"Sunglasses"

"Sunglasses"

2024

"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. 

"Roseate Spoonbill"

2024

Roseate Spoonbill (Platalea ajaja)

"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.

"Smile"

2024

Gelada (Theropithecus gelada)

Geladas are among my favorite monkeys, but all that fur sure is a pain to draw.

"Morgul Lord"

2024

This way and that turned the dark head helmed and crowned with fear, sweeping the shadows with its unseen eyes.

-"The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers", by J.R.R. Tolkien

The evil, greenish, foreboding light of Minas Morgul really suits the Witch-king beautifully.

Done for Day 2 of Allan Whincup's Tolkien Art Challenge on Instagram.