June Gloom

I realize it's not June but it is typical weather around here. Morning clouds, clearing in the afternoon. I was out for a run and had to get a shot of the Jacaranda trees. I love their purple blooms.

Take peace! The gloom of the world is but a shadow. Behind it, yet within our reach, is joy.
~ Fra Giovanni Giocondo

Collage 2

I'm not sure this is done yet, but this is it so far.

Focus on the journey, not the destination. Joy is found not in finishing an activity but in doing it.
~ Greg Anderson

In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida Baby

B was in a comedy sketch tonight as part of her drama class. The only way I could post a shot of this was to add a lot of noise and blur it out a bit so you couldn't see her very clearly. I still may end up having to delete it tomorrow. She was SO funny - I could not believe this was my little girl.

If you're looking for youth, you're looking for longevity, just take a dose of rock 'n' roll. It keeps you going. Just like the caffeine in your coffee. Rock 'n' roll is good for the soul, for the well being, for the psyche, for your everything. I love it. I can't even picture being without rock 'n' roll.
~ Hank Ballard

Buddhism

I drove out to a Buddhist temple today. It was so beautiful and serene. There happened to be a whole group of visiting monks there on a tour. I loved watching their faces.

Peace comes from within. Do not seek it without.
~ Buddha

Cookies!

I am still convinced that a good, simple, homemade cookie is preferable to all the store-bought cookies one can find.
~James Beard

Haunted

Where'er we tread 'tis haunted, holy ground.
~ Lord Byron

The Lilliputian Hummer

Vision is the art of seeing what is invisible to others.
~ Jonathan Swift

Music Lessons?

Without music life would be a mistake.
~ Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche

Stones

Taking after Andy Goldsworthy E put together a sculpture in the backyard.

As with all my work, whether it's a leaf on a rock or ice on a rock, I'm trying to get beneath the surface appearance of things. Working the surface of a stone is an attempt to understand the internal energy of the stone.
~ Andy Goldsworthy

The Falcon

While washing my car today I noticed a large bird flying overhead. I ran in to grab my camera and caught him as he took off from a nearby tree. I just love birds of prey.

Look deep into nature, and then you will understand everything better.
~ Albert Einstein

Retirement

After years of teaching my mom finally gets to retire in a few weeks. They held a retirement party for her today at school. Of course it only made her want to leave earlier!

There's never enough time to do all the nothing you want.
~ Bill Watterson, Calvin and Hobbes

The Snorkeler

E is finally finishing a sculpture he started several months ago made entirely from plastic wrap. He is going to hang it from his ceiling as a snorkeler. You can see the bottom half laying on the chair behind him.

The sculptor represents the transition from one pose to another.. he indicates how insensibly the first glides into the second. In his work we still see a part of what was and we discover a part of what is to be.
~ Auguste Rodin

A Fairy's Parasol

Faeries, come take me out of this dull world,
For I would ride with you upon the wind,
Run on the top of the dishevelled tide,
And dance upon the mountains like a flame.
~ William Butler Yeats

The Facade

It is not the end of the physical body that should worry us. Rather, our concern must be to live while we're alive - to release our inner selves from the spiritual death that comes with living behind a facade designed to conform to external definitions of who and what we are.
~ Elisabeth Kubler-Ross

Finished

After several days it's finally done. I used a 16x20 canvas with old photos I had copied, a self-portrait E made, paint, ribbon, cheesecloth, etc.

Beware of him that is slow to anger; for when it is long coming, it is the stronger when it comes, and the longer kept. Abused patience turns to fury.
~ Francis Quarles

Stupefaction

Clever people seem not to feel the natural pleasure of bewilderment, and are always answering questions when the chief relish of a life is to go on asking them.
~ Frank Moore Colby

Singing the Praises of Apple

If anyone is in the market for a new computer I cannot recommend Apple highly enough. My laptop started making funny noises today. I took it to the Apple geniuses fully expecting them to tell me they would have to send it in yet again. This would be the fourth time. It's never been anything too serious but it was getting a little annoying (actually, more than a little). I asked if I could just trade it out for a new one thinking I would have to fight hard for that. They took a look at the history and immediately said they would switch it out. Not only that, but I was traded for an UPGRADE! My 60gb hard drive is now a 120gb hard drive. All at absolutely no cost. Mac is the way to go...

I want to put a ding in the universe.
~ Steve Jobs

A Work in Progress

Part of another collage (unfinished)...

The world needs anger. The world often continues to allow evil because it isn't angry enough.
~ Bede Jarrett

Mother's Day

The moment a child is born, the mother is also born. She never existed before. The woman existed, but the mother, never. A mother is something absolutely new.
~ Rajneesh

The Mountains

Those who contemplate the beauty of the earth find reserves of strength that will endure as long as life lasts.
~ Rachel Carson

Chinese Food

I had a wonderful lunch with my brother today...

I just love Chinese food. My favorite dish is number 27.
~ Clement Atlee, former British Prime Minister

Abstract III

I try to apply colors like words that shape poems, like notes that shape music.
~ Joan Miro

Feeling Lucky?

What do you do when you have to wait on the mechanic to change your tire? Take pictures, of course!

Luck? I don't know anything about luck. I've never banked on it, and I'm afraid of people who do. Luck to me is something else: Hard work -- and realizing what is opportunity and what isn't.
~ Lucille Ball

The Flat

I want a pit crew... I hate the procedure I currently have to go through when I have car problems.
~ Dave Barry

Fountain

Water is the only drink for a wise man.
~ Henry David Thoreau

Illuminations

In photography there are no shadows that cannot be illuminated.
~ August Sander

Prom

On with the dance! let joy be unconfined;
No sleep till morn, when Youth and Pleasure meet
To chase the glowing hours with flying feet.
~ George Gordon, Lord Byron, Childe Harold's Pilgrimage

More Collage

A few more attempts at collage. There are four 5x7's put together. I'm not sure if I should keep them together or frame them separately. Any thoughts?

There is no must in art because art is free.
~ Wasilly Kandinsky

Yellow

It's spring fever.... You don't quite know what it is you DO want, but it just fairly makes your heart ache, you want it so!
~ Mark Twain

Formalwear

Saturday is Prom so today E had to do the requisite "trying on of the tux". I have to say he looked pretty good.

Now, if you're blue
And you don't know where to go to
Why don't you go where fashion sits
Puttin' on the Ritz
~ Irving Berlin

The Music Box

This is one of my favorite presents ever given to me. When E went to Egypt a year and a half ago he ended up in Switzerland for a few days. He brought this music box back and gave it to me for my birthday. I wish everyone could hear it play.

Music washes away from the soul the dust of everyday life.
~ Berthold Auerbach