art

NUDI GILL PIN-UP: Nembrotha Aurea

| Bonnie Kelso

In preparation for NUDI GILL, my debut picture book release in September 2022, I will be blogging about nudibranchs monthly. My hope is that you, too, will fall in love with these colorful little critters. Without further ado, allow me to introduce you to October’s supermodel:

Nembrotha Aurea

By Bernard Picton – Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=22742547

Check out the spectacular colors on this elegant nudibranch! Getting any ideas for Halloween costumes here?

This little nudibranch feeds on colonial ascidians, otherwise known as sea squirts. Mmmmm, makes my mouth water!

All Nudibranchs are classified into sub-species. For example, this one falls into the Nudibranchia suborder of Dorid Nudibranchs. From there it breaks down further into the Phanerobranch category of Dorids. These nudibranchs are generally long and slender with well defined heads. They also have non-retractable gills on their backs. In fact, the word phanerobranch means “evident gill.” Just a little science stuff to geek out about.

Phanerobranch dorid nudibranchs sometimes exhibit a behavior known as rearing. Sometimes they do it because they are repulsed by something toxic or dangerous. Other times they lift their upper bodies up like this just to have a better “look” around. You never know, there might be a mate or something yummy to eat nearby. They sense such things through their rhinophores, not their eye spots.

Where’s the buffet?

These nudibranchs can be found in the Tropical Indo-West Pacific. Where’s that? It’s the Indian Ocean and beyond. A watery paradise stretching from the east coast of Africa all across the Asian coastline and touching the shores of Australia. This nudibranch really gets around!

Image source: Global Village Space

I hope you enjoyed meeting the beautiful Nembrotha Aurea nudibranch. Stay tuned for November’s NUDI GILL Pin-Up!

Bonnie

Bonnie Kelso writes and illustrates books for children and adults that encourage individualism and brave self-expression. She facilitates art workshops for her local community and beyond. Her debut picture book, NUDI GILL, will be released in September, 2022. A lover of nature and travel, she can be found wandering about outside with her family whenever a good opportunity to do so presents itself.

NUDI GILL PIN-UP: Sea Clown

| Bonnie Kelso

In preparation for NUDI GILL, my debut picture book release in September 2022, I will be blogging about nudibranchs monthly. My hope is that you, too, will fall in love with these colorful little critters. Without further ado, allow me to introduce you to September’s supermodel:

Triopha Catalinae

Photograph by Minette Layne from Seattle, Washington, USA – Salome

Check out that mustache! Unlike other dorid nudibranchs, the sea clown’s dorsal gills are not fully retractable. Triopha Catalinae is comfortable letting it all hang out!

Spotted Triopha, or Triopha maculata, photographed in Morro Bay, California by Robin Agarwal. Sourced from Flickr and shared via Creative Commons License.

The Sea clown also comes in opposite coloration. Which is your favorite? I can’t decide, but I’m loving these fall colors. Makes me crave a pumpkin latte.

Photograph by divindk
Santa Barbara, USA. Sourced from Flickr and shared via Creative Commons License.

No clowning around, these nudibranchs are small. How many sea clowns could pile into a clown car? Probably all of them!

Who are you calling a clown?

The sea clown’s scientific name is derived from Santa Catalina Island, California, but you can find these nudibranchs in the Western Pacific from Mexico all the way to Alaska. They have also been found in costal areas of Japan and South Korea.

I hope you enjoyed meeting the Triopha Catalinae nudibranch. Stay tuned for October’s NUDI GILL Pin-Up!

Bonnie

Bonnie Kelso writes and illustrates books for children and adults that encourage individualism and brave self-expression. She facilitates art workshops for her local community and beyond. Her debut picture book, NUDI GILL, will be released in September, 2022. A lover of nature and travel, she can be found wandering about outside with her family whenever a good opportunity to do so presents itself.

NUDI GILL PIN-UP: Pteraeolidia Ianthina

| Bonnie Kelso

In preparation for NUDI GILL, my debut picture book release in September 2022, I will be blogging about nudibranchs monthly. My hope is that you, too, will fall in love with these colorful little critters. Without further ado, allow me to introduce you to August’s supermodel:

Pteraeolidia Ianthina

A Serpent Pteraeolidia (Pteraeolidia ianthina). Halifax Point, Port Stephens, NSW. Photograph by Richard Ling.

A long serpentine body covered in blue, purple, green, or brown cerata (respiratory organs), earned this nudibranch the nickname of blue dragon. Its long winding body is reminiscent of a Chinese Dragon. So cool. Check out this mug. What a face!

Photograph by Sarah Han-de-Beaux. You have GOT to check out her website and amazing photographs, really!

What I find most astonishing about Pteraeolidia Ianthina is that is it solar-powered. Tesla has nothing on this baby! This nudibranch has developed a method of capturing and farming microscopic plants (known as zooxanthellae) right inside its own body. It’s a win-win relationship because the nudibranch provides protection for the plants and the plants help feed the nudibranch with the sugars they convert from the sun’s energy. (Read more about this on The Sea Slug Forum.)

The more zooxanthellae, the greener the nudibranch appears.

Talk about going green!

You can find these fiercely fabulous nudibranchs throughout the Indo-Pacific.

I hope you enjoyed meeting the Pteraeolidia Ianthina Nudibranch. Stay tuned for September’s NUDI GILL Pin-Up!

Bonnie

Bonnie Kelso writes and illustrates books for children and adults that encourage individualism and brave self-expression. She facilitates art workshops for her local community and beyond. Her debut picture book, NUDI GILL, will be released in September, 2022. A lover of nature and travel, she can be found wandering about outside with her family whenever a good opportunity to do so presents itself.

NUDI GILL PIN-UP: Hopkin’s Rose Nudibranch

| Bonnie Kelso

In preparation for NUDI GILL, my debut picture book release in September 2022, I will be blogging about nudibranchs monthly. My hope is that you, too, will fall in love with these colorful little critters. Without further ado, allow me to introduce you to July’s supermodel:

Hopkin’s Rose Nudibranch

Photograph by Jerry Kirkhart, Los Osos, CA

Bubble-gum pink papillae cover this beauty from head to toe. And now you are probably scratching your head and wondering, where’s the head and where’s the toe? Look closely for the two rhinophores poking out on the right end.

BINGO! That’s the head. A nudibranch’s toe (or foot) typically spans the length of its belly, but Rose’s mantle, head, and foot are kind of all merged together in one flattish base. Below is a cool shot of the edge of Rose’s foot/body/mantle. And in case you were wondering again which end you are looking at, well… those feathery bits are anal gills. So basically, she’s showing off her bodacious bum here.

Photograph by Robin Agarwal

Another unique thing about Rose is her extra-large middle tooth. Give us a smile, Rose!

Hubba Bubba!

You can find more of these cool creatures lurking in tidal pools all along the Pacific Coastline from Baja California to Oregon.

I hope you enjoyed meeting the Hopkin’s Rose Nudibranch. Stay tuned for August’s NUDI GILL Pin-Up!

Bonnie

Bonnie Kelso writes and illustrates books for children and adults that encourage individualism and brave self-expression. She facilitates art workshops for her local community and beyond. Her debut picture book, NUDI GILL, will be released in September, 2022. A lover of nature and travel, she can be found wandering about outside with her family whenever a good opportunity to do so presents itself.

NUDI GILL PIN-UP: Monterey Sea Lemon

| Bonnie Kelso

In preparation for NUDI GILL, my debut picture book release in September 2022, I will be blogging about nudibranchs monthly. My hope is that you, too, will fall in love with these colorful little critters. Without further ado, allow me to introduce you to June’s supermodel:

The Monterey Sea Lemon

This little cutie may look like a sweet meyer, but you wouldn’t want to squeeze one over your shrimp cocktail. Nudibranchs have the ability to store toxins in their flesh from the food they eat (mostly sea sponges). The Sea Lemon’s bright yellow color is a warning to predators that they’d better think twice before messing with them.

Though they start out very small, this species can grow to be a whopping 15 cm long! Maybe they should be called Sea Bananas.

You can find these cool creatures lurking in tidal pools and up to depths of 50 meters all along the Pacific Coastline from San Diego, California to Kachemak Bay, Alaska.

I hope you enjoyed meeting the Monterey Sea Lemon. Stay tuned for July’s Nudi Gill Pin-Up!

Bonnie

Bonnie Kelso writes and illustrates books for children and adults that encourage individualism and brave self-expression. She facilitates art workshops for her local community and beyond. Her debut picture book, NUDI GILL, will be released in September, 2022. A lover of nature and travel, she can be found wandering about outside with her family whenever a good opportunity to do so presents itself.

Finished Art! (Part 4)

| Bonnie Kelso

My “Songbirds Of Hope” project is complete! Wheeee! As promised, here is the final product. In case you missed the first three parts of the process, here they are: Part 1, Part 2, and Part 3. The workshops went really smoothly and were well-received by the children. They were all really engaged in the activity and took their work seriously. They had a blast finding ways to put their own personalities into their birds. Some even created multiple birds for me. Over two days I worked with twenty-six children to create the final piece. Then I installed the canvases, vinyl lettering, and sound recorder. Yes, our birds chirp when you walk by them.

Here I am with some of my creative crew!

The Clark County Public Arts office was a pleasure to work from beginning to end and I give special thanks to the talented Arturo Cecena, who shepherded over a dozen projects like this one. The installation was accepted permanently by the Desert Breeze Community Center, so if you’re in the neighborhood, be sure to check it out.

Check out my interview on Clark County TV!

Photograph by Arturo Cecena.
Photograph by Arturo Cecena.

“Hope is the thing with feathers that perches in the soul and sings the tunes without the words and never stops at all.” 
– Emily Dickinson

Wishing you the best, always!

Bonnie

Bonnie Kelso writes and illustrates books for children and adults that encourage individualism and brave self-expression. She facilitates art workshops for her local community and beyond. A lover of nature and travel, she can be found wandering about outside with her family whenever a good opportunity to do so presents itself.

Publishers, Contracts, and Sea Slugs, OH MY!

| Bonnie Kelso

A lot has been happening over here behind the scenes. I’m preparing one of my babies to be launched into the world. Not a human one, thank goodness, because I’m so not ready for that milestone. I’m referring to a personal career milestone: One of my picture book’s has been acquired by Gnome Road Publishing, an Independent Publisher that is destined to make a big splash in the children’s book industry.

I couldn’t be more pleased to make this announcement. Sandra Sutter, the award winning author of Stan’s Frightful Halloween and The Real Farmer In The Dell, has dived into her passion for children’s literature by publishing a diverse list of picture books that beg to be read over and over again.

If you know me at all, you will remember that I am a lover of all things ocean, but especially the ittty-bitty nuidbranch, otherwise know as the sea slug. My debut picture book, NUDI GILL, will be coming out in the Fall of 2022. I’m so excited to share information about these fascinating creatures through the voice of a funny and fierce character like Gill.

Gill’s a little slug with big personality, but even he can be shy sometimes. Say “hi” to your future fans, Gill.

It’s been so much fun pouring over the photographs, websites, and books as I prepared my story and images. Special thanks to David W. Behrens, who wrote NUDIBRANCH BEHAVIOR, my favorite reference book of all time.

Of course, I also live in a house filled with my own paintings of nudibranchs. Yes, it’s been a long-time obsession, really, so it’s no surprise to me that NUDI GILL would be my breakthrough story.

It’s okay, Gill, you can come out now…

Wishing you all the best,

Bonnie

Bonnie Kelso writes and illustrates books for children and adults that encourage individualism and brave self-expression. She facilitates art workshops for her local community and beyond. A lover of nature and travel, she can be found wandering about outside with her family whenever a good opportunity to do so presents itself.

Art In Progress (Part 3)

| Bonnie Kelso

I’ve been working as a Teaching Artist for five years now. Wow! I can’t believe it’s been that long! I started out applying for grants through the Nevada Arts Council. I designed creative exploration workshops for adults and children. Then last summer I applied for a Youth Collaborative Art Workshop and Temporary Installation project through Clark County Public Arts. “Songbirds Of Hope” was born! I created a design and wrote a detailed proposal and lesson plan for the project. I was interviewed a few weeks after the submission period ended by a selection committee who eventually chose me and a dozen other artists to facilitate workshops throughout the county. I didn’t know where my project would land, but luckily it ended up at the Desert Breeze Community Center which is only a few miles from my home.

A few months ago, I attended a meeting with the program coordinators at the community center, and we discussed the location of the artwork, the schedule for the workshops, and how to prepare according to their COVID safety guidelines.

Then I got to work preparing the background canvases, vinyl lettering, sound recorder, and of course, 50 cut-out birds to be painted by the children.

After 50, I’m getting the hang of drawing birds.
Continue reading →

Art In Progress (Part 2)

| Bonnie Kelso

I’ve been preparing for my Youth Public Art Project for Clark County. The project itself will take place over Spring Break at the Desert Breeze Community Center. I will be facilitating the creation of fifty little birds with the help of fifty children. I call this project “Songbirds Of Hope,” because it is inspired by all the birds I heard singing after lockdown. That’s right… FIFTY unique birds cut out from mat board! I’ve been cutting a few each day and currently have 19 finished.

As I showed in my last post, the background layer was brushed in loosely. Here are my seasonal canvases after adding in the “happy” trees. I used my palette knife to create the textured tree trunks.

Then I painted in the leaves. Now my little world just needs some birds to live in it. Back to cutting out those little guys!

“Hope is the thing with feathers that perches in the soul and sings the tunes without the words and never stops at all.” – Emily Dickinson

Bonnie

Bonnie Kelso writes and illustrates books for children and adults that encourage individualism and brave self-expression. She facilitates art workshops for her local community and beyond. A lover of nature and travel, she can be found wandering about outside with her family whenever a good opportunity to do so presents itself.