-

 I was about to write about Baseball because it's that time of year but then I heard on Brian Lehrer's show, this amazing phrase; Charismatic Megafauna. Brian was interviewing climate change novelist Lydia Millet.  I've never heard of her before but I'm definitely looking her up. When she dropped this wonderful term Brian, bless him, said, "Wait, what did you say?  What is charismatic megafauna?"

Well, charismatic means, "exercising a compelling charm which inspires devotion in others."  I've been drawing animals all my life but this sounds so much more glamorous.

I haven't had time to do real research but here's what Wikipedia says.

Charismatic megafauna are animal species that are large—in the relevant category that they represent[1]—with symbolic value or widespread popular appeal, and are often used by environmental activists to gain public support for environmentalist goals.[2]Examples include tigers, lions, jaguars, hippopotamuses, elephants, gorillas, chimpanzees, giant pandas, brown and polar bears, rhinoceroses, kangaroos, koalas, blue whales, humpback whales, orcas, walruses, elephant seals, bald, white-tailed and eastern imperial eagles, penguins, crocodiles and great white sharks among countless others.[3][4][5] In this definition, animals such as penguins or bald eagles can be considered megafauna because they are among the largest animals within the local animal community of pertinence, and they disproportionately affect their environment. The vast majority of charismatic megafauna species are threatened and endangered by overhunting, poaching, the black market trade, climate change, habitat destruction, invasive species, and many more causes.[6]


Here's some of my own charismatic megafauna.













I'm looking at my animals in a whole new way now that I know they're Charismatic Megafauna.

Did I just say that I would look up Lydia Millet? Well, what do you know?  This week's New Yorker has a review of her new novel!  Don't you love it when that happens? You hear a name and then you hear it again and again? I downloaded her newest--Dinosaur, a Novel.  I'll let you know all about it soon.

Location: 7HG5+9P Narragansett, RI, USA

Comments

  1. AnonymousOctober 15, 2022 at 7:29 PM

    The bison in Yellow is maybe my favorite! Yellow is my fav color. .. enjoy your news much!

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

How Does Inspiration Come?

-
Image
“One’s work is nothing but the long journey through life to recover, through the detours of art, the one or two great and simple images that first gained access to one’s heart.”                                                                                                       Robert Beverly Hale quoting Albert Camus The first time I heard this quote, at an Art Student's League dinner, I thought, "Well, that doesn't apply to me." I was deep into my bird period; drawing their feather patterns was great practice for my pen technique but I wasn't a bird watcher or anything.  Then I went home for a visit and my mother said, "Let's have a slideshow. She pulled out all the old family ...
Read more

I'm Keeping' on the Sunny Side

-
Image
 Good Morning!  I was thinking about posting a reprise of an old post about PINK, to keep the Barbie vibe going; I understand that in London they've painted all the red telephone booths pink and the great Ferris wheel has pink lights in honor of Her Plasticness but I had a better idea--you could say the Sun came up! You know I have a granddaughter named Sunny, right? I wanted to do a drawing for her and what else could I start with? The Sun and sunflowers--not very original but she's two and a half--to her everything's new and it's her name! Filling in the sky I see that it looks like the way I draw water, but that's OK.  I added Batchelor Buttons beneath the Sunflowers and I like the way the blue makes the yellow pop.  I'm not sure how to handle the transition from flowers to sky so I won't think about it.  Remember Mickey Rivers; "I don't worry about what I can control because if I can control it why worry?" And I'm in control! I used som...
Read more

Summer Reading

-
Image
What are you Reading?  I love it when someone asks me that. The Times Book Review has a column that asks what's on your night table?  Does everybody read in bed?  If I have a good book I can't wait to say good-night. But as reading and writing has made me focus on language an abyss of bad grammar has opened before   me and I cry out in anguish. Will I ever become inured to hearing Ivy League graduates on NPR saying, "Him and Me are gonna..." and "Please reach out to John or I?" Terry Gross never corrects anyone's grammar and I respect  that,  it's not a good interviewing technique,  but where are the mothers and teachers?  How has it come to this? And another thing! The misplaced modifier!   In a biography of Willa Cather I read, "At the age of eight, school began to bore Willa."  Really? School was eight years old?  Miss Cather is rolling over in her grave.  And this, from Elle Decor; "As a young girl, her father affectionatel...
Read more