Alpaca gives birth

Newborn alpaca (1 hour after it enters the world).

Pretty amazing morning. But before I show photos, you should know that the scenes below are from the actual birth of a baby alpaca, so if you are squeamish about that sort of thing, you shouldn’t scroll down.

So, our neighbor Mindy (at GalPaca Farm) called to say the mama alpaca’s water broke, and she was going to give birth soon. We’d talked earlier and Mindy agreed to let me come take photos of the birth, etc., to use as reference for future art (any alpaca art I do, they get a print in the edition, as owners of the models…).

The alpaca mother’s name is Maggie. In the sequence below, you’ll also see some of the rest of the herd as well (mostly all females–males are kept in another pasture). And that big white dog is named Betty. She’s a Great Pyrenees. She was brought to the farm years ago, specifically to guard the alpaca (from coyotes, etc), and although she was never taught how to care for alpaca young, you will see below that she always knows exactly what to do. This is not her first experience at caring for newborns, but Mindy tells me that from the very first one, she knew it was her job to help the mama alpaca clean and protect the newborn.

So, anyway, the call came and I got over there just as the head/feet of the baby were showing.

(Click on any photo to enlarge it)

And so it follows…

Everybody come see

Betty starts cleaning the baby even before it’s out

Wait for it…

Fell to the ground totally healthy. It’s a girl!

That’s the mama on the left looking at you

Betty and Mama Maggie begin the cleaning process

Betty pulls off all of the gunk

Cleaned up considerably…

…the newborn picks her head up, and starts to try to stand up.

Betty on guard

When one of the others gets too close or starts being too rough with the baby, Betty steps in and pushes the offender back (or gets between her and the baby). Here, she’s confronting the potential trouble-maker.

Face-plant

She’s up!

Welcome to the herd.

Drying in the warm sun and cool wind.

Here she is one hour after she first entered the world.
What a perfect morning for a birth.

Saga of a Wolf Spider

Heading out to my studio very late one night this week, when I noticed something big and dark in front of the studio door. A toad? Oh wait–turn on flash–holy cow it’s a huge furry spider!! Biggest one I’ve seen in a really long time–it’s legs were all stretched out and looked to be 3-4 inches long! (body definitely 1 1/2- 2 inches long)

Now, I’m going to be honest here. I usually kill spiders if they’re in my house or studio or pretty much any enclosed space of habitation. I mean, sometimes we (dogs and I) take power naps on the dog cushions, under table, on floor of studio and I’m a mouth breather, so…. gross, right?

But this “little fella” was outside.That’s neutral territory.

Grabbed a 5-gallon bucket lying nearby, turned it over and trapped it, ran inside to find a glass jar, came out and stopped. These guys are really fast and I don’t really want a spider ON me. Hemming and hawing… You want to get a close look or not? You some sort of wimp??! OK, quietly picked up the bucket and quickly put jar over spider. Slipped matboard underneath, turned over, removed board and screwed on lid. Holy cow!! Look at that Mother!

The eyes are a beautiful turquoise blue here (I encourage you to click on any of these photos to enlarge–they look TOTALLY AWESOME when they’re big!)

And Mother she DID turn out to be.

It had all these funny looking bumps on it’s back. Gross!! It’s got a skin disease!!! But wait, I think one of those bumps moved. OMG are those??….

…babies!

The Carolina Wolf Spider (Hogna carolinensis) is of a really impressive size. Seriously, when seeing it at first my brain signaled “small tarantula” but then I remembered I was in Wisconsin, 2012 (not Central America, 1980′s). These are remarkable spiders for a number of reasons: The mother carries her egg sac with her, always raised above the ground so it doesn’t drag, and does all her hunting, etc while carrying this big egg sac with her everywhere! I’m impressed. They’ve been described as robust and quick-moving. Ha! No kidding. At spiders.us they write: “[The] egg sac is a pale sphere carried from the spinnerets of the adult female. An average count per sac is 100-150 eggs. The spiderlings will emerge from the egg sac in summer and ride on top of their mother until their next molt, after which they disperse.”

So that’s what I had here, a mama with her babies riding on top of her. Spiderlings. How cute. I say this without sarcasm. Now.

Wolf spiders are also remarkable in that their eyes seem to glow in the dark–when you put your flashlight on them, they have “eyeshine” and you can see their eyes literally shining out of the darkness (you’ll see this in later photos). This is how many nocturnal animals can be found at night, with a flashlight–by looking for the eyeshine. Wikipedia explains the phenomenon on various pages:

“Eyeshine is a visible effect of the tapetum lucidum. When light shines into the eye of an animal having a tapetum lucidum, the pupil appears to glow.” This layer of tissue “is behind or within the retina. It reflects visible light back through the retina, increasing the light available to the photoreceptors…. This improves vision in low-light conditions [and contributes to] superior night vision ….”

Wolf Spiders are nocturnal and they hunt their prey at night, and now we know how they can see in the dark!

6 of the 8 eyes showing. Pretty amazing face and fangs, huh? Seriously, click it to enlarge to 1500 pixels wide.

So what was I going to do next? I was enthralled and grossed out (did you look at those furry fangs??!!) and yet kept thinking “She’s a mama.” And of course my thoughts turned to Charlotte(‘s Web), which was read to me at a young age by my Mom. Well, after a day of wondering what to do with her, I had to let her go. I learned that Wolf spider bites are NOT necrotic (google image search this word if you want to be TRULLY grossed out), so if she did come back for revenge (hopefully not with her army of children) I wouldn’t be seriously wounded. They also kill/hunt/eat many pests, so they’re beneficial to humans, and…

…she’s a mama.

The next night I decided to let her go–first walking away from the house and outbuildings (I wasn’t going to actually “invite her in”, mama or not). I turned my flashlight on to hopefully get a last photo of her, but the MICROSECOND I lifted the jar off the cement surface, she flew away from the crazy monster bug-catcher.

Check this out, I thought I missed her, but you can see her babies’ eyes glowing from her back as she makes her great escape:

The next night, walking up from the barn, finished with chores, I noticed something small hopping along beside me, in the almost-blackness of night. Probably just a toad, let’s check it out…turning on flashlight and…holy cow (or holy spiders at this point) it was another mama Wolf spider (I say “another” since this one was smaller), her back covered in babies, eyes shining brightly. “Hey little mama” I smiled (I actually smiled at a spider?), and walked away.

“Eyes shining brightly” now has new meaning for me.

*NOTE: Here’s a nice video showing how the “bumpy-backed” spider turns into a mama with live babies on her back:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hmr-B_JZTnE. A little cute AND a little creepy.

Ouch!

Now I know why that one Araucana squawks so loudly when she lays her eggs. That big green one on the right is hers…

No surprise here, when I cracked it open to cook…. a double-yolker:

Ivan and the Wily Coyotes

This scene usually happens at dusk or at night. In fact the most breathtaking chase that I witnessed took place on a moonless night in pitch blackness, save for my gazillion candlelight flashlight I used to watch the chase. As always, the coyote seemed to just taunt Ivan. This one night, there was only one (they almost always work in pairs or more) the scrawny thing didn’t even start running till Ivan–a 120 lb puffing and snorting and bellowing freight train–was practically bearing down on him.

When being chased, the coyotes always look back to see how close Ivan is, and they will actually slow down so they don’t get too far away. It really looks as if they are toying with him–teasing him enough to get him to jump the fence and start chasing them, and then they just mess with him. Ivan will chase them off the property–past the barbed wire–then come chugging back up the ridge to the house. Often, the coyotes will reappear on the crest of the hill that Ivan just chased them over, and they’ll bark and bark at him. I swear it sounds like they’re hurling insults at him “Your mama wears combat boots, sucka….” Wily coyotes indeed.

‘Ivan and the Wily Coyotes’ • 3-color reduction linocut on Rives BFK cream • 6in x 24in • (click image to enlarge)

And the print after color #1 (blue, at bottom), carving (linoleum, at top) for color #2, which will be orange:

First print of the year…

(Finished in first week of January, but belated posting)

January 15, 2012

For a folio exchange called Everything Eleven (and some A/P ones will be used for my Bestiary), this one’s called:

Eleven Polish Posing

'Eleven Polish Posing' • 3 color reduction linocut with some hand-coloring on Rives Lightweight • 14in x 4in • January 2012

(more than) 11 polish drying

He’s a White Crested Black, cockerel (under 1 year old), all grown up (he is one of my summer 2011 chicks). Quite the beauty, and not too mean as far as these fellows go. I have a bunch of young polish cocks in the barn pen, separate from the coop. When it came time to decide which polish would migrate to the coop (all the pullets and some of the cockerels), this guy was a no-brainer. Although he has about 6 or so other equally handsome brothers of the same breed, when I went to gather up some of “his” girls to take to the coop, he swooped down and tried to grab them (literally) out of my hands. He didn’t try to attack me, but rather tried to grab his girls back. I knew then that I had a good caretaker, mate for those girls, so I swooped him up too. At the very least he would look out for them and not let any of the bigger chickens pick on his girls.

(click any image to enlarge)

New broiler tees!

Available (for the first time) at tomorrow’s chicken talk at DCHS (see next post below).

(Click to enlarge)

woodcut-printed tees, tanks and v-necks available at DCHS this Saturday, August 6!

Badass Broiler woodcut done

Drying as we speak (or “curing” since this is oil-based ink which is already dry to the touch….), this 4 color reduction woodcut is printed on handmade paper I made in June. It’s 100% cotton, pigmented rag paper (with added sparklies). Closeup at bottom shows the gold sparkling through…..

Your Days are Numbered Cornish Cock!

'Your Days are Numbered Cornish Cock!' * 22in x 16in * 4 color reduction woodcut on handmade paper (click to enlarge)

This is a Cornish cock or Broiler or Cornish Cross. The breed is raised for meat.

The print was made for a folio exchange entitled “Your Days Are Numbered.” (how perfect is that for my seasonal practice of raising animals for meat??!!? Needless to say, I jumped at the opportunity). Actually, for the folio they are cropped down to 10in wide, which makes the rooster seem even bigger still (unable to fit into the scene’s dimensions). 22 of the 49 prints were sent off to the folio, and the other 27 I will have available to sell as is (16in x 22in).

Typically, growers butcher these guys at about 8 weeks old. I like ‘em mature, so I let them grow till they’re ginormous and each one dresses out at about 12 lbs. or so. This way, one chicken can be made into various dishes, and frozen, to feed us for over one week.

click to enlarge

And here’s the final closeup of the Avocado Gold paper that I love. See how it sparkles and how the black ink looks exactly like what it comes from: petroleum distillates….

Oh, and when looking up to see how to spell badass, I came across these awesome definitions of the word at the Urban Dictionary.

CLUCK: From Jungle Fowl to City Chicks…

NOW AVAILABLE

Funny, poignant, wry look at the backyard phenomenon of raising chickens for eggs, meat or just plain pets. Additional stories by Jane Hamilton, Michael Perry, and Ben Logan. Stunning artwork by S.V. Medaris. For animal lovers, pet owners, and art enthusiasts.

Itchy Cat Press
www.itchycatpress.com
608-924-1443
Read more about Cluck.

To order paperback, send $25 (check or money order) to:

S.V. Medaris
123 Drammen Valley Rd
Mount Horeb, WI 53572

$35 for hardcover (cloth bound with foil stamp, covered with book jacket).

Free shipping (and no tax) if ordered by June 1st.

Or pick up a copy at our farm during the Spring Art Tour, June 10-12. More info here.

8ft chicken is finished and on display…

…at the Overture Center for the Arts.

The show is up! Now on view through June 25th, 2011. Meet the artists at the reception Gallery Night, Friday, May 6, 6pm.

More info: Overture Center, Gallery 1

Hand- colored woodcut, printed on masa, then mounted on plywood cutout form and varnished. By the way, that's a Golden-Laced Wyandotte, cock. Maximus was one of my first roosters (bros with Big Tiny).

It’s a huge relief to be done with this and have it up on display. I mean it was fun to do, but printing by hand with a wooden spoon (my press is “only” 30in wide….the chicken block is a 4ft x 8ft plywood block) is not easy, especially with so much solid black. An exercise in patience most definitely.

2 Big Shows: Receptions (Fri, Sat) May 6, 7

Beastly Prints

Now showing! "Beastly Prints" at the Overture. Reception May 6, Gallery Night!

Link to Overture show online.

A Pattern of Processing

Opening reception May 7 at 6pm.

More info: S.V. Medaris, shows.