Up in the Air

Wilson and Cole fly through the sky on their magical journey

Holiday Tree

San Geronimo tree decked out for the holidays - or maybe it's just anticipating Easter.

Happy Face Spider in the Garden

Pelican Lake

Garden Potted Plants Before the Big Freeze

Everything in my garden was doing great before the big freeze in Northern California. Now many of the plants are not so happy.

Here I combined my pen & ink & marker sketch of happier potted plants with some new Alien Skin marble filters for background texture. 

December Roses With Cold Steam Rising Off The Arbor

The Cat Who Loved (to eat) Birds

Composite of Oscar the cat and various birds with a recent scan of a 4x5 B&W negative shot by E.A. Autrey in Santa Barbara,1977

Potted Plant

Recent photo taken at work in the late afternoon the 2nd day of December, 2009.

Scarlet Ibis in Paradise

Just finished! Oil painting 40" wide x 30" h. Scarlet Ibis teaching the baby Egrets to fish

Crow has Strong Legs

Recent oil painting 20" h x 24" w Crow in Marin

Caution

Caution, mothers with babies and cougars crossing! Photo composite done for Illustration Friday.

Jay Weill on the Ferry

While commuting to San Francisco on the ferry to practice new grandma skills in August, I continued to run into Jay Weill, a biking lawyer who apparently keeps banking hours (or is it grandparent hours?). Here he is with other working commuters. You can tell the workers from the tourists on the ferry. The tourists appear to be the only ones who look out the window at the gorgeous view.

Distorted Memories

More fun with scans from old 4x5 negatives to anise and other flowers from my garden

My Sister and I

Playing around with old negatives

Worn Out Pig

This worn out ceramic pig is happy growing flowers on top of a colorful tile table in Santa Cruz. Pen & ink painting done for Illustration Friday's word "Worn"

Play unfolds a mathematics secret

By playing around, I finally figured out how to use onOne's PhotoFrame software. The secret of its use finally unfolded. I like this mathematics frame a lot so it put it around the Toucan I painted in a combination of Corel Painter and Photoshop.

This is a stretch for the word "unfold" for Illustrationfriday.com but was an enjoyable exercise nevertheless.

Orchid Craving Attention

Instead of cleaning the house, I noticed my orchid was craving attention. So I drew it with pen & ink and pencil. Done for Illustration Friday's word "Craving"

Adapting Chameleons

Some chameleons adapt to changing chrysanthemums better than others.

Cracked Haiku #8

"In the August grass
Struck by the last rays of sun
The cracked tea cup screams"

A Haiku poem by Etheridge Knight, who got his start writing poetry in prison. One interpretation of this poem is that it is from the perspective of a black male prisoner, looking out his prison window, likening the situation of an incarcerated life to nature.

Image done in Illustrator and Photoshop for Illustration Friday's word CRACKED.

Insect Parade

Dung Beetle Sisyphus, realizing he is destined to repeat forever the meaningless task of rolling balls of dung up hills, revolts and covers his dung ball with flowers. Other insects, appreciating the journey is what it's all about, follow the enlightened beetle thus creating an insect parade.

Composite done for Illustration Friday's word "Parade."

Impossibility

I would have said it was an impossibility, that I could scan grass and a flower from my yard and combine them with a scan of a photo of mossy rocks, then throw in a pen & ink gecko, if I had been asked whether this was possible 10 years ago. But today it is not only possible, it is amazing!

Intricate Mobile

An mobile for Illustration Friday's word "intricate." Intricate being something with many interrelated parts in a mobile, or sculpture, where those parts move independently.

Breezy

When it's breezy, frogs go flying

Time for a new alphabet, this time made out of food painted with scanned buttons!

Pig's Instinct

Pig's instinct was to just eat the donut. Composite done for Illustration Friday's word "instinct."

Time to Celebrate!

Bear is celebrating for Illustration Friday.

I've been having fun with button art lately so was happy to have an excuse to create some new button balloons (plus one rose balloon for Valentine's day)

Time Slows Down For Insomniacs

Flawed Urn

This charcoal and pencil sketch of an urn is flawed in more ways than one. Besides the fictional flaw superimposed on the finished piece (for Illustration Friday's word "flawed"), the original sketch had its own problems. Then, when I scanned it, the white of the watercolor paper came out like a rainbow so I smudged the whole thing to get rid of the lines.

The original model is quite nice in the gardens of Robson Harrington house - which is now owned by the town of San Anselmo.

Pale Pisces

Question: How do two trout represent Illustration Friday's word Pale?
Answer: Through their relationship to Procol Harum's most famous song.

My interpretation of Procol Harem's song "A Whiter Shade of Pale," with lyrics by Keith Reid, is that it is about an affair with a married woman. The lyrics reference Geoffrey Chaucer's Canterbury Tales, Roman mythology and astrology by their mention of "The Miller's Tale," the Vestal Virgins, Neptune and mermaids (who are often represented by the astrological sign Pisces). As evidenced by other websites, including procolharum.com and departmentofuseless.blogspot.com, however, this is but one interpretation of many.

"The Miller's Tale," is about a wealthy, older carpenter who married an 18 year old bride and out of jealousy kept her in a cage. But a younger student Nicholas fell in love with her and cuckolded the husband. The Vestal Virgins were ancient Roman virgin priests of Vesta, the goddess of the hearth, whose primary task was to maintain the goddess's sacred fire. According to Wikipedia, three famous Vestal Virgins were a) the infamous Tarpeia, who was traitorous, b) Rhea Syliva, who was raped by Mars and conceived the twin founders of Rome (Romulus and Remus) and c) Tuccia, whose chastity was questioned. I couldn't find specific reference to the mermaid who took Neptune for a ride but did find that Neptune, the Roman god of water and sea, is considered the ruler of the astrological sign of Pisces.

I did a whole set of the 12 signs of the Zodiac in 2005, the illustrations for which can be found at artistrising.com. They included my pen & ink illustrations of the Sign and Flower (in this case two fish and water lilies), set against watercolors of Santa Barbara painted by my mother, the Element (earth, fire, air or water), Symbol, Sign and an illustrator vector drawing of the actual Constellation.

Contained Crows

These crows are all contained in boxes for illustration friday's word "contained."