December 2016 photo and Exhibit news

First, the exciting stuff!  I can now confirm for those of you who have been asking that my work will indeed be appearing as part of a Michigan artists exhibit here:

Beginning December 16 and going through May, twelve of my images will be hanging in The Gallery as part of their inaugural opening exhibit in downtown Saginaw, MI.
They are located in the newly restored (and gorgeous!) historical Bancroft Building, at 104 East Gennessee.
I expect their website to be updated with info very shortly regarding this exhibit.  I do know that there will be an opening artists reception on the evening of December 16, from 6-9pm, so if you want to get a leg up on things and maybe get first dibs on one of my photos, that would be the time to show up!

**I have just been made aware that the artists reception is by invitation of the Gallery only, sorry!**

The Gallery focuses on Michigan artists, and serves as a fund-raising source for art education programs through the Saginaw Art Museum.  All proceeds from the sale of artworks on exhibit go to directly benefit the youth of Saginaw through these art programs.  I think that is pretty cool, and I am proud to be able to be a part of it.


Now on to the regular monthly business....

Yes, it is December.  And since the weather is turning cold and the skies have all gone grey, I thought to post this photo of a very snowy-looking cactus with a tiny colorful bloom as a visual representation of how far away spring looks from here.  I think if I were ever to move to a warmer climate I would plant these snowy cacti all around my house so that it could look like winter without actually feeling like winter.  Because that would be ideal.  Bears have the right idea, I think...stay in and nap until spring shows up. Ha!

A late Halloween Photo

I mentioned this plant a couple months back, and thought this would be a good time to post it, as yesterday was Halloween.  This is the aptly-named Ghost Flower plant.  It is a plant, not a fungus, however it does not photosynthesize as it does not contain chlorophyll.  It is a parasitic plant which grows on certain fungi.  Those fungi grow on the shallow roots of certain trees (usually beech).  So the trees provide nutrients to the fungi, which then pass nutrients on to the Ghost Flower.  That is indeed an actual pollen-producing flower on the end of the stalk, and when it is pollenated the entire plant turns pink.  Another case of real life being much stranger than anything you could possibly make up!