(Via Daily Picks And Flicks)

One of the early staples of The Colbert Report was Stephen’s repeated inclusion of bears in his weekly ‘Threat Down’ segments. His mock-phobic tendencies were always couched in humor, and I got to see adorable bears. Well, maybe the threat wasn’t to us at all:

Add your captions in the comments section below!

(Via ForkParty.com)

Related Art:

So much new art, you guys. A ridiculous amount. Not only do I have two new ones of my own in the can and more coming in the next week, but new guest artist Hidden Eloise dropped EIGHT beautiful new ones in my lap last week that I threw up last night. Here are a couple samples:

You can see the rest of Eloise’s designs here and here, and you can check out her online shop here to see her prints, jewelry postcards, etc. Now, everyone settle down and say hello to your new friend!

1. Where are you from (both originally and currently)?
I live in the North of England, in the rolling hills of Yorkshire. Not to be confused with “the” Shire, but pretty close none the less.

2. Has that at all shaped you as an artist, or otherwise affected your creative processes?
The forests around here are enchanting, old but orderly somehow, not brimming with life but with enough little creatures to make every walk interesting and surprising. Whether I actually walk the forests around here or look at them from my window and imagine I’m there, there is a lot of the land in my art.

3. Can you let us know about some other visual artists that you admire and draw inspiration from?
The three art movements that have influenced me more than anything are Art Nouveau, Japanese Ukiyo-e and the Dutch Golden Age. You can see all of them seeping into my art, especially my latest collection “War of the Roses”. For specific artists from those bygone days, I love Rembrandt and Utagawa Yoshitoshi. On a slightly related note, I adore Shin Yun-bok!

4. How about non-visual artists (musicians, friends, family, public figures, filmmakers, writers, etc)?
I think my art looks well while listening to Cocteau Twins (Ed. Note: Yes, definitely. Maybe something early, like Treasure, Garland, or Victorialand), though I don’t necessarily draw inspiration from their dreamy world directly.

5. Did you receive any formal art training, whether it be in college, or elective classes in high school, middle school and so on?
Before I spent many misplaced years in university (getting a degree in Architecture that I have exactly zero desire to now make use of) I spent a year studying fine art. It was a great year, practicing classical painting and sculpting and I did get some knowledge out of it. I am mostly self-taught though and the greatest learning period has been the last three years that I struck out as an indie artist.

6. What’s your creative process like? Do you work in silence, or with music/TV/some other background noise on? Do you have a specific space set aside for working on art? What are your preferred mediums?
First, I need ideas and this is something that cannot be controlled or easily quantified. I note down ideas and make sketches whenever and wherever they happen to appear in my mind and as a result I happen to have an impossible amount of notebooks! Sometimes my ideas are specific emotions that seek an image and sometimes there is a very specific image that I need to see on paper.

When I know what I want to work with my process changes radically. I work on every artwork persistently and analytically, with planning and many iterations until I’m satisfied. The whole process takes around 10 full days on average and during that time there is mostly music, some silence, no TV and as little background noise as possible.

I always start with pencil on paper and that could be anywhere in the house that I can find a flat enough surface. After the drawing is done I do most of the work at my desk and I paint most of the art digitally with my mighty Wacom Cintiq21UX, a tablet built onto a screen so I can draw with a digital pen directly. This is the technique I’m currently infatuated with and I’m still just scratching the surface of the possibilities.

7. Do you have any pop cultural guilty pleasures you’d like to admit to?
I like C.S.I. Las Vegas.  (Ed. Note: I’d like to make a snobby remark about this, but I just realized I’m a regular Gossip Girl viewer) It’s useful though! Never know when you’ll have to cover up a hideous crime… (Ed. Note: True.)

8. What are some of your favorite web haunts? Any blogs or websites you’d like to turn more people on to?
How about veganyumyum.com for animal-less eating? And then onto http://www.youtube.com/user/tedtalksdirector for something inspiring to watch during lunch! I think I have seen over 90% of all TED talks and I’m working on the last 10%!

9. Do you have any pets?
My kitchen-monster of a partner doesn’t count, I suppose. So no pets, not at the moment.

10. Beer, wine, or liquor? Which kind (ales, porters, pilsners, reds, whites, rums, vodkas)?
Some light white wine is as far as my relationship with alcohol goes these days.

11. If you had access to Doc Brown’s Delorean in Back to the Future, when in time would you go?
One of my hobbies is reading history. Especially history of the far east. So despite my better judgement, my heart takes me to 17th century Japan, just after the great wars ended. I would take in the sights and live the idealised dream for a short time, before running away as fast as possible, back to the future, to avoid the swift and terrible end that those rough and brutal times would gift me.

12. Cake, pie or cookies (ice cream and candy are also acceptable, but be specific)?
I am vegan for moral reasons, so pretty much all the sweets in the market are out of reach for me. So I make my own and I can be very specific in my desires! Currently in the fridge, wobbling blissfully, are a few tubs of vegan Japanese style caramel purin! Oh yes!

I love bears. I love zucchini. I love dogs. But this post is still tough to type, because I don’t love zucchini-on-bear, bear-on-dog, or dog-on-bear violence. And all three were at play in Frenchtown, Montana when a bear attacked a woman and her three dogs and was repelled when it was pelted with a home-grown zucchini.

Yes, seriously.

While this story constitutes some primo WTF-worthy material, I can’t help but feel kinda bummed—in all likelihood the bear is going to be trapped and destroyed, the dog is going to be limping around for a while, and that zucchini will never know the inside of a hungry tummy. This news story reads like some sort of bizarro natural Circle of Life FAIL.

I’ve been on a big bear kick ever since I saw the Nissan Leaf ad featuring the friendly polar bear during last Thursday’s NFL season opener. This is one of the more ambiguous pics I’ve come across—I’m really hoping that dark stuff near the pup’s neck is just dark fur. If it is, huzzah creature cuddles! If it’s not… well, let’s just stick with the first option. “Circle of Life” sounds a lot nicer than “Circle of Death”. This guy knows what I’m talking about.

Add your captions below

P.S. I still wanna see your smiling face. Or your sneering face. Whatever suits you. Send me a picture of you in your Ex-Boyfriend tee or hoodie. Be sure to include your mailing address so I can send you a thank you.

Related Art::

This is the most poignant photo of a bear reassuring a woman on a bed I have ever seen:

Add your captions below

P.S. Take a look around the rest of the site; we’ve added a bunch of cool new features, included a (hopefully) more user-friendly layout on the product pages, as well as new left nav options and a search box. Web 2.0 all up in this place!

P.P.S. I still wanna see your smiling face. Or your sneering face. Whatever suits you. Send me a picture of you in your Ex-Boyfriend tee or hoodie. Be sure to include your mailing address so I can send you a thank you.

(Via pictureisunrelated.com)

The image caption that came with this photo (via MSNBC) read, “The bears fought each other in the middle of stunning Alaskan scenery for 15 minutes before wandering off to catch salmon in a nearby river.” I like that they got bored with their fight and just wandered off to eat. If only all fights would end that way. I bet these bears were dudes. Add your photo captions below

Dear Alaska,
I forgive you for inflicting Sarah Palin on the rest of us, because you also brought us this:

Alaska Nanooks 2010 Hockey Intro