"Endangered Legend" - Artschtick

TITLE: Endangered Legend
ARTIST: Deb Keirce
EBAY ID: Artshtick

Why I’m using my creativity to save the rainforest …

In a former life, I was a biochemical engineer, helping to bring manufacturing processes to life, to create newly discovered or synthesized pharmaceuticals. A very scary fact is that we are fresh out of ways to develop new antibiotics. This is scary because bacteria are NOT out of ways to mutate, and become immune to the antibiotics we can produce. Vancomycin is our last resort antibiotic - when bacteria are immune to all the others. Vancomycin resistant strains of common bacteria are on the rise. Patients who harbor vanco-resistant infections cannot be imprisoned in hospitals, so when they are feeling better, they are out and about in the general population, and those bacterial strains are going global.

What does all this have to do with the rainforest? There are a few undiscovered places we have access to, that may hold the key to finding new pharmaceuticals, and the rain forest is key to those discoveries. The oceans and space would be the other two. Anything we do to destroy the rainforest is potentially destroying products that could be discovered and developed to reduce human suffering in the future. It takes a lot of money and manpower to launch research programs in a rainforest. Some pharmaceutical companies have started the effort, but it will be generations before they will recover their research expenses, so we need those rainforests around for a VERY long time!

"Slumbering Dormouse" - Gougepaintings

TITLE: Slumbering Dormouse

ARTIST: Julie Gouge

EBAY ID: Gougepaintings

Why I'm using my creativity to save the rainforest ...

As earthly guardians of this world we must tread lightly, or else all that we will be known for in the future are the deep, destructive, ugly footprints we have left behind. Down through history, species have come and gone. This is normal. It is the natural cycle of life on earth. However we, mankind, should not hasten this natural progression through our thoughtlessness and greediness.

If we are not careful we just might end up hastening our own destruction. Unlike other animals of this great, green planet, we alone have the ability to destroy our world. We are intelligent. We have the capacity to reason. We alone have the ability to recognize our careless destruction and strive to reverse it. We should not be the cause for the extinction of other species. Nature will see to that. When we are gone, our footprints on this earth should be no deeper than any other species that have passed into history.

This is why I am proud to be an artist whose work is represented on the Endangered Species Quilt. Hopefully, the beauty and symbolism of the quilt will encourage others to tread lightly and to strive to bring healing to the earth.

"Queen Alexandra's Birdwing Butterfly" - jazmin112-2008

TITLE: Queen Alexandra's Birdwing Butterfly

ARTIST: Susan Jane Smith

EBAY ID: jazmin112-2008

Why I'm using my creativity to save the rainforest ...

I've worked for more than 35 years in Nature Conservation in Africa , as an amateur helper, and belong to the International Wildlife Association plus our local Alabama Wildlife Association.

My Grandfather went on an Amazon Expedition from 1911-1915. He told me many wonderful stories about his adventure and this has made me an adventurer too. When he was there the Rainforest was virtually untouched. Today it is endangered and faces terrible destruction every day because of greedy rich businesses robbing it of the wonderful trees.

We have to help all we can to save this habitat. Not only for all the flora and fauna that depend upon it for survival but also because the Rainforest supplies an incredible amount of oxygen that all the people in the World depends upon for life itself. You can imagine my reaction when Starr suggested raising money to buy a piece of the endangered Rainforests . I jumped at the chance to help.

I was so excited that I could help in a small way towards this incredible project. Hence I made my ACEO of the World's largest butterfly, which faces extinction due to collectors.

"Red Panda" - maryhelen22

TITLE: Red Panda

ARTIST: Mary Helen Epps

EBAY ID: maryhelen22

Why I'm using my creativity to save the rainforest ...

Once, when I was young, I watched a documentary of a film crew that had happened upon an indigenous tribe, living deep in a rainforest near the Amazon River. The film makers called the tribe the “flower people” and continually compared them to early man, stressing that this was the tribe’s first encounter with “civilization”.

They were a beautiful people, decorating themselves and everything in their village with a multitude of tropical flowers in all shapes and colors. Their main diet was the pulp of a certain tree, which after the pulp was removed, the hulled out trunk became a canoe, the branches a hut or fire wood. They would celebrate the harvested tree, placing flowers and a new sapling in the spot where the tree had been taken.

They smiled and laughed a lot. They were friendly and more than hospitable to the strangers who had come to film them. It was like a Utopia. I longed to live with the “flower people”. Some time after, I saw “The Medicine Man” and realized that the “flower people” probably no longer existed.

Oh sure, there may still be a tribe, although they were probably relocated and are wearing tee-shirts with words and logos they don't understand instead of flowers. Trying to make whatever money they can, to feed and shelter their children and pay for medicines for their new illnesses. Everyday watching as more of the beautiful trees and flowers they once called home disappear. And knowing their children will never have the chance to experience the beautiful existence that those before them had.

I hope that my participation in this quilt and the money made for the Rainforest fund, will aide in making sure that the Utopia that is the rainforest, never disappears. In a world where so much is taken, we each must strive to give back.

"Chimpanzee" - starrgirlblue

TITLE: Chimpanzee
ARTIST: Star Daubenmire
EBAY ID: starrgirlblue

Why I'm using my creativity to save the rainforest:

When our ACEO ebay group presented the subject "Endangered Species" as a theme for August 2008, I did some research to learn more about it. What I discovered was that not only particular plants and animals, but an entire ecosystem - the Rainforests of the Earth - are endangered. I learned that there is not just one rainforest, but rather there is a string of them running along the earth's equator where they maintain an average temperature of 80 degrees and receive approximately 200-400 inches of rain per year. This allows for a flourishing of life like no other place on earth.

The Rainforests have been around for milleniums, but our modern society has barely begun to explore their riches. In the meantime, humans have encroached into them to the point that more than half of their acreage has already been lost. It is understandable, on a local level, that the logging, farming and mining industries provide sustenance for the people who live in those areas. But the rainforest ecosystem represents a much larger picture that impacts all of earth's inhabitants. These forests are the source of life in so many ways! They provide 20% of the earth's oxygen and are a storehouse of medicinal plants. They are the natural habitat of a great percentage of the world's plants and animals. When we lose rainforest, we lose a source of life that sustains us all.

As an artist, I am an observer of details. I delve into the picture behind the picture so as to portray the essence of a thing. If I can understand anatomy and the structure of bone and muscle, then I can paint a life-like portrait. The viewer sees only the fleshly surface, but it is alive if it contains the structure beneath. In that same way, rainforests are part of our basic structure on earth. They sustain us whether we live in the tropics or in southwest Ohio. They contain unparallelled beauty and mysteries and species of life that are in some way connected to each of us.

Thus, I am extremely honored to be part of this art/quilt project that will raise funds to help preserve the rainforest. Our own small lives only become important when we can make a contribution that is bigger than ourselves. Through art, I have this opportunity to make a difference and I hope the quilt will not only grace someone's wall or bed, but it will help preserve a bit of our environment here on earth.

"Loggerhead Turtle" - isablue123

TITLE: Loggerhead Turtle
EBAY ID: isablue123

Why I'm using my creativity to save the rainforest:

I have a BS degree in Zoology, and my favorite courses as a student were those dealing with biodiversity and ecology. I have been deeply affected by news of shrinking ecosystems and the devastating effects on some animal populations in the world, and even more appalled by reports on poaching that is putting at risk some of our closest relatives like chimpanzees and gorillas. It is estimated that 40% of all organisms are at risk (source: International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources). Many species could be going extinct unnoticed due to our careless exploitation of the world's resources.

When the ACEO ~ Art Cards editions and Originals group suggested "Endangered Species" as a monthly topic, I was thrilled! There was a chance to paint one of my favorite subjects. I never imagined that we would get together as a group to try and save a little piece of our planet. Starr, however, mentioned the efforts of the World Land Trust, an organization that purchases acres of rainforest to protect it for posterity. So far, the WLT has purchased and protected over 350,000 acres (142,000 hectares) of rainforest and other precious wildlife habitats worldwide (http://www.worldlandtrust.org/).

Starr proposed that interested members of our group contribute a portion of their "Endangered species" sales to purchase an acre or more of threatened wildlife habitat. She has been educating us on the extent of the problem, and her voice has been heard in the group. Char took the project one step further by volunteering to make a quilt based on the artwork submitted for the "Endangered species" theme week. All the contributing artists have graciously agreed to have their image reproduced for the quilt. Char generously donated her time, materials and talent to create this beautiful quilt that Starr will auction on eBay, with 100% of the proceeds going to the WLT. Joy stepped in to flesh out ideas to promote the sale of the quilt, and we have been working together to make this event happen. I am very excited to be part of this meaningful group effort that, for once, will change the world for the better!