The Bartram's Scrub-Hairstreak Butterfly is a beautiful, softly colored butterfly with pops of orange contrasted against the muted grays and tans.  It is native to South Florida, where I live, but have never seen one in my outdoor adventures, but that may be because they are a federally endangered species.  We always see paintings of flamboyantly decked out butterflies, so I wanted to highlight one that is more understated at first glance, but once you start to look at it the pops of rusty orange and the stripes on it's antennae and legs makes one realize just how beautiful of a butterfly species the Bartram is.  In this piece of A NeverEnding Story puzzle, the beautiful, and unique butterfly is perched on a curling vine admiring the pink tinted clouds floating past.

The Bartram's Hairstreak is a tiny little creature, measuring no more than an inch, and resides in the Pine Rockland habitat of South Florida on it's host plant, the pineland croton.  They usually don't stray more than 17 feet from their host plant, but will make use of other vegetation nearby.

These butterflies don't migrate which is one of the reasons they are susceptible to loss of habitat and endangered, they only exist in a couple of small areas.

Not a lot is known about these butterflies, including their lifespan, but it is known that they molt 5 times while they are growing, and that they are fast and hard to detect as they blend in with the foliage around them.  

​This puzzle is A Neverending Story...I am going to continue to add new puzzle pieces for an undetermined amount of time, but hopefully for a very long time!  Each piece of this puzzle will feature an animal, some of them endangered, some recovered from the endangered list through conservation efforts and others just because, haha! 

My goal for this work of puzzle art is to create a beautiful, colorful celebration of animals and the natural world.  We are all interconnected, and share this amazing planet that we get to call home.  By creating this puzzle and sharing it with art collectors and animal lovers around the world, I hope to create a sense of togetherness, we ARE in this together, and we need to be aware of our impact on the environment and other species, and be sure to make it positive.  Let's join together and help preserve and nurture this beautiful world that we all share, and celebrate the wonder of all the beautiful creatures that work in symbiotic harmony to create the most beautiful puzzle...planet earth.

A portion of the proceeds from each puzzle piece will be donated to ReWild, an organization I have collaborated with, and contribute to, to help “conserve the diversity of life on Earth".

I love all birds, and you will see LOTS of them throughout the "A NeverEnding Story" puzzle painting.  Whether as the featured piece of the puzzle or more in the background, birds will be everywhere you look!  Parrots are particularly fun because they are just so cute and colorful, looking at them instantly makes me happy and inspired.  So this puzzle piece has a fun parrot flying amongst the Seuss like trees with bubbles floating amongst the whimsical clouds.

Let's learn some fun facts about the parrot family!

There are close to over 400 different species of parrots, from Macaws to Cockatoos, and they can live up to 80 years old in the wild, almost the same life span as a human.  There are a few cases of parrots living past 100, imagine having a pet parrot that outlives you, haha!

Parrots are social birds and typically gather in flocks of 10-30 birds.  I currently live in Miami and I know when a flock of wild parrots is going overhead, I can usually here them before I see them, and it's so cool to see them all together.  Oftentimes they will congregate in treetops and make quite the ruckus!

Parrots are actually Omnivores with a diet consisting of plants, seeds and bugs.  Seeds and nuts are there favorite foods and their strong beak is perfect for cracking the nuts open.  Their beaks are constantly growing, but through grinding the beak and breaking open their food helps keep the length in check.

Parrots choose one mate for life and build a strong bond with their partner, even during the non breeding season.

Parrots are considered one of the most intelligent birds, with some species able to learn up to 100 words and phrases.  And they love music and dancing!  Most talking parrots are simply mimicking what they have heard, but there are some instances where parrots that have been professionally trained can actually understand and communicate beyond just mimicry.

Many species of birds have more colorful males than the females, so they can easily be distinguished which is which, but with parrots, both the male and females are flamboyantly colored.

I hope you enjoyed these fun facts and continue researching all there is to know about parrots.  There are so many different species with their own characteristics, it's fun to learn all there is to know!  ​

The first image release for A NeverEnding Story is the fabulous "Zenful Zebra"!  This beautiful creature is roaming the abundant grasslands with a colorful little birdie perched on his back for a free ride, while butterflies flit around from flower to flower on the afternoon breeze.  Currently prints are available with more fun products coming soon to show your love for zebras and all wildlife.

Some fun facts about zebras:  There are three species of zebras, all native to Africa, they are the plains zebra, mountain zebra and the endangered Grevy's zebra.  The Grevy's zebra is endangered due to hunting and habitat loss, but there are conservation organizations working with local groups, and using collars to track and protect these special zebras to preserve for generations to come.

​Zebras are suprisingly fast, able to run up to 40mph, and constantly on the move searching for grazing land and water, often traveling hundreds of miles to find the best food around.

Zebras are actually not a horse or a donkey, although more closely related to the donkey, but are in the same family called Equidaes. 

Zebras are herbivores, which means they eat plants, grasses, and roots.  They are also like a camel and go around 5 days without water.

One of the coolest things about zebras is that each one has it's own unique stripe pattern.  No one is sure why, whether it be to identify each other, act as sunscreen, ward off predators by confusing them or a combination of different reasons.  But, regardless they sure are one of the most beautiful creatures!  And unlike most animals, their skin is actually black.

Zebras are social creatures and usually travel in herds of 15 to 20 families, sometimes with 1,000s of animals in a herd.  This helps protect them from predators and they will form a semi-circle when threatened and have a very strong kick and bite, best not to mess around with them!  They also run in zig zag patterns to confuse any predators.

I hope you enjoyed learning a little bit about these beautiful animals, and stay tuned for the next art drop puzzle piece from A NeverEnding Story!

​This puzzle is A Neverending Story...I am going to continue to add new puzzle pieces for an undetermined amount of time, but hopefully for a very long time!  Each piece of this puzzle will feature an animal, some of them endangered, some recovered from the endangered list through conservation efforts and others just because, haha! 

My goal for this work of puzzle art is to create a beautiful, colorful celebration of animals and the natural world.  We are all interconnected, and share this amazing planet that we get to call home.  By creating this puzzle and sharing it with art collectors and animal lovers around the world, I hope to create a sense of togetherness, we ARE in this together, and we need to be aware of our impact on the environment and other species, and be sure to make it positive.  Let's join together and help preserve and nurture this beautiful world that we all share, and celebrate the wonder of all the beautiful creatures that work in symbiotic harmony to create the most beautiful puzzle...planet earth.

A portion of the proceeds from each puzzle piece will be donated to ReWild, an organization I have collaborated with, and contribute to, to help “conserve the diversity of life on Earth".

I'm finally getting started on something I've had in the planning stages for awhile now, and I'm soooooo excited about it!!  I've always loved puzzles, and used to spend hours and hours toiling away as a child to pass the long winter days in Alaska.  I would disappear into my own little world and wouldn't even notice what was happening around me as I intently focused on finding that elusive piece.  There is just something so satisfying about putting the pieces together to create a final image.  I always liked the larger puzzles, 1,000 pieces or more, there was more of a challenge and the reward was that much sweeter when the final piece was put into place.

As an adult I still work on puzzles, oftentimes with my daughter, making it a family affair now.  And during the pandemic quarantine it was the perfect time to really delve into the fun that is puzzling.  It also got my wheels turning on wanting to create my own puzzles, initially it was just thoughts of taking existing art and using them for traditional puzzles (which I now have, click on pic below), but then I came upon these wooden shaped puzzle pieces and the lightbulb went off!  

I knew I just had to do something epic with these puzzle pieces and the more I thought about it, the better my idea formulated.  And I FINALLY started working on it yesterday!  And it's turning out so good, I can barely contain my excitement!!  It's going to be quite the challenge I can tell already.  It is a puzzle in the truest sense of the word in a couple of ways, one, it's obviously made with puzzle pieces that fit together, and two it's a mental puzzle challenge for me to create a design that flows seamlessly from one piece to the other.  To be cohesive and yet keep each piece individual and standalone.  

This puzzle is A Neverending Story...I am going to continue to add new puzzle pieces for an undetermined amount of time, but hopefully for a very long time!  Each piece of this puzzle will feature an animal, some of them endangered, some recovered from the endangered list through conservation efforts and others just because, haha! 

My goal for this work of puzzle art is to create a beautiful, colorful celebration of animals and the natural world.  We are all interconnected, and share this amazing planet that we get to call home.  By creating this puzzle and sharing it with art collectors and animal lovers around the world, I hope to create a sense of togetherness, we ARE in this together, and we need to be aware of our impact on the environment and other species, and be sure to make it positive.  Let's join together and help preserve and nurture this beautiful world that we all share, and celebrate the wonder of all the beautiful creatures that work in symbiotic harmony to create the most beautiful puzzle...planet earth.

A portion of the proceeds from each original puzzle piece will be donated to ReWild, an organization I have collaborated with, and contribute to, to help “conserve the diversity of life on Earth".

I wanted to offer something fun, collectable and affordable for absolutely everyone and came upon the perfect answer, stickers!  Who doesn't love stickers?  They are so much fun for everyone, for kids to place all over everything (sorry moms and dads), and adults and teens to use for journaling and scrapbooking, or to place all over everything, haha!  And of course they will have wildlife, nature themes as the main subject as that is my passion, raising awareness for animal conservation!

I have sticker sheets and single stickers available in lots of fun designs, from Under the Sea compilation, to black and white coloring designs on a full sheet and more.  But, my ABSOLUTE favorite is the new holographic stickers I just listed, and they are selling like hotcakes!  And easy to see why, they are just mesmerizing and captivating, catching the light and creating a shimmering cascade of colors from every angle.  I have video of a couple of them on my Instagram Reels page to show just how fascinating they are when catching the light.

I have more sticker sheets and holographic singles on order.  Including another art palette design, like the giraffe one above, such a great, unique sticker that no one else is doing.  The other design is from one of my wooden heart paintings, it's going to be amazing!!  

Another great thing about the holographic stickers is that they are limited edition, I will only be doing a run of 150 stickers for each design.  So, not only are they super pretty, lots of fun to play with, they are also collectable; see how many you can collect!

​A portion of the proceeds from every sticker will be donated to ReWild, a conservation organization I have collaborated with, and contribute to, to help “conserve the diversity of life on Earth".