Jen C Mars
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jencmars.bsky.social
Jen C Mars
@jencmars.bsky.social
5K followers 480 following 2.4K posts
Illustrator: Fantasy & Nature - Wildlife Photography Enthusiast - TTRPG Player - I like birds and bugs

Portfolio: https://www.jencmars.com
Shop: https://jencmars.bigcartel.com/
Posts Replies Media Videos
Reposted by Jen C Mars
lazaroillustration.bsky.social
I'm currently searching for a book on insect anatomy. Any recommendations? 🙂🪲🐞🦋

#insects #books #invertebrates
November 11, 2025 at 5:59 PM
Reposted by Jen C Mars
skidarstudios.bsky.social
🍂 Raven Eclipse 🔴
Gouache on watercolor paper, approx 6x9"

I've been having a lovely time playing with my paints again 😊
This will be up on my Inprnt shop soon!
a gouache painting of a raven with its beak open in front of a red moon surrounded by patterns in leaves in oranges reds and purples
November 11, 2025 at 3:18 AM
jencmars.bsky.social
An experimental painting from this past summer

Watercolor and pencils on 11x14" paper
Surreal watercolor painting of a portrait of a woman with brown hair and what seems to be a prairie rose bush with bright green leaves and pink flowers with yellow centers. There are bumblebees and other small bees, a red weevil, a flower fly, a ladybug, and a secret crab spider in and around the foliage. A large green katydid is resting on her collar bone. The background is a soft green with vignette of blue-green
November 11, 2025 at 3:54 PM
Reposted by Jen C Mars
annainthefield.bsky.social
Does anyone have recommendations for cellular GPS tags (GPS + GSM) for box turtles? I want to be able to have the data sent to me remotely via a cellular network. Needs to weigh 20-30g or less. These would be attached to box turtle shells with epoxy.
November 11, 2025 at 3:28 PM
Reposted by Jen C Mars
albertabats.bsky.social
🦇 ICYMI
We’ve updated our Bat Ambassador Guide for teachers, interpreters, and anyone sharing bat knowledge. It’s free and packed with outreach tips and Alberta bat info.
Link in comments!
Cover page of the Alberta Bat Ambassador Guide - Ideas for Bat Conservation Outreach Last updated March 20, 2025 image of a Hoary Bat
November 10, 2025 at 6:51 PM
Reposted by Jen C Mars
newsjennifer.bsky.social
Read every word & share with everyone you know. This is real life here in Chicago. Americans need to know this grotesque reality & stand with us.
bgrueskin.bsky.social Bill Grueskin @bgrueskin.bsky.social · 2d
Kyle Kingsbury is not a journalist. He is not an op-ed writer.

He is a computer safety researcher.

And he has written one of the most compelling, comprehensive accounts of the ongoing hell in Chicago that you could possibly imagine.

In under 1600 words.

aphyr.com/posts/397-i-...
I Want You to Understand Chicago Politics Chicago 2025-11-08 I want you to understand what it is like to live in Chicago during this time. Every day my phone buzzes. It is a neighborhood group: four people were kidnapped at the corner drugstore. A friend a mile away sends a Slack message: she was at the scene when masked men assaulted and abducted two people on the street. A plumber working on my pipes is distraught, and I find out that two of his employees were kidnapped that morning. A week later it happens again. An email arrives. Agents with guns have chased a teacher into the school where she works. They did not have a warrant. They dragged her away, ignoring her and her colleagues’ pleas to show proof of her documentation. That evening I stand a few feet from the parents of Rayito de Sol and listen to them describe, with anguish, how good Ms. Diana was to their children. What it is like to have strangers with guns traumatize your kids. For a teacher to hide a three-year-old child for fear they might be killed. How their relatives will no longer leave the house. I hear the pain and fury in their voices, and I wonder who will be next. Understand what it is to pray in Chicago. On September 19th, Reverend David Black, lead pastor at First Presbyterian Church of Chicago, was praying outside the ICE detention center in Broadview when a DHS agent shot him in the head with pepper balls. Pepper balls are never supposed to be fired at the head because they can seriously injure, or even kill. “We could hear them laughing as they were shooting us from the roof,” Black recalled. He is not the only member of the clergy ICE has assaulted. Methodist pastor Hannah Kardon was violently arrested on October 17th, and Baptist pastor Michael Woolf was shot with pepper balls on November 1st. Understand what it is to sleep in Chicago. On the night of September 30th, federal agents rappelled from a Black Hawk helicopter to execute a raid on an apartment building on the South Sho…
November 10, 2025 at 12:15 PM
Reposted by Jen C Mars
themonstersknow.com
This Saturday, 11/15, join me and @blackgirlmage.bsky.social, @dreamwisp.bsky.social, @themightyjerd.bsky.social and @urbanbohemian.com as we play D&D and raise funds in support of our neighbors who are being threatened with harassment, assault and kidnapping in the name of immigration enforcement.
A promotional image for The Ones Who Endure: A D&D Charity Stream in Support of Our Neighbors' Rights and Dignity. It includes headshots of DM Keith Ammann and players Brian Gray, Jen Kretchmer, Lexi McQueen and Jeff Mueller. The players' headshots are accompanied by banners adapted from the municipal flags of Washington, D.C.; Los Angeles; Chicago; and Portland, Oregon. Per the image, the stream begins at 6 PM U.S. Eastern Time, 5 PM Central Time, 3 PM Pacific Time.
November 10, 2025 at 5:01 PM
Reposted by Jen C Mars
rovinacai.bsky.social
Noooo Derwent Artist pencils and Tombow dual tip markers aren't lightfast?! Guess I'm throwing out most of my art materials 🫠
Pencil Brands Are Lying to You About Being Lightfast
YouTube video by Sarah Renae Clark
youtu.be
November 10, 2025 at 3:59 PM
Reposted by Jen C Mars
nkjemisin.bsky.social
Reminder: Today at 11 am Eastern I'll be streaming "The Long Dark" to raise money for NY Common Pantry! With giveaways for each goal! Let's see how long I last.

www.twitch.tv/nkjemisin

If you don't feel like watching the game, you can also donate directly at tiltify.com/@nkjemisin/s...
nkjemisin - Twitch
nkjemisin streams live on Twitch! Check out their videos, sign up to chat, and join their community.
www.twitch.tv
November 9, 2025 at 2:17 PM
Reposted by Jen C Mars
carsondrewit.bsky.social
Calling this one finished!

Thank you to everyone who donated to @porpoiseorg.bsky.social to help us make this!

If you're learning about the #Vaquita for the first time, head over to this link and learn more about this critically endangered porpoise!

savethevaquitas.carrd.co
A digital illustration of 20 vaquita porpoises swimming amongst coral reefs and various marine flora. some of the vaquita are wearing silly hats.
November 8, 2025 at 2:56 AM
Reposted by Jen C Mars
bertonemyia.bsky.social
It's almost the weekend! 🥳

If you're looking for something for you and/or your kids to do, I've recently re-uploaded my arthropod coloring guide 🎨

Please feel free to share, print, and [definitely] have fun with it!!!

drive.google.com/file/d/1V59i...
A few panels from the coloring guide: a scorpion, an isopod, and a tachinid fly (along with their info).
November 7, 2025 at 9:59 PM
jencmars.bsky.social
My 7 y/o wants everyone to know it’s #SaveTheVaquita week!

Check out the hashtag to find art streams raising money/awareness, and visit porpoise.org to learn more about our smallest and most endangered marine mammal and to donate directly
A kid’s drawing in marker of a stylized porpoise with black marking’s on its face, alongside a baby with a sad expression. The large porpoise has a speech bubble that says “Save the vaquita porpoise” and the small porpoise has a speech bubble that says “Yah! Only 10 left!” On the left side is the word donate and along the bottom it says porpoise.org
November 7, 2025 at 4:31 PM
Reposted by Jen C Mars
meganoconnorart.ca
“Maybe if I pretend to be asleep she’ll go away.”

Eastern screech owl, 700 mm, close crop.

#Birds #WildlifePhotography
Small grey and brown owl sitting in a tree. The owl’s eyes are mostly shut, but not entirely.
November 7, 2025 at 3:10 AM
Reposted by Jen C Mars
secretsluglab.bsky.social
We found oyster spiders today during my oyster lab field trip for my Invertebrate Zoology class! These are marine spiders! They have special setae (hairs) that trap air and let them live underwater. #invertebrates #spider
A marine spider, Paratheuma insulana, on an oyster shell. The spider is brown with some darker brown stripes. The oyster shell is mostly white with some dirty yellow/brown edges. A marine spider, Paratheuma insulana, on an oyster shell. The spider is brown with some darker brown stripes.
November 6, 2025 at 8:11 PM
Reposted by Jen C Mars
kissane.myatproto.social
This week's @unbreaking.org update on immigration is *also* an update on data security because the administration is using immigration enforcement as a way to trial and operationalize a full-on surveillance state.
November 6, 2025 at 10:13 PM
Reposted by Jen C Mars
skidarstudios.bsky.social
Queenfisher 🪶
6x6" Gouache on Watercolor Paper
Art from my time up at the cabin in September, I really want to do more birds like this :)
a colorful gouache painting of a female belted kingfisher with a colorful abstract starry background. There is a crescent moon behind it and its holding a star in its beak
October 27, 2025 at 4:42 PM
Reposted by Jen C Mars
heathercherone.bsky.social
Ellis is done. The preliminary injunction has been entered.

Ellis grants plaintiff's request to certify the lawsuit as a class action, which means it applies to more than just the named plaintiffs and includes all nonviolent protestors as well as those engaged in news gathering & religious practice
November 6, 2025 at 5:53 PM
Reposted by Jen C Mars
ibycter.bsky.social
Habronattus borealis male, from Pomquet Beach, NS
a beautiful Paradise jumping spider, a male, overall he is dark on the body reddish on the legs and has nice frosty whitish blue palps and green eyes. He is on a rock with the blue sky behind.
November 6, 2025 at 5:07 PM
Reposted by Jen C Mars
alexwild.bsky.social
This tiny hemerobiid lacewing, Sympherobius occidentalis, arrived to the porch light last night. With magnification, we can see its hypnotic wing venation.
Macro photo in side view of a brown-gray insect standing on a twig against a dark gray background. The insect's wings are large, oval-shaped, held tent-like over the body, and have a number of nearly parallel metallic veins.
November 6, 2025 at 2:26 PM
Reposted by Jen C Mars
spidermax3000.bsky.social
Queen #snake - Regina septemvittata
(Shot near Cincinnati 9-18-25) 🐍 #photography #macrophotography #wildlifephotography #wildlife #nature #animal #herps #reptile
A queen snake (Regina septemvittata) with their head just out of water and looped back all over themself. They have a little flat rock stuck on top of their head like a little cap
November 5, 2025 at 9:56 PM
Reposted by Jen C Mars
emilyhare.co.uk
Anyone out there struggling with finding an art style? I did for many years. I wrote a blog post about my journey to finding my current style, you might find it interesting or useful! buff.ly/8Eg23hF
#consistencywithart #artstyle #artblog #howtopaint #illustration #illustrator
How I Achieved Consistency With My Art
I would like to preface this with the fact that I am just one person who happens to be an artist and make a living from it. This is just my experience and what I have done might not work for you, but…
buff.ly
November 5, 2025 at 6:04 PM
Reposted by Jen C Mars
teaganwhite.bsky.social
occupied cavities • 11” x 14” • gouache & watercolor on paper
grey and pale plue painting of a red-bellied sapsucker perched on a piece of dead ivy branch, filled with barkborer holes and lines, that wraps around the bird in a cage-like way.
November 5, 2025 at 5:39 PM
jencmars.bsky.social
My kid asking about another 1st grader's drawing of an ICE abduction

Agents waving guns at a woman parking just before hundreds of kids pass by on a fundraising walk

Parents at my kid's school scrambling to post guards for a kindergarten walking field trip

Our neighborhood was safe before ICE
meredithshiner.com Meredith Shiner @meredithshiner.com · 6d
I am really trying to get people to understand how much what is happening to our children in Chicago with regard to ICE abductions is like school shootings/gun violence: the random and massive exposure to this particular violence will imprint on a generation and no privilege can fully shield you.
peoplesfabric.com The People's Fabric @peoplesfabric.com · 6d
This was horrific to watch. Agents entering a daycare, wrestling with and abducting a teacher in front of small screaming children. I just… what the fuck are we doing here.
November 5, 2025 at 5:36 PM
Reposted by Jen C Mars
wallace.bsky.social
Illinois passed the Illinois Bivens Act, which allows folks to sue ICE officers who violate their rights. “damages can increase based on various factors … including the use of facial coverings, crowd control measures like tear gas, vehicles with a non-Illinois license plate or no license plate…”
Illinois lawmakers pass legislation in response to ICE activity
After weeks of heightened federal immigration enforcement in the greater Chicago area, the Illinois General Assembly approved House Bill 1312 on Oct. 31, strengthening immigration enforcement protecti...
dailynorthwestern.com
November 5, 2025 at 2:24 PM
Reposted by Jen C Mars
carsondrewit.bsky.social
My friends, it's time to #SaveTheVaquita!
The Vaquita is the world's most critically endangered marine mammal, with less than 20 left alive.

But together, we can do something about that!
Join me on twitch to raise funds for @porpoiseorg.bsky.social and raising awareness for gorgeous animal!
A drawing of a vaquita and a baby calf drawn by the amazing KaseySnowArt.
November 5, 2025 at 3:34 PM