yeah sure why not

Phyllis Shafer, born 1958 in Buffalo, N.Y.

Phyllis Shafer’s lyrical landscapes, set in the high altitudes around Lake Tahoe and the deserts of Arizona, are a remarkable change from the urban world that the artist inhabited for most of her life. Shafer, who spent many years in New York and San Francisco, now paints her deepest feelings with accents of swirling, sensual cloud formations.

“I use the land as a metaphor for the human condition,” Shafer says, expressing admiration for how Native Americans have done so for centuries. “When I’m out there, I feel just like one more cactus or pine tree in the landscape. That’s where the soothing reassurances come from on a psychic level.”

From "Living Off the Land" by Harriet Modler

A painting of a nightmare I had recently.

Five of Coins. Art by Kevin Jay Stanton, from BOTANICA: Full Bloom.

Did you ever wish you had a built-in blanket? Well, this cephalopod doesn’t need to wish… Meet the Indo-Pacific violet blanket octopus (Tremoctopus gracilis)! While males are tiny, rarely growing more than a few centimeters long, females are more than 10,000 times that size—reaching lengths of up to 6 ft (2 m)! Females also sport massive “blankets,” which are actually webs of skin connecting their dorsal arms. When threatened, they can drop these appendages, distracting predators as they make their escape.