Thursday, January 13, 2011

Nature's Special Effects

We all have a dinosaur deep within us just trying to get out.
~ Colin Mochrie


Hello Little Rooftops
by Hanna Mancini

Stegowagenvolkssaurus
by Patricia Renick

Styraco Races
by James Gurney

Benjamin Waterhouse Hawkins' Studio at the Central Park Arsenal (Have you heard of Waterhouse Hawkins? Our family has this picture book about him.)

Living Dinosaur
by Jenni C, Lofiphotography

Tea Rex
by Holly Conrad

The Snake-necked Elasmosaurus
Restoration by Osborn and Knight, from a painting in American Museum of Natural History

Not a dinosaur, but I couldn't resist including it:
Woolly Mammoth
By Kate Alizadeh
Links:

*ASCII Art: Dinosaurs
*Early black and white prints of dinosaurs and other mesozoic creatures
* I also love Two Can Dine by Boopsiedaisy
* The Royal Tyrrell Museum of Paleontology, which has a prehistoric arts contest for Canadians K-12

The title of this post came from a quote by Robert Bakker: "It's very simple why kids are crazy about dinosaurs -- dinosaurs are nature's special effects. They are the only real dragons. Kids love dragons. It's not just being weirdly-shaped and being able to eat Buicks. It's that they are real."

3 comments:

Warm Heater/Cold Night said...

I love thinking about dinosaurs (maybe it's the kid in me?) or maybe it's like writer Sue Henderickson said: "Great white sharks, big storms - somehow, I think we like to be put in our place by awesome things. Dinosaurs do that." And wooly mammoths too. :-)

Love the images...especially Tea Rex.

Tabatha said...

Nice quote from Sue H. I think outer space does that, too. Puts us in our place.

M Pax said...

I can understand why you couldn't resist the woolly mammoth picture. It's very inspiring.

All of the art pieces you chose are very creative and I love the expression of it by the artists. I especially like the first one. Provocative.