Read Ebook {PDF EPUB} The Lions Of Los Angeles by Lilly Pink L.A. Zoo Mourns 'Inseparable' Lion Couple's Death: We're 'Touched by Their Loyal Companionship' A loving pair of zoo lions were both euthanized due to declining health. On Thursday, the Los Angeles Zoo announced that its team made the "difficult decision" to humanely euthanize two African lions, named Hubert and Kalisa, because of "age-related illnesses that diminished their quality of life." The 21-year-old animals lived at the zoo for the last six years of their lives. "Hubert and Kalisa are an iconic part of the L.A. Zoo experience, and our staff and guests have been touched by their loyal companionship," Denise Verret, CEO and zoo director of the L.A. Zoo, said in a press release. "Their longevity is truly a testament to the level of expert care our veterinary and animal care teams provide for our elderly animals." "These lions will remain a positive part of our history, and they will be greatly missed," Verret added. Hubert was born in February 1999 at the Lincoln Park Zoo, and he has since fathered 10 cubs. Kalisa, his long-time companion, was born in December 1998, and the two were moved from the Woodland Park Zoo to Los Angeles in 2014. Though Hubert and Kalisa were long-time companions, they never had cubs together. Never miss a story — sign up for PEOPLE's free daily newsletter to stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer, from juicy celebrity news to compelling human interest stories. "This is a very hard loss for our Zoo community," Alisa Behar, curator of mammals at the L.A. Zoo, said in a press release. "In the early mornings, staff would routinely hear Hubert’s waking roars, and I will personally miss hearing them on my walks around the grounds." Behar said Hubert and Kalisa were inseparable, noting that the couple lived longer than most lions do in human care and in the wild. In zoos, the average life expectancy of an African lion is about 17 years, and in the wild, they live to their mid-teens. RELATED VIDEO: San Diego Zoo Welcomes Endangered Ring-Tailed Lemur Twins. On Instagram, the zoo asked followers to share memories of the two animals in their honor. One commenter wrote, "I remember being so excited when they were vocal on member’s morning. I’ll miss hearing that so much. ." Another zoo-goer commented, "They were always together & now they can continue to be together forever," while another added: "My heart is broken I'm so thankful I got the chance to see these two every time I visited the LA Zoo and to see how much they cared for another ❤ they will truly be missed ." The Lions Of Los Angeles by Lilly Pink. 100's of new markdowns up to 50% off - shop now! Our new Under the Sun collection is live - shop now! Red, white, and NEW - get your July 4th look now! Shop Swimwear. Love from our customers. Perfect! "Every piece I've ordered has been incredibly cute & comfortable! Highly Recommend!" Lily is my all “Pink lily is my all time favorite boutique they have the cutest clothes and the quality is great” Worth it!! “fast shipping. great quality products. looks good. fits good. my sales rep was amazing and gave me a code to save money” How Buddhism inspired Monet’s masterpieces. Claude Monet, Water Lilies (Nymphéas). 1907. Oil on canvas Museum of Fine Arts, Houston Gift of Mrs. Harry C. Hanszen. Courtesy of Bridgeman Images. Claude Monet, the founder of French Impressionist painting, spent hours upon hours of contemplation in his Japanese water garden, observing the impermanence of nature, and carefully examining his hybridized water lilies — the closest one could get to a Japanese lotus in nineteenth-century France. With all of this in mind, the curator of a new exhibition at the Art Gallery of Ontario (AGO), “Mystical Landscapes: Masterpieces from Monet, van Gogh, and More,” has come to regard the allegedly atheist Monet as Zen Buddhist — albeit informally, but certainly in spirit. “Mystical Landscapes” traces the intersections of mysticism, nature, and art in famous works from many beloved artists, and intuits the spiritual tradition the work of each was likely informed by. In the case of Monet, whose work has long been looked at from a strictly secular perspective, research into his Eastern influences and a fresh look at the symbolism within his most famed landscapes led the exhibition’s curator, Katharine Lochnan, to believe his life’s work was strongly informed by Buddhist practice. Claude Monet in his garden. Photo by Étienne Clémentel (1864-1936) [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons. While visiting the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, Lochnan woke up to a new meaning within the works of Vincent van Gogh, Paul Gauguin, and Monet. With the lens of theology added to her art-historian background, she could see mystical origins in the famous landscapes before her. Her plans to retire were pushed aside by a whole five years as she worked alongside six other art historians, and ten theologians to make “Mystical Landscapes” a reality. Claude Monet, Poplars (Peupliers), 1891. Oil on canvas. Philadelphia Museum of Art: The Chester Dale Collection, 1951. Courtesy of the Philadelphia Museum of Art. Looking at the work of Monet, Lochnan began wondering if his famed grainstacks, cathedrals, poplars, and water lilies had a spiritual subtext to them. While Monet was baptized Catholic and lived in a Catholic country, he became anticlerical in his adulthood, says Lochnan, and is widely seen as atheist by art historians. Monet spent hours seated in Zen-like meditation in his water garden, which was bursting with hybridized water lilies — created to mimic the pink hues of the Japanese lotus, a well-known symbol in Buddhism. To Monet, the water lilies were indeed symbolic of peace. But Lochnan learned that Monet spent hours seated in Zen-like meditation in his water garden, which was bursting with hybridized water lilies — created to mimic the pink hues of the Japanese lotus, a well-known symbol in Buddhism. To Monet, the water lilies were indeed symbolic of peace. Through the First World War, Monet sequestered himself in his garden in Giverny, France, refusing to leave as the German army advanced in his direction. He painted the water lilies then, as his son served on the front lines, and later gave a series of eight water lily canvases to the French state at the end of the war following the signing of the armistice as a monument to peace. Claude Monet, Nympheas, 1897-1898. Oil on canvas. Courtesy of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. The link between Monet’s famed water lilies and Buddhist thought was noted, too, by his own friend, art historian and author of Trois variations sur Claude Monet (Three Variations on Claude Monet), Louis Gillet, who wrote of them as: SIGN UP FOR LION’S ROAR NEWSLETTERS. Get even more Buddhist wisdom delivered straight to your inbox! Sign up for Lion’s Roar free email newsletters. The sole European work which is truly related to Chinese thought, to the vague hymns of the Far East on the waters and the mists and the passing of things, on detachment, on nirvana. On the religion of the Lotus. In Ross King’s recently published biography of Monet, Mad Enchantment: Claude Monet and the Painting of the Water Lilies , he reveals that Monet’s “obsession with water lilies” began when the painter glimpsed Latour-Marliac’s pink hybrids of the flower at the 1889 Exposition Universelle. By that time, writes King, “the plant and its flowers went beyond horticulture and botany, inhabiting the realms of art, myth, literature and religion.” Claude Monet, Wheatstacks, Snow Effect, Morning (top). 1891. Oil on canvas. Courtesy of The J. Paul Getty Museum. Katsushika Hokusai, South Wind, Clear Dawn (bottom), from a series of Thirty-six views of Mt. Fuji. 1830-1831. Color woodblock print. Courtesy of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. Lochnan believes Monet’s interest in Buddhism began with his love of Japanese woodblock prints. He likely heard about Buddhism through his friend and Japanese art dealer, Tadmasa Hayashi, through whom he acquired quite a collection of woodblock prints from Japanese artists, including the well-known Hokusai. He looked to these woodblock prints for inspiration for the structure and composition of his own artwork. The conical forms in Monet’s grain stacks series may have been inspired by Hokusai’s views of Mount Fuji, says Lochnan. Monet was not shy about his love of Japanese art and culture. As he told the art critic Roger Marx: I identify with the Japanese old masters: I have always taken pleasure in the refinement of their taste and I endorse their aesthetic of suggestion that evokes presence by means of a shadow, and the whole by means of the part. His dear friend, the Prime Minister of France, Georges Clémenceau, was also a member of a group of intellectuals in Paris who were drawn to Buddhism. Lochnan believes the two spoke of Buddhist thought often. It was Clémenceau who observed Monet seated in contemplation of his water garden, which Monet expressed to Marx “awakens in you a sense of infinity.” The garden housed a Japanese bridge, untraditionally painted green, along with stalks of bamboo, and Japanese cherry and apple trees planted by Monet. “Monet himself said that he would become one with the subject, and that it was like entering into a state of hypnosis,” says Lochnan, referring to Monet’s own words on how he painted his Nymphéas (Water Lilies) series: I painted them the way monks illuminated their manuscripts in times gone by; they needed nothing but the confluence of solitude and silence, nothing but the fervent and exclusive concentration which comes close to a hypnotic state.