Crown Jewels: A Rare Botanical Delight

This little gem is called  the Crown Jewels, it is also a microscopic organism that is nomadic in nature.  The Crown Jewels sort of migrate and take in the sights of the most beautiful blossoms and specimens of the plant kingdom, they might be small, but Crown Jewels are magnificent little creatures and considered royalty within the nano-culture.  They thrive best in botanical gardens, where other rare and beautiful specimens live together and treated like the treasures they are.  Crown Jewels are like visiting celebrities and live like rock stars, all are different, they pick up traits from the plants and gardens they live and migrate among.  No two Crown Jewels are alike and migratory patterns vary from individual to individual Crown Jewel. Their choice of travel is dependent of a variety hosts, such as gardeners, care-givers, birds, worms, etc.. They will piggy-back just about any viable transportation to their next destination, where they will be warmly invited to the next plant with a celebration of blooms upon their arrival, like I said, rock stars!

Elephant Tree Grove

Here's a strange and rare glimpse of the Elephant Tree  in a grove.  In reality, they are tiny, so the name Elephant Tree applies only because the second trunk that resembles that of an elephant's.  Otherwise, they are microscopic and are both a type of fungi and animal.  To observe these microorganisms is quite miraculous, if not impossible.  They are extremely loving in their family group, or rather, groves.  An Elephant Tree grove is self-sufficient and finds a spot in either a garden or an individual potted plant, like and orchid, African violet, and sometimes shamrocks.  They are attracted by strange and beautiful plants and will travel and live as nomads until they find a spot that will foster their grove where they will grow groovy colonies and assist the mother plant or their home of choice with the nutrients that only an microscopic and elegant Elephant Tree can provide to the host of their chosen grove.  The host, or mother plant will be abundant in blooms and growth as a result of the nutrients.  They are considered good luck, trunks-up or trunks-down, they are exceptional creatures.  This rare specimen exists as a painting in my sketchbook.

Looking for Love…

Now that I have your attention AND got a song stuck in your head, I’d like to introduce you to the 3rd installment of Christmas Cheer.  This is a textural painting with the addition of crackle medium and fine, black mica flake medium, and thick string gel.  This is titled “Awaiting Love”, picturing a silly, love-sick albino peacock looking for the love that will fill his life in his future and waiting to give his love in return.  This painting went to my brother, Jack(ie) and his wife, Joanna.  They are still considered newlyweds, so I figured this painting would still apply.

a bit more of cheer…

This is an experimental painting that was given to my sister, Andrea.  It involves several layers starting with fabric being the base, then a 3D piece of art with yarn I created, and finally, alternating layers of paint and medium gloss and matte finishes used according to my whim.  It’s a friendly little bitty, full of vim and vigor, more spirit than matter….light-hearted, just like Andrea!

a little Christmas Cheer…

This is the detail of a painting given to my parents for Christmas.  I kept my color palette minimal, which is challenging (for me).  It is titled “Lurking Garden Angel”.  Every garden has it’s angels AND dragons, at least that is what I choose to believe!  This is a better look at a previously posted painting originally named a garden sprite, and later decided it is better suited as a garden angel.  This made sense because the background is golden and the painting in general has an angelic quality.  And, it was a Christmas present!

She Hoo Is

She Hoo Is, is an older painting.  I painted this about ten years ago.  She Hoo Is is one of the earlier version of an girl-faced owl that I would paint or draw again and again over the years.  She is always alone and in the trees, engaging the viewer, straight on.  There is little that gets past this one, she's always on the watch. Look out!

 Adventures in Making Mosaics

I made this last year around Easter.  So, not intending

to do so, I made an Easter Egg Tree.  Really, they are birds, not eggs.  Just birds, with really big faces and little stick legs.  This was a labor of love.  It was all trial and error that happened to turn out OK, kinda like life.  There are no traditional mosaic materials in this piece, which by the way, is titled "The Easter Egg Bird Tree".  The sky is made of hand-cut polymer clay tiles. The 'birds' are initially ink-jet prints of various paintings made by a technique too Involved even for me to describe.  And the tree is made with fabric paint on felt and candy foil covered in thick gel medium.  I ate a lot of chocolates in the making of this piece. The grout was black polymer, squished into and between the spaces, then heat-set with an hot air crafting tool that surprisingly worked! When it was all said and done, my mother instantly fell in love with it, and it hangs with pride in the home of my parents.  It is in good company, their home is essentially a gallery of items made by myself or my sister and various family members over the years.  How could I not give this labor of love to my mother, she labored in love to bring me into this world:) Thanks MOM!

Desert Night Bloom or Dark Night of the Soul?  This is from my current sketchbook.  I sometimes don't process art for a long time after creating it.  This is one of my attempts at Illustrator, I'll post the sketch next.   The family tree can be a faulty tree, as demonstrated by my own flawed health.  Our battles, both physical and emotional are ones we essentially fight alone.  The beauty is, we grow and get stronger.  If a plant, dependent upon water to grow, can grow in a desert and even bloom, then so can we.  Sick or not, we are genetically coded to survive, like the desert night bloom;)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It Takes a Forest....Well, despite our efforts of individuation and independence throughout our youth and early adulthood, we are ever so connected.  It's is nice to find the comfort in the familiarity of heritage in the family tree.  This is a sibling portrait of sorts.  The saplings have grown and started their own little forests, we will always be connected.

Submersion:  A work in progress in the on-going series of the Family Tree.  This one is more or less a state of mind, my own.  Percolating in the soil, growing, emerging, hiding.  I am pretty much a hermit due to circumstances beyond my control, but more or less have formed my art at present.  You spend a lot of time alone when you create, it is good to know thyself, be content with who you are, and what you are becoming.  If it means sprouting a tree from your head, well, so be it, let it grow, bear fruit, seed and be pruned. (this is where God comes into the scene, pruning is best left up to the Big Guy, he knows what your best features are, and the best way to show the talents we have been gifted.  Besides, who wants to go around with a unruly tree on their head?)

        The Family Tree

The Family Tree is a series of paintings and drawings

that I have been composing for years.  I love to use

plants and flower images to 'stand-in' for my family

members.  Why do I animate plant life?  I pretty much

blame that on "Alice in Wonderland" and any number

of fairy tales.  One of my all-time favorites is "Thumbelina".

My primary family consists of five of us, mom, dad, brother,

me, and a sister.  I look at this like a snapshot in time when

we all still lived in a state of cohesion.  I've never figured

out which one is me, it changes.