June by fence

Louise by the window

Flock of seagulls. (They were so funny, doing everything in unison: standing facing the wind in unison, shuffling nervously away from me in unison, etc.)

Counting Crows

This morning as I sat on my balcony, a large crow* landed on the wire in front of me, lifted its head, opened its beak, and let out a huge cawwww caw caw caw caw. After a pause, it repeated the sequence, cawwww caw caw caw caw, paused, did it again, paused, did it again. Then, from blocks away, came a response, cawww caw caw caw. And then, from still further away and in a slightly different direction, came another, cawwww caw caw caw. I had turned to face this unseen chorus. When I looked back, the first crow was gone, off perhaps to join its new found friends.

Birds are busy.

* Really, it was the size of a small cat.

Mr. Bowtie

Parties and Parades

Well, it was one of those weekends: beautiful spring weather, Lil' Miss June's seventh birthday on Saturday (my, my!), Krewe du Vieux kicking off the parade season. A few pictures:



June woke up at 6 a.m. on her birthday. Since it was still seven hours until her little party, we took a drive out to the lake front to the admire the stunningly dense fog.



Hands



Cake!



Floats!



Gaggle of kiddos, watching the parade. (Krewe du Vieux is a bawdy affair, but these N.O. kids are amazingly unphased, having seen it every year since infancy: "Giant marching phalli—whatever.")



Sarah ran into a work associate.



After the parade.



For her big sister treat, I took Louise on her longest bike ride to date: to the park, around, and back. She was a champ.



Afterward, a quiet read on the balcony.

Man in turquoise and red.

Streetcar in fog. It really was t'icker 'dan pea soup out there this morning. (I'm not sure what accent that's supposed to be. Jamaican sailor? I dunno!)

Everything Old...

Whoah, this morning I actually saw a dude carrying a giant boombox on his shoulder, eighties-style. Everything old is new again.

Everyday objets (our new little series of quick sketch-paintings of the miscellaneous thises-and-thats of life): Blue enamel coffee pot. (I told you coffee might figure prominently in this series.) It's an exceptionally lovely color blue. At this point in its career, it mainly just looks pretty (we use Chemex for our daily coffee consumption), but it does an exceptionally good job of it. (On a technical note, painting shiny smooth straight stuff is kind of hard. I'd gotten good at fur. Coffee pots don't have much fur—or at least they shouldn't. This new series will require working up some new painterly chops.)

Next, Please

Well, that phone phauna sure was phun, a silly simple little sketch game that turned into a silly complex big  painting game. As the alphabet progressed, those suckers got pretty elaborate, evolved in a direction I simply hadn't imagined or really even known was possible at at the outset. I was pleasantly surprised by the results and gratified by the many kind comments they received, and I'll definitely continue trucking in this new direction, seeing where this curious business of the digital painting leads.

Folks have asked if I intend to render the critters in a non-virtual form. That sounds like a great idea: I shall make it so. I haven't sorted out the exact particulars yet—a little book, prints, a poster, any or all of the above (y'all have made some helpful suggestions)—but I'll let you know as soon as I do.

And folks have also asked what's next? Good question. The alphabet series and the daily deadline was a great way to force myself to try new things and keep moving, but as the complexity increased, so did the amount of time each one took (that squirrel has a lot of little hairs, and consequently a lot of little "brush strokes"*). Perhaps you'll understand if I keep things loose and sketchy for a bit: I'm thinking a series of quick-'n'-casual paint-sketches of various domestic items (or non-domestic items, or really, whatever catches my fancy). Like look: here's a little doodle of a mug of coffee (cold, for the morning) and a banana (also cold, also for the morning) that I did last night while drifting towards Drowsy Land. You might be seeing lots of mugs of coffee. (They're a near-constant presence in my life.) Maybe it'll be a whole series of coffee in its various states and modes. Who knows? (I don't.) And then maybe we'll kick some other more rigorous and elaborate series (alphabet or otherwise) in the future, once my eyes and fingers have had a chance to catch their metaphorical breath. How's that sound?

* It's a bit confusing figuring out what language to use for this virtual artistry, but if I say "brush" or "draw" or "paint", I assume you'll know what I mean.

Phone Phauna Phun: Z is for zebra. (And 'zis is indeed zee end. It's been fun. 'Zanks for coming by.)

Phone Phauna Phun: Y is for yak. (This particular yak appears to be a yakety yak (don't talk back) of the crazy-eyed close-talker variety.)

Phone Phauna Phun: X is for Xoloitzcuintle.

Phone Phauna Phun: W is for walrus.

Phone Phauna Phun: V is for vulture.

Phone Phauna Phun: U is for unicorn, flowy beautiful unicorn. (The real challenge was getting it to pose long enough for its portrait—though I had to paint fast anyway because the purple sunset was fading.)

Phone Phauna Phun: T is for turtle.

Phone Phauna Phun: S is for squirrel.

Phone Phauna Phun: R is for rabbit.

Phone Phauna Phun: Q is for quail. (Yes, I know, two birds in a row. But the birds are so fun!) Do you think preppy quail wear brightly colored pants with little people on them?

Phone Phauna Phun: P is for peacock.

Phone Phauna Phun: O is for orangutan.

Phone Phauna Phun: N is for nanny goat.