"Night" by Helene Tupke Grande

Three fat, feathered meatballs roost on a tree branch. One has spoken, and the other two have listened. Wide awake in their conference, our night is their day. This scene appears grainy with shadows made even as if seen through a screen or lens. We are watching them from a distance. A cool breeze passes through the open spaces between scrawny tree trunks and naked branches. The three round fellows smile.

"Great Horned Owl" by Helen Brooks

Image posted with the permission of the artist. More of Helen Brooks's stunning prints, mostly inspired by nature, can be viewed on her online gallery and Etsy store.

At close range the multitude of tiny feathers pointed this way and that can seem like rock, meticulously sculpted by eons of erosion. The meandering contour lines around his three-quarter-view stance enhance this perception. And like stone, he is motionless. This is efficiency and camouflage. Although to the attentive onlooker, the huge menacing eyes and sharp talons give him away. He is a swift and beautiful killing machine, waiting to strike.

"Samurai House in Autumn" by Noboru Yamataka

Dying is not death. In fact, some live life most fully, mostly colorfully, most gorgeously, while in the throes of decay. In autumn, every tree is a bouquet. I entreat you, step out of the shadowy interior, drink in the cool, crisp air, rainbow of foliage, and magnificent blue sky, then bow low in respect.

Shepherd Boy

"Shepherd Boy" (Dedicated to Samson)
8.5" x 11"
Oil-based inks on handmade Japanese paper

I made this for my cousin's new baby boy, Samson. His mom mentioned that she likes lambs, which made me think of both actual shepard boys and little kids with their stuffed animals. I wanted to make an image that plays in the space between pretend and real life. My favorite thing about this finished image is that I didn't overwork it. I didn't try to cram too much in. It's just the little boy with his stuffed sheep superimposed over a wolf howling at the moon. I also like that it has the little kid subject matter, but the color palette is fairly masculine instead of baby-cutesy pastels.

"Ship Composition" and "Sailboat" by Hermann Stammeshaus

One boat sits in a harbor, neat against a symmetrical arrangement of purple and gold architecture. Another slices through turbulent waters that screech against a darkly smudged sky. One seems to have the weight and stability of buildings, while the other seems as fragile as a paper crane. The first has either arrived or not yet taken off, while the second is in the middle of an uncertain journey. Where do we find ourselves, buried, motionless within a pile of pretty ideals, or out there taking on the dangerous world?

"Creek In Evening" by Jennifer Worsley

If you enjoy this image, definitely check out more of Jennifer Worsley's woodcuts on her website here.

The great deciduous trees bend toward the stream, and as I move further away, their elegant bodies, those stately trunks, slip into the vapor.

Water, as reflective as a silver teapot, zigzags around purple rocks and impenetrable weeds. Trees rearrange patches of light as their branches sway in the wind. Everything moves.

"Mary At the Lake" by Walter J. Phillips

I am watching her watch something else. Her warm, peach skin stands out against endless amethyst. A bush rises up like a defense, and behind it her body disintegrates. Such senses - her gaze, hearing, smelling - stem from her face. That wistful expression. Beyond her the still and purple lake becomes inexplicably vast.