Halloween week seems like a good time to show off this Deinonychus skull I drew up a few months back. My coworker David Baccadutre was looking for a stylized skull (similar to the Titanophoneus in the HMNH logo) for a graphic to put on the side of his Mini Cooper, and after thinking about it for a bit, he decided a speedy little dromaeosaur would fit the bill. I did a couple sketches of the skull in 3/4 view, worked up the final drawing in Adobe Illustrator, and passed the artwork along to him.

He worked up the final graphic, “Dino’d by Matt Celeskey,” and had it printed up as a magnetic decal. A picture of the graphic in situ is shown below:

And here’s David with his spiffy new ride:

In Cruisin’ the Fossil Freeway, Kirk and Ray recount their rollicking road-trips through the Rocky Mountain region, and their writing and artwork tell the tale of the fossils, food, and friends they meet along the way. Paging through the book is like being chauffeured by a pair of paleontological prestidigitators across America’s prime fossil country.

Portrait of the artist…

…and the scientist.

Kirk’s writing conjures up multiple layers of history from the landscapes they pass through: the ancient environments where sediments accumulated and hardened into rock, the processes that brought these rocks to the surface and shaped the current scenery, and, most of all, the ongoing stories of discoveries made by scientists, collectors, and fossil fanatics throughout this geologic wonderland. Ray’s artwork brings each of these histories to life and mixes them together in a sort of deep-time gumbo: dinosaurs rise from the dead and amble alongside pickup trucks and gas stations, prehistoric mammals pose for portraits or dental casts, wide-eyed ichthyosaurs and half-coiled ammonites dreamily float alongside monster movies and cheeseburgers.

Running throughout the book are details from a massive roadmap that highlights hundreds of fossil finds from across the West. Ray spent months drawing this map on a giant sheet of paper in his Ketchikan studio, and I was happy to see that Fulcrum Books, who published Cruisin’ the Fossil Freeway, is planning to release the map as a 4 x 5-foot poster, suitable for framing and hanging on your wall, or folding up to keep in the glove compartment for your next paleo-themed excursion.

Roxanne and I had hoped to make our own little trip up to Denver in time for a lecture and signing on Friday, but a botched oil change and a particularly pungent skunk fight beneath our bedroom late Thursday night conspired to keep us from leaving Albuquerque as early as we had intended. Circumstances notwithstanding, we pulled into Denver around 9:00 that evening, enjoyed a fantastic dinner at the 1515 Restaurant, and awoke fresh the next day for a visit to the DMNS followed by Kirk and Ray’s party.

The party was great fun, with a small crowd of paleophiles sharing drinks and conversation in one of the back rooms of an excellent little bar called the Forest Room 5. The folks from Fulcrum Books brought several copies of the new opus, and Ray and Kirk obligingly signed a hefty stack for us to bring back to our friends and coworkers in Albuquerque. We met some great people there, and thanks to Ray’s tireless promotion of the Hairy Museum, we may soon see some new curatorial input around these parts. Stay tuned!

To mark the anniversary, Ray has re-released the original black-and-white design with a commemorative neck-chop. Check it out via his online store at trollart.com.

Evon Zerbetz putting the feathery finishing touches
on Raucous! Everything Raven at the NMMNHS.

The exhibit is centered around dozens of Zerbetz’s colored linocut prints, depicting ravens in all their playful glory—collecting ‘bling,’ taunting dogs, performing on clotheslines, or just perched on a branch and kawing to their heart’s content. Other highlights include a life-sized raven’s nest, raven-based games, and a Raven Radio broadcasting bird-based music and news from ‘roving-raven reporters.’

Over the past seven days, Evon and a team of NMMNHS staff and volunteers have transformed the museum’s changing exhibit space into a raven-ous wonderland. We painted the multicolored walls with large graphics based on Evon’s linocuts, and set up the space for the many family events going on this weekend. In addition, we added a little side display highlighting the members of the family Corvidae (ravens, crows, magpies, and jays) known from New Mexico.

Check out the museum’s website for more information on the exhibit and activities, and Evon’s website for more information about her and her work. Raucous! Everything Raven is on display through April 22nd in the first floor changing exhibits gallery at the NMMNHS.

…and I’m glad he did, because otherwise I might never had known that he’s started up a blog full of pithy thoughts on natural history, working as an artist, and the intersection of the two. Take a peek at his work, both visual and verbal, at Rigor Vitae: Life Unyielding.