Beautiful Creatures by Cockburn ~ Art by Gullerud

Some of my endangered wildlife art added to the song "Beautiful Creatures" from the album "Life Short Call Now" by Bruce Cockburn (True North/Rounder Records). All art in this video: © 2009 Peter Gullerud.

Lyrics:

There's a knot in my gut
As I gaze out today
On the planes of the city
All polychrome grey
When the skin is peeled off it
What is there to say?
The beautiful creatures are going away

Like a dam on a river
My conscience is pressed
By the weight of hard feelings
Piled up in my breast
The callous and vicious things
Humans display
The beautiful creatures are going away

Why? Why?

From the stones of the fortress
To the shapes in the air
To the ache in the spirit
We label despair
We create what destroys,
Bind ourselves to betray
The beautiful creatures are going away

Category:

Music

Tags:

• Peter Gullerud
• art
• paintings
• wildlife
• animals
• Bruce Cockburn
• Beautiful Creatures
• endangered animals
• threatened species
• endangered species
• threatened animals
• ecology
• climate change
• pollution
• global warming
• Al Gore

[529dsk]

i had a dream about a jumanji like exodus of animals bursting through a wardrobe in my bedroom. they were all fleeing for their lives from a bulldozer coming up behind them. in the next scene i was running parallel with them in the woods when a large beautiful mountain lion locked eyes with me and spoke to me telepathically saying, 'run with me. you are going in the right direction now. run with me and run for you life.' i've been wanting to see my dream painted. your art is pretty close!

[PainterofPaint]

@529dsk  That sounds like a powerful dream .. and thank you for sharing it with me..

[GrizzledWolf]

bloody hell, Peter...and Bruce...makes me cry every time I watch this. I know it is so true. And Peter, your sensitive and beautiful paintings evoke the true grief of the situation...oh, my poor animals...

[PainterofPaint]

@GrizzledWolf Thank you. It's hard to say "thank you" to such shared grief, but thank you.

[GrizzledWolf]

I think everyone should buy some Peter Gullerud art :) that way you can look at it while you listen to your Bruce Cockburn albums :) I did, and it is as lovely to the eyes as Cockburn is to the ears.....Peter, you are an awesome artist :) thanks for making these videos. Lisette

[PainterofPaint]

@GrizzledWolf  Thank you so much for your kind words!

[RoryNights]

Very nice, song and images. Thank-you for posting, adding to my Bruce Cockburn playlist. Nice work. All the best, Christine

[PainterofPaint]

@GrizzledWolf Thank you so much for your kind words!

[PainterofPaint]

@lovingMoab Thank you. You couldn't have said more encouraging words. And we seem to be on the same battle ground for this precious earth and all her inhabitants. Thanks and peace.

[lovingMoab]

Wow. As a lifetime fan of Cockburn, I wouldn't have dared to put images to his poetry, because what they conjure is so deep and primal. But you did a beautiful job with this song, the one I call "the anthem of my despair" as a teacher of environmental science. Thanks Peter! I have posted this video on my facebook page.