Olduvai is Back!
I never intended to stay away so long, but as with the rest of my unplanned life, intention by itself never proved enough; very long, incredibly convoluted story, extremely condensed version.
It took months to get this image up, please click here for a better view!
People think that my specialty is illustrating animals past and present. If I’m honest with myself, in truth that specialty has always been playing with metaphorical and emotional guns and shooting my career in the foot every couple years. In 1999 I was living in Flagstaff, Arizona. It was my 7th state and at least my 30th place of residence since I left upstate New York back in 1972. I was living on my own after being a lousy husband to a good woman and wonderful (amazingly still a) friend who really deserved better, when my father called and asked if there was any possibility of my coming “home”. As was always the case, I really didn’t think about what I might be getting into, I just let it happen. An old New York friend gave me the opportunity (and an entire building) to set up a studio where I could work and live and yet be close enough to enable my folks to stay in the only home they’d known for 60 years (my mother, in 82 years, had NEVER lived anywhere but her beloved hillside).
Things worked out fairly well until shortly after 9/11. My father had the first of three strokes and my mother started forgetting things. You know where this is going. As the sibling without a mate who could work at home, I inherited my parents. By the end of 2001, my life and my limping career were in storage and I was back where I swore I’d never be…home…literally. These past five years I’ve been a full-time caregiver and live-in nurse. My father passed away last summer two weeks short of ninety, and my mother, now 88, has descended into the depths of dementia and at last has an excuse for not recognizing who I am. When I started Olduvai on my 59th birthday last November, I had my old dog Tito to get me out. He was my sanity, but as many of you reading this probably know, he died in early March.
So here I am in my 60th year. Even though I once had a friend tell me that when he died he wanted MY life to flash in front of him, I wished I had planned things just a bit. Take away the two computers, the Concept II Rowing Machine (on which I spend an hour a day working out my frustrations) and the (truckload of) books, and I have the net worth of a second-rate, third world subsistence farmer AFTER chasing the elephants out of the crops.
If I believed in karma I would suppose that this phase of my life is penitence for the 35 rather self-serving years that preceded it, but it’s been worth it if only because I found out I have infinitely more patience than I ever believed possible. I’m also working on the premise that 60 is the new 40 (well, 45) and if I’m lucky, keep eating well, and stay in shape, I still might have 20 years of decent art in me. Who knows, I’m even learning to control my pathologically obstinate aversion to being told how things have to be done.
O.k., enough purging; Olduvai after all is my attempt to get away from responsibilities and lack of (fill in your own blank) for a few moments each day. Besides, writing this post has taken much too long. For three months* (I’m actually getting better, my first post last November took a year) I debated about how much I should delve into my present situation, and what you’ve just read in part is me finally saying to myself, “Oh shut the expletive up and post a picture!”
Although I’m not quite the attention whore I was years ago, I’m beginning this incarnation of Olduvai as I started it last November, with a self-portrait. Yes, I really am an exact stand-in for the 6-foot human silhouette that always seems to be used to show scale when depicting extinct creatures. I also have the redeeming social quality of being exactly as dumb as I look. No beer this time. Let me introduce my friends. Behind me is the Jefferson’s ground sloth Megalonyx jeffersonii. (Many thanks to Dr. Greg McDonald for providing me with wonderful skull and skeletal reference) To my right (your left) is the short-faced (and very leggy) bear Arctodus simus and the toothy “little” fellow in front is the “giant” (not exactly a) beaver Castoroides ohioensis. I promise I’ll get into each of these late Pleistocene residents of North America in depth in the future, but right now it’s more important to me to put this post up and be back in the blogging community. I’ve missed you guys and I want to thank everyone who took the time to email me over the past spring and summer to ask how I was doing. I was amazed and deeply touched.
*The worst part about taking so long to write this post is that since the accompanying illustration is digital, I kept looking at and changing it. I sent a jpeg of it out to half a dozen people before this posting and each time it was slightly different. Each of the creatures has been changed numerous times. When I started the drawing and it had no deadline, I worked in a very strange way for a guy trying to present anatomical accuracy. I pulled images out of my head (some might say I pull them from elsewhere) and worked with them without reference until I thought I was getting close. Only then did I refer to bone drawings, skeletal and skull photos, and measurements. I’ve been doing this for so long that I was well within the “ballpark”, but the animals I remembered and imagined were not exactly what the bones indicated and the resulting alterations were more like sculpting than painting. PhotoShop and Wacom tablets are such wonderful tools, but they enable my crash and burn and rise again methodology.
I am SO glad this is finally posted. I need deadlines! One would think since I’m so far past the midway point of my “career”, that I’d have learned better discipline…but NO! I have a third-grader’s dream job and still too often approach it like I’m in third grade.
November 7th, 2006 at 3:58 pm
Welcome back.:)
November 7th, 2006 at 4:01 pm
Welcome back! (It would be nice to have Castoroides ohioensis back too, but I suppose we can’t have everything.) Now I’m happy I didn’t delete you from my feed-reader.
November 7th, 2006 at 4:37 pm
Glad to see you back… I really enjoy your posts.
November 7th, 2006 at 5:52 pm
Welcome Back Carl!
November 7th, 2006 at 6:25 pm
Great to see you back!
November 7th, 2006 at 6:41 pm
I knew that checking this site would eventually pay off… great to see you at it again.
November 7th, 2006 at 6:47 pm
YAY!!!!!
November 7th, 2006 at 6:48 pm
I followed a link from Pharyngula and am thrilled that I did!
November 7th, 2006 at 6:51 pm
Great to see you again, Carl! I almost didn’t recognize you, but there’s no mistaking the company you keep!
November 7th, 2006 at 7:13 pm
Welcome back. Nice drinking partner!
November 7th, 2006 at 7:19 pm
Huzzah! Welcome back!
November 7th, 2006 at 7:30 pm
Glad to see you back at it! Many thanks for giving us such a great blog.
November 7th, 2006 at 7:32 pm
Nobody can stay away from the blogosphere, it’s so addictive.
Welcome back, Carl.
November 7th, 2006 at 7:39 pm
Yay!
November 7th, 2006 at 8:39 pm
Your own logo on the beer - color me jealous. Uh, better, don’t.
Oh, and welcome back!
November 7th, 2006 at 8:43 pm
I’m new here. PZ sent me over. I’ll be back.
November 7th, 2006 at 9:24 pm
I came over from Doc Myers joint as well (well, the backroom, anyway. That’s were the cardplaying and such take place). Pleased to “meet” you! And welcome back!
November 7th, 2006 at 9:35 pm
Good to see you back, Carl!
November 7th, 2006 at 9:42 pm
Nice to see ya alive and well Carl.
November 7th, 2006 at 9:53 pm
My young son’s preoccupation with giant critters from before and after the KT event have given me a new appreciation for the art that aims to show us some pieces of the grand mosaic that evolution created too early for us to witness live. I am sorry for your sad story, especially as it represents the not-too-distant future for many of us.
November 7th, 2006 at 10:14 pm
Welcome back! I look forward to some more awesome illustrations and good posts.
November 7th, 2006 at 10:24 pm
Set yourself a task of “once every three months” or “once every two months” posts and try to stick to it?
November 7th, 2006 at 10:25 pm
Glad you are back, thank goodness i am too lazy to clean up my favourites links.
November 7th, 2006 at 11:27 pm
George, I’ve got nothing but respect for you. Keep em comin — you’ve got me hooked on learning about prehistoric mammals.
Just awesome.
November 8th, 2006 at 12:17 am
Yay! Welcome back. I kept checking on you, nice to see you again.
November 8th, 2006 at 1:07 am
Unadulterated and unrestrained Hoorays!
November 8th, 2006 at 3:54 am
Great to see you back - your presence on the ‘net have been greatly missed.
November 8th, 2006 at 4:12 am
Very cool. Do you have a link to a higher res version? I really like your work and wouldn’t mind a version I could fish around in at all.
I’ve been feeling the same way, and I’m just past 41 (sure, a youngun’), but I think I still have a little creative juice left. As you clearly do. Maybe you could put out some sketches? Always like to see where the finished illustrations come from.
November 8th, 2006 at 4:44 am
Yay! Welcome back Carl!
November 8th, 2006 at 5:19 am
[...] Read about it here. [...]
November 8th, 2006 at 8:08 am
Olduvai is back!!…
Wow. Just when I’d given up. Regular readers might have noticed that one of the links to my favourite blogs, Olduvai George, quietly disappeared off my sidebar about a month ago. Following the death of his beloved dog Tito in…
November 8th, 2006 at 8:35 am
Hi… I can’t really say “welcome back” since I missed out before (well… it seems familiar so I must have had a look-see before), but I am happy that PZ Myers blog pointed me in your direction today. If you can get around to it, try for some of the critters that lived here in Australia when the first humans turned up. They had some good ones from what I understand. You should also think about growing one of the Wollomi Pines for effect in your house, if you know the one - a tree known only from fossils when it was discovered near Sydney a decade ago. They should be on sale in the states soon enough. (http://www.wollemipine.com/)
(signed) marc
November 8th, 2006 at 9:15 am
Welcome back, you were missed. I’m glad PZ posted the news — I’ve been checking ever few weeks, but it is nice to see that others have been too!
November 8th, 2006 at 9:16 am
And another welcome back from another former Flagstonian. (”Flagstaffian” just sounds wierd, plus drug references are always funny, so my friends and I always went with the other.) You’ve been on my Google homepage the whole time. Just waiting… waiting…
November 8th, 2006 at 9:56 am
To add my voice to the others, “Welcome back!”
November 8th, 2006 at 10:29 am
So glad you’re back. I’ve missed those gorgeous friends of yours.
November 8th, 2006 at 10:34 am
Welcome back, buddy, and congrats on these fabulous pictures.
Considering that even modern black bears can outrun horses over short distances, Arctodus looks like he would have made a great jogging partner … for a cheetah.
November 8th, 2006 at 10:35 am
It’s so good to see you posting again, Carl. Have been checking back often, but thanks to PZ for alerting us that you’re back at the keyboard and sharing your wonderful art with us once more!
November 8th, 2006 at 11:03 am
Wow. Those are some great pictures!
November 8th, 2006 at 11:34 am
I am so so so so happy to see you back!
November 8th, 2006 at 11:34 am
I’m glad to see you back with your amazing art.
November 8th, 2006 at 12:55 pm
Let me add to the welcomes, not just as one of your fans, but as a fellow CII rower!
November 8th, 2006 at 1:28 pm
Wel, most excellent news! And I’m with you in the whole care-giver thing: three years caring for my mother-in-law full time. It’s a more than full-time job, so don’t hassle yourself too much over getting other things done.
November 8th, 2006 at 1:57 pm
Welcome back friend! I missed you!
November 8th, 2006 at 2:13 pm
Came over from Pharyngula as well. It’s my first time, but safe to say, probably not my last. Can relate to much of what you have written. Nice to meet you, and I really like your drawing..
November 8th, 2006 at 2:34 pm
Wow. I’ve just now found you… via, let’s see… Toad in the Hole. I feel lucky that I’ve happend upon your rebeginning rather than finding you’d wound down. Looking forward to hearing more. Beautiful pictures, by the way.
November 8th, 2006 at 2:53 pm
Thanks for giving it another shot, George… we missed you for sure! As a medical illustrator (teaching, freelancing, etc)approaching 50, going back to school to start an M.SC. in vert-paleo, I value your skill, knowledge and commitment, and I am inspired by your illustrations… I look forward to seeing more.
November 8th, 2006 at 4:55 pm
This is even better news than the fall of Pombo! Welcome back.
November 8th, 2006 at 5:03 pm
Checked on you everyday. Look forward to more good stuff!
November 8th, 2006 at 10:15 pm
So VERY glad to see you back! I have missed your work here more than you know.
Thank you!
November 9th, 2006 at 9:59 am
Let me add my late welcome-back to the dozens above. Your art work is so beautiful and has a delightful playful quality to it that I just love.
November 9th, 2006 at 3:25 pm
So glad you’re back. I thought we’d lost you forever.
November 9th, 2006 at 11:20 pm
The blogosphere has been a lesser place for your absence. Welcome back.
November 10th, 2006 at 2:44 pm
missed you and your posts!
admire your work!
peter
November 10th, 2006 at 4:48 pm
A bit of background from one who has known Carl since well before Flagstaff (Mammoth, Mariiposa, San Francisco).
I met Carl in the early ’80s when he shared a studio with two other artisits in the city and I edited a modest newspaper for Friends of the Earth upstairs in the same buiilding. Carl would meander up now and again to pore through our little library, mostly looking at the wildlife-photography books. He began contributing drawings for the newspaper and other odds and ends including a calendar for the Mono Lake Committee, if memory serves.
In the mid-’eighties, FOE fell apart and I went to work for the Sierra Club Legal Defense Fund and immediately hired Carl to do illustrations for our quarterly newsletter, In Brief. As a measure of his generosity, Carl really didn’t want to be paid, but I insisted. We don’t pay much, but we’re steady–I must have commissioned close to 250 illustrations (back and white scratch board at first, then black-white-and many shades of gray paintings, now color via photoshop–images that don’t hit paper until the newsletter is actually printed–that I don’t really understand but love anyway).
For those of you who know Carl only through his blog, be assured that he’s everything you think he is and more. Generous to a fault, loyal, meticulous, perfectionist (ask him about the Mineral King painting sometime), a great friend, in other words, and a national treasure. Once, a dozen years or more ago, when Carl was moaning about having $35 in the bank, I wrote a piece in the San Francisco Examiner (embarrassing the hell out of our friend) saying that it was a disaster and a catastrophe that someone as essential to the wellbeing of the world as Carl should have such a difficult time supporting himself when the ilk of Bill Gates were raking in millions and billions. I still feel that way. Gates is OK, I guess, giving away big bucks these days, but how about throwing a sou or two Carl’s way? I proposed a limit of a half-million of income for any one person per year, with the rest distributed to people who need it. There are plenty.
November 10th, 2006 at 7:32 pm
Hi George! Kristine at amused-mused sent me over, and I really admire your work. Ever done any renderings of the fossil wolverine Plesiogulo? I’ve always been entranced by the idea of something fierce as but twice the size of the ones we have now. Cheers, and best wishes, deadman_932
November 10th, 2006 at 8:20 pm
Thanks so much everybody! It does us older folks good to be missed. And thanks Tom for the very kind words, although now you’ve embarrassed me twice with the $35.00 story. If I truly was moaning (read whining) about said $35.00 you should have just slapped me and said “PAINT”! I’ll also admit that whenever I’ve crashed and burned, it’s been nothing but pilot error.
November 11th, 2006 at 1:08 am
Glad to see you back!
Have to run: will read post later!
.. read something about “shooting your career in the foot” at regular intervals …
oh? So we share an occupation?
November 11th, 2006 at 7:21 am
Im so glad to see you back
November 11th, 2006 at 8:18 am
Wow. If I admit that I shed a tear about your losing Tito, would I have my ‘man-card’ taken away?
You have an awesome blog, sir, and I will forward this to my closest friends. (I was forwarded here from a post on DailyKos.com
Your humanity is palpable, even over the internet…thank you.
November 11th, 2006 at 9:10 am
Oh, good call, Deadman! I shamefully forgot to mention that Kristine sent us as well.
November 11th, 2006 at 11:08 am
Carl, first time here. Read your latest post and am suitably impressed. You sound a lot like me!
God bless you for having the courage to tell it like it is. Too many people “don’t go there” and never understand. Yer not alone, bub. Carry on…
November 11th, 2006 at 11:14 am
Welcome Back! I stumbled in here from DailyKos and am bookmarking this site. Do you have an online gallery anywhere?
November 11th, 2006 at 2:07 pm
Carl, if you don’t mind a psychologizing comment from a complete stranger. Your purging, what to me is a confessional assertion of where you’re at, I interpret as a stranger would, maybe must. I can relate to it. I’m 52 and have been called a slacker, non-competitive, and otherwise characterized being half way off the grid.
Where you and I might differ is that I don’t wring my hands over how it “all” works out day in and day out. Why? Because several years ago I came to understand that to change even a minor element in the chain of contingencies out of which a life is made and lived, is to change everything that follows.
So, I asked myself, what formative or even self-indulgent past event would I choose to forgo for the sake of, in this thought problem, rectifying a deficit, or otherwise having it unfold differently? I examined what are really minute contingencies, and then was thunderstruck to realize my seemingly solo contingencies were tangled up in those of others.
One way to look at this is to examine how fragile the contingencies actually are, say what had to happen to allow for the chance meeting which proved of consequence. Often, (and most people never do this!) how we met a wife or a great friend, how we came upon our central interests, (although call these our devotions,) when examined reveal what are seemingly chance operations.
To borrow crudely from physics, the wave function could just as well have collapsed differently.
So, what would you have given up? If the answer is nothing, then you’re exactly where you are required to be.
November 11th, 2006 at 3:29 pm
Carl, Your art and blogging have moved me this morning. I’m in awe over the beauty of the power and passion they evoke. And I’m still drying tears after reading about Tito. What a wonderful , intelligent companion. I thank you for sharing your experience of him. You helped me reconnect to when I had to choose to surrender my friend, Roxy “TheWonderDog” in ‘02. She rode on a bicycle baby seat I retrofitted when I lived in Washington DC, she went everywhere with me and people learned my name thru her. What a gift it is that we are able to stop their suffering thru love, in the face of the pain that results.
As I was writing this, my partner noticed my emotions and she shared a video with me that I’d love to share with you. It is a wonderful dog story out of Texas and I’m still smiling.
Thanks again,,,Nick
see Skidboot the dog…
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=5249518974978628334&pr=goog-sl
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November 11th, 2006 at 3:40 pm
There’s no law that requires us to care for our aging parents, whether we are the only daughter (like me!) or the only “sibling without a mate.” There are far too many children who won’t take on that responsibility because of their own self-interest. You write about it as though you had no choice. I say you deserve honor and respect, from AT LEAST yourself, for choosing to honor and respect your mother and father enough to take care of them when care was most needed.
Yeah, I used to believe I was supposed to achieve “great things” in life. Now, at age 52, I’m facing a failed business venture and no real “achievements.” I, too, sometimes get upset with myself that I never had a plan, haven’t built wealth, etc. Until I get a text message from my daughter’s best friend that reminds me that I’ve been a good influence in her life. Or my niece tells me that my husband’s and my taking her into our home for a few months helped to change her life. Or my daughter, nearly 18, a good person and hard-working student, thanks me for making her do thankless chores when she was little because it helps her today.
To paraphrase Stephen above, any other choice in my life would have meant I didn’t have this husband, this daughter, this niece, this daughter’s best friend. I wouldn’t have been in the position to love and support these specific people. So, I figure, these are the people God knew would need a specific person, me. And here I am.
Fascinating artwork. I’ve always admired the ability to take a picture formed in the mind and re-create it materially. (Obviously, I’m no artist.) Sorry about your pup. They’re amazing friends.
November 11th, 2006 at 10:00 pm
Ever do any work on the prairie? Would love to see what the big animals looked like on tallgrass prairie! Will be watchiing for artwork on your site. Amazing and interesting.
November 13th, 2006 at 11:14 pm
Ol’ George,
It is so fine to see you back. Your depictions of man in nature resonate with me. I spent the better half of my life with critters, walking with them and in their dung, learning to speak their languages and finding many dear, but short lived (damn!) friends. That you can depict these relations in your art only increases my world and my appreciation of it. Welcome back, friend.
I have a scene that you might want to portray. Fremont County, Wyoming, outside of Dubois, my home town. I had climbed high up on a badland bluff and sat on the slope to rest a spell and take in the land before me. Not unusual; I’d been doing it since the late 50’s. (This episode being in the summer of ‘99)
I happened to see a wasp land off to one side of me, two, maybe three feet away. She had two small green caterpillars in her grasp and landed next to a burrow she had previously dug and that I had not recognized during the several minutes I had sat there. She put one down and took the other into the burrow, backing out and tamping in red clay soil that she flung in with her legs. While she was tamping the clay with her head a thief appeared from under a flat stone some seven inches or so from the burrow. A wolf spider (a generic name in my book, not being an entomologist). To be brief, the spider stole the second larva slick and clean. The wasp was in the burrow and could not see. The spider timed it perfectly. The wasp emerged from the burrow to gather the second worm, but it was gone! Her reaction amazed me! She initiated a search pattern that would be the envy of the Coast Guard. The details are complex, and I haven’t time to describe it now. I would be happy, no, delighted, to give a more complete description if you are interested.
Contact me if you are interested. I have more observations of critters in action if you like. I once observed a cockroach do a double take. I have tickled that large Golden Orb spider in Florida. I found a marmot once with a broken back. Even got stuck by a stingray (hurt much but not long).
I think that everyone has marvelous contact with other species. Most people shudder. I try to prolong the moment. Once had a pet jumping spider. Actually, it adopted me. More if you are persuaded.
Again, welcome back. You are the kind of person that makes me realize that humans and critters are motivated by similar needs, and can sometimes create comedy, pathos and longing to know more.
November 14th, 2006 at 5:35 pm
Love you, Carl! You ARE back!! YeeHaw! (that’s Dakota talk for yea!) :O)
November 15th, 2006 at 10:52 am
Ah, the effects of untreated ADD/ADHD in adults. So much talent, so much capacity for all things intellectual and yet struggling just to get by. Fortunately you seem to still have passions for certain penchants and haven’t been crippled by that long dark time of the “soul” - the existential crisis. I’m heartened by your persistance. -Jase
November 24th, 2006 at 8:09 am
Glad to see you back, too; it must have been rough….
You know, when I was a kid visiting Natural History museums, I always wondered about the artists who painted extinct animals and background landscapes, and that kind of thing. It’s a talent I’ve always been in complete awe of, especially since I myself have all the artistic talent of your average turnip. But it really is a thrill to get a regular “fix” of this kind of talent (and wonderful material) from your blog. Thank you.
November 25th, 2006 at 11:56 am
Keep it up. Great to see you posting again.
December 18th, 2006 at 10:27 am
Glad to see that you are back, I have been checking in every now and then ever since reading about (and shedding some tears for) Tito. You are so gifted, your art and writing has teh power to move complete strangers-how can you say you havent accieved enough? All respect to you for taking care of your parents, now, take care of yourself! (and consider getting a new dog. I knw it will never be the same, but it might still be good, can’t it?)
And I’m sending you a virtual (((hug))). Thank you for your blog, keep up the good work!
December 29th, 2006 at 2:54 am
I am so happy you’re back! After feeling your pain over Tito, I was afraid you wouldn’t think it was worth it to come back after so many months away. Tito really sounded like a wonderful once-in-a-lifetime dog anyone would be proud to have.
I too, am an artist, or at least trying to be, as I look around and I don’t even have much of anything to show anyone, much less completed projects, or anything nearing the things you have done. I found it fascinating that you say that you approach things in a third-grade way, for I do the exact same thing. The only difference is you have a lot of art output, where I have none. I am too much of an lazy person and a perfectionist too. Hopefully I’ll change my habits in the new year. It is a great fear of mine that I will wake up one day and have reached the age of 80 and have achieved nothing in my life.
I don’t think you have that problem though. I like the fact that you post old as well as new stuff on your blog, and a blog is a great tool to get your work out in the public and have it be seen, noticed, and remembered by people who wouldn’t normally see it, or unfortunately pass over it while reading an article in a magazine.
January 16th, 2008 at 1:43 pm
Sorry to hear about your problems-I too have an ailing elderly parent-I take care of mama part-time… Also I was born on November 29!!! Hello fellow SAG!!! I thought I was the only screwball about animals!!! Please publish a book??? I can help you on the science-writing part-not that you need it… But I just thought that you might have your hands full with taking full-time care of your mom & all…YOU ARE THE MOST GIFTED ARTIST THAT I HAVE EVER SEEN-& YOU CAN TAKE THAT TO THE BANK!!! Let me know how to contact you-then I’ll give you my e-mail address(you probably can find it yourself on this sight) Whether you decide to take me up on my offer or not-Grant me one request??? Please draw my most favourite nimravid”Hoplophoneus mentalis”? I have been in LUV with that one since I was a wee little boy… I picture it in the flesh as a saber-tooth jaguar(Not every cat has a lion complex!) You can read a small demo of my knowledge of fossils on your “Barbourofelis” entry column.
February 29th, 2008 at 2:35 pm
Happy Birthday!
September 3rd, 2008 at 8:36 am
Hello, I would like to contact you about obtaining permission to use a credited image, your “Karianne’s Pet,” on a conference poster and possibly on a book. I really love your art, and I’d be grateful if you could get back to me asap. thanks so much, Genese