Curious Neighbors

  

 B R O W N       B U L L H E A D       C A T F I S H

F I S H

 Bottom dweller.  

Thrives off dead animals drifting to the murky

bottom of lakes and rivers.  Here the waters 

are so thick with silt, mud and debris that one's

eyes are useless.  To compensate the catfish

has a great sense of smell that guides them to

their meal, and tenacles around their mouth 

allowing them to feel about the muck to find

their food.

 R E D       S A L A M A N D E R

A M P H I B I A N 

Lungless.  They breath through their skin.

Very inefficient method of getting oxygen

to the animal's cells deep inside.  Relying

on the passive diffusion of gas drastically

limits the size of an animal.  The salamander

pictured here is no more than five inches long.

It fits comfortably in the palm of your hand.

Here's a biological engineering problem

common to both salamanders and lizards.

Their legs stick out of their side instead of

underneath.  Consequently, they are constantly 

dragging their belly over the ground everywhere

they go.

Imagine horses running the Preakness 

with their legs like oars sticking out the side

of a boat.  You might as well saddle up

on a potted plant.

 

 A L L I G A T O R       S N A P P I N G       T U R T L E

R E P T I L E

 Comes from a tough neighborhood.

This guy is armored head to tail and 

has a bite that will amputate your foot.

It rules over lakes and streams, wherever

it lives.  What could possibly threaten this

reptile armed with a bone-crushing beak?

Probably another snapping turtle...

one that wants your territory, figuring 

you're too old to defend what's yours.

You are.

Soon you become just another item on

a catfish's menu.

 P I L E A T E D       W O O D P E C K E R

B I R D   

 Banging your head against the wall is hard

on the brain.  If you've heard a woodpecker

doing their job you know they bang their head

several times a second.  Just a couple of those

hits would put an NFL quarterback in concussion

protocol.  

In the real world of cause and effect you already

know there must be an engineering solution

to prevent constant bruising of the brain.  

There is such a fix but it's only temporary.

After a couple of years of being just a 

woodpecker you're pretty used up.

Senility sets in.  You begin wondering

which end is up?

Does it ever really matter?

You just couldn't stop banging your head.

 B I G       B R O W N       B A T

M A M M A L

 Flying mice.

A mammal with wings.

The bones of the front legs are elongated

into a skeletal structure covered in a membrane 

that replaces a bird's feathers for providing lift.

Bats fly at night using their echoes 

for navigating around obstacles and 

directing them toward their prey.

Sight guides a bird's flight.

An owl's eyes can maneuver through darkness

but who else ventures into the night except

to migrate across a sea of water?

Bats rule the night with their dog paddle 

flight skills because they don't have to compete

with a bird's skillful acrobatics.

.

Like the salamanders, a bat's engineering

was built atop a foundation that wasn't 

designed for the purpose of flight.

For instance, the lungs of a bat reflects

those used by ancient four-legged mammals.

The mammal breathes in oxygen, then

exhales carbon dioxide.  It spends only half

its time retrieving oxygen whereas a bird's

breathing doesn't need time to exhale.

Their oxygen intake is uninterrupted.

The bird's performance is turbocharged

by this boost in energy efficiency.

How did this advance in respiration 

come about?

 N I N E - B A N D E D       A R M A D I L L O

M A M M A L

 Armored against coyotes and bobcats, 

not so much protection against bears

and mountain lions.  Your best bet 

to survive as an armadillo is to avoid

being seen.  

Have your meals at night, limiting 

your search for grubs and insects

to after dark.  Generally this precaution

works out and maybe you live long

enough to raise a family.

Eventually, though, your luck runs out 

and you become some predator's meal.

All those vital nutrients that made you, you,

now inhabit another of Nature's creatures

who's first act is to take a nap after its

meal of you.  

Once your predator revives it runs and 

snoops about, schemes and plots and

looks for a mate before it too, eventually

succumbs to something lethal.

The nutrients that once were a part of you

and then that other guy, now inhabit the nutrient

cycle of another living home, insuring this

Earth-bound process continues.

Existing in Nature.

Food for thought.

*  *  *  *  *

©  Tom Taylor

OVER   EASY

 

coldValentine

good morning jeremy

  

R  U  S  H       H  O  U  R

 

  

love

   dad

 

coldValentine

 

Audubon

  

 G R E A T      H O R N E D      O W L

 Feather tufts like ears are for display.

The bird has claws with a grip powerful

enough to sever the spine of their prey,

be it rodent, skunk or geese.  Specialized

serrations on their flight feathers give these

nocturnal hunters a deadly stealth flight.

Great Horned Owls are widely found, 

living in desert and forest.  They also 

make a good living off of park squirrels,

who were just hanging out in the

center of town.

 

 B A L T I M O R E      O R I O L E

 These woodland song birds breed in summer

and migrate to Central and South America for

the winter.  They eat both insects and fruit, as

well as nectar and bird-loving grape jelly.  Their

hanging sock nests are weaved from plant fibers,

string and the mangled hair you couldn't do

a thing with.  

They are Maryland's state bird and mascot

for Baltimore's baseball team.

 G R E A T      B L U E      H E R O N 

 Standing four feet tall and having a wingspan

of nearly seven feet, the Blue Heron is the

largest waterbird found in North America.  

Herons weigh no more than seven pounds

despite their size because of the hollow

bone structure, common to all birds of flight.

Specialized neck vertebrae gives them 

blazing speed when striking for their prey.

They eat most any animal they can swallow

whole... fish, frogs, lizards, insects, gophers,

other birds.  They build their stick nests bunched

together atop high trees that thrive in salt and

freshwater wetlands.

C O M M O N      C O R M O R A N T 

 These are large diving birds are found in lakes, 

rivers, estuaries and coastal waters most anywhere

on the globe except the polar caps.

They don't walk, not even like a penguin.

They land on tree limbs and power lines and

take their naps on narrow ledges found on 

the face of cliffs.  

They spread their wings to dry their flight feathers,

which are not fully waterproof.  That seems a 

surprising shortcoming for an aquatic bird,

but it works.  Their wings are what they are

because their makeup gives the cormorant

an advantage at diving and their pursuit

of small fish.

 C A R O L I N A      P A R A K E E T 

 A highly social, boisterous parrot that flocked

together by the hundreds.  They were the only

parrots native to the United States having 

what it took to endure cold weather.

 They fed on the poisonous seeds of the Cocklebur 

which made this parrot possibly toxic to its

predators.  Still this bird is extinct.  It's colorful

feathers provided plumage for hats and fashion accents.

Farmers considered them an agricultural pest and

took every opportunity to kill them by the hundreds.

Today they are a prime candidate for extinction

reversal.  Their genetic information has been extracted

from museum samples and successfully sequenced.

This species may one day be revived from some lab

petri dish.

C A L I F O R N I A      C O N D O R 

 With a wingspan of nearly ten feet and weighing 

in at an amazing twenty-five pounds this vulture

is the largest land bird in North America.  They 

are also among the longest living birds at sixty

years.  Using wind and updrafts the condor can

cover 250 miles in a day, hunting for dead deer,

cattle or beached mammal to devour.

In 1982 the California Condor's numbers had

dwindled to near extinction, with only 22 individuals

left in the wild.  These individuals were captured

in a first step to repopulate the region with birds

that were hatched from an intensive captive

breeding program.

As of 2022 the Condor population has grown to over

500 birds, with 347 having been reintroduced into 

the wild.  Still, the initial reasons for the declining

population in the wild remain.

 J O H N      J A M E S      A U D U B O N 

 

1 7 8 5  - 1 8 5 1

 Audubon was a self taught artist and naturalist.

His book, The Birds of America, with its 435

hand colored prints, was a seminal publication

in the study of birds.  His original illustrations 

were life size, painted from fresh killed specimens.

They were first wired into the pose he desired

to illustrate.  An animal too big to fit on the paper

used in his illustrations would then be contorted

to an unnatural degree to make the image fit.

Life size was all important.

Audubon was an historic conservationist 

and a notable proponent of slavery 

in the years leading up to the

American Civil War.

 

*  *  *  *  *

©  Tom Taylor

 

 OVER   EASY 

 

coldValentine

good morning justin

  

*  *  *    F   L   O   P   H   O   U   S   E    *  *  *

 

  

love

   dad

 

coldValentine

c o l o r

  

 W  O  M  E  N       O  F       A  L  G  I  E  R  S

P I C A S S O               1 9 5 5

Based on a painting of an Algerian concubine

by nineteenth century French artist Eugene Delacroix,

Picasso adds his own gloss to the story with his

vibrant color and Cubist based disposition.

A woman resembling Picasso's second wife,

Jacqueline Roque, presides over this Kamasutra 

of challenging head over heels positions.

The owner of this Picasso paid a princely 

$179 million for it in 2015, the price of a

fabulously appointed sultan's yacht.  

P  R  O  M  E  N  A  D  E

A U G U S T     M A C K E               1 9 1 3 

 

Macke moved his wife and son from Germany

to the peaceful serenity he found in Switzerland.

This became his most productive period, with works

celebrating nature.  The following year Macke was

among the soldiers killed in the opening days of

what became known as the First World War.

Like millions more to follow, the Kaiser had 

called him to service.

 H  I  M  M  E  L

M A R S D E N     H A R T L E Y               1 9 1 5

Himmel is German for heaven.

A red toy soldier on horseback is fastened

to a pedestal like they are a park monument

pigeon roost.  An American named Hartley

is busy painting abstractions in wartime Berlin.

The work shown here comes with its own frame

and also makes a striking design for birthday

wrapping paper.

 

G  E  I  S  H  A

G E O R G E     H E N R Y               1 8 9 4 

British artist George Henry traveled to Tokyo,

Nagasaki and Yokohama to immerse himself,

firsthand, in Japanese culture.  Eighteen months

later he returned to London, his many new 

works of oil carefully rolled into one large

canvas bundle.  Tropical heat and exposure

to moisture on the long voyage home caused the

still tacky oils to stick, crumbling when pulled apart.

All was not lost, though.

This Geisha was a lucky exception.

 S  T  R  E  T  C  H       S  T  A  M  P  E  D  E

L E  R O Y     N E I M A N

 Raw color and energized brushwork.

The dash down this straightaway is a chaotic

mix of thundering horse and jockey, whips

savagely flailing the air, slashing the hide.

The excitement is heightened by having

the herd charging directly at you.

Artist Le Roy Neiman was the 

Steven Spielberg of action screen-prints. 

 

 

 S  U  M  M  E  R

P E T E R     M A X

 Peter Max emerged from his San Francisco

Summer of Love to become an artist for the 

Cosmic Sixties.  His works vibrated with

psychedelic palette and acidic innocence.

Here were works suited for a blacklight poster

but they wound up framed on walls.

Pity.

*  *  *  *  *

©  Tom Taylor

 

OVER   EASY

 

coldValentine

good morning jacob

  

F  R  E  E       C  O  N  T  I  N  E  N  T  A  L

 

 

love 

   dad

coldValentine

c i t y s c a p e

  

 T  O  W  N  S  C  A  P  E

C A R E L     W I L L I N K               1 9 3 4

 A menacing sky looms over a deserted street

with a few isolated buildings scattered here 

and there.  This nightmare vision forecasts

another war in Europe, and another humanitarian

cataclysm for the still young Twentieth Century.

 

Dutch painter Carel Willink embraced Magic Realism -

an accurately rendered reality displayed in an

eerie welcome to an unnatural world.

 

 H O U S E S     I N     T H E     S N O W

F R I E D E N S R E I C H     H U N D E R T W A S S E R               1 9 6 2

 Straight lines are godless and immoral.

That was the artist Hundertwasser's

starting point in architectural thinking.

We should focus on one's emotions.

The forms here are organic, whimsical.

The colors bright and playful.

A sprinkle of silver snowflakes 

adds melancholy, in nuance.

 M  A  N       W  I  T  H       S  P  E  C  T  A  C  L  E  S

M S T I S L A V       D O B U Z H I N S K Y               1 9 0 6

 St. Petersburg, still under the rule of Tzar Nicholas.

The guy with the glasses is a poet friend of

the artist.  Behind him is the steady encroachment

of urban blight on all that is natural.  

The soulless progression to obtain greater efficiencies. 

Who speaks up for objectives other than industrial

goals?  And if someone does, who would listen?

Who among those gathered with power

would take action in defense of the voiceless?

The Twentieth Century.

It was the best of times.  

It was the worst of times.

 S  H  A  D  O  W       O  F       N  I  G  H  T

R O B E R T     Q U A L T E R S               1 9 8 5 

 

 Mundane street life bathed in the flagrant colors

of a Pittsburgh sunset.  People do what they do

in keeping the street vibrant.  No matter what.

The steel mills close.  Jobs disappear.  

Families move elsewhere for work.

People remain.

Life still fills the streets of Pittsburgh.

Robert Qualters paints his affection

for the people of this, his hometown.

S  I  X       O  '  C  L  O  C  K  ,       W  I  N  T  E  R

J O H N     F R E N C H     S L O A N               1 9 1 2

 Rush hour crowd catches their commute home

at the Third Avenue El in Manhattan.  They are

shop workers, laborers and clerks toughing

through another bone chilling night.  

They are energized, definitely not gloomy.

Life is good.  The industrial dynamo promises

endless possibilities for mankind's future

once the spigot fully opens.

 B  O  L  S  H  E  V  I  K

B O R I S     K U S T O D I E V               1 9 2 0

The flag-carrying Bolshevik towers over

the masses crowding the Lilliputian streets

of Moscow, his red banner unfurling with

the triumph of Communism.  Boris Kustodiev's

allegorical painting of the Russian Revolution

provided the symbolism that would become

the standard for Soviet art and propaganda.

The picture was an immediate hit but 

Kustodiev was concerned it would be found

provocative.  After all, here's the courageous 

Lenin marching ever forward, his giant strides

crushing the little people underfoot.

So much for valuing the individual.

*  *  *  *  * 

©  Tom Taylor

 

 OVER   EASY 

 

 

coldValentine