Spring is in the air, around the corner. Well, I guess only in the air since there is still snow on the ground where I live.But that is not stopping us from looking forward to warmer temperatures and running around in Central Park. Speaking of my favorite place to unwind, word got around that several wild animals have been spotted in the park of late including coyotes, crazy little raccoons and owls.

I became recently fascinated by owls due to their distinctive behaviour and features and varied looks. Hey, they are cute! These handsome little birds became the inspiration for my latest little painting I completed last night, “Do You Think Spring is Here?“. What most folks don’t realize that many groups of owls are suffering critical declines in population. In Malaysia for example, a recent news story reported that owl poaching is on the rise – particularly for trade and for hunting purposes. A high level raid that exposed a wild-meat trend operation centering on owls fortunately raised awareness to such illegal practices. So our little hooting friends are in danger and we take note. Give a hoot.

The other night, we watched ABC News in NYC report on the plight of the Punta Tombo Penguins. It was a very poignant story and yet another reminder how there are species of the world we may take for granted, that could be gone tomorrow. One quote that stuck with us was when renown penguin researcher Dee Boersma assessed “…when penguins aren’t doing well, they’re telling us that our world isn’t doing well.” Heavy, but true. We thought this article and story would be a perfect way to re-introduce you guys to one of our earlier pieces in our catalogue : the Penguin Note Card, part of our First Edition Note Card Series.

Speaking of the note card series, we decided to do something a little different than what we were used to in the past week. I was finishing up my sketch of two new playful pandas when my husband talked me into printing the actual sketch on a note card prior to me painting it. Lo and behold, it was a neat little experiment that turned out to look fantastic. I put these lovely little pandas up for sale on my personal Etsy shop, so definitely check them out and let me know what you think.

Sometimes, a change in surroundings is needed. Over the past year, most of our success and headway was made in Manhattan (particularly in the Union Square Artist’s Market) as well as ongoing interactions and collaborations with artists from Brooklyn despite being temporarily headquartered in Queens. After much thought and planning, Ecopatterns decided that change was a concept we’d dive back into.

This week, we packed our boxes and moved back to our old digs on the Upper West Side of Manhattan (where we originally set up shop for our first year in business). We couldn’t be happier. Not only is this move exciting for us personally, but we feel that it would benefit us professionally as well. See, we see a lot of promise for the Upper West Side artistic community. We know there are a lot of cool, hip folks here that would be open to talk shop and share ideas. Stressing the importance of community is key especially to the development and nurturing of artists and their businesses. While we are doing everything we can in the online circuit (with places like Facebook, Myspace, Twitter, Etsy, etc.) we can’t forget the local, physical aspect of networking. Hey, we can’t let Brooklyn get all the press.

That said, we’d like to give a shout to all of our artist neighbors. We want to hear from you in hopes of getting a dialogue or movement going. What do you work on? Where do you market your work? What are your artistic goals?

Photo credit: Jamie – “From Me To You” Photo Blog <-- please check out her site. it's awesome. also, check out her stunning Upper West Side FREE iPhone Wallpapers set.