Field Walking in the Light Rain

 

Walking in the rain-wet grassy valley this morning  I stopped and did these very fast postage stamp-size views.

 

And then I came across a scattering of hickory nuts half gnawed on by squirrels or chipmunks.

At Think Tank Late This Afternoon

 

Small Things in the Woods That Don't Care About the Circus in DC

 

Golden Chairs

 

Here are some golden chairs (real gold!) sat in by real guys--

 

Gold and brocade with gold thread!

 

I'm working on this piece that needs a golden chair inside.

 

See if you can match the gold chair with the one I'm ending up with here, in this rough dummy:

 

And here's a mock up of the outside:

 

The real book will have a double book board base and a narrow hinge sandwiched between layers of book board.

Knife and Pen

 

Sketch for a bird stamp to use in a book

 

Print of bird

 

Careful study of bird eyes from photo 

 

Prints of larger bird on monotype base

In Which We Contemplate Ill-Prepared Leaders

 

 

Some of these guys were literally children when they had leadership thrust upon them;  and some of them had simply never grown up.  

 

Check in with Jesse

 

Jesse reports that he is 1) not surprised and 2) not really interested in the kerfuffle of the appointments.

 

He's more intrigued by grooming his tail and placing his limbs perfectly on the bed.

 

 

Famous Brutes and Thugs

 

A gentle reminder to keep eyes open and refrain from normalizing--

 

All these guys were once cute babies.

 

Towers

 

I've been thinking about towers a lot lately, and today I looked up symbolism of towers.  The first thing that came up was the Tower card in tarot.  

 

The description of this card and its ancient symbolic meaning fit so perfectly with how I and my family and friends are feeling that I wondered if the prominence of a certain tower in our nation could be taken as a weird sort of group tarot card.  

 

To calm myself down I re-drew a few towers from old travel sketchbooks and added in my favorite neighborhood tower.

Mad Kings and Despots

 

 

 

What We're Wearing on Our Feet In Asheville

 

At crit group this morning were boots and chunky shoes and patterned socks and tights.  Finally some fall weather!  Now if we could have a little rain--

Golden Chairs for the Potato Head Family

 

Jesse's Opinion on the Strange Cabinet Choices

 

 

 

And a consoling loaf of bread with floral motif stencilled on top

 

Boring Little Palette Cleanser

 

Onions, yellow potatoes, a yam, a past-its-prime banana, a wobbly apple (yawn).

Sweet Time

 

While their parents were packing to leave, Nate, Abby, and I went out to the backyard and spent a sweet hour together.  Here is Abby drawing while listening to Nate tell a ghost story.

 

And here are back views of Steve the cat and Abby lounging on the big stone in the fire circle while drawing and mixing colors.  So sad to say goodbye!

Family Weekend

 

From the left, L and D's banana bloom, Nate raptly listening to D explain minerals and rocks, Abby not looking like herself, Nate in profile, Abby drawing and coloring.

 

P and Nate playing hangman at breakfast.

Electoral College for Chickens: a Tutorial

Above are the seven districts of the chicken yard. The farmer wanted to let the chickens vote on which color of corn kernels they would prefer to eat.  On the chart each chicken's color represents her or his choice.

 

Above are the tallies of the election. ( The farmer had decided that it would be fairer to have electors vote according to how the majority of the chickens in each district voted. Each small --1-5--district was given one elector and each large --6-10-- district was given two electors. ). 

What an interesting system!  The white-preferring chickens numbered 15 and the black-preferring totaled 11.  But the black-preferring chickens won 5 electoral votes while the white-preferring chickens garnered only 4 electoral votes.  So the black -preferring chickens won, of course, even though more chickens actually voted white.  Why are those white chickens such poor losers?!

 

Nate and Abby and their parents are visiting!

 

Here are Abby's feet, colored by Abby.

 

And Abby's Mom and Abby, also colored by Abby!  Plus a brown thing by Abby.

 

Cabinet of Curiosities

 

Trying to stay away from news but today on NPR someone mentioned some names being considered , and I began to imagine the amateurish shuffling around that must be passing for drumpf's cabinet  assembling.  

 

"Hey Rudy you've been in court a lot!  How 'bout Attorney General for you?  Sarah -- you live around all those Indians and animals-- how 'bout Interior?"  

Folk Art Faces

 

At the museum in the Folk Art Center on the Blue Ridge Parkway this afternoon I found this funky carved gate--

 

a flat family greeting visitors.  Nearby were some old homemade dolls: