“Polar Knowledge” is a secondary painting to the one I plan to donate to the North Carolina Zoo. I happened to make this one first. It was inspired by the Zoo-to-do benefit auction’s theme: winter/polar bear. The zoo hopes their benefit auction, to be held late September, will raise enough money to renovate the polar bear exhibit. It’s nice already, but the single polar bear currently living there (a second bear is in quarantine) could use some friends and an updated home. A beautiful photograph my grandfather took of Alaskan icebergs gave me the background while the polar bears in my painting invited themselves in. It’s as if the mother bear is teaching her two half-grown cubs the way of the land. I’m currently deciding the fate of this painting. If I sell it, half of the money will be donated to the North Carolina Zoo. “Polar Knowledge” 9x12” acrylic on mounted ampersand. © Cara Bevan 2009