Photographing the Great Barrier Reef from Cairns and Port Douglas, Queen...

A great vacation with friends and family in Australia (despite the 15 hour flight to get there).  Highlights include two snorkel trips about 90 minutes out on boat to the Great Barrier Reef, one from Cairns and another from Port Douglas in Queensland.  

Galapagos Sunset Jazz

Out of thousands of photos shot in The Galapagos on a trip in 2017, I've selected my favorite 160 and set them to an original jazz soundtrack.  

An Eclectic Collection of Recent Art Influenced by These Strange Times

Top to Bottom:

1.  Pencil Drawing "Doomsday Clock" influenced by Laurie Lipton's much more fabulous pencil drawings.  Done in an art Zoom session with 11 year old grandson. 9"H x 12"W
2.  Paper collage in my on going series of "Strange Journey" works 11"x14"
3.  Small ink and watercolor "Apple Nose."  Not sure what to draw, I picked an apple from the backyard and the rest just happened.  6"w x 9"H
4.  Cradled paper collage on board:  "Big and Little Fish" "9"H x 12" w x 1 1/2"
5.  Small cradled paper collage on Stretched canvas "Little Fish" "4"H x 5"w x 1 1/2"

More Monoprints - One Original and Two Doctored

Guess which is the original and which two have had Photoshop elements added.

I Wish

Now that I've starting writing poems again (for the recently self published Blurb book "Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blue Jay")  http://www.blurb.com/b/8507763-thirteen-ways-of-looking-at-a-blue-jay, I started going back through poems I've written in the past.  Most were done for a family writing collective called "Round Robin."  Here's one from 2000 I found particularly relevant to today:

I wish for a fish
A fish of green and violet stripes
In a warm ocean pool
I can swim in
while I'm on a vacation
That lasts forever
In the sun, having fun
Staying eternally young
And in this unrealistic fantasy
The fish will talk to me
And give me words of wisdom
That bubble up through the water
And dry in iridescent drops on my skin
Where everyone else can read them
And learn something

I still wish for an eternal vacation but more realistically, what I'm wishing for today, is a better government! 

What's maybe more interesting is how often one does get what one wishes for.  I had totally forgotten this poem, but realize now my trip to the Galapagos last year, where I snorkeled with beautiful fish, was exactly what I had wished for 17 years earlier.

Celebrating World Sea Turtle Day

Lucky to have just gone swimming with a sea turtle in the Galapagos this past April on a great tour through Wilderness Travel http://www.wildernesstravel.com/.  Bonus shot (bottom) is a photo composite of two fish I shot underwater, snorkeling off of Santa Fe Island, with a sea turtle I drew in 2011.

Swimming with Sharks

What you can't see very well can't hurt you - or can it?

Watercolor Fish and Ducks

More watercolor paintings done in Seattle, some with grandson Wilson Taylor.  Wilson's twin brother Cole wasn't painting much on this trip:

From top to bottom:
Goldfish - 10 1/4" x 14"
Fish tank - 7" x 10 1/4" (some fish seem to have escaped)
Fish tank line art - with water by 4 1/2 year old Wilson 7" x 10 1/4"
3 Yellow Ducks - a collaboration with Wilson who painted the tower and the pink snakes, gave one duck a red eye, and colored in the fence 10 1/4" x 14"

Playing with Fish in Software

Bought new Textile Symmetry and Pattern Design software from Artlandia then combined it with some pen & ink drawings that were turned into glass objects using Alien Skin software and Photoshop.  Ridiculous amount of fun.

Funky, New T Shirt Designs

Hand painted on good quality cotton Ts.  Paint from Dharma Trading.  A little messy, maybe, but at least they are original.   They also go through the wash with no bleed or degradation.  In top pic, note Olympics on TV in background.  My new sport, painting, isn't quite as much exercise but just as much fun.

The Messengers

The fishes, seahorses and turtle bring a message for the new year.  Love where you live and keep it pure.
Photo composite and digital painting for Illustration Friday.

Pelican Flying Over North Beach

It was beautiful at the beach yesterday.  No wind.  Clear sunny sky.  Big waves.  Heaven!

Mendocino Ocean in Rusty Fish Frame

Finally figured out how to use masks in Photoshop CS5!