EcoArt; Artworks as Teaching Aids (Article in Progress)

EcoArt

Ecology: Art and Science

Artworks as Teaching Aids

Living with Nature Center

San Vicente, Ilocos Sur

Dr Abe V Rotor

Naturalism-The Eighth Sense

15th year 2816 posts/lessons

Albert Einstein: "Look deep into nature, and then you will understand everything better."

 

 

Children's art workshop under the trees.  Living with Nature garden

On-site and hands-on learning 

make our young children 

 wise and humble, with training 

 to call each other brethren. 

 

Juvenile brain coral.  Limestone, sedimentary rock

Remains of the living when dead, 

buoy our living world, is well said

 

Hexagon cells of paper wasp nest.  Mud dauber wasp nest

Cut each specimen into two,

study their profiles and show

symmetry from asymmetry;

learn about nature's geometry.

 

Petrified or fossilized wood. Chalky fossil of elephant's task.

Skeleton turned into rock in mythology;

true after all in today's scientific study.

 

Crown of thorns from Wild Cherry.  Calabash piggy bank.

Skeletons of plants made useful

in every day life, decor and tool.

 

Mounted moths as wall decor and specimen.  

Bird's nest, a simulated model

Wall and table decors, and lab specimens, too;

lessons for school, and house guests to show;

 
Piggy bank instills value of thrift and use of waste. 

Bank with armor to protect master and treasure;

school project that instills character and future.   

  
Mounted discarded beads crafted into Christmas tree.

Save the trees on Christ's birth is a sacred gift, 

more so, to millions who shall reap its benefit. 

 

Silkworms, composite relief painting

To the lowly insects, don't belie:

the purest cloth is silk.

the sweetest sugar honey,

brightest light from the firefly.

Teachers pose with artworks made of driftwood and fossils

at the Living with Nature Center

School-without-walls in town - welcome!

experiential, recreational, wholesome.

“One of the first conditions of happiness is that the link between man and nature shall not be broken.”- Leo Tolstoy ~

Art Evolution: Tribute to Our Wonderful Landscapes

Art Evolution 

Tribute to Our Wonderful Landscapes

Paintings* by Dr Abe V Rotor

"Nature is painting for us, day after day, a picture of infinite beauty." 

— John Ruskin

Boys fishing on a stream and hiking in the woods. 

"... happy as the stream flowing,

    and fishing pole quivering."

Migratory birds rest at the edge of a forest.

"Please don't settle in the trees, 

carry your message of peace." 

 "And into the forest I go to lose my mind and find my soul." - John Muir

Listen to the birds sweetly singing in the trees. 

"Carson's Silent Spring is not in this place,

where there's reverence for life and grace."

Flow gently, sweet Afton, a local version.

"Hum with the flow, whistle with the breeze,

it's nature's lullaby, live a life at ease." 

World of the forest

"The woods have many eyes watching,

of creatures in the night 'til morning."

 "Nothing is more beautiful than the loveliness of the woods before sunrise."

- George Washington Carver:

 

Bring nature home

"Nature is home, not just a place to visit,

home for others too, across the street."

Bringing nature into your living space connects your indoor 

rooms with the calm and beauty of the outdoors. Internet

High-rise trees, not lifeless buildings

"Home of our ancestors of long ago,

our children to cherish as they grow." 

  

"The woods are lovely dark and deep." 

"The woods are lovely, dark and deep,

 But I have promises to keep,

 And miles to go before I sleep,

 And miles to go before I sleep."

- Robert Frost

"There is pleasure in the pathless woods, there is rapture in the lonely shore."

- Lord Byron 

   

The woods, two versions 

"... richest in bio-diversity, nature's sanctuary." 

"I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life."-  Henry David Thoreau (from "Walden") 

* Images of paintings as they appear on the Internet (Search: Dr Abe V Rotor paintings). They also appear in Living with Nature and Naturalism - The Eighth Sense blogs with accompanying text and caption. Acknowledgment: Internet quotes ~

An Enigmatic Plant in the Garden

An Enigmatic Plant in the Garden

Living with Nature Center

San Vicente, Ilocos Sur

Photos by Dr Abe V Rotor

 

 

Anthurium or Lilium? Family Araceae or Liliaceae?

It's a strange plant, heretofore an unknown specie(s).

mutant or hybrid, induced or natural, by man or the bee,

nuclear or cosmic, if radiation be the underlying key.

I consulted Quisumbing and Brown, experts in botany,

Linnaeus, Darwin, and Merrill, masters in taxonomy.
if it's Homer's or supernatural, or my own discovery.

 

Author's Note: There's a huge number of living organisms yet to be discovered and properly identified. Scientists believe that taxonomy has barely scratched the surface of our world's rich biodiversity, specially in the vast and deep ocean, the hinterlands, and those seen only under the lens, physical variations due to environment, notwithstanding. Speciation is another case. It's uncertain to classify an organism as a species at any stage of its development (speciation). "Discovering" a plant, animal or any living organism follows strictly a globally accepted scientific protocol.  Thus the "new" specimen can not be simply claimed and named after the "discoverer" or any person or organization - more so in patenting it as exclusive property, as there's a saying, "No one owns life, but the Creator." ~

An Allegory with Nature

                                      An Allegory with Nature

Dr Abe V Rotor

"Life is saving other lives, other than your own." - avr

Freedom with Nature in acrylic on wood, by AV Rotor 2025

Days are long, work hard, nights sleepless, home prison,
    Unchain your life, get out of the cave, follow the sun;
Go to the woods where creatures are free to come and go;
    Fields where the tame and wild live together as one,

When the city's no longer jungle, sky's blue, roads clear,
    home a piece of Eden you have built and shown;
Go tell the world beyond your confine, life's true meaning,
    that life is saving other lives, other than your own.

* Article inspired by Plato's Allegory of the Cave, found in The Republic, describes prisoners chained in a dark cave. They face a blank wall and watch shadows cast by a fire. They think these shadows are real. One prisoner escapes into the sunlight, learns the truth, and returns to free the others, who only reject and mock him. AI Overview on Internet

Rhinoceros Beetle - Scourge of Coconut and Other Crops

Rhinoceros Beetle - Scourge of Coconut

and Other Crops

Oryctes rhinoceros L, Family Scarabaeidae, Order Coleoptera

Dr Abe V Rotor

  

Rhino beetle, immune to today's pesticide,

adapted to alternate hosts and widespread,

almost ubiquitous on farms and in the wild;

evolution induced by science, now dreaded.

Surreptitious weapon of biological warfare,

in whose dirty hands we can only surmise,

a warning we heed that nature's in distress

under our ignorance, or terrorism in disguise.

  

 

On-site study of the Rhinoceros Beetle reveals vulnerability of other plants like pandan (Pandanus tectorius), and anahaw, as shown in these photos taken by the author at the Living with Nature botanical garden, San Vicente, Ilocos Sur.

   

Anahaw and Oliva

Other than coconut, hosts of the Rhino beetle, include anahaw (Livistona rotundifolia), and oliva (Cycas revoluta), which resembles palm but actually belonging to an ancient group of gymnosperms dating back over 200 million years, thus the Cycad is often called living fossil. 

Speciation - evolution of new species,

      insects the most versatile;

ancient to modern, in countless number,

     and ever increasing still.

They belong to the largest animal phylum,

     with relatives* in the sea;

yet represent li'l of their kind unknown,

     awaiting discovery.

*Insects belong to the biggest phylum - Arthropoda, which contains 

more than 80 percent of the known animal species.

 

Decline of the coconut industry is largely attributed to this pest 

as shown in these field photos.

 

Triceratops Beetle (Phileurus truncatus). Photo at left by the author,

right from Internet.

What reminds us of the rhino beetle,

the likes of the extinct triceratops; 

what secret has this persistent pest,

scourge of coconut and other crops?

 

Dynastinae or rhinoceros beetles are a subfamily of the scarab beetle family, named for their rhinoceros-like horns. Other common names – some for particular groups of rhinoceros beetles – include Hercules beetles, unicorn beetles or horn beetles. Over 1,500 species and 225 genera of rhinoceros beetles are known. Wikipedia

Author's Note: There are practical ways to control rhino beetles.  Throw sand into the leaf axils of infested trees. Sand kills larva and adult as it penetrates into their body joints (conjunctiva in adults), a lesson I learned by observing healthy coconut trees along sandy shores. Another practical means of  control is through sanitation. Clear rotting coconut trees and other host plants in your garden. Get rid your garbage pile.  Check compost pit. Gather grubs for poultry and fishpond feeds.  Why not use the grubs as fishing baits?  Enjoy. ~