Thursday, March 3, 2011

Zoo Friends...

One of my greatest joys when I travel to Sydney is the tradition of grabbing my babes (& niece & nephew) & heading off to one of the best locations in the city, Taronga Park Zoo, since a child, with mum & dad packing the 5 kid's and the sandwiches in the station-wagon, on a rare day when my father didn't work & my mother had a reprieve from the home zoo, we would pile in, then pile out, at without a doubt still one of my favourite places in the world on the cusp of Sydney Harbour, catch a ferry from the city, a bus or car, I hope one day experience the overnight 'roar & snore' when the nocturnals awake and the zoo celebrates the night life with the beautiful exotic beasts of the world.

The animals here inspired countless children to stop & ponder, experience & learn, inspired many artists, given great joy to tourists & first hand contact with animals we may never have the money or opportunity to see in their real habitat, the graceful beauty of a diving seal, viewing the curious & playful nature of the chimps, feeding the giraffes, cradling a koala, the other creatures we share our space with, I have seen cages turn into open spaces here, importing captured animals until they grew old, turn into endangered species breeding programs resulting the releasing the offspring into natural habitats. I have cringed when visiting some zoos overseas, seeing the conditions animals are kept, I felt like weeping at the condition of some of these beasts reduced to a caged oddity... but here, now, we can celebrate the beauty and diversity of our 4 legged, winged, aquatic & all other neighbours, learn off them and redress some of the damage humans have done in reducing their numbers.

After our big day at the zoo as munchkins we always came home to our turtle living in the bathtub, greyhound Marcus with 3 legs, rabbit, fish, 2 mice, Sandy the Australian smooth haired terrier, 2 budgies and the family was tired but happy, and went to work, feeding, petting and telling the less exotic but well loved extension of our family about our Zoo friends...

Oh yeah, now I guess you know what inspired this instalment of my new 'Imaginary Friends' adventures ;) Catch ya soon dudes, nice chatting, my dog appreciates the break!

11 comments:

Cameron said...

Those little monsters just peeking around the girls are adorable! What a great visual!

Yes, I've always loved the Zoo....especially petting zoos....I could pet and feed various animals all day.....my 5 year old is always the one saying,"Let's go, Mom" and I'm the one saying,"Just 5 more minutes"..haha!

These are just great!

Gloria said...

This post brought back some zoo memories of my own! The birdie on the purple guy's head- that's a great composition, so cute.

Magic Love Crow said...

Shelle how wonderful what your zoo has became! I know our Toronto Zoo is in trouble! They have to change it! It would be wonderful if it was like yours! I loved your family of pets you had growing up! We always had dogs and cats ;o) I really love the new paintings! Great job as always!!!

Craftymoose Crafts said...

Hi Shelle! Wonderful new paintings! I love zoos, too--the nearest to us is The Bronx Zoo in borough of New York City. They, too, have prided themselves on making the zoo more of a natural habitat for the animals rather than like you said a caged animal.

Linda said...

I used to love the zoo with the kids too! We also have a small zoo at home with three dogs, three cats and goldfish in the pond. I do kill a lot of plants though!

angelself said...

Cute, cute, cute! Fabulous new work, Shelle =)
Kathryn

Magaly Guerrero said...

After reading this post I'm not surprised that your interpretation of Frida is so glorious. Art comes out amazing when the artist really feels it.

I'm kind of in love with Frida definitely liked her new Princess buns, by the way. The expression on her face and the gun. Definitely something inspiring to have in my home one day.

Maggi said...

These are too cute, all of them! Going to zoos is so fun, we always try to go to the Bronx Zoo when we're in New York!

Christine said...

Our local zoo is getting better and better. It takes time to change things. I think we humans beat ourselves up over it, but we can only stumble upon better ideas. I'm glad to hear that it's improving! I envy all the wildlife you have in Australia. One of my old co-workers moved there and she sure doesn't get sparrows at her bird feeder!

Crystal said...

Love your style of painting! And I also love the zoo, just went to the San Antonio zoo!

Pam of Always Artistic said...

Love your new collection. I always have loved the zoo as well but only been a few times.