A boy plays with a dragon-shaped puppet as he walks with his parent at Sydney CBD ahead of the Lunar New Year on February 09, 2024 in Sydney, Australia. Lunar New Year, also known as Chinese New Year, is celebrated around the world, and the Year of the Wood Dragon in 2024 is associated with growth, progress, and abundance, as wood represents vitality and creativity, while the dragon symbolizes success, intelligence, and honor. (Photo by Roni Bintang/Getty Images)

American fashion model Simone Thompson, better known as Slick Woods walks at the Savage x Fenty – September 2018 – New York Fashion Week at Brooklyn Navy Yard on September 12, 2018 in Brooklyn, New York. (Photo by Presley Ann/Patrick McMullan via Getty Images)

If you were to meet this guy in the woods, especially if it’s nighttime, you’d probably think that it’s a local troll or a yeti. However, in reality, he’s no yeti. His name is Mick Dodge, and before deciding to live in the woods, he was a marine for six years at Fort Lewis. It is hard to tell what moved him to leave the busy life of the city and start living in the Hoh Rain Forest. It could have been that he decided the leave the stressful life of the city, or maybe he simply loves the solitary life of a hermit. Another thing that is peculiar about Mick Dodge is that most of the time he walks barefoot, hence the nickname “The Barefoot Sensei”.

Sunrise over a moor viewed from Littaford Tor, Dartmoor, UK, 2016. Autumn visits the windswept moors and granite tors of Dartmoor earlier than the rest of the south-west. While there aren’t many trees here, autumn shades appear in golden ferns and tan heather. Littaford Tors, near Two Bridges and a mile from Princetown, is a short walk and can be combined with a visit to the adjacent Wistman’s Wood. (Photo by Stuart Holmes)

Labourers walk near trucks loaded with logs, which are trapped on a muddy road, near an unreserved forest in the village of Igbatoro, southwest Nigeria, August 28, 2014. Wood, a form of biomass, is the sole source of energy for hundreds of millions of Africans who lack access to modern sources of power, and logging, both legal and illegal, remains a lucrative business that has contributed to the rapid shrinking of Africa's rainforests and woodlands. (Photo by Akintunde Akinleye/Reuters)

My name is Chris Kapono and I am a self-taught artist living in Missouri. I have been drawing and painting ever since I can remember and art has been a big part of my life. My love of animals and nature is reflected in my art and sometimes interesting things I find on walks in the woods will find their way into some of my pieces!

More great and peculiar work from Chicago based sculptor Jessica Joslin. Joslin assembles her hybrid creatures from objects found in obscure junk shops, flea markets, attics, taxidermy supply houses, specialty hardware distributors…or even just walking through the woods. “Miniature machine bolts, springs and couplings comprise anatomical structures. Many of the beasts have hidden movements: a spring loaded beak, snapping jaws, jointed legs and adjustable tails. Some creatures are free-standing but have mechanisms to allow for movement or multiple positions.”

CHALLOCK, ENGLAND - MARCH 31: Tony Hall walks with his dog through an installation entitled 'Super Kingdom', which hangs in trees in King's Wood as part of the Stour Valley Arts project on March 31, 2011 in Challock, England. The works by artists Bruce Gilchrist and Jo Joelson of 'London Fieldworks' consist of a series of interesting animal habitats, modelled on the palaces of Stalin, Ceauscescu and Mussolini, and offer nesting sites to many native and migrant species. (Photo by Dan Kitwood/Getty Images)