Soul Mosaic

I often paint fish and undersea creatures. Squids, southern flounder, American shad, krill, just to name a few. I will paint many more. Hence I’m always on the lookout for great pictures. I don’t copy them but use them to inspire me, and to sometimes put together a composite image of a few creatures in a scene of my own making.

Also as a person who paints and loves the ocean and its life, I am always seeking news on its health, problems, successes. A recent topic of interest to me, was the recent (2010) completion of the Census of Marine Life. ( http://www.coml.org) It boggled my mind that someone could do this and I wondered how.

An article on Gizmodo recently appeared, that included a video on this very topic. As the video says, there are places in the ocean so remote they could not be explored, groups of fish so large they could not be counted, animals that travel so far they can’t be followed. If all that is true, how then did they do the Census of Marine Life for 10 years? The answer is revealed in this article and video. And you can find out what “OBIS” stands for. Just amazing work.

For even more info, check out www.coml.org . Also, there are some great books out on the subject.  World Ocean Census (ISBN-13: 978-1-55407-434-1) I picked up the book and it has photographs that are just beautiful. It is the story of the census. There is another I’m waiting to receive done by National Geographic: Citizens of the Sea – Wondrous Creatures from the Census of Marine Life that looks just amazing in the creature photographs it contains. I can’t wait to get it!. …….I can never get enough of the ocean…….