Wild Child Portraits

05/06/2026

Happy birthday to dear friend --composer, trumpet player and pianist Jed Feuer, a talented musical impresario.
Here he took a musical turn as a Silverback Gorilla a la Ludwig Beethoven~ in tribute to Harambe, the title of his symphony in honor of the gorilla.

A Silverback gorilla gorilla takes a musical turn.

Jed Feuer, a musician, symphonic composer, and teacher, is also a longtime animal protection advocate and conservationist.

"Gorillas are rapidly marching toward extinction in the wild." Feuer wrote on his blog, lamenting their widespread slaughter.

One incident particularly inflamed his strong feelings, the killing of the 17 year old western lowland gorilla Harambe at the Cincinnati Zoo.

"Inexplicably, on May 28, 2016, a 3-year-old boy was somehow able to enter Harambe's habitat. After careful consideration, the zoo officials decided to shoot and kill Harambe."

Feuer's orchestral piece "Harambe," celebrating the life of Harambe, was performed in August 2017 by Rachael Worby and the MUSE/IQUE Symphony. Worby conducted the piece in 2019 with the Westchester Philharmonic.

Take a listen!

https://www.jedfeuer.com/harambe

And here's Jed as a Gorilla Gorilla.

01/28/2026

12/10/2025

Up here in the Northwest corner, 6 major river systems in Western Washington are affected by this aerial Atmospheric River events....

10/18/2025

10/17/2025

Happy Halloween from Wild Child Portraits!

Kelly came as a beautiful guest of the park dressed in purple -- and left as a bat. Others in line left costumed as different creatures --

10/06/2025

Jane Goodall, environmentalist and primate specialist, who passed away this week at 91, revolutionized our thinking about chimpanzees and animal intelligence. In one of her last speeches at a summit for New York City Climate Week, she reminded people that, as humans, we're also kin to the animal world. “It seems these days everybody is so involved with technology that we forget that we’re not only part of the natural world, we’re an animal like all the others."

Maybe children don't need reminding! The Wild Child Portraits tent at the DennyFest festival last month was packed with kids given the choice of "which animal they wanted to be painted as." More than a few grown ups also heeded the call of the wild! Showing up were seals, bats, dogs, falcons, hedgehogs, foxes, anemones, clown fish, a baby zebra --and a couple of leaping lemurs.

10/05/2025

Dedicating a moment today for those following Wild Child Portraits to honor the legendary Jane Goodall, who did so much to help us human beings understand animals and the natural world. Her probing research into chimpanzees in the 1960s helped us more than ever to understand how primates use tools and to make us aware of our kinship with them.

https://www.facebook.com/janegoodall/posts/pfbid0AHPokuxShHNpZWH42oReWqF51gRyCe56FtusPuLSLUHoQojhevQivuNxrEGskrnnl

09/05/2025

Come and get your portrait tomorrow~ It's fun.