This twilight side or dark side of human consciousness is addressed in the fourth class or Higher Tantra, known as Anuttara Tantra. Although the archetypal figures, the Goddess and the Devil, have been expelled and banned from heaven by the monotheistic religions, a heaven we conventionally consider to be an entirely spiritual dimension, they reappear as darkly luminous figures in the Higher Tantras. At certain times, the Dakinis, riding through the sky on the backs of wild animals and led by their queen, gather in the cemetery or cremation ground on the mountain and dance naked around their bubbling cauldron. The predominant symbolism here is lunar rather than solar; it is nighttime rather than daytime. The symbolism is chthonic, belonging to the earth and the underworld, rather than celestial and belonging to heaven. In general, the iconography of the Anuttara Tantras is characterized by the presence of these witches or Dakinis and by these demonic wrathful deities. In the Lower Tantras, wrathful deities occasionally appear, but they play a secondary and subservient role as body-guards and doorkeepers. However, in the Anuttara Tantras these banned figures come to step forward and stand in the center of the Mandala. These two suppressed archetypal figures, the Goddess and the Devil, re-emerge from the shadows of consciousness and are re-admitted into the light of heaven, which is our daytime consciousness." excerpt from John Reynold's  "Wisdom Dakinis, Passionate and Wrathful" 

"Kalasiddhi is also born in Nepal. In ancient times Nepal was famous for its wool; Nepali blankets were sold in the market of Mauryan Pataliputra. Kalasiddhi's parents are weavers, Her father and mother, Bhadana and Nagini, name their child Dakini. Like Sakya Dema she grows up in a place of the dead, her father having abandoned her in a charnel ground with her dead mother. Mandarava, in the form of a tigress, suckles the child while keeping the mother's corpse warm so that the child will still cling to it. When Dakini is old enough she spins cotton during the day and weaves it by night. The fourteen-year-old Dakini is found by Tsogyel on her second visit to Nepal, where she comes to teach the Guru's secret precepts. Tsogyel names her Kalasiddhi: kala is the name of the substrata of the elements of the human body (bile, phlegm, semen, etc.) or 'atoms', and since Kalasiddhi belongs to the 'Body' family (kayakula) of Dakinis (and specifically to the conch type of Dakini, (samkini, which refers to the physical nature of the yoni), she will gain siddhi through realisation of the essential Emptiness of the 'atomic' structure of the body. In Mangyul, across the Tibetan border upstream of the Trishuli-kola, Kalasiddhi receives initiation into the Tantra Lama Mandala (gSangs-sngags bla-ma'i dkyil-'khor) and after extensive meditation she gains siddhi. She accompanies Tsogyel to Mutri Tsenpo's court at Samye and to the retreat centre at Chimphu where she meets Guru Pema. The Guru immediately perceives Kalasiddhi's potential as a mudra in his practice to increase the Tantra in Tibet and asks Tsogyel to give her to him for that purpose. Very soon after, Guru Pema leaves for the South-west leaving Kalasiddhi in Tsogyel's care. It is to Kalasiddhi that Tsogyel gave the detailed zap-lam instruction as her parting gift." Excerpt from Keith Dowman's "Woman and the Dakini"

"Goddess and the Sacred Cow"

Can you find the humpbackwhale, harbor seal,  sealion, seaotter, tule elk/wapiti, coyote, gray fox, elephant seal, double crested cormorants/ brandts cormorant, brown pelican, western gull, bat ray, east pacific octopus, california condor, harbor porpoise, ridways rail, california gull?

I present you some of the animals of the Arctic tundra!  A new winged-friend I got to learn about is one of the most endangered species: the spoon-billed-sandpiper (((I urge you to look him and his family up))). There are only 300 to 600 left today in the wild. In my drawing there are three, and one is kissing the narwhal (which yes, really exist). They are some of the cutest birds, and their beaks are so peculiar, hence the name. They breed only in one of the most remote places along a narrow strip of frigid coastal tundra in Eastern Russia. Each year they make a nearly 5,000-mile migration to winter in steamy tropical mudflats in Southeast Asia. Hunting and coastal development of intertidal mudflats are the biggest threats to their survival. I pray we don't lose them

Can you spot the gyra falcon, arctic hare, arctic wolf, caribou, musk ox, snowy owl, polar bear, arctic fox, ermine, narwhal, rock ptarmigan, spoonbilled sandpiper, harlequin duck, lemming, and polar bear? 

Gouache on illustration board

Can you find the mouse-deer? It is one on the smallest hooved animals in the world! It is an endangered species, highly threatened by massive deforestation in South East Asia.

The "snow lotus" flower, a rare and at risk herb used in Tibetan medicine. 📿 These powerful plants have been over harvested for Chinese medicine and are difficult to cultivate. They grow at high elevations of over 12,000 ft. above sea level!

Can you find the pallas car, manual, snow lotus, siberian/amur tiger, siberian lynx, red pandas, tibetan fox, sloth bear, snow leopard, red crowned crane, and fishing cat?

Ink, colored pencil, watercolor on illustration board 15x20

Did you know there are no monkeys or apes in Madagascar? That is why lemurs, endemic to the island, were able to evolve and survive.  

Find the fossa, lemurs, leaf snake, panther chameleon, tomato frog, crowned lemur, painted mantle, giraffe weevil, hissing cockroach, streaked tenrec, comet moth and sifaka!

In the ancient northern religions it was the female horned reindeer (name for a domesticated caribou) who drew the sleigh of the sun goddess at winter solstice...unlike the male who sheds his antlers in winter, it is the Deer Mother, who flies through winter’s longest darkest night with life-giving light of the sun in her horns. Often carrying the cosmos, the sun, moon and stars in her horns, her antlers were the tree of life, depicting the lower, middle and upper worlds. . .

Italian teacher and education pioneer Loris Malaguzzi famously said: "There are three teachers of children: adults, other children, and their physical environment." This visual was inspired by the book The Third Teacher in which educators and architects explore the critical link between education and environment. Comfort is necessary for children not only at home, but also at school.

Build a Nest imagines a school environment where little ones have a safe, soft and quiet place to play and explore from.

A play on the modernist architectural principle "function follows form", this image shows how the opposite is just as powerful. When Form Follows Function shows how the design of one's learning environment affects the student's development. In this piece the pyramid-shaped classroom has oppressively morphed the student into a "pyramid being". The student knows better though and with creative power breaks through the glass-ceiling! His conditioned pyramid-shaped psyche then takes flight and liberates into a flock of birds. In essence: teaching and learning should shape the classroom, not vice versa!

What if grasses and leafy plants flourished in play spaces that today are covered in concrete? Instead of manicured, dirt-free and sterile playgrounds, schools could provide endless opportunities for play, discovery and connection with the natural world. Inspired by the book The Third Teacher, this image reflects how kids need little to engage their imaginations and creativity when in nature.

Inquiry-based learning is the notion that learning begins and is fostered through the student's curiosity. In this pedagogy learning starts by posing questions, problems or scenarios instead of simply presenting established facts or portraying a one-way path to knowledge. This style of learning engages students in a way that promotes interaction, critical thinking, exploration and the use of more varied resources. In this image a little boy has transformed a symbolic “one-way knowledge textbook” into a tent. From this place of unbridled curiosity and wonder he can learn from hands-on and direct experience.

The harvest moon is the full-moon closest to the autumnal equinox and marks the reaping of the crops that have been growing all summer. In this image a woman waters and nurtures her city, lush with overgrown foliage and greens. She is encircled by the phases of the moon, and the harvest moon that surrounds her like a crown is full of seeds.

I wanted this image to bring light to the rhythms of the lunar cycles, even for those of us who live in metropolitan areas, and the importance of urban biodiversity. We can build towards creating "greener cities" through vertical farms, supporting local food sources, investing in renewable energy, and moving towards zero waste and zero co2 emission mobility.

When I think about sustainability the first things that come to mind are the plant and animal worlds that cannot voice their needs or protect their habitats. I chose bees for this image because they are one such creature that has been negatively impacted by human-induced land changes, such as rapid urbanization.

Bees are vital to pollination networks across North America and provide a crucial service to crops and other plants. In urban areas harvesting grounds, and even habitat, are becoming scarcer. Many of these important pollinators are forced to forage further away from their home nest, sometimes forgetting their way back to the hive! I hope that with the rise of flowering urban gardens and green spaces more bees will be supported to co-live with us in our metropoles. May this image also be a metaphor for our own human city-hive, and our own growing need to forage locally and grow sustainably.

In this piece a conveniently checked-out farmer relaxes, unconsciously gulping down the limited water we take for granted. His big belly is the rolling fields of thirsty crops, and the fish are just a symbol for all the creatures and habitats that are exploited by the waste of water. 

Agriculture accounts for about 70% of our global water use.  As population grows, food demands increase and climate change continues, we need be held accountable for how we manage our water supplies.

Still today many irrigation systems used in big agricultural productions are inefficient and unethical; like the center pivot which blindly projects water 360 degrees. New technologies like GPS irrigation mapping are promising, as they can be programmed to water only specific areas. 

Adaptive architecture is any reconfigurable system that adapts its structure or behavior based on demand. Often adaptive designs are environmentally responsive, interactive and intelligent.   They may be a system as simple as a coffee shop in a shipping container that turns into a puppet-show theatre at night or a street corner newsstand that can fold up into a secure box when not in use. A more complex example is the vision of the Kinetower, a building with a flexible facade in which the windows close when the sun is beating down, and bloom back open when inviting the warmth and light back in. Some designers envision a future built on kinetic and metamorphic architecture where structures walk, fly, float, and dissolve.

For me the word “adaptation” brought to mind survival and how species have evolved to succeed. The pangolin is one of the most endangered mammals in the world because of habitat loss and poaching. Native to sub-Saharan Africa and Asia, this mysterious creature has a long tongue for eating termites and is covered in a protective armor of tough scales. When threatened the pangolin can roll up into a ball that not even a lion can eat or uncoil! The pangolin’s fierce and versatile adaptive qualities easily reflect the many facets of adaptive architecture. In this illustration his claws till the earth into gardens, his tail forms a bridge over a brook, and solar panels and windmills take advantage of their perch on his back while a skateboarder olleys off the ramp of his scale.

This image took shape from reading Designing Your Inner Caveman written by my co-worker Janelle Wolak. In it she explores two emotional evolutionary adaptations that we can become more aware of. A view of the horizon typically evokes feelings of calmness. This relaxed response is most likely related to our neanderthal ancestors who were safer when they could see approaching threats from a higher vantage point.  In the same way that we subconsciously respond to vast views of landscapes we are also most likely responding with stress to the over stimulation and cramped living conditions that come along with city living.

To help equilibrate Wolak suggests to: "...recreate the savanna in your apartment or workplace—to soothe and (properly) stimulate all of your senses. Paint the ceiling blue to emulate the horizon, put in textured hardwood floors to mimic the forest floor, add a small fountain that resembles a trickling brook, or install artificial lighting that simulates natural light and syncs with your circadian rhythms."

The proverb "can't see the forest through the trees" refers to the disadvantage of focusing on small details and disconnecting them from one another and the larger picture. The flipside of this is: "seeing the forest through the trees." From this perspective one has the capacity to understand complex interrelationships and dynamic interdependencies between many parts. Systems thinking is a holistic approach that values understanding how different processes impact each other and are intrinsically related in a macro-system. In this image each person may be perceived as a solitary tree, but together as a whole they create a forest.

The U'wa tribe of Colombia believes that oil is the "blood of the earth" and that draining and consuming the earth of oil will imbalance the natural rhythms and equilibrium. This is a portrait of a young student disturbed by the interconnectedness of the consumption of fossil fuels and the consumption of  food. Equipping schools with learning kitchens and making wholesome and locally-sourced lunches can be initially costly, but the lifelong health impacts of a poor childhood diet and environmental degradation are even more expensive.

Intensive technology-enhanced agriculture not only uses enormous amounts of fuel and hydrocarbons, but also erodes our top soil, pollutes and drains ground and surface water sources, and through the use of toxic pesticides has created public health and environmental problems. Industrial food systems are huge producers of greenhouse gases, and have displaced many communities and people.