looking up and out on the solstice

leaf shadow

From my front porch, summer.

strange pattern

November Sand

not sky

What Happens When I Look Down

forsythia in the fall

This straggly forsythia shrub manages to flower in the fall when its leaves are turning purple. Seems like a desperate survival scheme.

more art

These two pieces came from a challenge with the themes of proportion and scale. The first, Walking in the Woods, led to the second, Falling Leaves.

 These are small works; WitW is 15.25 inches high and 14 inches wide. FL is 11 inches high and 8.75 inches wide. (Not shown in proportion to each other here.)

Walk in the Woods

Falling Leaves

These were nice pieces to work on. We were given two photos to use as inspiration. The one I chose had a tree on the right in the foreground, a building in the middle of the entire image, and a balcony about halfway up the building. (I think it's on the Fast Friday Challenge website—see link below.) And that's where the proportions of Walk in the Woods came from. I realized that I hadn't consciously worked with scale, so that's why Falling Leaves came to be.

Other results of this challenge can be found on the Fast Friday Challenge website.

Somewhere, on some list I was reading, someone asked, "Why do we make Art?" and the first thing that popped into my head was, "Because I can." Yeah, artists make art/Art to express something, but lots of people want to express what they are thinking or feeling, but don't have (or don't find) a way to do it. Those of us who have found a way to do it, do it. Some write poetry, some write prose, some play with fabric or paint or ink or stone. And, the only way to know if one can express oneself doing art is to go and do it. And, like anything else, the more one does it, the better one gets. Get going!

leaves on water

Here's an image of a pool of water onto which several different types of leaves had fallen. Below the surface is a seagrass of some sort, too, waving in the water's flow. I think an interesting project would be to have any number of people take this image and produce their own piece inspired by it: fabric, paint, clay, whatever works. What do you think? Want to try it? Send me an email and we'll go from there.