Icadyptes salasi another species discovered a few years ago, these birds lived in what is now Peru about 36 million years ago. They stood over five feet tall and were twice as heavy as today's largest penguin, the Emperor which stands at 3ft 7in and weighs 75 lbs. They may also have been able to dive to great depths judging by their large size. The Emperor often dives to 200m (and the record is 565m)
Articles describing these penguins are from the BBC and can be found here and here.

And strangely the mention of giant penguins makes me think immediately of HP Lovecraft.
An odd association to be sure, but there is a mention of penguins in his 1931 story At The Mountains of Madness.

This white, waddling thing was fully six feet high....a penguin—albeit of a huge, unknown species larger than the greatest of the known king penguins, and monstrous in its combined albinism and virtual eyelessness.

The story has little to do with penguins at all, for some reason their brief presence within the story has stuck with me. They have little significance to the plot but perhaps it is there recognizable familiarity within this strange Lovecraftian mythology that grounds the story. It is actually a tale of an Antarctic Expedition and the discovery of a race of Ancient beings. Genuinely creepy and written with excellent detail I find it to be one of his better stories.

The complete text can be found here.

The image below is from the Spanish Graphic Novel En Las Montañas de la Locura illustrated by Enrique Breccia

Pink!

Rarely seen in Nature, as day-glo colouring makes it difficult to avoid predators or hunt for prey. Making the existence of these animals all the more amazing and special.

Pink Hippo spotted in Kenya.


Pink Dolphin, not to be confused with the Amazon river dolphin which is also pretty pink.

Tooth and Claw

When Alfred, Lord Tennyson wrote In Memoriam, it was as an elegy for his friend Arthur Henry Hallam. But it is his description of Nature as "red in tooth and claw" that has created imagery that has lasted over one hundred and fifty years. He was referring to Nature's cruelty for taking the life of a beloved friend, but we are reminded daily that Nature does not share our sentimentality.

Who trusted God was love indeed
And love Creation’s final law–
Tho’ Nature, red in tooth and claw
With ravine, shriek’d against his creed–

Who loved, who suffer’d countless ills,
Who battled for the True, the Just,
Be blown about the desert dust,
Or seal’d within the iron hills?

As Humans we are subject to the whims of Nature.
The entire poem is available here in all its delicious Victorian melodrama.


Two Owls by Debbie Carlos found on Etsy.





Clockwise from top:
Fox claw pendant OdetteNewYork/Tooth Ring e e lewis/Teeth ring by Anne Arden McDonald/Owl Claw necklace by Black Sparrow

Introduction

Braided Stream is a convergence of images and ideas surrounding Art, Nature, Craft and Science. Hopefully it will also provide beauty, knowledge and wonder.



The above photograph was taken in 1941 near the junction of the Yukon River and the Koyukuk River in Alaska. This image of many streams running into one another and overlapping, changing course and connections is a visual metaphor for the content of this blog.

Following is a collection of art works that I find visually connected to the photograph and also exhibit the tangle of ideas that this site will include.

Braid drawing by Niall McClelland, ink on paper and really old. See some of his newer work at www.niallmcclelland.com.

The images above were found on etsy and then I lost their information to the ether of cyberspace. They are far too beautiful to exclude though.