hi Connie,
how easy to get used to high speed. I am sure there is tons of information out there about these creatures but they were new to me and I just found them comical and fascinating. I know these kinds of fascinating interrelationships are everywhere, Vince has added another, but in the rainforest there is a clear sense of that - life piled on top of life. There was an orange tree at the farm that was a massive community of bromeliads and orchids, vines and ferns. Not so great for the orange production but bursting with other opportunistic life.

thank you Ian. I am interested to read of your interest in the relationship between science and religion. Do have a sense that the division is falling away? That we made the division up? Feels like that to me, and feels important, even though I have no formal training in either discipline.

HI Connie, taking a break from doing follow-up work for the butterfly farm. I can't see your blog on the list, what am I missing?? I loved reading your profile, though, especially the part about the burrs. You paint a great picture. Do you like Annie Dillard?
I have had an obsessive interest with crow behaviour, spent three years working on my project "Crossing Boundary" which was about the daily migration of the entire Pacific Northwest crow population from the city of Vancouver to their communal roost outside the city. Imagine a mob of about 16,000 crows. absolutely gothic. I worked with Rob Butler, the biologist who is the expert on these particular crows and with Rudy Kovanic, a cinematographer with lots of experience working with nature docs and tv. I did a three channel video and sound installation at the Surrey Art Gallery museum near here and supported it with drawings and paintings of crows and nests, poetry from Rishma Dunlop, artifacts and correspondance. This is what I was writing to you about then my first post went astray!

So, I have shared your experience of awe in the face of a mob of crows and found it beautiful. Those are exactly the kinds of experiences that I jump off of to do my creative work. The emerging of the butterfly ranks right up there, too, although so quiet and private in comparison.

I am anxious to finish the work for my friends in Costa Rica so that I can get back into the studio to pick up the work I began before my trip. I am working with the human figure, paintings, always a pull for me, never simple.

suzanne