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Science

GPS Map Composed of 68,000 Pinpoints Tracks the Territorial Nature of Minnesota Wolves

The Voyageurs Wolf Project is a collaboration between the University of Minnesota and Voyageurs National Park which tracks and studies wolves throughout the warmer months. In 2018, the project studied six northern Minnesota packs, creating a map that showcases the intensely territorial way the animals behave, and how tightly they stick to their packs. The brightly colored line drawings were composed from 68,000 GPS locations of the six packs, with negligible crossover between the data-driven formations.

Not only does the information help researchers track where wolves have been, but also which prey the wolves have killed. “This detailed GPS-data is incredibly valuable for understanding pack boundaries and also for our predation research,” explains a post from the Voyageurs Wolf Project. “We visited every spot these wolves spent more than 20 minutes to determine if the wolves made a kill. This required an estimated 5,000 miles of hiking this past summer from our field crew!!”

After the original map circulated widely, the team decided to bring the information to life, which you can observe in the GIF below. The moving image includes data from April 15, 2018 to the end of October of the same year, with GPS locations taken every 20 minutes. You can follow more data collected by the Minnesota-based team on Facebook. (via Twisted Sifter)

Art Illustration

Flower Petals and Stems Transform into Animals and Insects in Inventive New Arrangements by Raku Inoue

Raku Inoue (previously) goes all-white in his latest flower petal compositions. The Montreal-based creative uses flower petals, stems, and leaves to form creatures ranging from owls and tigers to beetles and butterflies in his ongoing Natura series. Inoue takes advantage of the natural curvatures and shapes of his source materials to create lively interpretations of animals. In Inoue’s owl, densely-petaled mums form the bird’s fluffy belly, while the angular outlines of alstroemeria create the exoskeleton and horns of a beetle. By using largely intact plants, the artist heightens the aliveness of his creations, bridging both flora and fauna. You can see more of his work on Instagram and Behance.

Art

A New Book of Paintings by Tiffany Bozic Explores the Unity and Disjunction of the Natural World

The natural world gets an unusual interpretation through the lens of Northern California-based painter Tiffany Bozic (previously). She combines a highly developed realism with surreal juxtapositions of animals and plants in carefully composed paintings that question the “natural order” of the environment. In Triangle of Love, an owl family cozies up in a bed of gold-hued four leaf clovers, while in Aether, moths and caterpillars are drawn to a marbled pentagon hovering within a dew-dappled geometric spiderweb.

Bozic’s work over the last six years has been compiled into a forthcoming book, titled Unnatural Selections, published by Gingko Press. The artist explains to Colossal, “Since my paintings vary so widely from one to the next, I feel it’s important to be able to see them together as a continual ecosystem. Each contributes something to a larger dialog, and together they explore how we relate to each other and the natural world.”

Bozic often draws inspiration from direct experience exploring the world, which she often explores in tandem with her ornithologist husband. The works included in Unnatural Selections are also informed by her perspective as the mother of a young daughter. “By discovering universal commonalities between human beings and other living organisms, like reproduction and different parenting strategies, I felt more connected to the natural world and conscious of my role in it,” she explains.

Unnatural Selections is available for preorder on Amazon. You can also follow Bozic’s work and field explorations on Instagram, as she preps for her upcoming summer show at Antler Gallery in Portland, Oregon.

Photography

A Traveling Exhibition of 100 Stunning Selections from the 2018 Wildlife Photographer of the Year

Last fall Dutch photographer Marsel van Oosten was the overall winner of the 54th annual Wildlife Photographer of the Year competition (previously) after being selected from over 45,000 submissions. His image, The Golden Couple, captures a pair of golden snub-nosed monkeys against a wooded backdrop. Their bright blue faces glow against the lush forest of China’s Qinling Mountains—the only habitat where the endangered primates are found in the wild.

In total there were 19 category winners from the tens of thousands who submitted images of wildlife and natural environments from all corners of the globe. Winning images included a wasp carrying a perfectly round segment of mud, two owls nestled snuggly in a pipe, and a leopard dreaming on a low branch. The winners, plus a selection of other entries from the competition, are currently in an exhibition which will travel to Canada, Spain, Australia, and Germany. The next stop for “Wildlife Photographer of the Year” is the Field Museum in Chicago, which opens March 22 and runs through January 2020. (via Block Club Chicago)

 

Art

Detailed Portraits of Animals Combine Intricate Layers and Decorative Flourishes

The newest series by Manila-based paper artist Patrick Cabral (previously) features three white animals detailed with elements of black and gold. A pink nose serves as a stylistic outlier for a  whiskered tiger, while the long and narrow trunk of Cabral’s elephant is completed with a dazzling linear adornment in gold. The animal’s design is similar to a previous elephant iteration Cabral created out of paper in 2017. However, the newer piece’s radial patterns on its forehead and symmetrical ears provide a distinct contrast in composition. To support their more permanent display, the artist used MDF to form each intricate layer.

These works, in addition to a quetzal with wide-spread wings, were commissioned by Starbucks for a new Reserve location in Manilla, Philippines. You can learn more about how these sculptures came to fruition on Instagram.

     

Art Craft

Carefully Molded Paper is Shaped into Personality-Filled Animal Portraits by Tiffany Miller Russell

Colorado-based wildlife artist and natural history illustrator Tiffany Miller Russell uses carefully molded paper to express the unique characteristics of her animal subjects. To start the sculptural works, the artist first creates an original drawing. She then she cuts and forms found specialty papers by hand to build a three-dimensional collage atop the underlying illustration. “I delight in the unique and unusual,” she shares with Colossal, “and my goal when creating is to communicate with my viewer that excitement. I hope to pass along a little bit of wonder for the world around us.”

In addition to creating paper sculptures for the past fifteen years, the artist has also volunteered in a zoology prep lab and paleontology lab to further her knowledge and personal passion for evolutionary history. Miller Russell explains, “I’ve always felt a connection to animals. They have personalities and go about the world in their own ways that matter to them. Humans can anthropomorphize them, and cultures can bound them up in symbols and mythology, but that makes little difference to these creatures which have been going about their business and doing their own thing for millennia.”

The video below offers a time-lapse view of Miller Russell’s hands-on process. The artist tells Colossal that some of her larger tableaux can take up to 300 hours to complete. You can discover more of her three-dimensional animal portraits on her website and Facebook, as well as Etsy, where the artist offers originals and prints for sale.

Illustration

Black and Red Calder-Like Illustrations Combine Geometric Shapes into Spiders, Jellyfish, and Birds

When Adam Goldberg, founder of Santa Monica-based studio Trüf Creative isn’t crafting work for a client, the designer likes to engage his creativity with an ongoing series of minimal illustrations titled FAÜNA. The pieces combine black and red shapes and linework to form stylized versions of animals and insects, such as the one-eyed spider above or polka-dotted fish below.

Although Goldberg is directly inspired by artists such as Joan Miro, Alexander Calder, and Wassily Kandinsky, he is also influenced by the client work he has completed over the years. “The simplicity, geometry, and composure that we try to achieve with our branding work rubs off on the artwork,” he explained to Adobe Create Magazine. “I think more in terms of composition and balance more now than I ever have — and that’s because of the branding work.” You can see more of Goldberg’s agency work on Trüf Creative’s website and Behance.