Click here for Bio and Resume.

Nicholas's wife Connie Bransilver is an internationally known nature photographer, artist, author and speaker who has photographed on all seven continents.  She brings images and inspirational prose to audiences seeking clarity, passion and purpose. Visit her at conniebransilver.com.

News

This will be our last left-over-from-Florida newsletter. We have moved on, and hope each of you will follow us with your thoughts, communications and in person with a visit. Mi Casa Tu Casa. After nearly 30 years working in and loving the Everglades ecosystem and the art inspired by that unique environment and the powerful and de-voted individuals dedicating their lives to a robust, sustainable sub-tropical wetland unique in the US, we have adopted the mountain west as our home and our hope for the future. Connie was born and reared in this multicultural Land of Enchantment, and Nicholas has a New Mexico heart.

Guardians of the Everglades® has been closed. Our individual art and photography web sites remain open and active for direct sales for now. I identify myself now as an actor. Evolve with us.

We wish you peace and prosperity in the coming New Year and each one after. We wish you courage and strength to do your part, as we are doing ours, to maintain a habitable planet for our progeny. And to wish you the message of the season, whether Christian or not - peace on earth and goodwill toward all.

We conclude with some images and some contact points for both of us. Please keep in touch.

Nicholas and Connie

NicholasandConnie@gmail.com ConnieBarrow42@gmail.com NicholasPetrucci.com ConnieBransilver.com ConnieBarrowActor.com (coming soon) Facebook: ConnieBarrowActor Instagram: @ConnieBarrowActor Twitter: @Connie_Barrow

ILCP - International League of Conservation Photographers - WILDSpeak West in Jackson, WY, in September was the first gathering for western US based Fellows and affiliates, sharing our work and learning - oral communication skills from Steve Mandel, a full day of workshops and presentations in the Museum of Wildlife Art, a stimulating day of learning about new technologies at R Lazy S Ranch adjoining Tetons National Park, and lots of relaxed social time for both of us. Although she is rotating off the Board and away from professional wildlife and conservation photography, Connie is so grateful and proud to be a Founding Fellow and enthusiastic supporter of iLCP, dedicated to “Ethical Environmental and Cultural Conservation Photography.”

The Great Western US, New to Both of Us, and Much Needed R&R.

Great Sand Dunes National Park, CO, near Alamosa, was our first stop. Did you know something so spectacular and unusual could hide among the Sangre de Cristo Mountains and the fertile San Luis Valley?

After a night in Moab, outdoorsy-ville, we visited Arches National Park, UT. The paved roads stop at numerous trail heads, some short and easy, some more arduous, but all reminding us humans of our insignificant place in the universe.

How could we not have visited Yellowstone National Park in our lives? Everyone else has, but it is no less spectacular than everyone says. September is a great time to visit - way fewer tourists, still excellent weather, sunny and temperate. We saw all the iconic animals of Yellowstone, with a few special events such as amorous bison and elk (wapiti), and way more Pronghorns than I anticipated. Our four days were not enough.

We also spent three fantastic days visiting my cousin’s ranch just north of Yellowstone, renewed those familial bonds, but no photos. It’s all about privacy these days.

Film News

Connie will appear in the Hollywood production of Lady of Guadalupe which is scheduled to be released in theaters mid 2020. As you know, actors sign non-disclosure agreements so that is all we can tell you now. You can check out the officially published information at: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt10886702/

We both continue acting classes at Sol Acting Academy. Perpetual Grace, Ltd, and Chambers are both available to download now, and while we were in both, we did not have speaking roles. Same for Better Call Saul, Episodes 501 & 504, for Connie.

We hope you enjoyed this taste of our glorious west. Most of our visits were in national parks or other protected lands. We must protect them as our national heritage.

Serendipity? Why else would we change course, at least for now, and focus on filmmaking? Partly because it’s fun, partly because it’s a challenge, partly because we have not geared up for a full scale change in art direction, and partly because the movie industry is so active here it’s hard not to be involved. We have few photos because we have to sign non-disclosure agreements until the films are released, and cell phones are not allowed on set. So here are some previews:

CHAMBERS - A woman survives a heart transplant and begins to develop different personality traits. Stars Uma Thurman and Tony Goldwyn. Netflix is headquartered in Albuquerque. It is available on-line now. https://www.imdb.com/videoplayer/vi942128409 - Trailer. We are both in Episode 8, an equinox party scene.

PERPETUAL GRACE, LTD, stars Ben Kingsley, Jimmi Simpson, and the New Mexico landscapes which lend a biblical feel to the series. Epix/MGM. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5VYvE0mcByM

For the New Mexico POV - point of view - read the local press: https://www.abqjournal.com/1321654/nm-landscapes-lend-biblical-feel-to-perpetual-grace-ltd.html. We were residents in the town in several scenes shot over two brutally cold days in Las Vegas, NM.

Others are coming. Better Call Saul is in production now. Connie is a Court Clerk in Episode 501 and 504. They are aiming for release this Fall.

Connie is also in two movies, one, Voices, is a short nearly ready for release. The other, an A-list full length movie, is just beginning shooting. Connie has been in one scene so far. https://www.facebook.com/pg/ConnieBarrowActor/community/?ref=page_internal

Three smaller productions are in post-production and will be available on-line. Connie plays “Jamie”, a transgender woman in Green Solutions, Inc., an office comedy. Hands of the Refugee, is a CNM student film where Connie plays a Bar Keep.

Nicholas plays a cop stopping a speeding driver. This, too, is in post-production but will be available on line.

But Connie can’t help trying to capture beauty and joy and the perfect moment.

March 2019:

La Femme en Bleu 2, 36x30 inch Oil on Canvas, ©Nicholas Petrucci, has gone to live happily ever after in a warm and welcoming home in Fort Lauderdale. May she always make everyone around her happy. Femme 1 is still for sale. She is the last of the Mystery of a Woman series which also includes Original Sin, 36x30 inch Oil on Canvas, ©Nicholas Petrucci. Original Sin also resides in a Florida home.

Artists Evolve - Art Sales Evolve - Galleries Evolve - Collectors Evolve - and so have we. Newly southwestern - Nicholas - or southwestern again - Connie - our art and creative expression is infused with the Land of Enchantment. We love our mountain, Sandia (watermelon) pink at sunset, and holding onto its biggest snows at the crest even into mid-March.

The acting bug bit us both. We have taken several classes at Sol Acting Academy in anticipation of even more films being made in New Mexico since Netflix HQ will now be in Albuquerque. My current class is a 6 month intensive on all phases of production. Watch this space for a short office comedy. Watch for both of us on Chambers, with Uma Thurman, Netflix in 2019, and on Perpetual Grace, Ltd., with Ben Kingsley, MGM/Epix in 2019. A short film is yet to be released with Connie in a fun, small part.

Sol Acting Academy is hosting several pieces of artwork. All are for sale. Thank you.

April 2019:

A year ago we left Florida saying, in our year end newsletter:

“We began the Guardians of the Everglades® multi-media project with great hopes of reaching and educating a broad range of individuals in the benefits of Everglades conservation. . .” But forces of destruction were overwhelming. and clear-eyed, we had to move on.

Over the past year news on climate change has shifted from threatened species or habitats to one of international concern for the ecosystem of the entire planet. Yet Nero continues to fiddle.

Our year in the Land of Enchantment has proven to be the right move. New Mexicans understand that we share the planet with all creatures, threatened or thriving, and it is a daily joy. Share some of our beauty.

We wish you and yours and all creatures here below beauty and peace.

Feliz Navidad y Prospero Año Nuevo.

Nicholas and Connie

Dear Friends,

As you know, Connie has devoted her life to creating impactful images to protect the places and species she loves. Through visual storytelling, she attempts to connect people to these issues and inspire action. She is a part of a global Fellowship of visual storytellers with similar missions, goals, and ethics.

I know first-hand the power of visuals. These are recent images from the western New Mexico mesa land, semi-arid yet supporting some of our most ancient American civilizations - Acoma, Laguna, Zuni, Navajo and before that, the Puebloan civilizations at Chaco Canyon just north of these spots.

Giving Tuesday is November 27th, 2018. Connie is a Senior Founding Fellow and a donation to iLCP is an investment in conservation images to protect the pristine and diverse places on this Earth. Please consider donating here. Any amount will go a long way and will be greatly appreciated. Thank you for your support.

How did we switch from “Doing” to “Being?” Taking in the gorgeous fall here in New Mexico has been all about just being enchanted.

Our “doing” was taking two intensive acting classes and signing up for Background, Stand-in and minor acting roles. Connie has two on the acting resume, and I one. You may know that Netflix has been filming in NM for a number of years. “Chambers” is being filmed now, starring Uma Thurman. We are in Episode 8, and they are still filming so there may be more. The ten episode series will be out next year. Some of you may know that Netflix is buying Albuquerque Studios and pledging millions of dollars in production and local hiring, so . . . stand by! Photography strictly forbidden, so you will have to wait.

To be ready for anything, and just to have fun, Connie and I are horseback riding. Connie was once quite a cowgirl, so for here, it’s a tune up. For me, it is learning experience, sometimes quite bumpy. This photo was made when Connie and her sister, Roberta, went on a trail ride in the foothills around Cerrillos.

We have not yet latched onto a new conservation project. I believe the right project will appear when the time is right. Agua es Vida calls, but we need to define a goal. Anyone have ideas or suggestions? I am just getting back to painting and presenting my work to galleries.

The Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta has come and gone and will return again next October. Come!

The New Mexico State Fair with the rodeo and races was a walk through memory lane. The rodeo was spectacular. Obviously, I loved the barrel racing and roping best, but the photos were best on the bucking stock. Emily and Mary Darnell invited Connie to help give the trophy to the winner of the 6-1/2 Furlong Casey Darnell Futurity, and join them and friends in the Jockey Club. Was that ever a blast, and a wonderful re-entry to the NM rodeo/horse racing world. Friends and their families. For me, it was seeing the real deal up close. These are not movie cowboys!

Come to The Land of Enchantment. Adobe, clean clean air, hot summer days, cool evenings, and now, a piñon fire in the fireplace at night. Magical light.

January 2018: An Exit and an Entrance

We began the Guardians of the Everglades® multi-media project with great hopes of reaching and educating a broad range of individuals in the benefits of Everglades conservation.  We are very grateful for the eleven Guardians who, together, stand as role models for various ways of serving conservation.

As you know, and as our web site states, the purpose was “To introduce the public to the fragile beauty of the Everglades and its unique ecosystem; to honor today’s leadership in conservation and restoration through great art and compelling human stories; and to encourage the public and policy makers to participate in the protection of the Everglades.”  GuardiansoftheEverglades.com

Sadly, our efforts to secure financial support to bring the project to the public through exhibitions, a documentary film and book, or even any of those, were insufficient.  Thus, we have had to conclude that we must abandon the project, at least for the time being, and focus our efforts elsewhere. 

We welcome the opportunity to discuss with you what efforts we have made to raise funds through grants, auctions and individual donors. If you want to know more or offer other sources, please contact us. We will always be open to bringing the Guardians’ extraordinary stories, and our love of the Everglades to the public.

We will be moving to Albuquerque, New Mexico, January 17.  We will be living in an adobe by artist Nat Kaplan, big enough to embrace us, our cockatoo, a studio for each of us, and plenty of room for friends. If you plan to use the mails or visit us, contact us and I will send you the street address in the village of Los Ranchos, NM. Phone numbers and email will remain the same.

New Mexico is the Land of Enchantment — big sky, embracing mountains, supporting earth in soft greens and tans, clear air, multiple cultures, comfortable and familiar. We chose a home near the bosque, alongside a major acequia with walking trails through our cottonwood forest.  When we first arrived at the house a covey of quail scattered through the yard, sandhill cranes rattled as they lifted off, and robins scolded from a big cottonwood. We saw a road runner, too, and each day a plethora of balloons.

The magical light is eternal. 

From Connie:  In NM, we embrace our varied cultures completely. When you come from a place whose history is as rich as New Mexico’s, as I do, you can’t deny it or hide from it.  Who we are in relation to this place compels us to move forward, somewhat exposed, regardless of our personal circumstances.  And that makes for some serious creative energy. New Mexico allows — encourages — eccentricity. Aldous Huxley chose New Mexico for his maybe-not-so-fictional non-conformists in ‘Brave New World’. Yea!

Nicholas “got it” first visit, years ago.  We hit the ground, visited my parents’ graves, then headed straight up the tram to Sandia Crest to have a look — 100 miles west across the valley to Mt. Taylor.  The Sandia Mountains are named for the watermelon color they wear reflecting the setting sun.  He loves the space, the freedom, the painter’s light, and the changing seasons. 

This may seem sudden.  It is not.  For five years or more we invited friends, colleagues and strangers to visit and to help bring Guardians of the Everglades to a greater audience. We wrote dozens of grant applications, proposals, and knocked on many doors. Several stepped forward to help and we thank:  Sandy Cannon-Brown, The Mamdani Foundation;  Lighthawk;  Puffin Foundation;  Franklin Adams, Deb Jansen, Mary Barley, Lee Tiger, Ed Carlson, Nat  Reed, Clyde and Niki Butcher; local newspapers, NPR, Naples Illustrated, Gulf Shore Life, and most recently and exuberantly, éBella Magazine for its Arts Edition feature of Guardians of the Everglades. There were many, many, many others who offered support, guidance and encouragement. Thank you.

In my opinion, it matters not whether you “believe in” climate change or have drunk the Kool-Aid of denial.  For 20 years I have seen, photographed, talked about, written about and understand that the changes are well underway all over the world, with south Florida especially vulnerable. It is not a pretty picture.  We are moving from flood to drought, but we all live in the extremes. We see it coming. With great regret we leave a fractured more violent world to our children and grandchildren. 

My dear friend, Amb. Cinnamon Dornsife, has the last word:  “Keep upbeat, dear Connie - the negativity is intense, but all that you are doing is too important to let languish - or to allow circumstances and political climate to make you feel like it is too hard to succeed.The negative forces win, if you let that happen...hard as it is to keep positive, you must challenge yourselves to do so.”

We will.

iLCP WILDSpeak Electrifying

We come from 28 countries, joining to share our conservation projects and explore current critical issues.  All 108 of us have earned the title of “Fellow.” I am proudly a Senior Founding Fellow and current Board member. We represent the world’s leading nature, wildlife and cultural photographers and filmmakers. At WILDSpeak we join with scientific and conservation organizations as well as interested individuals to explore shared goals. WILDSpeak 2017 comes at a time of major policy shifts and in the environmental landscape, when foundations of historical, hard-fought wins in conservation feel as if they are disintegrating, causing opinions to rage. As the emotional stakes are high, it is crucial that we discover sound solutions and ways to push our shared conservation goals forward.

WILDSpeak 2018 is planned for Washington, DC, November 13 & 14, 2018.  Subsequent venues are being considered for India and Germany. Everyone is welcome.

ARTS ALIVE WEDNESDAY, MARCH 1st, 2017  5 - 8 pm
1719 Trade Center Way, #3, Naples, FL 34109

Look for the slide projections on the front wall of the studio. Check out the Scout Guide video from December Art Alive on Facebook - scroll down!

https://www.facebook.com/connie.bransilver    https://www.facebook.com/nicholas.petrucci.16

You can see the next Guardian portrait in progress - Roy McBride & Chili.

Special Guests, LEA BORKENHAGEN, Ph. D. Fulbright Scholar, Cote d’Ivoire.
Presently Nike - Sustainable manufacturing - Asia
https://www.linkedin.com/in/lea-borkenhagen-80ba071    http://www.eci.ox.ac.uk/about/advisory.html

MARC RIVERS, MFA Oxford Brookes University - Artist exploring light and time.  See his images on display in the studio.
Portland, OR   

Join us in French, English, Bahasa Indonesia, or American.

KUNJANI COFFEE & GALLERY

780 Seagate Dr, Naples    https://kunjaninaples.com

Come see some of Connie’s African images.  Buy and support projects in Africa.

ADD YOUR PHOTO

As most of you know, I am a Senior Founding Fellow of the International League of Conservation Photographers and now on the Board. We created 1Frame4Nature to share our dedication to conservation and to encourage everyone to participate.

“We are all connected to nature, and through it, to each other. Join our community and share your pictures and stories of your personal connection to nature. Tell us what action(s) you are taking on behalf of nature! Tag #1Frame4Nature on Instagram

Share your #1Frame4Nature images and stories here! www.1Frame4Nature.org and while you are on the site, check out my images about climate change and its potential effect on south Florida. Climate Change Is Real.  Floridians should know!