Happy Chinese-y, I Mean Cheesy New Year!

Just a little ridiculous humor for my Artists of Chubbyville on Yahoo- All Originals January page swap with the theme "Year of the Rat." It made the home page here: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Chubbyville/.

I was having trouble getting an idea until I saw the picture below, as I much prefer cats to rats. And certainly cheese rates right up there with cats. I understand our hostess this month was born in the Year of the Rat and likes rats, and apparently fostered one, although I don't know that story. I hope she will find humor in my page. Don't want to be sent packing from Chubbyville! Chubbyville is part of altered artists on-line and deals with 4 x 4 pages for fat books. I am about to bind all my pages for 2007, and will have to post pages of my first fat book soon! It also happens that I participate in 4 x 4 Friday, which is a weekly challenge to make art that is 4 x 4, so sometimes my pages can do double duty for that!

I Own a Gorilla and a Mirror

Well, actually, no one should 'own' a gorilla, but my little donation went in with the $500 raised in the Altered Art Obsession and the Artists of Chubbyville raffle to allow us to adopt Umushikirano, better known as Rano, a 14 year-old silverback from Beetsme's group, one of the main groups of mountain gorillas monitored by the Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund International.

And on top of that, I won a wonderful sea mirror with lots of beach glass made and donated by Jeanette Coates. There were lots of great pieces of art up for grabs, and other great artists who donated cash and/or supported the auction on their blog. All for Rano. Thanks especially to Rita Bellanca for coordinating everything and mailing all the prizes out and covering the shipping so that 100% of our funds could be donated. Besides sponsoring Rano, a significant donation was made to Wildlife Direct, founded by Dr. Richard Leakey.

Rano was born in 1992 to Fuddle and has two sisters (Mawingu, 25, Taraja, 7) and two brothers (Bilbo, 28, and Joliami, 19). Both brothers are also lone silverbacks whose current location remains unknown. Rano can be recognized very easily by his nose which has a distinctive cut. His kindness and easygoing demeanor allow trackers to get good photos of him because he seems to always be ready for a photo opportunity.

Rano is now what is known as a lone silverback, in that he has moved away from his natal group. He has been making attempts to form his own group since then. He managed to garner two females to join him for a short period of time but soon lost them to another group that ranges into the Congo border.

DFGFI lost contact with him between 9/06 thru 4/07 but he's back.Rano continues to be monitored and allows a great opportunity for the DFGFI staff to learn more about the fascinating lives of mountain gorillas. Fascinating work that would be!

Take a Chance on Art; Help Save the Gorillas

Altered Artists Online and one of my online art groups, Chubbyville (fat books, not fat people!), are hosting a giant charity raffle this month! Raffle tickets are on sale now. The drawing will be held at the end of November.

Go here: http://aaocharities.blogspot.com/ to check out the incredible art prizes. More will likely be added before the end of the auction, so check back frequently! Raffle tickets are only $2 each. Best of all, its all for a good cause!

The chosen charities are the Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund International (DFGFI) and WildlifeDirect, both of whom are working tirelessly to save Gorillas. DFGFI is dedicated to the conservation and protection of gorillas and their habitats in Africa. See: http://www.gorillafund.org/

WildlifeDirect was founded and is chaired by paleontologist and African conservationist Dr Richard Leakey, who is credited with putting an end to the elephant slaughter in Kenya in the 1980s. Go here: http://www.wildlifedirect.org/blogAdmin/gorilla/. Both the DFGFI and WildlifeDirect are responding to the immediate crisis in the Congo, where at least 9 mountain gorillas have been killed this year.

PLEASE HELP SAVE THE GORILLAS. HOW TO DONATE: Entries for the raffle will be accepted until NOVEMBER 24TH 2007. All donations are accepted via Paypalby one of my fellow group members Rita B. Please use discodog01@hotmail.com as the recipient email address.