New Year's Eve 2010~2011...Shonagranata

Since this will probably be the last illustration of 2010...

 I'd like to dedicate this to my niece Shonah.

Ristra wish

para mi familia, con amor

Bees and blossoms

the spade blossom

broom blossoms
see also Fall of the Bees

Bike heap 2007

Trike memories

*the photograph of this small boy is a found treasure...but not from the depot

 the bone pile

When you have enough bike bones you can articulate a skeleton...

Some Oldies...pre-byrd

Rusty Daw

Bags & Woe
this oddly graceful old suitcase arrived at the depot sometime in the year 2005, rather forlorn even with its lovely watered silk lining...pocket mouths agape, mourning the loss of some delicate undergarment perhaps?...sans wardrobe for the next stage of the voyage...the memory doll packed up her emptiness and departed.
-Langmuir Luggage from the M. Langmuir Manufacturing Co. Toronto, Limited-

Dumpster mother & child

MAMA AM AMA MAAM

Not Byrds. 

Perusing old files full of depot images...these are among the first exhibited. Now that we are about to see a new recycling depot rise on the grounds I have been photographing for so many years there is a certain perverse nostalgia on my part for the old tire heaps ...There are so many artists who mine the depot and freestore for ingredients and inspiration.

Ferns curl in the dark

Five finger ferns barbius discardii
see also: the Fernwort papers in the Gallery of Ferns

Scissor tailed Jua-Jua byrd

'PLEASE DO NOT TAKE THE HANGERS'
Sometimes the volunteers will save an old wooden hanger for me as they are too ungainly for the space in the Free store. They are so sculptural...see  Dunlop, the  Gentleman's Gentleman in the Gallery of Domestic Refusals ...and it is a real thrill when an old thimble or some other seamstress's tool appears as they bring back memories of my grandmother and of the endless recycling of clothing from one generation and one sister to another. 

My sister's fingers dance through these woven remnants of history, reading there the sheet music of the generation before us, writing witty and graceful stories into her daughter's future. 

Flora Navidad

After the Christmas faire this past weekend, which was very delightful but during which my feet were so cold all I could think of were exotic climes and hot spicy blooms...since I had found a brilliant orange coffee pot handle at the depot it became the heart of this new hot house plant...

Faire signs

This weekend is the DI Christmas Faire...these are for my booth...the day is keen,  frosty and illuminated with a crispy and crystalline sun. It is always good to visit with islanders, some of whom I have worked Craft Faires with, off and on for over thirty years. On my way across the island I see the Highland cattle breathe great steamy speech balloons into the icy morning air.

December 2010

Spoonflowers and stuff

Ground birds

Ground Birds is one of a series of acrylic paintings using shirts....there are more in the Gallery- Domestic Refusals

Double barreled carburetor

A mechanic neighbor recently pointed out that what I'd used for the head on my first Junko was a dual carburetor. I appreciate the information...much of the time I photograph unidentifiable debris...In this case Junko primo's body is the enamel (inside of an old stove) and his tail feathers - springs from a retired cot...rusted metal, hot water heaters and fridges supplied plumage and the legs are coil springs. That bold look is thanks to the addition of a pair of seriously oxidized washers. 

Thornton Burgess 1923

Often I find the decaying carcasses of books (like this) in the freestore at our recycling depot...the paper foxed and fragile but the stories strongly evocative of my childhood in a forest both real and imagined. The artwork still thrills and my imagination is still roused.

Cards - ReGrowth Botanical Curiosities

 5.5" by 8.5" Cards...ReGrowth - Botanical Curiosities

SNOW TIRES

It has snowed again today

Cards...Ravens, Crows & Bikes

1.  Bike brambles

2.  Bike Branches

3.  Stolen Reflector

4.  Spoken Byrd

5.  Bike pile

6.  Reflector

7.  Wheels

8.  Bike Byrd Skeleton

9.  Rouge et noir  - the Cycles

The Crow...
I suppose he is the hardest lot that wears feathers. Yes, and the cheerfullest, and the best satisfied with himself. He never arrived at what he is by any careless  process, or any sudden one; he is a work of art, and "art is long"; he is the product of immemorial ages, and deep calculation; one can't make a bird like that in a day. He has been reincarnated more times than Shiva; and he has kept a sample of each incarnation, and fused it into his constitution. In the course of his evolutionary promotions, his sublime march toward ultimate perfection, he has been a gambler, a low comedian, a dissolute priest, a fussy woman, a blackguard, a scoffer, a liar, a thief, a spy, an informer, a trading politician, a swindler, a professional hypocrite, a patriot for cash, a reformer, a lecturer, a lawyer, a conspirator, a rebel, a royalist, a democrat, a practicer and propagator of irreverence, a meddler, an intruder, a busybody, an infidel, and a wallower in sin for the mere love if it. The strange result, the incredible result, of this patient accumulation of all damnable traits is, that he does not know what care is, he does not know what sorrow is, he does not know what remorse is, his life is one long thundering ecstasy of happiness, and he will go to his death untroubled, knowing that he will soon turn up again as an author or something, and be even more intolerable capable and comfortable than ever he was before.
Mark Twain - Following the Equator 

  

Cards...Byrds, Bees and Etcetera

This series is printed on a cream manila card stock 

and fits a 6" square envelope.