1960s Suburban Water Gun Fight Reinterpreted

Reptiles On The Map

The Strand Racerunner is one of the fastest moving of all lizards.  It calls home Northern South America and Central America.  So why are the five Autrey sisters climbing up its tail?  They must be itching for a speedy trip to somewhere.

Elsa in San Geronimo Valley

It Must Be Spring! The Cedar Waxwings Are Eating The Pyracanthas

Cottage Gardens In Comic Format

Spring

Experimental Portraiture

The Road Less Travelled

High Above San Francisco Bay

Dusk with Spider Web

Ladybugs and Blue Cow

Fun stuff at Cottage Gardens Nursery

Karaoke Mannequin

The original and a doctored version of a mannequin above the "Karaoke Friday and Saturday 8PM - 1AM" sign in Petaluma.  Interesting oddness on the way to Cottage Gardens - one of my favorite nurseries in Sonoma County.

Potted Plant with Gecko

The Autreys and Lola Tabor Around the Mid 1930s

E.A. Autrey and his younger siblings grew up poor.  They weren't out spending money to keep the U.S. economy afloat.  They worked hard and saved so they wouldn't be so poor in the future

Angels in the Sky

Three unknown relatives of Great Aunt Lulu Tabor from photos taken by her nephew E.A. Autrey prior to her death at age 110.

2010 - Red Light or Green Light?

Only the Toucan knows!

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.