http://www.patreon.com/foxfeather

I want to offer a huge thank you to everyone who has enjoyed my animal totem designs, jewelry, and animal symbolism information; get the chance to win a free pendant of your own (monthly!). Thank you again for supporting me and my art!</a>

I am running a Patreon campaign - for as little as $1 a month you can help keep me making art, adding new designs to my growing collection (I have over 110 different species designs right now!)

Thank you again to everyone who has helped me turn my passion for art into a career. I really can't express enough gratitude, you are all amazing!

2013 is coming to a close, it's been an amazing year for me. I realize that a lot of my life is also the story of other people, and those are not my stories to tell - so I don't have a lot to say except I'm amazed at where my life is at, the people in it, and where it's going. :)

I hit some artistic milestones this year - I have gotten to 50 dog breeds in my yin-yang series, which was a big goal! http://foxloft.com/artwork/yinyang I have gotten a really exciting contract I'm working on for a big theatre company - I will have more information about that in the coming months as I work on those projects.

Instead of a disjointed wrap-up I will offer some photos from one of my most amazing experiences of this year (and I've had many) - meeting belugas during an animal training seminar. :)


Belugas are so awesome I can't handle it. This young male was so much fun to work with. Getting spit on with a giant mouthful of frozen water has never been so much fun!

Ty the sea lion. Fishy kisses!
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I've been keeping my bee blog elsewhere, and working on updating it, so I'll link that here: http://ofbees.com/



I'm working on getting it up to date so will be posting there more frequently now. :) I don't want to repeat things here as well so I might just post a photo/link now and again pointing to the site.
Both our colonies survived the winter looking good so far - which is a super relief! The state has been reporting 65% colony losses this year.

Catching up on posting some travel/adventure photos: Here are a few from the IAATE conference (International Association of Avian Trainers and Educators) I attended last year. The people I met there were so wonderful! I was able to get away from my art table on zoo day to get a behind-the-scenes tour of their bird facilities, collection, and how they run their educational shows for the public. It was a wonderful experience with a great group of people!

A beautiful king vulture.

One of the prettiest red-tail hawks I’ve ever seen.
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A new update on our apiary progress: video of 'installing' the package of bees in their new home. So far they are doing great - will be updating again soon with photos and more information! :)

Thanks to all of our generous and awesome donors from our Kickstarter campaign, we now have bees! We have successfully set up our first apiary and have been photo documenting the process of getting, installing, and checking on our new bees. :)

It's been absolutely amazing so far - despite the fact our bee suits didn't arrive on time and we did our first colony installations and checks without any protection - it was a bit intense, since I've never had my face in a swarm of bees before, but they were surprisingly gentle and uninterested in me - way too much change and things going on for them to care, I think.

Thank you again to everyone who has made this happen for us! We will also be housing native bumblebees as well as blue orchard bees/mason bees and other species and will be updating with lots of info about those soon! I will probably truncate journals into multiple videos/photos behind a cut so as not to spam everyone with too many bees. :)

Also... I need a bee icon now. :)

Carolyn, our local falconer friend, alerteed us to a wonderful seminar hosted by wildlife photographer Neil Rettig and his harpy eagle, Cal.
It was my first time seeing a harpy up so close outside of a zoo. They are such spectacular birds!

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Beginning my adventure into falconry, I was very lucky to meet Carolyn, a local falconer who is flying a red-tailed hawk this season. She invited me to come hunting with her to get a bit more exposure to falconry in practice. It was a fantastic experience!

Meet Bailey!
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