Mothers Day

To Mommy: And Burton Grandma:
And Richmond Grandma:

Happy Mothers Day!

Tree motif

We've spent a fair amount of time capturing the issues of the day on digital canvas. We come back repeatedly to those issues that occupy the better parts of our hearts and minds in this time of global turmoil and crisis. Specifically, we've done more than a few pictures of bread with peanut butter on it, and here I've posted our series on trees (a clear indictment of our irresponsible society's unconscionable behavior toward the environment and climate control... and also they're pretty).

New places in art

I like that art takes you places you can't otherwise go. Like under the ocean:







Oooo... here comes a coral reef. Nice.

Oh. And here's the piece of toast with a generous amount of honey and jam on it. Who knew we'd run into that here?

This toast needs more jam.

Why Interrupt?

Why interrupt? I know from my own attempts at art that sometimes it's hard to tell when a piece needs to be done. Aren't there always finishing touches that could change the feel? Hopefully make it better? But too many changes--changes like, say, a whole new coat of paint--can sometimes be overkill.

This is an amorous tribute to a nursery playmate, perhaps. Maybe the perseverating is part of the process.

Cereal Orange

He might say "orange" and still disapprove of the particular shade I choose. He'll give more specific instructions on occasion, like "dark orange" or "more orange", but his vocabulary doesn't allow for much by way of distinction. I can't say I regret that though--how else would I have any expression in the process? But today he said, "another orange" over and over, poorly regarding every orange I produced. I think he was disppointed with the way any new color was swallowed by the thick oil base we had laid down. "Whitish orange? Bright orange? Peach orange? Brown? Burnt orange? Serious orange?" Yes, he said, "Cereal orange!" And with a few strokes of cereal orange, he remembered he was hungry and needed a Cheerio break.

Primitive Toddler

This was done a while ago, and I can't quite remember our respective roles in its creation. But I'm pretty sure Sam insisted on the dark colors and I did some of the final touches.

Blue Fruit

For this one, Sam still chose the colors, but I provided the brush strokes.