After the highly successful Goodreads giveaway of the hardcover version of “Skies/Himmel” by Gabriele Golissa, there now is a chance to win one of ten free downloads of the e-book from iTunes. If you have an iPad or a Mac, simply send me an email through the contact page of this website and make the subject “E-book giveaway”. The first 10 people doing this will receive a promo code for a free “Skies/Himmel” e-book download by email. So go on, enter the giveaway right here!
I woke up at about five o’clock in the morning coughing. Not from a cold but from the smoky air in my bedroom. While there is no immediate danger in Missoula, air quality here has finally reached hazardous levels in one of the worst wildfire seasons ever. Having hoped for a clear summer after a long and cold winter followed by a wet spring, I was disappointed. Summer came full force with hotter than average temperatures and almost no rain. Montana is now the state with the most wildfires and acres burned as well as home of the number one priority fire in the nation. Evacuation orders are in place for some communities. Two firefighters have lost their lives fighting the fires. And there is no end in sight.
Earlier last century, forest management relied on fire prevention and suppression only to realize that could not stop massive wildfires from occurring. In fact, we have learned that fire suppression can eventually increase wildfire occurrence and intensity. By now we look at natural wildfires as essential to a working ecosystem and even use prescribed burning in hope to reduce catastrophic wildfires. However, after decades of fire suppression and under the influence of global warming (Yes, Mr. President!), we today see more wildfires and longer wildfire seasons.
Seems to me we now get what we asked for. While humankind has acquired a wealth of knowledge, we still know so little. And most importantly, we do not yet understand complex systems. But we often behave as if we would. Obviously human life has an impact on this planet. Are we willing to live up to that?
All you sky-lovers out there can now find Skies by Gabriele Golissa™ prints and postcards on Fine Art America. In business since 2006, Fine Art America calls itself “the world’s largest art marketplace”. What sets them apart from other online art sales platforms is that artists can choose to offer not only prints, matting, and framing, but also a lot of other art related products that Fine Art America prints on demand whenever someone chooses to buy any such product. And I just love that they also offer skies art for sale!
While I do not offer regular Skies by Gabriele Golissa™ limited edition prints through Fine Art America, I offer small prints (8 x 6 in) for these photographs. For open edition photographs however, you have various print options in different sizes. And for my favorite Skies you also find postcards and other artsies on my Fine Art America artist page. So take a look!
“And the sun’s beams
The moon, in passing under, covers o’er,
And darkens a bleak tract of earth as large
As is the breadth of her, the silver-eyed.”
Empedocles (ca. 495–435 BCE), Fragments, Sun and Moon, 42
In ancient times solar eclipses have often been associated with disaster and calamities. These days, people seem to be either absolutely indifferent to the event or totally excited about it. I certainly belong to the latter category. This was my first solar eclipse and I was definitely not going to miss it. Luckily the weather was complacent and spared us any clouds. There still was some smoke in the valley though, but we braved that and did not miss a single second. Even though we were not in the path of totality, it still was an unforgettable event. The moon hid about 92% of the sun. That did not make for a corona and it did not get completely dark—the darkness of the picture above is due to the filter necessary for taking photographs of the eclipse. However, it suddenly felt like late afternoon in the middle of the day and the drop in temperature was clearly noticeable. I obviously took some pictures but I was mainly there to just watch and experience my first solar eclipse. It was also a wonderful social event, as I watched it with my friend Jessie and we happened to meet two very nice ladies, Ann and Annie. We all had a great time. Thank you all for making this such a memorable day!
