Man-well Lay-bore

I spent the day doing yard work. It was hot and I got all sweatified and allergic, but in spite of that, I felt better and happier than I've felt in a long time. Although it doesn't look like much, I cleaned out some noxious invasive vines from the lilacs and also cleaned vines off the back door and the back steps! They were so deeply covered in vines that I didn't even know there were steps there! Honest! WOW was I surprised when I found them! I was cleaning the door and steps off so BB could scrape, prime and paint them. He spent the day scarping and painting and now has gone off to work and has to work until 1 AM. After I cleared the lilac, door and steps, I yanked out a lot of invasive plants: purple loosestrife (no, I did not plant them), anemones, vinca, etc. Lots more to go, though.

My second husband and his artist friend used to do man-well Lay-bore until they both got real jobs, and they joked about it. But there is something to be said about good clean manual labor!

New Art: From the Memory of Dreams

I made a new digital collage and variations on it for jo(e) who has
nightmares about snakes.

The two posted variations are similar, but different in subtle ways
besides colors.

Imagik Version
Unbearable Darkness Version.

Click image to view it larger.

I won a trophy from Monday Art Day

YAY! I won a trophy for Monday Artday! It's my first monthly trophy and my third trophy altogether. WAHOO! I'm excited. Click here to read about it.

7 and 8 in Johnny Norm's: a bit of silliness

This is from a Wings 4 you challenge called Zen Suitcase. I made a "Zen backpack." It's all the stuff I want to take with me into my new improved life: my husband, love, happiness, paintbrushes, camera and books, my manuscripts, and the paper dolls represent friends and family. LOVE, yeah love. The backpack is the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow, the dubloons represent abundance of all good things, LOL! Ink and colored pencil with gesso and Wite Out for white.

Mushrooms for Nadine, John and BB

I made some new art today: mushrooms. Amanita muscaria, the fly agaic, to be specific. I made them in part because Nadine suggested I make more. And because John (Coffeypot)(Not "Johnny Norms") isn't fond of my nonrepresentational art. And because I made the original one for BB. This is a crop, see the whole picture here. See the original sketch for this drawing here. See the sketch I made for BB that caused Nadine to tell me to make more here.

Mole Sketches

Doodles in Johnny Norm's Moleskine Sketchbook (by me).

1)Rendezvous of the Wild Mountain Sheeraffes.
2)Why the Moonbirds flew to the Sun.

2 new mole sketches (Madonna and Child, Power to the People!)

1)"Madonna and Child," "Paintastics," colored pencil, ink. I wasn't
crazy about those "Paintastics!" They were basically markers with a
brush and didn't seem to work well on the yellow slick Moleskine
paper, guess I'll try them on water color paper and see if they work
better there.

2)"Power to the People." Ink and colored pencil. Used metallic pencils
but they don't scan well. :-( (I seem to be good at discovering
things that do NOT work well.)(Wahn!)

I really enjoy looking over all the wonderful art--each Mole that
comes has more to see. So fun! (But feeling a little inadequte).
Clicking on these makes them a little bigger for viewing details.

Standing Guard

We had the honor of riding along in the GM 100+car parade as part of
the Woodward Dream Cruise in Detroit last weekend. The way was
well-guarded. If you want to read more about it, visit Detroit Daily
here.

It's coming!

Fall color is showing up here and there everywhere! Already. And the
nights have been cool and the air is fresher. Of course, I'm sure
there are more hot muggy days to come.

Notes to BB: Squirrels

I was out doing some pinched nerve exercises in the backyard. It was
a surprisingly cool morning after all the heat we've had, so I sat
next to the garbage can because and there was spot of sunlight there
and only there. A squirrel came up to the garbage can, probably to
get into that hole they've been chewing. It came within about six
inches if my foot before it realized I was there and then quickly
backed off. I went in and got those peanuts that PB threw away, and
put some on the opposite side of the driveway from the garbage cans to
distract the squirrel from chewing the hole bigger and/or dragging out
the garbage. Within about three minutes, three squirrels were having
a tremendous battle in our driveway. Fur and peanuts were flying
everywhere--too bad I didn't have my camera for that!