I love salamanders. Unfortunately, Michigan isn’t exactly the salamander capital of the world. I grew up in western New York where they are abundant. Whenever I return to my hometown I try go into the woods and turn over some logs and rocks to see what fantastic things are waiting underneath. Salamanders there have many colors from red, orange, yellow, green, blue, black, grey, and brown… beautifully arranged in solids, stripes, and spots. They are very fashionable! In Western NY I’ve found the whole size range, from tiny four-toed salamanders, to the enormous, slime-covered hellbender salamanders at two feet! Usually I have the camera with me to record the find and draw it later.
This past fall, I was hiking in the woods behind our house here in the Michigan with our 7 year old Timmy. We tipped over a log and found a nice big blue-spotted salamander. Understandably, Timmy was very excited with the find. I can’t wait for him to see a hellbender in the wild! We took it home for a few hours to photograph and returned it later. This subject proved to be a most uncooperative and wiggly model.
Blue-spotted salamanders are a common type of mole salamander. Others in this genus include the beautiful spotted and tiger salamanders.
Rose Murphy
Dear Matthew,
My name is Rose Murphy and I am working on a publication for the Massachusetts Audubon Society. I am writing to seek permission to use your sketch of a blue-spotted salamander (above)for our new annual book publication entitled “Stray Leaves”, which are excerpts from our editor, John Hansen Mitchell’s writings for Sanctuary magazine. The publication will be sent to our membership of approx. 65,000 people. The drawing would accompany a story entitled “Blues in the Night”, which we can send to you for your review if you would like.
Since we are a nonprofit, we can only offer a nominal fee. If you decide to grant permission, please let me know how much you would charge.
Thank you very much for your consideration of this request.
Sincerely,
Rose
Rose M. Murphy
Production Editor
Mass Audubon
208 South Great Road
Lincoln, MA 01773
781-259-2167
rmurphy@massaudubon.org
Please visit our website at http://www.massaudubon.org to learn more about our conservation, education, and advocacy work.
Matt
Thanks for expressing interest in the art! I’ll reply in a private message separately.