Monday Matticchio - Fear of Birds

Sunday Safari - Looming Presences

Martin Wittfooth, A Milder Fate Than Tyranny

John Brosio, Fatigue, thanks to Dark SIlence in Suburbia

Gerald Rose, illustration for Nessie The Mannerless Monster By Ted Hughes 

thanks to Hazel Terry's Classics of Children's Illustration Flickr set

 Michael Sowa, Haunted City

Peter Ferguson 

 Di Liu, two photos from the Animal Regulation series

 Pietari Posti

 Shuichi Nakano, Premonition of Storm and Chill at 5:25

from the Searching for Paradise series

Ryan Heshka

Chris Appelhans, Midnight Party

Arabesque

Hassan Massoudi, Peace

This post was already on my mind since I love Arab art and calligraphy, 

today I dedicate it to all the Arab people fighting for their rights...

may your victory come soon! 

Bird shaped calligraphy, 17th century Iran,

from the Museum für Islamische Kunst in Berlin

Aldin Rashid

Françoise Joire, Arabalphabêtes

 19th century Turkish wall painting in the shape of a lion, thanks to gramatologia

 Bismillah in the shape of an ostrich and

elephant shaped calligraphy by Hassan Musa

unidentified calligraphy found at BibliOdyssey

Jila Peacock, two animal shaped poems for Ten poems from Hafez

poster by Mehdi Saeedi 

Shahnawaz Alam Ahmed, poetry by Meer Taqi Meer, thanks to Ephemera Assemblyman

Salavat Ghilyazetdinov, Prophet's Horse, from the International Exhibition of Calligraphy

for more images and links check out 

BibliOdyssey's beautiful Zoomorphic Calligraphy post

A Wolf at the Door

More about the dark side of wolves...

but of course, only humans can be that cruel!

Monday Matticchio - Metamorphosis

Sunday Safari - Who's Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf?

Christian Roux, Le Petit Chaperon Rouge

 Benoît Jacques

Frans Haacken, Peter und der Wolf, 1958

thanks to the always inspiring Flickr album of Arthur van Kruining

Stanislav Kolíbal, Kalevala narrated to children, 1962 

from the lovely Flickr books set of Handy hands´ corner 

Grégoire Solotareff 

 Bruno Munari, Cappuccetto Verde

 Lev Tokmakov, thanks to irtroit 

 Serena Intilia

Nikko Barber, Conversation I've never had 

 Etienne Delessert, Big and Bad

Niklaus Troxler, Fuchsjagd theater poster

 Adrien Merigeau, Old Fangs

Tibor Karpati

Distracted by Porno

It's a crazy, scary, surreal time for Italian politics, and like many I am torn between

anger and frustration at the sad state of our democracy and hopes for a real change. 

Outraged by the shameless, vulgar, arrogant machismo of our political rulers, 

last night I consoled myself rewatching one of my favorite icons of Italian style, 

 the always lovely, classy, smart and free spirited Isabella Rossellini 

narrating and playacting the bizarre sex lives of animals.

A few years ago Isabella was encouraged by Robert Redford to create a series 

of very short films intended for the new audience of mobile Internet and You Tube. 

Being a serious animal lover, she came out with the concept for a low tech, 

irreverent, funny and sexy take on educational nature documentaries.

Rossellini then wrote, produced, directed and starred in some very unusual 

but scientifically sound videos about the mating habits of insects.

The highly successful Green Porno project won two Webby awards in 2009, 

and was followed by two more series about sea animals and a book.

Green Porno's offspring Seduce me focuses on the often bizarre rituals 

that precede mating, and features creatures ranging from salmons to snakes 

to cuttlefish. Two series have been produced, for a total of ten videos.

You can watch all of Isabella's animal shorts on Sundance Channel.

The recent Sundance festival also premiered Animals Distract Me, the new 

Rossellini film following her concern for wildlife "as she visits with Mario Batali, 

Andre Leon Talley, Charles Darwin, and a host of urban creatures in New York City". 

The feature will debut on Earth Day (April 22nd) on Discovery Channel's Planet Green.

Wolf Girls & Foxy Ladies

Kiki Smith, Wolf Girl

Sebastiano recently gave me for my birthday the beautiful catalog

of the 2005 Mart exhibition Il Bello e le bestie (Beauty and the beasts).

The volume displays a varied collection of art exploring the contamination 

of human and animal forms in imagery ranging from early mythical monsters 

to contemporary social satire. A fascinating selection, including the stunning 

Daniel Lee photograph below, which has inspired me to restore to life 

Animalarium's long-dormant homage to woman-animal hybrids 

with this proud pack of wintery creatures. 

Daniel Lee, Juror no. 4 (Fox Spirit)

Nicole Claveloux, La femme loup

Xiaoqing DIng, Fox and Girl

Jennybird Alcantara, Hiding Place

Julianna Swaney, Wolfgirl

Sandra Dieckmann, Fox and Half Human

Kelly Louise Judd, Wilhelmine Wolf in the Snow

Ryan McGinley at Designaside

Eugène Grasset, Three Women and Three Wolves,

thanks to sealmaiden

Felipe Prado, thanks to Baubauhaus

Delphine Lebourgeois