ballooning out of proportion

Mole's Mountain

14 inches high x 11 inches wide

collage

Let's always remember that, to a mole, a molehill is a mountain.

IF: balloon.

ps. This is a photo of the work. The large scanner is at work; I'll replace this image with a scanned one once I get it scanned.

I am back

I Think

10 inches high x 8 inches wide

collage

Very late in the week for Illustration Friday's opinion. I had to think about it.

um...what can I say?

Get Well Soon

7 inches high x 5 inches wide

collage

Repair.
Sigh.

who and what and how

You For Me, Me For Me

10 inches high x 8 inches wide

collage

Here is how it went.
Strings: attachments: theory: physics: science: dimensions: weavings: knots. Who ties what to whom.

how to be good

Attitude

10 inches high x 8 inches wide

collage

Sugary:sickening:flattering:suave:unctuous:oily:greasy:slippery:slithery:honey-tongued:self-righteous:smug. Beware of how things are said.

time to go

Go

10 inches high x 8 inches wide

collage

Packed and going. I have all that I need along with some things given by others, things I have no use for, but don't argue against too loudly. They mean well, those who give.

do something

Talk

10 inches high x 8 inches wide

collage

Clique, clack; chitter, chatter.
All we ever do is talk.

no reason

Contrarian Fate

10 inches high x 8 inches wide

collage

Illustration Friday word: island. This is how it went: island, alone, swim to shore, what goes around comes around, contrarian fate. Nothing happens for the best—it just happens; not expected and separate from desire. Nothing happens for the worst, either—it just happens.

cluttering rocks

Listen carefully, and you will hear the rocks moving, rearranging their clutter (see Illustration Friday).

what will we remember

This Was

10 inches high x 8 inches wide

collage

Illustration Friday wanted memories this week. I want to know what we will remember, not what we remember now, because that is how we might make a good future.

business as usual

Second Nature

10 inches high x 8 inches wide

collage

Illustration Friday: routine; that which is habitual, customary, automatic.
Yeah. Nothing new here.

free the beast

Remove the Monster

10 inches high x 8 inches wide

collage

Illustration Friday word: detach. I wanted to illustrate the theme more closely than I have before. Usually, I riff on the word and get going somewhere else. If I'm ever to really illustrate anything, I should try to do that, eh? So, here it is. Tell me if it works.

And yeah, I missed two weeks. Hated to do that; traveling and working on a needlework piece for a show, the deadline for which was moved a week earlier than I originally expected it to be. Yikes! I finished on time. And now am back here.

self-explanatory

How Much

10 inches high x 8 inches wide

collage

Illustration Friday theme: enough.

People have been asking about how I make my collages, do I do them digitally or what?
I use scissors, X-Acto knife, glue stick, bristol board. I scan the finished thing; that's the only digital thing I do and only when I'm done putting all the pieces together. I get the pieces from magazines, catalogs, and any other printed material that comes my way.

what is not kept

Tell Me a Story of When We Had Everything

10 inches high x 8 inches wide

collage

Hoard: n. 1. a supply or accumulation that is hidden or carefully guarded for preservation or future use; v.t. 2. to accumulate for preservation. . .in a hidden or carefully guarded place. Synonyms: stockpile, reserve, cache, store, stock. With a little editing, that is what the Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 2nd edition (1998) says about the word that is this week's Illustration Friday's theme.

If one doesn't keep a supply of things carefully, they will run out because they will be used. And then there will come a day when we will want to hear the stories of what the days of plenty were like. Enjoy the stories.

oil

The Pipeline is the Punchline

10 inches wide x 8 inches high, across two pages of a notebook

collage

I spent the last week in Alaska. Three days were spent in a Chautauqua workshop on Oil in Alaska; two of those days were in the BP conference room listening to many lectures on the production of oil on the North Slope. Then the last day, we went to Prudhoe Bay up on the Arctic Ocean to see how BP gets oil out of the ground and sends it down the Alaska Oil Pipeline. There will be much more about this in subsequent posts—stay tuned.

Today's post is really in response to Illustration Friday's theme, punchline, put up last Friday. I created this piece out of images from various brochures and other publications that I saw while in Alaska. As good as BP might be about their safety and environmental concerns, their bottom line is still, indeed, the production of oil and soon, if all goes as they plan, natural gas. And the pipeline(s) that move the stuff are the end of the North Slope story. This is where the fuel goes to get to the Lower 48 where we use it all up. And of all the oil that we use here, 20 per cent of it is produced by BP from the North Slope of Alaska, up on the Arctic Ocean, pulling the stuff from underground reserves that were laid down millions of years ago. It is a long, long story.

where are they going?

The Forgotten Are Leaving

10 inches high x 8 inches wide

collage

Illustration Friday thought that the word forgotten would be a difficult theme to work with. Too much is forgotten in this world to make it hard to interpret. Could have gone anywhere with anything. I chose this route. Go with it. Maybe it is better over there.

new world

New World

10 inches high x 8 inches high

collage

Illustration Friday's theme this week: Baby. A new person.
How many more people do we need? It's the Earth that needs to be reborn.

why worry indeed

Why Worry

10 inches high x 8 inches wide

collage

Another theme starting with a "w" from Illustration Friday, and a worrisome one at that. Just what is there to worry about? Man is progressing as he was directed to. It is up to him to define what being stewards of the Earth means, and so he has done so. Really, why worry at all?

I would worry about what women think.

ah, the world

Worldwide
10 inches high by 8 inches wide
collage

This week: wide is the theme. Go see what others have done. See here what the world is become, and who cares about it. And what the world is made of, for good or ill. Aah.

electricity

Bipolarity

10 inches high x 8 inches wide

collage

Electricity=that which is caused by the movement of charged particles.

Polarity=the presence of two opposing principles.

Bipolarity=having both a negative and a positive pole. And that's when all hell breaks loose.