Andy Marshall Illustrator

12/06/2026

The freedom to make whatever you want Alexander Notarangelo Fork in the Road Podcast

12/06/2026

The Yeti Crab lives in one of the most hostile places on Earth.

Deep beneath the ocean, surrounded by toxic chemicals and scalding hydrothermal vents, it survives by farming bacteria on its own hairy claws.

Most of us spend our lives trying to avoid difficult environments.

Nature often does the opposite.

Again and again, life finds a way to adapt, evolve and thrive in places that seem impossible.

Maybe resilience is not about finding perfect conditions.

Maybe it is about learning how to grow where you are.

Featured species: The Yeti Crab.

One of the wonderfully strange creatures from my Uncommon Animals of the Alphabet project.

11/06/2026

The Xantus hummingbird weighs only a few grams, yet somehow spends its life doing things that seem impossible. Its wings beat so fast they blur. Its heart races at a speed that would terrify most creatures. It can hover in mid air, fly backwards, change direction in an instant and travel from flower to flower with an energy that seems completely out of proportion to its size. What I love about it is that it lives with its attention fixed on what is blooming. It is constantly searching for the next source of nectar, the next flower opening to the sun, the next opportunity hidden amongst the branches. Maybe that is why I have always loved spring.

So it’s currently winter in South Australia. The paddocks around us are green, the mornings are cold, and most sensible people are focused on getting through the season. Meanwhile I find myself thinking about spring. Not because I dislike winter, but because spring has always been the season where something wakes up in me.

Looking back, most of the projects that have shaped my life seem to have started in spring. New books, new artworks, new ideas for the podcast, new plans for the farm. I do not know whether it is the longer days, the warmer weather, or some ancient instinct reminding me that growth season has arrived. Whatever it is, my brain starts filling with possibilities.

Nature seems to be having the same conversation at exactly the same time. Trees push out fresh leaves. Birds become busy. Insects reappear. Gardens start looking less like survivors and more like optimists. Everywhere you look, life is beginning again.

The older I get, the more I appreciate that spring is not really about achievement. Nothing is finished in spring. Everything is halfway. Buds have not become flowers yet. Seedlings have not become vegetables yet. It is a season built almost entirely on potential.

10/06/2026

With rows of long needle like teeth sticking out in every direction, the ragged toothed shark appears permanently grumpy and ready for trouble. Yet despite its fearsome appearance, it is surprisingly calm around humans and is considered one of the less aggressive large sharks in the ocean. One of its most amazing abilities is how it controls its buoyancy. Unlike many sharks that must keep swimming to avoid sinking, the ragged toothed shark gulps air at the surface and stores it in its stomach....

With rows of long needle like teeth sticking out in every direction, the ragged toothed shark appears permanently grumpy and ready for trouble. Yet despite its fearsome appearance, it is surprising…

10/06/2026

I Share My Favourite Luxury With a Jumping Spider

The jumping spider does not build the classic spider web most of us picture stretched between branches waiting for prey. Instead, it creates a tiny silk retreat. A little sleeping chamber woven from fine white threads and tucked beneath a leaf, inside a curled piece of bark or hidden amongst grass stems. If you stumble across one in the garden it looks almost magical, like a miniature tent made from moonlight....

The jumping spider does not build the classic spider web most of us picture stretched between branches waiting for prey. Instead, it creates a tiny silk retreat. A little sleeping chamber woven fro…

07/06/2026

The immortal jellyfish found its way into my Uncommon Animals of the Alphabet project because it sounded less like a real animal and more like something from a 1950s science fiction movie. It is a tiny jellyfish with the remarkable ability to reverse its life cycle and start again. Nature is full of strange ideas, but this one feels particularly bizarre.

Most people are fascinated by the immortal part. We seem obsessed with finding ways to live longer. Entire industries are built around it. Billionaires are pouring fortunes into it. The message is always the same. Live longer. Extend your life. Beat ageing. Outsmart death. Maybe that is worthwhile. Maybe it is not. What interests me more is a different question. What is the point of a long life if you are too sick, tired or broken to enjoy it?

The immortal jellyfish kept pulling me back to that thought. We spend so much time talking about lifespan that we rarely stop to talk about health span. One is about how long you are alive. The other is about how long you are actually living.

That distinction matters to me because I do not dream of reaching one hundred. I dream of still being able to make art, walk paddocks, plant trees, feed animals and chase ideas when I am old. I want enough healthy years to pursue the things that give my life meaning.

The reason I think health is one of the foundations of a good life is because it supports everything else. Purpose becomes harder without it. Relationships become harder without it. Creativity becomes harder without it. Even simple pleasures start slipping away.

Purpose matters just as much. Every billionaire with a microphone seems determined to convince us that wealth isn’t the answer. Maybe they are right. Maybe they are not. At this point I am not entirely convinced anybody knows what they are talking about.

Money certainly helps. It can buy time, reduce stress and give you options. Those things matter. But money is not purpose. Purpose is having a reason to get out of bed that is bigger than accumulating more money.

07/06/2026

I have never been much of a social butterfly. I am one of those artists who starts looking for the nearest exit at large gatherings. Small talk feels like trying to hand feed a crocodile. Possible, but not something I enjoy.

Most of my favourite conversations happen around the kitchen table, walking through the paddocks, feeding animals, drawing at my desk which is the kitchen table covered in crap, let’s be honest, or sitting with my family after a long day. That is where life feels real to me.

The internet loves to tell us that success is about networking, being seen, attending events and constantly putting yourself out there. There is probably some truth in that. But there is also truth in knowing what fills your cup and what empties it.

For me, the people I spend the most time with are the people I chose to build a life with.

Now, because I do not trust the internet with photos of my family, you will not see them plastered all over this post. Instead, I thought I would share a few photos of another part of the family. The farm family.

There is an old saying that you become the sum of the people you spend the most time with. I am not sure if it is five people, ten people, or twenty. The number changes depending on who is selling the self improvement course. What I do know is that we are shaped by what surrounds us. If that is true, then I reckon I am doing pretty well.

In a world that often feels noisy, crowded and increasingly synthetic, I find comfort in a quieter life. Family. Animals. Art. A few acres of dirt. Something growing in the garden. A sketchbook nearby that hopefully hasn’t gotten too dusty. Not a bad way to spend a life.

03/06/2026

Pleasure & Pain

My Visual Dream Journal - Day 226

A collaboration between my private subconscious and the collective unconscious, where I use AI like a tourist’s camera to capture fleeting images from my dreamworld before they disappear. They fade like Polaroid photographs developing in reverse, dispersing into the noise of my waking life.

02/06/2026

A Water Deer from South Australia Finds a Home in Germany

A person in Germany has just purchased my "I Am an Uncommon Animal" Water Deer T shirt, and I still find it amazing that artwork created on our little farm in South Australia can find its way across the world and connect with someone I will probably never meet. Buy T-Shirt What makes this sale especially meaningful is that they chose a Water Deer....

A person in Germany has just purchased my “I Am an Uncommon Animal” Water Deer T shirt, and I still find it amazing that artwork created on our little farm in South Australia can find i…

02/06/2026

I surprised these two in my fridge this morning.
What do you think they were talking about?