31 October 2004 ... Challenge

November is National Novel Writing Month. The challenge is to write a 50,000 word novel during the month.

And then there is the Art by the Inch challenge. Make 10,000 square inches of art during the month.

hm. I have no desire to write a novel, but I would like to draw some more. Tho 10,000 sq.in. is a lot... The website says if you draw/create a bit over 4 sheets of full size 8x10 paper, every day, you can meet the challenge.

Yeah, that's too much for me. But you can choose your own challenge. For instance, the Bronze Challenge is 2,500 sq.in. which is about a page of art every day.

That is still a major challenge for me. But I'm going to sign up for it. Heh, suddenly I am very scared! But that's appropriate: it is Halloween, after all. *laugh*

I had caught the tail end of a show on PBS about a family of red-tailed hawks living on an apartment building on Fifth Avenue, across from Central Park in New York City. The show was named after the father hawk, Pale Male.

The show delighted me and also made me incredibly sad. It was great seeing wildlife adapt to human activities. It was great seeing this group of people coming out every day just to catch the fledglings first flight! "Our hawks." Humans that care about animals, wildlife and wildplaces, that's the most important thing in the world.

I was sad to learn that Pale Male's mate died shortly after their three babies fledged. She died from eating a pigeon that had been poisoned. Red-tails mate for life, but Pale Male is now on his fourth wife. I am sad for him, and sad that humans think it's okay to use poison. It's not! Poison should Never be used!

So, I very much enjoyed the show, and I usually write about cool stuff like this in my notebook. And I was inspired to do that drawing. It's a red-tailed hawk copied from one of my Dover Pictorial Archive books.

oh, how I love those books! And I suppose I'll be using them quite often in the coming month! heh.

okay. Time to go fill out my artist profile over at Art By The Inch!