The Glorious Giraffe.

"The Glorious Giraffe" Original Acrylic on wrapped canvas 30x40
prints and cards available upon request.

Oh good and glorious giraffe,
I'd like to speak in your behalf.
It's clear that there are very few
Who decorate the world like you.
                             - Johannes Eff, 1969

It seems I am working my way through the animal kingdom. I have to admit that giraffes are a favorite of mine. Their inexplicable oddness and their sweetness combine to win you over completely, along with their kind gentleness and sweeping eyelashes. You never hear of anyone being killed by a giraffe. They have huge hearts to raise and lower that neck so quickly. And they are graceful and dignified despite the fact that their build is so strangely unbalanced. 

"It was as if his hide had been in two layers, one creamy and pale, the other crisp and reddish brown. Maybe the dark upper layer had been to fragile for the equatorial heat. It had cracked into blocks, like the glaze on the Chinese pottery."   -Gladys Schmitt in "Consider the Giraffe"

I was forever changed once I saw a free giraffe move across the landscape in Africa in 2007. I've sketched them for years.
It was important to me to get this painting right and it owns a piece of my soul.

"It was really rather eerie; one got the same sense of unreality one would get- the same shock- if one suddenly saw a tree uproot itself and drift across the landscape."  -Gerald Durrell, zoo keeper