Mugs
Description: Back in 1985, Robert Heinlein wrote his next-to-last novel called "The Cat who Walks Through Walls". The cat referenced in the title is Pixel, and it can literally walk through walls to be with the main character, Richard. This whimsical illustration is my take on a cat opening up an inter-dimensional portal and about to walk through, after, of course, denying any culpability to the chaos left in its wake!
Description: The Australian white ibis (Threskiornis molucca) is an amazing native bird that has the loving sobriquet of bin chicken. Some people get offended by the name, but I really like it because it is really accurate and descriptive. These birds do spend a lot of time scavenging in cities and making a nuisance of themselves--gotta love it! The other cool thing about this ibis is that their shed feathers smell like Fruit Loops. I kid you not.
Description: Nautilus are any of the various species of cephalopods in the family Nautilidae. They are known for "sailing" the oceans in their perfect spiral shells and feeding with their 50+ tentacles. Nautilus was also the name of Captain Nemo's submarine in Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Seas (1870). The motto of the Nautilus was Mobilis in mobili, a Latin phrase which is variously translated as "Moving within a moving element" or "Moving within motion" and even "Changing with change".
Description: Silver gulls (Chroicocephalus novaehollandiae) are the common gull found in Australia, and people HATE them. People call them various rude names like 'shithawks', 'dumpster duck' and 'beach rats'. They steal your chips, they poo on everything. But, we LOVE gulls, so here you go, three silver gulls all in a row, they're watching you...
Description: The phrase 'all panic no disco' is generally used to describe a state of intense social anxiety which prevents someone from having fun in a social situation. It is often depicted by an opossum clinging to a disco ball. For some reason, the opossum doesn't jive with my sensibilities, so I chose a tardigrade! The most resilient animal known! It can survive space!! You too can survive social anxiety, be a tardigrade.
Description: The quote 'If you wait by the river long enough, the bodies of your enemies will float by.' is often attributed to Sun Tzu, but it doesn't appear in the Art of War. I know this quote from The Drone album, so that's what it is! The Pacific Gull is one of the largest gulls in the world, often weighing in over a kilo! It has the most piercing eye, so makes a perfect pairing with the quote, whatever the origins.
Description: The pied currawong, Strepera graculina, is a large black passerine bird native to eastern Australia. It is an altitudinal migrant and is omnivorous, preying on everything from fruit to nestlings. They have the best yellow eye! The pied currawong's binomial names were derived from the Latin strepera, meaning "noisy", and graculina for resembling a jackdaw.
Description: The palm cockatoo, Probosciger aterrimus, is a very large cockatoo native to far northern Australia and New Guinea. As a territorial display, it uses a stick or seed pod to drum against a dead bough or tree. There is some evidence that they may have learned drumming from humans playing hard rock music! I would like that to be true...
Description: The quote ‘If you wait by the river long enough, the bodies of your enemies will float by.’ is often attributed to Sun Tzu, but it doesn’t appear in The Art of War. I know it from The Drones album, so that's what it is... The Pacific Gull is one of the largest gulls in the world, often weighing in over a kilo! It has the most piercing eye, so makes a perfect pairing with the quote, whatever the origins.
