It's World Giraffe Day! Celebrating this Uniquely Beautiful Creature

June 21st is a day to celebrate the lanky, kinda goofy, and uniquely beautiful giraffe.  This is an annual event to raise support, create awareness and shed light on the challenges giraffes face in the wild. By supporting World Giraffe Day (WGD), you directly help save giraffe in Africa. With only approximately 117,000 giraffe remaining in the wild, we need to always be vigilant on increasing their numbers in the wild (source: https://giraffeconservation.org/world-giraffe-day/​)

I created this painting with a fun, carefree vibe in mind.  This is how all animals should be able to live, be free, in the wild, as they always have, without constantly battling extinction and loss of habitat.  Once we are aware of how we can help and preserve and rewild animals to their natural lands we can prevent species from becoming extinct and bring them back from being endangered.  

Some fun giraffe facts to share: 

1. They are the tallest mammals (and land animals) on the planet, just their legs along are taller than most people, averaging around 6 feet.
2. This one really surprised me!  Whenever I see a video of them running, they look a bit awkward, haha, but, they can run up to 35mph!!
3. A giraffes spots are unique to each individual, it's like a humans fingerprints, or a whales tale.  Not two animals spots art the same.
4. They never sleep for more than 30 minutes in 24 hours!  And only through several quick little naps.  Giraffes also mostly sleep standing up, they rarely ever lie down for anything, even giving birth they stand up.
5. They only need to drink every few days, they get most of their water from leaves.  When they do drink from ponds they have to spread their legs out in an awkward looking pose as their long neck still isn't long enough to reach the ground.

This painting is now being enjoyed in it's new home, a nursery for a baby born last year.  I hope it will always inspire him to love animals and be an advocate for kindness towards our fellow planet dwellers of all kinds.

A portion of the proceeds from my MAD wonderland collection sales, is donated to Re:wild (formerly know as Global Wildlife Conservation), an organization I have collaborated with, and continue to contribute to. "We believe that together, we can protect and restore those ecosystems critical to the health of our planet—from the Amazon to Australia and from Borneo to our own backyards. We are excited to embark on this journey, because we believe that, together, we can rewild our world.." (Co-founded by Leonardo Dicaprio.)