Category: Photography

Pets, Photography

Spring

Shelly

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The weather has been almost unbearably pretty the past few days. The birds and bugs are back with a vengeance and the trees have a green halo of freshly opened leaves. I took some time yesterday to get a few photos of the new growth, as things change so quickly.I’m also still figuring out this new camera. I love the camera itself and am happy with the pictures, but I’m not so happy with the software that came with it. I ended up uninstalling it, which might have been a mistake. It appears that, if I do not use Kodak’s software to do the initial cropping, Hello will upload the uncropped image as the thumbnail. The thumbnails above do point to the correct, cropped images, though, so it’s not as bad as it could be.I thought I’d get around it by uploading this set of photos to Flickr, instead, but Flickr seems to be cranky today.

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The new grass is tender, and must be especially sweet and tasty. The dogs spend hours grazing. They’re quite businesslike about it: rip, chewchewchew, rip, chewchewchew. I love watching them grab the blades in their tiny front teeth and the sound as they pluck the grass from the ground.

Art, Bookarts, Pets, Photography

The Blustery Day

Shelly

It’s cold and snowy and windy today. The weather is supposed to clear up this afternoon, but in the meantime, it’s snowing sideways (30mph wind gusts) and the roads are icy. Yuck.

In arting news, I started on a new book last night. It’s an itty bitty (3/4″ x 7/8″) alphabet book, made out of left-over Cartiera Magnani paper (I just can’t stand to throw any of it away). Lord only knows how I’m going to manage to bind something that small, but I’m sure it’ll be an interesting experience. I’ll post pictures as I finish them.

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Oh, and yesterday was Elliott’s 11th birthday. That photo was taken earlier this winter. Harriet, ever the fashion plate, is modelling the latest in Metal-wear for dogs. Elliott, bless his little heart, is standing all penguin-footed. That’s my silly dork!

Photography

Another Crispy Saturday Morning

Shelly

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Another Crispy Saturday Morning

After days and days of rain, sleet, and snow, the sun came out to play yesterday. The sky this morning is hazy, but the sun is bright and sparkling. The frost was quickly burned away, leaving a muddy brown-green landscape behind. The dogs played for a couple of hours, chasing rabbit tracks and digging for moles. Harriet is still outside, sunbathing. Elliott came in to cool off and get a drink, and is now lying under my feet, sleeping the sleep of the well and truly tuckered out. Ah, puppy bliss.

The cats are enjoying the sun’s appearance, too. After making a pile of all the socks, washcloths, and various pieces of paper looted from my art trash bin, Pandora is sitting on her nest, basking in a sunbeam. I love the way she faces into the light, periodically squeezing her eyes half-shut.

Photography

Three Sunrises

Shelly

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The sunrise this morning was quiet and lovely. There was a hard frost and the air was fresh and crunchy, like grannysmith apples. There was also a bit of fog, so the light was both magnified and diffused. I took these pictures just after the sun had fully crested the eastern ridge. Because I was facing into the sun, the pictures turned out much darker than the actual conditions were.

The dogs also enjoyed the crisp, sunny morning, entertaining themselves chasing rabbit tracks and digging for moles. You can just make out Elliott silhouetted against the grass in the first picture.

Art, Collage, Photography

Snow Storms and Rituals and Beautiful Boys

Shelly

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The wind is howling like a banshee and the snow is blowing sideways. At what point does a snow storm officially become a blizzard? The snow has lightened up a bit since I took these photos. I can actually see the ridge to the east of me. I’m glad I don’t have to be out in this. Snow and cold are great, but high winds scare the bejeezus out of me. This is definitely a day to stay inside with a good fil-um or book and drink lots of hot cocoa.

Rituals
Rituals
collage in composition book

Despite my lack of motivation, I did manage to get some gluing done. The idea for the piece above came to me yesterday, at work. The person in the cubicle beside mine has a collection of vitamins and assorted medications that she takes every afternoon. Little rituals like that are comforting: shoes shed by the front door when you come home, brushing your teeth before bed, or stopping every morning for coffee before work; big rituals, as well: christenings, birthdays, weddings, honeymoons, funerals. These rituals remind us that there’s a rhythm to life and that, no matter what happens, the world will continue rotating on its axis and the sun will continue to rise and set.

Beautiful Boy
Beautiful Boy
collage in composition book

I was watching bad daytime TV earlier in the week and on some talk show, probably Oprah, Celine Dion did a gawdawful cover of John Lennon’s Beautiful Boy. I’ve had the song stuck in my head since then–not a bad thing, since it was thankfully the original version. So, I thought I’d do some arting on the subject. Sometimes art is silly.

Art, Photography

My "Studio"

Shelly

Before

After
Before and After Cleaning

I always enjoy looking at people’s work spaces. I’m in awe of many of them. They’re neat and tidy and hummense. I live in a tiny house with no room for a studio. I prefer working in front of the television, anyway, so even when I had a nice, big studio, I didn’t use it much.

The first picture I took early this morning. I’d been up late working on something, so it was a mess (everything out of place, paper scraps on the floor, and evidence of my caffeine addiction littering the area). The second picture is the clean(er) verison.

After

After
Stacks of Junk and Collage Mania

I added these pictures to show the stacks of containers and drawers under the coffee table. I also thought I’d include a picture of the top of the coffee table. It’s a butt-ugly 1970s vintage maple piece that I inherited from a college roommate. Instead of replacing it with a nicer one, I decided to decoupage the entire top and paint the body. That was about 10 years ago (lordy, does time ever fly!). The decoupage has held up pretty well. I’ve had to replace a couple of areas because I’m coaster impaired and over the years cold beverages have sweat on it. The paint job is looking a little worse for wear, but since I use it as a work bench (note the hammer underneath it), I’m in no hurry to repaint it.

Photography

Winter Sun

Shelly

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Winter Sun

It snowed last night and the sky is a serious shade of slate this morning. Back to yucky Indiana winter weather, I guess.

In art news, I’m hostessing this week’s An Art a Day theme: Dadaism. I’ve been cruising the web, looking for information and inspiration for folks. I was up way past my bedtime last night, working on it. I had trouble falling asleep because my brane was spinning round and round with ideas. That’s often when my best inspirations come to me, though. Hopefully, this won’t be an exception. I can’t wait to get to work!

Pets, Photography

Moon Craters, Biteyface, and One ‘Possum

Shelly

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Biteyface! Note the huge crater in the background. (And, no, Harriet’s not bossy. Much. Elliott doesn’t mind, though. He loveloveloves his girldog.)

Harriet

Harriet

Harriet digging her Moon Crater. She was very pleased with herself and I have to say, it’s kept her entertained for hours. I don’t think they’ve caught anything from the crater, but hope springs eternal. It’s a now good 20′ across and growing daily.

Note the Action Ears (with patented Flying Technology[tm]) in the left-hand photo. Harriet really believes in throwing herself into her work.

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Harriet’s wee baby ‘possum. I couldn’t tell what she was doing. She spent a half an hour or so carefully pushing all the surrounding leaves and twigs on top of it. I’d really like to know why she covered it up so carefully instead of eating it. You can see how nicely the grass has been smoothed toward the ‘possum.

Music, Photography

Let’s Build a Snowman!

Shelly

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Sometimes, the world is black. And tears run from your eyes.
And maybe we’ll all get really sick. Or maybe we’ll all diiiie.
Sooo, let’s build a snowman, we could make it our best friend.
We could name it Bob, or we could name it George.
We could make it tall, or we could make it not so tall!
A snowman!

from Cannibal!: the Musical (You’ll laugh, you’ll cry, it’s way better than Cats!)