Hello all, Rich here – taking the reigns of blogging duties and all things web from my wife so she can get some long needed rest and relaxation. In the midst of this rest, she is still sketching out new ideas and working on new paintings so we’re not expecting any significant down period. We are going through a pretty challenging chapter of our lives but we are not allowing this to stunt the development and growth of our business. And as she said, I’m picking up where she’s leaving off for the time being. It is our responsibility to our loyal customers, friends and most importantly to our overall mission.

With the birth of Ecopatterns, we took on the responsibility of utilizing art and social media to raise and spread awareness about animals most folks won’t know are endangered, and to back it up with factual information. This may seem like a modest responsibility to shoulder, but we feel it is critical for the future of the planet. We feel it would be particularly sad if elephants, giraffes and even little monkeys are spoken of in the same vein as dinosaurs a few generations from now. We have an opportunity to prevent this from happening especially if the threats are coming from things we have the power to control. So I wanted to extend a big thanks to everyone who has supported our mission thus far and those that continually encourage and help us spread the good word. Without you guys, we’d accomplish so little, and for that we are incredibly grateful. We look forward to keeping up the fight.

A couple of weeks ago, I wrote about the Red Panda otherwise known in some places as the original Fire Fox. Of course, I did not want to neglect actual foxes knowing that some of them are endangered as well. The Island Fox is one of them. On one island for example (Santa Rosa) there are under 14 Island Foxes left. 14?? There are more people in my 4-story brownstone where I live. This makes me sad and inspired my newest foxy painting, “Our Morning Ritual” – dedicated to all endangered foxes across the globe – including the most critically endangered Island Fox.

Another thing I wanted to say to everyone: I’m sure some of you have noticed that we’ve been available for outdoor markets less and less over the course of 2010. I just want to give my wonderful friends and supporters a quick note as to what’s going on. Lately, I’ve had to endure quite a bit medically – and have had repeated visits, tests and required rest prescribed by those monitoring me. Please rest assured that there is nothing uber-serious going on, and that everything will be ok. I am still working on new pieces and the business as we know it, is still moving forward. However, it is certainly affecting how often I can make appearances in outdoor markets and other venues. As always, please keep an eye on our twitter and facebook accounts for updates on when/where exactly we’re going to be setting up as we do have some venues lined up at the end of this summer and fall. In the meantime, my husband will be taking over most of the blog duties (on top of his web duties) as well as shipping mail orders from our online store for the next several months and he will keep you guys posted. I’m sure he’ll do a great job – so give him a chance to win you over. Thank you for your continued love, support and appreciation.

It’s Shark Week! I am actually pretty surprised and delighted to see that there are so many people across the digital sphere who are actually excited by an animal that has long been feared and discredited. Thanks to the folks at the Discovery Channel, Shark Week celebrates its 23rd anniversary this year, honoring and learning about this glorious creature. Also, because of social networking, Shark Week fanfare is spreading, and leaking over to current generations. Of course, this is exactly the kind of exposure animals need to fully raise everyone’s consciousness about the trouble and obstacales they face for the survival of their species.

As you may already know – late last year I painted a piece called “Ark Shark.” While most may think I am referring to Noah’s Ark (as I notice that Ark Shark comes up quite a bit in our Google Search statistics), its really a much more simple, silly story. When my husband was a child, his sister purchased a fishtank and adopted a few little fishies for their home. My husband decided he, too, wanted to own a fish – so he bought a little freshwater mini shark. He named this mini terror, “Ark Shark” (with the name being derived from his initials – Arie Richard Kriheli). So I decided I to name my painting after his little shark from his childhood. Anyhow, in honor of Shark Week, I am offering a FREE Ark Shark Note Card with a purchase of any art print from our store. Offer ends next Thursday, so get your Shark Week on!

Although our mission at Ecopatterns is to raise awareness about endangered animals through art, we are often hearing news about the plight of animals that are fortunate to still maintain significant numbers. Recently, we came across an update that shocked and saddened us – happening in our own back yard. Earlier this month, 400 Canadian Geese were euthanized by United States Department of Agriculture for just hanging out in Prospect Park. Seriously, did you HAVE to kill them? Couldn’t they be shipped to another region if they were really obstructing air travel. Apparently Geese are not welcome in Brooklyn. We urge all of our followers, supporters and friends to contact the USDA and give them an earful and express your disappointment. Such a shame.

In more positive news, we are happy to announce a tiny new development. Ecopatterns will now be accepting credit cards in our outdoor markets! We’ve been accepting credit cards ever since we launched our site, but we’ve abstained from swipe-arama outdoors. But our customers have long been requesting plastic commerce, and we listened. So we’ve enlisted Total Merchant Services to help with our commerce needs so that we can make transactions as convenient as we can for our awesome fans. We hope to receive our terminal to get rolling for this weekend. We’ll keep you guys posted. Oh and, we would have went with Square’s nifty little reader, but we’ve been gassed (pun intended) while waiting for months now for our shipment. Sorry, guys .