The Road Less Travelled

Photos from the Pt. Reyes stay.

For another sort of detour, see Roy Banfield's Bypass Pilgrim. Roy's regular blog is Walking Home to Fifty, in which he was recording his journey on foot to his origins. The walk was interrupted by unanticipated heart surgery, which he has written about in the above book. It's a wonderfully moving meditation, some in verse, on an experience with which many of us have some familiarity, that of turning the self or a loved one over to the medical system (temporarily, if we are fortunate).

There is quite a wonderful portrait of the artist as a (very) young man on airform archives.

Cherry blossoms

My sister brought me 8 postcards from England to work with, they are all of turn of the 19th to 20th century actresses.

I have an opportunity to show some work in a new place in about a month so am feeling squeezed for time, I'm going to try to keep posting here twice a week, probably Mondays and Thursdays, during that time.

News from L.A.

If you are in Los Angeles between September 10 and September 25, J.T. Steiny is showing work - a multitude of wonderful things, I suspect (see above for one sample).

Prophecy

My sister is here and we are off to Pt. Reyes for a couple of days, looking for seashells and sea weed...See you later this week.

Mysteries of the Antiques Centre

In the back, a doll in an abandoned pose on a snarling lynx. It's like a giant dollhouse with decaying toys. I wish I had rearranged it before I left, James (the owner) shouldn't be the only one having fun...

Confronted by a sphinx of sorts

The piano on which this teddy bear is sitting is free to anyone who wants it, although probably a little out of tune.

This is an entry in the Nature's Whispers Sharing treasures (of your locale)linkery.

Let the Dog Drive?

Above, Hope

LED sign on the Golden Gate Bridge:

"HANDS FREE AT ALL TIMES

IT'S THE LAW"

I finished the piece with the children, some more drawn lines, then taking the lines out of the moths and cropping it. Still not one of my favorites.

Moment of Truth

I like it. Am I supposed to say that? Anyway, had a major fail with another piece. It seems that with some of them , you can just forge ahead, and with others one assumes too early, or something. Oh, since you insist...here's the fail. Ploddingly literal, doesn't work. But...it opens up more problems which I suppose could be solved in other pieces. Yes, it was a nice photo...maybe that was part of the problem, trying to preserve too much of the original?

Home at the Heart of the Forest

Here's a detail of a funny little one-off item I have just uploaded my etsy shop. It's just 2 1/2 inches wide, and would be a sweet way for people to leave reminders for each other I think. Or a nice home for a very small and tidy bird.

Lord Grenville

The old Al Stewart song always seemed to me to imply that the sailors were rebelling against authority and going off to have non-admiralty approved fun, It seemed despairing in the same way that Michelangelo's dying slave seems in physical distress, that is, not. But it's apparently based on a historical incident in which the mortally wounded Lord Grenville's ship The Revenge was surrendered to the Spanish by the outnumbered crew. To jump back to Oh! What a Lovely War, brings to mind the historically accurate Christmas truce portrayed in that film in which the enlisted men decided to stop shooting at each other, having lost interest in serving the purposes of their masters' honor (or agenda).

If you want to see where the little boat ended its journey , it's on Tinytheatre.

The Perfect Day/Stargazing

Here is the final, which also fits the Illustration Friday prompt stargazing.

If you have something wonderful in your locale, consider joining Jasmine at Nature's Whispers on August 23, where people from all over will be introducing their neighborhoods.

Oooh, this is gorgeous - same prompt, different image on/by vanessa boer.

This is just too cool, on Thought Cloud Factory News...

Flanders

Have rented "Oh! What a Lovely War" to watch.

Gone Fishing

This is nice as it is...but it's not art yet, too reliant on the lovely woman in the photo, who is clearly having a perfect day, of the sort referred to on Titus the Dog. So I have to mess with it some more. I won't be posting again until Thursday, as events have overtaken, but I will try to visit if I get a chance. In the meantime, here's a lovely fish you can catch at Bryan Kring's etsy store.

More feathers! And a mystery man...

This is the final mounting for Tribal, posted earlier. I changed the title to "Queen of the Forest".

And here's another mysterious photo...Can anyone identify this man? The inscription says "Lumiere" and, I think, A.S. below that.

Alligators snap your ankles

This deserves to be seen more, especially by all you miniature banjo fans, a (mostly) solemn somberly garbed gentleman (identified as Drake's Basement) on youtube.

Where is this pier? The fact that he sings the titular line with more conviction than Shane McGowan in the original makes me think this may be somewhere along the Gulf Coast.

Warning: simulated miniature banjo licking.

Before and After

Above, I was looking at this Portmeirion Bowl and I think I want to transfer some key elements to the photo of the children. See how the photo is cracked? That's an indication for placement. I have been busy mounting these and have had little time to make new ones recently, so it may be awhile before I show the completed version of the above photo here.
Here's the werewolf mounted on his plaque. The main framing elements are halves of an antique leather eyeglasses case I bisected. I'm doing this with a few pieces, the ones that can stand up to additional elements being added. It was fun making the whole leathery gentleman's study more literal.

Evidence...

...that it pays to be flexible sometimes.

Eyeball Kid

The women go crazy for the big blue eye

----Tom Waits, Eyeball Kid

Faces!

Baba Yaga lurking outside of Trader Joe's in Oakland, elsewhere*:

In Holland, a royal smile on les cadires del tio benedito

In the Alaskan woods at Flying Dog Studio

In Washington State near the ocean at Studio Quilts

In Oregon, a sunny smile on Celeste Bergin

In Scotland, the eyes follow you everywhere on Titus the Dog

In Turkey, cheeky by the river at A Colorful Research

In Cleveland, a frequent encounter at Mouse Medicine

Bryan Kring saw this little character who doesn't look at all well.

In Budapest, Aniko discovered this face at Art is Tree

In Colorado, a multilicity at the Oort Cloud

In Germany, stealing glances at Gerdiary

In California, found overhead at Mostly Threads

In the UK, found on a path at Greasyming Inc.

In Uruguay, A furrowed brow at Aleph

In Yorkshire, flowing locks at Stitching Life

In Wales, a greybeard at Nature's Whispers

In New York, fashionably attired on SpiritCloth

In Oregon, an offering from Thought Cloud Factory

In Australia, a cheerful alien at lolissquared

*More added at top as they come in. Just post them on your blog or flickr so I have a link!

Tyger, Tyger

One of my mosaic masks, posted as a sort of prelude to the face plant posts, which I'll set to go up at midnight tomorrow. Any contributions will be accepted and added to the list, don't worry - any time next week is fine. Very excited about what I've seen so far.

Tears of a Legend (W.I.P.)

Normally I don't show work in progress, but this fitted in with the prompt "artificial" on Illustration Friday. The original photo is a Hollywood studio photo by John Reed, it may be Lana Turner (Edit:Titus has now identified this actress as Evelyn Keyes. But wait...according to California Girl, it's Gloria Grahame...). I've been working on this on and off for a couple of months, I don't know whether I exactly like it, I got kind of captivated by the idea that the tears of a star/goddess would be larger than life. It may eventually get larger too, and more of the original should disappear.

Edit: Ooh...I could do a bombshell shape...No, not the hourglass thing, I mean like a bomb with the fins at the top. Thanks again, Saint Terry, for the use of the amazing saw.