Portrait. Grade: F

I posted this sketch of my cousin and his family a couple of weeks ago.

I started putting color in and doing the faces. It looked so bad that I printed the original photo, cut out the faces, glued them on and proceeded to totally mess it up.

They look like zombies. And they are a very cute family. So I messed up and I graded myself: F.

Marker

If I rise,
cleave into landscape,
will I merge
with background,
become boundless?  Be part of
instead of apart?

A shadorma for Sue Vincent’s photo prompt, above.  I haven’t been working in collage for awhile, so it felt good to get out scissors and paste again.

The Moon is Dreaming

I haven’t visited the magnetic Oracle for awhile.  She didn’t talk about the moon specifically, but I think it’s inferred.

the language of sleep
whispers beneath a garden
of a thousand dreams

like flowers born dancing with
children and starry-eyed fools

 

Eclipsed

This curious life–
a burst and then a fading–
star paths to the moon.

Faith stitched taut into nothing—
thoughts held together by wind.

A tanka for Colleen’s #Tanka Tuesday with synonyms for strange and beliefs.

It’s a full moon, eclipsed.

 

Random Painting

My husband got me a couple of new sketchbooks. This one is a Strathmore Mixed Media 5.5 x 8.5. I started painting in it and found that it takes paint pretty well.

An abstract. I saw a face in it that had a graffiti look to it.

Dog howling at the moon. My dogs were upset with the stormy weather yesterday but no lightning or thunder.

Another attempt at Procreate for iPad. I’m starting to figure it out maybe.

How the sky looked all day yesterday. Looks the same today. Have a good week.

Ciphering

I’m mapping the wind–
an idea to carry,
gravity released.

No more searching for lost words—
at the vertex, spiraling.

For Sue Vincent’s photo prompt, above, and Colleen’s poetry challenge with synonyms for inspiration and plan.

I’m still circling around.

 

Sunglasses

From a selfie my daughter sent while at the beach. I find the more I draw the better DUH! Trying to do something at least.

I totally stole this from a painting at my cousin’s house. All is fair in art.

Chiara, the dog next door. I’ve been keeping an eye out for her while some of the family is away.

Drawing of the mehndi I had on my arm. I kind of liked it. I understand tattoos a little better. Here’s Muffy’s design:

Good night!

7/17/18 summer is flying

I had a chance to start a new sketchbook. I drew one of the pieces from my cousin’s collection.

Some kind of cute spider that my friend’s son found in the woods.

My friend Kathe gave me this snakeskin. It is complete i.e not just a piece of it. She saw the snake eating a fish and a minute later there was just this skin.

Me up at Lake Hopatcong. Cheers!

A Beautiful Collection

I visited my cousin yesterday and with her permission photographed some of their art. Then I asked if she minded if I posted it on the blog. My cousin and her husband have travelled extensively and their collection is astonishing. The first image is made of small glass pieces. Even the hair and eyebrows are glass.

I didn’t get the names of the artists and I’m sorry for that. They offered to find their list but I was already being overbearing. This couple is all handmade clay, fired and painted. It has a real impact when you stand in front of it. All these pieces are quite large.

Hard to see that this is layered and etched glass.

Some comic relief.

This one knocked my socks off. Probably six feet tall and very imposing yet soothing.

This was by a student of Robert Arneson. The bowl holds faces of this artist’s teachers. There’s also a face on the back.

They have a lot of great painting too. This is a closeup of one I wanted to tear off the wall.

I hope you enjoyed the brief tour. There was so much more but these were some of my favorites. Have an A-1 day!

Spellbound

I draw the Wheel of Fortune. My seasons are indeed turning.  I open maps, searching for a solid place to land.  Dazzled by paths that keep shifting, I am transported with a velocity that blurs the threads that have held me in the landscape my feet have raveled in the circles of my years.  The unknown spills across my limitations, beyond the boundaries traced by time.

Randomness and change
growing wings in transcendence–
radiant shadows

A haibun for Colleen’s #Poetry Challenge #92, using synonyms for bewitch and treasure.