Garden Delights and the Grasshopper

It was a warm autumn afternoon in September, and I saw this guy sunning himself on a grassy wheat thing. He looked as if he was resting from a day of frolicking and hopping around in the garden. I reminded him that winter was just around the corner, and he hadn't done anything for himself to prepare for the cold days just ahead. He looked annoyed with my suggestion and hopped away. I wonder where he is sunning himself today? Well I don't think it's in the garden now that it is frozen and covered with snow? Will I see you next summer my hoppy friend or at least your cousin!

Froggie afternoon on a rhubarb leaf

Ok so I see this frog sitting on the rhubarb leaf in the garden. I asked him if I could take his picture and seemed very cooperative at what I was trying to accomplish, and didn't try to get away. There was no permission forms required by Mr. Frog he just sat there and let me several pictures of him. I got as many as I could before he got tired of the whole endeavor. Thank you for your time Mr. Frog......I wish it was always this easy taking pictures.

Which direction do you go?

Life is full of weird signs. This one for example is going either way. I love how everyone takes post shots at it, and someone actually tried to paint out part of the arrow to make it just one way. (oh that would have been a mess). Ok is that ironic or what. Pot shots, going either way, and making a either way going one way. So anyway every time I see this sign down my street I think to myself which way do I go now? I guess I can go either way...lol......is that a pot shot on life seriously I'm not going to mess with the signs that's for sure I just follow them!......Oh I love ironies it makes everyday life interesting!

Chasing the sun into the storm

I love looking at clouds and lately here in Phoenix there has been some pretty amazing ones with the weather and monsoons. So I hate not taking the opportunity to shoot a few and see how they turn out. As with most metaphors I thought when I was taking these that life has throw us some really serious storms into our lives some more intense than others. Each finding the strength to make it through as they evaporate away or the wind carries them in a different direction.

However when it's all said and done and you see the sun shining through again you realize that it's over and a new day is beginning. I known everyone has heard of that one, but sometimes it takes circumstance and being in the storm to really take hold of it.

The clouds bring serious rain the rays shine through. Billions of tiny droplets reflect the beauty in shape form and color, and in a moment it's all gone. Strangely sometimes the clouds never bring rain or all the nasty stuff that comes in a storm. They just float by casually making their way to another place.

I have yet to see the same cloud with the same colors or anything ever similar to the day before. They are an amazing work of art. I guess how I look at each cloud might determine the outcome of my picture in my everyday life and the final digital image. Unusual circumstance makes unusual days and wondrous stormy clouds to gaze at and wonder what tomorrow will bring.

3 Palms in Phoenix....it's nice to be back again!

The sun was warm today, and it felt good on my skin. The chill I got in Alaska seems to only go away when I come back to Phoenix and warms up my old bones only in Phoenix...lol. Ahhhhh it's nice to be back in the sun! Alaska was beautiful as I always remembered it, and I always miss it when I leave, but I know I'll go back again it's only a matter of time. Funny it was starting to get cold the chill was already in the air and the leaves were already turning the flowers were fading, and life was getting ready for another harsh winter and this was as I was leaving! Amazing all in 15 days.....;)

Alaska Bound

i everyone! I just wanted to let everyone know I will be gone for a few weeks and won't have access to my computer to read all the great and inspiring posts you do. I can't wait to get back to see what everyones been doing! (I might actually go through withdrawals) Have a great rest of the summer see you in August sometime. I'm hoping I'll have great new pics to post of my trip.......ahhhh I think I might need my parka or a light jacket.....lol

Head in Sand

Today was one of those days I felt like wanting to leave my head in the sand. It started out a bit rough not being able to find things I needed, and being in a rush all over the place. It was like everything was out of sink. The day settled at the end with a huge crashing of the symbol. I didn't want to hear, and my ears won't stop ringing (it's a struggle to stop thinking about). The timing wasn't so good. Then I wonder if somethings maybe they are best left unsaid or maybe it is a matter of timing? But when do you know it's a good time? If my head is always in the sand I guess it's never a good time......Well.... No matter how well meaning it was.....still made me wanna dive for the sand. I'm probably just being a drama queen, but oh well the picture fitted the mood.....I've always thought it was funny, and this is a really good way to work it all out!

I hope today will be a better day!

Mermaids

Just love the colors and the little mermaid frolicking around in the limonade and bubbles. It's a wonderful piece of art from the early 20th century advertising.

Everything and the kitchen sink

If you had everything and the kitchen sink that would be alot of stuff. Would you have the bathroom sink and the wash tub as well? What other sinks have I left out?

What if you had everything but the kitchen sink? Would you feel bad because you didn't have the kitchen sink? ok just funny thoughts to think about.......

Mannequin Kiss

Princess and the Pea

I was going through my pictures and I came across this funny one illustrated by Dulac. I loved this story when I was a little girl and I thought it was funny that this girl could be so picky that they could feel a pea though all of those layers of mattresses. Funny thing I was probably around 8 when I read it, and I could sleep on pretty much anything. Silly girl I thought!

Now I'm 48 and I can't sleep on anything, and I'm pretty sure I could feel a pea through 20 mattress pads now. Ahhh to find the perfect mattress I think it gets much more difficult as you get older. Maybe one layer for every year of your life I think that is really what the story was about. We are all princesses at varying different ages with varying elements making the best of that crapy mattress at some point or another. Just a funny though I guess! What was the author saying? was he thinking the same thing? well I never thought about it till now.

Inspiration of early 20th Century Illustration recycled 75 years later!

One of my all time favorite artists Maxfield Parrish


One of my favorite musicians Enya
I was wondering if it was just me, but these images are very similar. I think Enya liked Max too!

Friendship stone

I went to lunch with a friend from High School today. We lived across the street from each other when we were in Jr. High and High school. We didn't hang out much because we had different friends or circles that we were in. How different our paths seemed then when we would pass on the street or in the halls. But maybe it was the differences in our life's that made us very unique but so much the same. We both seemed to be meandering down the same path but didn't realize it......and then to find out we both live in the same city again within a few miles of each other. (Oh the wonders of Face Book)

And now after all these years we don't have any circles we hang out with no stereo types of clicks to worry about. It's just us as we are now and how we've become. Over the years I had always wondered what had happened in her life where she was and what she had done. It was like making a new friend ahhh neighbors again. She jokingly suggested I should buy the house across the street from her......

The image I posted here to commemorate friendship and because we both love to take pictures in cemeteries. She would love this one. I think it's a common headstone you see in older cemeteries maybe someone had the same thought. I decided to give it to special people in my life maybe rekindling friendships or making new ones. So I call it my friendship stone!

I thought they looked so interesting when I saw them. What were they thinking? Do mannequins think about stuff? When Dakota was young they frightened him. Maybe lifeless cold people staring into nothing empty not feeling. (ok that's the same as lifeless I suppose) as a composition I felt it was amazing and great subjects to work with. Possibly a thousand and one metaphors to go with!

This was one of my first attempts at animating words and adding flowers to it.

A Day in the clouds

I love the window seat on a plane. I hate knowing I'm missing something, and this is what I would have missed if I didn't have my nose to the window. These were taken somewhere between Puerto Rico and Houston Texas. It was late afternoon. I wasn't expecting the results, it was in processing that I discovered the colors. I think I took almost 100 images. I was looking for texture, shapes to tell a story. I guess next time I will have to pay extra to get a window seat. A new fee I heard......sigh

A Nostalgic moment to be in

Her spirit lingers there still. The familiar smells of her cooking remain in the kitchen as strong as ever. (she’s been gone for years) I could almost here her say supper is ready. How odd I could still smell her perfume (she wore White Shoulders) It was like yesterday when I was there at the wake. It was the first time in my life without her. 24 years I knew her. She has been gone since 1985.

I miss her, and being there. She gave me solace, and wisdom. The hours she would spend talking to me. Reading her stories. Telling me about her childhood, and the silly things she did. She always told me I was special, and had a purpose in life (I still haven't figured that one out) but she seemed to know.  I loved staying the weekend there. Mornings were wonderful to wake to her pancakes, bacon, eggs. OH how she loved to cook! and there would always be some old time gospel songs she would be singing to, and the Cuckoo clock!

She was the one person in the world that I adored most. It seems like yesterday that she was here, and now she is gone, but my memories of her live strong in my mind and heart. What would my childhood have been like without this safe place to go. I feel blessed Grandma that I had a moment in time to spend with you……Days with you were simple and peaceful, and you gave me these moments to cherish always. I miss you!

Concept art to digital art

This was my first attempt at using a drawing pad with a digital paint program. (Painter IX) It took about 2 days to do.

The design was something a friend inspired me to do years ago, but never finished it. I just sort of put it in the back of the closest, but as it goes sometimes you need to clean out the closest. Oh what treasures you find.......many I have found! Now I think I'm in the best part of my life where I can breath new life into these old inspirations, and make new treasure. Hopefully though not to get stuck back in the closet till the next closet cleaning adventure.

Maybe in time I will do more work. As an artist the ideas are there, and just waiting to be turned on......as O’Keefe says sometimes I just flounder.....ahhh yeah Georgia I hear you. For years I have been frustrated by the dullness of my work, and I'd rather not do anything at all then drivel with tedious notions of something that will never become anything.

As I ramble on here with nothing more to say than. I should go back to my drawing pad, and sketch book and see what else I can come up with.

Where did summer go? 2006

I'm so glad August is over. It seems August is my worst month. I don't know why but as far back as I can remember everything crazy, weird, annoying, off the wall, seems to go off in August. It's like all the full moon weirdness that could happen is in this month. So think about it if it were possible having a full moon everyday for a month.......crap oh crap.....it gets really crazy.......I wonder why? Maybe it’s my spirit doing the year end cleansing…….lol.......or it’s something far deeper that I won‘t know about till I get to the other side? Or maybe it's all just my imagination and it's a conspiracy against myself and my odd way of thinking.

Anyway it would be cool if there was the opposite month where I would have everything great, amazing, fantastic, and miraculous happen. Is that even possible? Maybe that is August and I’m just being ungrateful. Silly me maybe I just misunderstand myself……who knows, but this is the start of my new year September! Fall, Autumn, the start of winter. I love that and love the holidays, and festivities. I decided to do a fall autumn road......I love all the possibilities down this road!

Interesting Icons made in Photoshop

This was one of my first attempts at using photoshop for more than just a photo editing tool.

What are Sandy Fish anyway? Fall 2007

I did this for another class and I really liked how it turned out, but then I was thinking beyond the image and into more of the absurdity of it. I think sometimes when we create something it is something deep within ourselves that we are exposing to others. But then I guess that is what art is all about being vulnerable to expose our inner self.

Ok maybe it's just a silly fish picture cuz I couldn't think of anything else to put into it.....It was an exercise in mapping layers. Ahhh another metaphor.....sorry I'm exposing my inner artist self to you all......lol

So what are sandy-fish and what was I thinking?

Snuffles and Sheba

I was going through the many images that I have taken over the years, and the one thing that I kept coming across were the many pictures I had taken of my dogs. Snuffles and Sheba. They were sisters born in 1988. We found them in San Angelo Texas, and they were basically born on a cattle ranch and their parents were working dogs. Both of them were Part Border Collie, and Blue Heeler. They were wonderful animals that I will always cherish the memory of.

Sheba was quiet, shy and loved to curl up in a corner. Snuffles got her name as she was always sticking her nose somewhere embarrassing.....lol They both loved to play frisbee Sheba could go air born and just hang there for what seemed like an eternity while Snuffles ran like a tank and would charge Sheba when she got the frisbee, but she could never catch her because she was too fast and much better at catching stuff.

They loved road trips and were always excited to go for a ride in the car. They traveled all the way from Texas to Alaska to Arizona to New York to California to Arizona where they both finally passed away in 2000 and 2004. They lived a full life and brought much joy into our lives.

But anyway I wanted to share my memory of them. Although they are only dogs they were with me for over a decade. That's a lot of years in DOGGIE life......I miss you both and will always have a special place in my heart…….sigh!

Four Seasons

I was having a dry spell of ideas. I poured though all the Photoshop books looking for some inspiration, and still nothing. Then in a dream it came to me! 4 seasons! Ok maybe this isn't too original, but I had to come up with something that I could use in a variety of layers and styles in one picture. What I came up with was pretty much what I dreamed.

As I was doing this image I was thinking how we go through different seasons of our lives or maybe even thought processes. Not having any ideas seems like I'm digging in the frozen ground for something, but everything looks dead or uninteresting. Then suddenly my ideas warm up to me, and a thought maybe even an inspiration works it way out of my mind like a small seed in the soil beginning its new growth in the spring.....as my thought develops it comes to full bloom. Then subtly it’s done, and falls away for new life to begin again in my next idea. So maybe as artists in each thing we do we go through the various seasons. It's an interesting cycle of life...........its hard work but in the end the fruits of my labor are worth it! (ok maybe a bit cliché but very true)

So maybe it's not just a picture of various images it's much more....well at least to me! Enjoy comments always welcome!

Contemplation Spring 2006

The sketch is called pondering of the soul.  My first attempt at a self portrait drawing class.

Butterfly Friend Spring 2006

As my life was so busy today I forgot to just stop and look around. As sometimes I do. There are small surprises everywhere. I guess that is why I love being around nature. If you really look you see things. This image reminded me that life is very complex but yet so simple. She was fluttering around landing here and there drying her wings from the afternoon shower. Waiting as long as a butterfly could for me to take the picture, and then she was gone! 

The First one! Iraq 2005

I know nothing for certain, nothing, that is, of what alone counts to reach happiness in life, but constitutes an idea, which is the inner harmony to be reached by a human being whose will is torn apart between passions and reason and whose unity is not given from the start as the foundation for social harmony between men and women.
Socrates