There was this video that came to my attention earlier this week about an unusual little bird from Peru. The Spatuletail Hummingbird is this tiny little creature (endangered, of course) with only four tail feathers. In the males, two of those four tail feathers grow long and have these dark blue-violet paddles at the end (the spatules). Imagine a peacock’s tail, how huge and beautiful and totally, impractically unweildy it is. Now imagine that on an itty bitty hummingbird. The males don’t fly much, and when they do, it’s only for a few seconds, and it’s just to impress a lady (of course!).

I love hummingbirds, and I’ve been playing around with ink and watercolor in this little spiral-bound watercolor book lately, and the spatuletail hummingbird kind of captured my imagination, so I had to have one for myself. I wish I hadn’t done the leaves- it would’ve been a stronger composition- so if I do it again on nice paper I’ll take them out. But go watch the video, because they are really amazing.

Tags: art, bbc, doodles, hummingbird, ink, painting, power animals, spatule hummingbird, spatuletail hummingbird, watercolor

I have a little badger figurine that I use as a card protector/mojo when I play poker. He represents tight-aggressive play, which I aspire to and often fail at. Badger punishes me by sending me crappy cards and forcing me to MUST!WIN!HANDS! when I get them to catch back up.

I read on some website that the Badger represents tapping your inner resources to evoke change in your life, and there’s been a lot of that in my life in the last 10-or-so months, so I kind of dig that.

Tags: power animals, works in progress

Tags: power animals, works in progress