Two Meatheads and a Cheesehead

Having some fun with images in a recent Veer catalog that came in the mail.

Bottle Neck

What happens when I have a little too much time around the house, with a pair of scissors, a gluestick, and a Sundance catalog.

Cheers To the New Year

I know, I know. It's been a while.

I hope to post more in 2007. My goodness.

On Giving Thanks

When the boys have trouble falling asleep at night we suggest they go to bed, close their eyes, and start counting thanks. Think of all the things you are thankful for. The list would never end.

Framed

Click on the image to see it bigger, if you want to.

Moi

Since it rained all day today we stayed home and puttered around the house. Cookies and muffins were baked, house slippers were worn, and much football on TV was watched.

Last Sunday, however, we went out to the colorful spot on the globe I've named The Rusty Sun. I snapped loads of photos and then I sat down and painted a little sketch of my shadow. My shadow was surrounded my rusty red oak leaves.

It's a rough life.

Shooting Acorns

W. shooting acorns with his slingshot into the pond this afternoon.

I wish there was a way to bottle up days like this and then keep them handy for those other days when the air is stagnant and pungent.

Cold winds blowing straight through the soul and out again, like some kind of detox elixir.

Bright copper oak leaves. Gem-like deep burgundy sumak leaves. Cheery red sasafrass leaves.

Brillant blue sky.

Land. Hills, trails, draws, a pond, clearings, the creek, a little frog, a big rock with a frizzy sort of moss all over it.

Sunshine.

Feeling so good tired at the end of the day.

Portrait

Okay, so here is a drawing Z did about three years ago. He was 4, almost 5. It was December 2003. This was before Z started drawing everything in stick figures... back then he drew what he saw. As you can plainly see, this is a portrait of his mom and dad. We are in the living room. I'm in the chair cozied up in a green throw blanket and J's kicked back on the couch. We are watching the movie Seabiscuit on TV. I was knitting also, and if you look closely you can sort of see the knitting needles.
I don't know why Z stopped drawing like this. He would really get in the zone. This one took about 25 minutes or so.

I am showing this because I found it the other day when I was going through a box of old papers and letters. Finding it made my day.

waiting

waiting, originally uploaded by Tifty's Art.

Something didn't seem right. The light was not the same as before.

Both my headlights were burned out.
I'd been driving around with my fog lights on...

Funny how that is both a literal and allegorical description for the last couple of weeks of my life.

The Storyteller

My younger son is a storyteller. He's a narrator of real and imaginary events and any combination of the two. He is also an illustrator. When he was four he drew an amazing portrait of me and his dad by following the classic method of simply drawing what he saw. I'm going to see if I can find that one and show it to you.

Nowadays my son draws more symbolically and has gone to drawing stick figures in order to quickly create a visual scene for the story he wrote.

If you want to see this drawing a little bigger, click HERE.

Pappa's sketchbook 1964

Pappa's sketchbook 1964, originally uploaded by Tifty's Art.

With some math problems!
He's a civil engineer.

phone call

phone call, originally uploaded by Tifty's Art.

September 1.

clearing my mind

avoiding, originally uploaded by Tifty's Art.

chill

chill, originally uploaded by Tifty's Art.

[GARGANTUAN]
a page of notes I doodled during a presentation by an invited lunch guest speaker at work

just wondering

collage red, originally uploaded by Tifty's Art.

church notes

...partial page in my moleskine with notes that I took while in church back in March...

Midsommar

Summertime

city hall

city hall, originally uploaded by Tifty's Art.

After work one day last week I stopped by city hall for the City Planning meeting and , along with about 15 other neighbors, opposed the rezoning proposal of an adjacent field from Residential to Commercial.

After some discussion the motion to rezone was voted upon and without a majority Yes votes, the motion failed. Yay!

splasher

There are few things that top great childhood summer memories. For my boys, those memories will include splashing around in the backyard pool under the big cedar tree.



"Hey, Mom, watch this one! Watch! This is a new one, a never before attempted trick turn splash!"
[click images for actual size]

swirly sanctuary

Santa Fe, originally uploaded by Tifty's Art.

at the batting cages

sketchbook, originally uploaded by Tifty's Art.

the palace

one of three, originally uploaded by Tifty's Art.

Santa Fe's plaza is the home of the Palace of the Governors.

This is a hasty sketch of part of the famous palace, where native american craftspeople have been setting up their wares for sale since the 1930's (?)

Next time I go on vacation I'm making much more time for drawing and painting.

Reality

A few weeks ago (time flies) I went on a 5 day vacation with my friend Kaye. We went to New Mexico and spent time in Santa Fe and Taos, mostly.

The trip was a much needed break form real life and was supposed to be a groovy trip into a sort of surreality. It was surreal, as anyone who has been to New Mexico can attest (they don't call it the Land of Enchantment for nothing) but graciously, the trip also reminded me of the sweet reality that we sometimes get way wound up over stuff that doesn't matter. Everyone we encountered were the most laid back, easy-going, take it easy kind of people I'd ever met. Chilled out. Smiling. Relaxed.

Spending just five days without TV or internet and spending lots of time outside in the sun and wind and high altitude inspired me inside and out. Walking around old pueblos during the day and then beholding the worlds most amazing sunsets each evening is reality. I didn't get to sketch as much as I'd hoped, though I took lots of pictures (627!) I can't wait to go back. I'll sketch and paint more next time.

On the last day in Santa Fe, we had a few hours in the morning to kick around before we had to drive to Albuquerque to catch our flight back home. I found a spot in front of the San Miguel Mission and sketched the front of it.


The San Miguel Mission is said to be the oldest church in America.

"overheard"

Drawing at the coffee shop

The day I drew this, during a long lunch at a café down the road from where I work, I ran into one person I hadn't seen in years, chatted with two random co-workers while standing in line waiting to place my order, and I noticed a local celebrity who was sitting at the other end of the café reading the newspaper having a cup of tea.

hat and coat on hook

hat and coat on hook, originally uploaded by Tifty's Art.

While we waitied for our order, I sketched this coat hanging on a hook in a local family restaurant. It was the first time I had ever pulled out my sketchbook in a restaurant. I was in a nother world while I was sketching, and I'm not sure if that was a good thing. I was cool. But what was everyone else thinking?

Not Blogging

park bench, originally uploaded by Tifty's Art.

When I was hanging out at the park with my two boys I sketched these two women sitting on a park bench on the other side of the pond from where I was. They were chatting, I was drawing, no one was blogging.

Elsewhere

One of my collages has been featured on the IKEA fan blog, Positive Fanatics. Groovy.

not a video game

After a long Spring Break week of dreary weather and mostly staying at home (filled with a lot of cartoon network and video games, and not as much shooting hoops, bike riding, or outside play as everyone would have liked,) we all welcomed the brief fair and sunny days this past weekend.

Sometime in the middle of Sunday afternoon the boys' bikes were loaded onto the bike rack attached to the truck and we all headed over to the bike-track and skate-pit park where they could ride a while. The place was packed. Turns out there are dirt bike races every Sunday afternoon and kids and adults come from all over the state to race. We found a spot to sit on the knoll between the bike-track and the skate-pit and watched the kids in action. I tried to draw some of the skateboarders - not so easy since they don't exactly want to stay still and pose...

The boys rode their bikes around the park some while we hung out and watched. Everyone agreed it was way more fun than anything on a TV or a computer screen ever could be.

old rusty

old rusty, originally uploaded by Tifty's Art.

The sun was low in the west one evening last weekend and instead of holing up inside the house after dinner and all that I brought the sketchbook and watercolors out the the backyard patio table. Old rusty was parked right there in the grass, smilin, "Draw me! Draw me!" My boys had been pushing each other around in the yard in it earlier, laughing and making all kinds of noise. Raaawwwwwrrr!

Soon old rusty (and squeaky) will help move compost and bags of home improvement store garden soil to the garden spots.