Altered Photos, Art, Collage, Letters to Esther

The Terrible Hours: Uncertain Orbits

The Terrible Hours:  Uncertain Orbits
The Terrible Hours: Uncertain Orbits
collage (child’s dress pattern, altered Polaroid, magazine and dictionary illustrations, and anatomical illustration)
9 1/4 x 11 3/4 inches

I found the diagram of the solar system in an old dictionary. Ironically, it was published before Pluto was made the ninth planet.

I’ve been struggling with this one off and on all day. Aside from having a headache, I was preoccupied with having been contacted by two of Esther’s nieces. I’m still mentally processing information, and I won’t know how things are going to proceed until they’ve had a chance to talk to the rest of the family. Obviously, I’ll return the letters to them, but I’m hoping that they will let me digitize and transcribe the remaining ones first. And, of course, I’d like to keep the letters online, where they will be accessible to everyone.

The internet, it doth amaze!

Uncategorized

And then there were eight

First Views of Pluto
Pluto and Charon
Credit: NASA on The Commons

The International Astronomical Union has demoted Pluto to “dwarf planet,” leaving the solar system with only eight “classical” planets. There are now three categories of objects in our solar system: Planets, Dwarf planets, and the not so very poetic Small Solar System Bodies. The last seems to be a catch-all for everything that is not the Sun and does not fit in either of the first two categories.

Photography

Every night I tell myself, I am the cosmos

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I don’t know why I’m so fascinated by these Cosmos flowers. There’s something about the contrast of the egg-yolky centers (appropriate, as that’s where the ovaries are located) with the purple petals. This one was starting to show a bit of early evening shadowing, which helped accentuate the slight ridging along the length of the petals. You can also see a faint scattering of pollen. The bees and butterflies had already paid this blossom a visit.

Speaking of the cosmos, members of the International Astronomical Union are expected to determine that there are 12 planets. Pluto, whose planetary designation has long been challenged, will hopefully remain a planet, along with his brother, Charon. Ceres could be elevated from asteroid to planet, as well. The inclusion of the catchy 2003 UB313 (popularly known as Xena) would bring the number of planets to 12.

My Very Educated Mother Just Served Us Nine Pickles may soon need a little tweaking.

Photography

Perseids

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Mammatus clouds

The annual Perseid meteor shower will be at its peak this weekend. Because of the full moon, it’s not expected to be as stunning as it could be, but it’s still worth checking out. The moon rises at about 10pm, so the time between sunset and 10:00 is probably your best shot. I recommend slathering on some bug repellant and heading out to the back yard with either a reclining beach chair or a pool floaty. Being horizontal is definitely best, so you won’t strain your neck.

The weather here has been the pits for sky watching. It stormed on and off all day yesterday, and is supposed to do the same today. It ought to clear up tomorrow, though, so hopefully I’ll get a chance to see some meteors.

For more information on the Perseid shower, check out SpaceWeather.com.

Meta, Photography

Happy Solstice

I finished uploading the rest of my existing art images to my Flickr account. Or, at least, everything that currently exists in digital format. I’ve got a few new things that need to be scanned and a couple of paintings at my mom’s house that haven’t been photographed, but they’ll have to wait until the motivation strikes me. I’m hoping that I’ll have lots of arting and scanning time over the up-coming three-day weekend.

Solstice Celebration
Solstice Celebration
Image credit: SOHOEIT Consortium, ESA, NASA

Altered Books, Art, Collage, Crankypantsing, Pets, Photography

Friday Round-up (Are We There Yet?)

I Carry a Picture in My Teeth
I Carry a Picture in My Teeth

Meme-tacularity: I normally don’t get meme-y here. They bore me to tears on other people’s blogs, but I saw this on Creating Text(iles) and it amused the hell out of me. So:

You are Joan of Arc! You don’t really want to hurt anyone, but if they attack your friends or your country and no-one else will stand up to fight them, you head into the battle. Beware though, conviction tends to get you killed. (Which Saint Are You? brought to you by Quizilla)

Basically, I hate taking any sort of leadership roll, but if I’m forced to, heads will roll. Which is not inconsistent with what the Myers-Briggs personality test has to say about me (iNFj).

Anyway, a while back, I was asked to contribute artwork for the cover of an anthology of poetry. They ultimately chose to use a page I’d done in an altered book (above). The piece was inspired by a song called John Dark (if it were a rose of another name, it would be called Jeanne d’Arc).

Craptacularity: In other news… Today got off to a less than stellar start. I woke up at midnight and didn’t get back to sleep until nearly 4am, so I’m tired and cranky and my back hurts from tossing and turning all night. The bathroom light burned out, and I had to fumble around in the dark to put a new bulb in, almost stepping on the cat in the process. While I was in the shower, the gas company started cutting down brush along the easement (at 7am!). Harriet, who is normally very quiet, decided to sound the Intruder Alert. I had to get out of the shower, see what what she was barking about, tell her the sky was not falling, then get back in the shower to finish rinsing my hair. Blech. Then, I was a dork and turned on the microwave while I was making toast, and had to go reset the breaker and re-toast my breakfast. Naturally, after the toast was done, I forgot to finish heating up my tea water.

Hopefully, all that craptacularity will mean that the rest of the day goes smoothly. I’m not holding my breath or anything, though.

Friday Dogblogging, Starring Harriet Brown the Canine Corkscrew:

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Isn’t she the cutest thing ever? I love watching her wallow around. She’s one of the twistiest dogs I’ve ever met. What cracks me up is that she’ll stay in that position for quite a long time. I can’t imagine that it’s comfortable, but it seems to work for her.

Harriet’s a funny, funny dog, in both definitions of the word. She’s a typical Boxer, in that she loves to make people laugh. She’s got a great sense of humor and will do anything for a joke. She’s got a serious, sensitive side, though, and is changeable, so you never know which Harriet you’ll get. It’s like getting two dogs for the price of one. She’s nothing at all like Elliott, who was thoroughly consistent. He was always sunny and gregarious and pretty much just happy to be. Harriet is like having hot- and cold-running Boxer.

Okey Cokey Pig in a Pokey: I’m half-way through season three of The League of Gentlemen. Dear God. It’s truly brilliant. The plot keeps twisting and weaving like an inebriated acrobat. It’s funny and disgusting and I can’t wait to see what happens next. Oh, and the extras are damned good, too. I recommend re-watching the episodes with the commentary on. If you can get your hands on the Christmas episode, watch that, too. It contains three horror vignettes that are priceless, as well as tv and radio interviews and old footage.

A Blue Crescent Moon from Space

A Bone Dry Moon: I learned an interesting bit of weather lore yesterday. A friend’s mother said that she’d been taught that a dry moon meant it would not rain. Last night’s crescent moon was dry. It was supposed to rain yesterday and today, but so far, we’ve gotten bupkis, and the radar is crystal clear. I know it’s just coincidence, but it’s interesting, nonetheless.

Image credit: A Blue Crescent Moon from Space, Expedition 13 Crew, International Space Station, NASA, from APOD.