Building the spine of the universe, an orbweaver studies string theory while rounding up wayward stars. • Orchard Orbweaver | Leucauge venusta
Author: Rick Lieder
Painter and photographer Rick Lieder has been creating fine art and conceptual illustration for many years. His art has appeared on award-winning novels ranging from mysteries and science fiction, to books based on the X-Files TV series, to Newbery Award-winning books for children, A Single Shard and Princess Academy.
His work has been published widely in magazines and online (Orion, Natural
History Magazine and others), and by HarperCollins, Random House, Simon &
Shuster and Farrar, Straus & Giroux and more.
Recently he has concentrated on a body of work centering on ordinary backyard wildlife. These photographs capture the unique qualities of light interacting with the natural world, including luminous photographs of honey bees and small birds in flight, glowing fireflies mating and hovering over twilight fields, mosquitoes with a belly full of blood, and new-born praying mantis nymphs emerging from their egg cases.
STEP GENTLY OUT is his new nature picture book for all ages, a collaboration between painter and photographer Rick Lieder and novelist and poet Helen Frost.
Three starred reviews from Kirkus, Publisher's Weekly and Booklist. Kirkus Reviews has selected Step Gently Out as one of four outstanding poetry titles for children to be featured on the Kirkus website for National Poetry Month, along with an interview.
A website with all the news, reviews and up-to-date information for the book, plus a book trailer: http://bugdreams.com/sgo/
Tracing a Fireball
A blazing aeronaut traces a fireball through my garden as the sun dazzles her wings. • Honey bee | Apis mellifera
Airborne & Desperate
Two molls bicker, a friendship ruptures, airborne and desperate, doing whatever they can to stay one step ahead of the law. • Sparrow | Passer domesticus
An Aster Cocktail
Closing her eyes, sipping an aster cocktail, a Cabbage White mocks the heat in the garden of Ra. • Cabbage White butterfly | Pieris rapae
Dancing to the Music of the Spheres
Too many legs to count, a meandering millipede dances to the music of the spheres while hiding from a cold moon. • Myriapod | Millipede
A Twisting Tangle
Tiny hunters break the silk bonds tethering them to the past, their birth a twisting tangle of legs and hunger. • Chinese Praying Mantis | Tenodera aridifolia sinensis
Outlaw Siren
Outlaw siren of primitive magic, a spinning jenny of melodrama mocks the sky and dismantles my yard. • Starling | Sturnus vulgaris
Electric Warrior
An electric warrior on the prowl rivals medieval machines of science and speed, echoes of direct current flickering through the night. • Firefly | Lampyridae | Photinus pyralis