Garden of the Gods and focusing on more art!

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Aikya
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:heart: Hello everyone, it's been a busy summer and I'm happy to say that I'm down to working one full time job again, with a significant raise so I can pay my bills much easier now. I don't really share much of my personal life here on DA, but as you can tell from my artwork I LOVE the outdoors and nature. I love where I live and plan on spending the last few weekends of summer outside before it gets cold. I was lucky enough to work a seasonal job at Garden of the Gods here where I live in Colorado Springs. Here is a website to the park: Garden of the Gods

I worked as park safety patrol staff and LOVED IT. Because I was outside so much I was able to take photographs of the resident wildlife there. Below are some of photos of what I experienced on the job.

My friend Wes and I rescued a Bullsnake (Pituophis catenifer sayi) from some very thick plastic string that it couldn't escape from. I held the snake while Wes cut him loose with a knife. There were like a gazillion people taking photos of the whole ordeal lol.

Rocky Mountain Bighorn Sheep (Ovis canadensis)! They came down from the surrounding mountains almost daily. On multiple occasions we had to stop traffic to allow them to cross over into the park. An awesome sight!

Scrub Jays (Aphelocoma californica) were everywhere! I love these birds, very beautiful animals and extremely intelligent along with the ravens that fly around everywhere.

Don't forget the small little mammals! Chipmunks (Tamias quadrivittatus) were everywhere and loved to sneak up on people, especially when they had food.

Don't forget Colorado's crazy weather. I worked through rain, sleet, hail and extremely powerful wind. Here is a shot I took in the evening facing south after one of our almost daily storms.


I just wanted to share a little more about myself and what inspires me to create my artwork. I've been noticing that my artwork evolves quicker when I surround myself with what I love. It is a balancing act for me. Work, getting outside, then creating. I'm curious to see how many other artists here have full time jobs, and also find time to do what they love and create artwork too. What makes it easier for you? I find it hard sometimes to focus on what I want to create, because I need to draw the inspiration from somewhere.

Anyway, thanks for all of the feedback on my latest works! I truly appreciate the art community here. :peace:


© 2013 - 2024 Aikya
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AJDrake's avatar
AJDrake
I went to colorado a couple years ago for vacation and we stopped in the Garden of the Gods. Other than one dude yelling curse words at us because we didn't stop to give him a ride, it was an awesome experience.

Also, nice picture of mammatus clouds you have there. :D