SNOW DREAMS

In about the time it takes for snow to fall, melt and wash away in Mississippi, I completed this collage. It's small, about the size of a postcard.

The snowman is dreaming of flying as represented by his wings and the airplane snow globe. He also would like to have his photo taken with The Beatles.

Here's another recycled paper drawing. This one is an angel statue that I got a couple of years ago around Christmas. It's sure nice to have a little time off and to be in the mood for drawing.

THANKSGIVING DOODLES

I always take some pencils and a sketch journal with me to family gatherings. It helps to pass the time in a creative way. I like to doodle while chatting (especially in meetings at work ;-) I just drew a couple of items that were laying on the table while waiting for dinner to be ready and chatting with my sis-in-law...in between helping out a little here and there as well.

I recently got a new sketch journal made from recycled paper. The fibers in the paper add a lot of character to the sketches. I like the way sketches look drawn on this surface so I wanted to share.

AT LEAST I DID NOT HAVE TO THROW IT AWAY
This is an experiment. I had to work a bit to salvage it. It's done with glue and acrylic paint on canvas. I used glue to make the letters and large swirlies so they would stick up and have texture when I painted it. I'm not sure I like it much, but I could not see my way to throw it in the trash. Double click to enlarge and it looks mo'betta.

FINE FOLK ART

This is the Chapel of Reverend Dennis on North Washington Street in Vicksburg, MS. Reverend Dennis promised his wife he'd build her a castle. This one is built around a mobile home. I can't help but love this place. It's folk art at it's finest.

MYTHICAL CRUSH
Mermaid loves Superhero; I don't know how it came to this. It did not start out this way. She's a bit wrinkled in spots. Glue stick no worky on Twinkling H2O's; rubber cement no worky too good either. Oooohhh! The bubbles...hand drawn little scoundrels. I think the ocean floor be lookin' perty good, but the shark...wooo...now he looks super groovy.

ROCK & ROLL HEAVEN

Sunday afternoon art time turned out this collage of some of my favorite departed rockers. I think I like it ok. I was inspired to do something like this after doing some reading about Kurt Cobain on Wikipedia. The line "Ain't got no how whatchamacallit" comes from that Wikipedia article, where they tell about how Cobain was arrested in Seattle for spraypainting the phrase on a local bank. What did it mean? Something mystical? The world may never know.

St. Louis, Missouri - October 2006

I had to go to St. Louis to attend a training class for work, so there was very little time to see any sights. Luckily, class released early enough on the last day of my visit that I was able to have a couple of hours to get out of the building. Fortunately, the Jefferson Memorial Expansion Park was directly across the street from my hotel. I went to sleep each night that week looking at the Gateway arch from the window of my room. It is absolutely awesome.

Different View of Arch
(I laid down on a park bench to get this shot)

VEGAS - SEPTEMBER 2006

I won 777 cents during my trip to Vegas! Woo hoo! My friend said this was an omen and that I should gamble some more. I believe in a bird in the hand. So I took my 777 cents to the bank. Shown below are photos I took of the some of the casinos; MGM, Excalibur, New York, New York, Mandalay Bay and Luxor.

This is an experiment I did last Saturday. For several months now I've had a tendency for doing art literally with my hands. I don't know why. Possibly it's that I simply appreciate my hands and all the things they do for me.

This time I wanted to try something with texture, so I painted my canvas a background of blue with a big double ended yellow swirl. Next, I splattered it with lots of color and black and white.

After the background work was done and had dried, I took it outside and produced a photo of my paint splattered feet against the splattery background. Messy stuff that splattering. The grass outside is still colorful ;-) Then I took it inside and I put in the hands and stars with Sharpie.

Another art night yields two more collages. This time I tried out some of Tara's materials from her goody box. I love the mica watercolors. I must have some. The watercolor paper makes a great surface for the background. These are very random creations with very little planning going into them.

POP CULTURE (SOLD - Amy Berrong, Byram, MS)
That white dress with the Gonzo Muppett is just plain wierd, therefore, I absolutely had to use it. I really like the bunny with his musical instruments...there's just something about bunnies that's cool.

Woo! Another collage...I started this last night while having creative time with Tara. I did not feel good. I've had a toothache, then I had a headache and toothache. I feel better today so I finished up the collage earlier. I think I could have used the Mona Lisa in a better way, but this is how it turned out. Mabye I can find another Mona Lisa and do something different, and better. Oh well. Everything can't turn out perfect.

This is Lori (top photo). She is training me at my new job. She is very smart and very good to work with. She's been with the company 23 years! So I'm learning from the best! Below is the front of the Vicksburg office, located in the Port of Vicksburg, where I work part of the week so I can spend time doing OJT with Lori.

I finally had time for an art evening with Tara last night. The new job has kept me busy and driving back and forth to Vicksburg and from the traffic in Flowood, I don't get home very early and by the time I do I'm tired. We kept it simple last night and did collages. I've been wanting to use the chinese menu from our local buffet in Byram as a background for an Asian themed piece. Tara provided the cute, laughing Bhudda. We like to share our materials when we find something nice that we think the other would like, or if we see that the other could use something we have in our stash on their project.

I've been saving my fortunes and fortune cookie wrappers for this project. It was real simple since the menu provided such a rich background. All I had to do was strategically add the laughing Bhudda, the big butterfly, the shoes, the moon, the fortune cookie wrapper, and fortune. Tara gave me the fans and I had the rub on words and the love and flower stickers. Tara gave me the bowling alley ticket too; it does not exactly fit the theme but it added a nice shot of purple that I think adds a lot to the piece.

My daughter loves this one, so I will give it to her. She has an Asian theme going in her room, so she really liked this.

Here is the chipmunk's hole, landscaped. I may add a gnome, just for fun. If I do, I'll post a photo. I hope Ringo likes the new decorative touches on the place.

This photo here is a tiny place in the world. It's where I got the idea for my blog name. This little place is in my backyard. It's a chipmunk's hole. The hole has a convenient little exit outside our fence adjacent to the chipmunk's little domain. It's quite homey looking with a little sweetgum tree that is growing over the top of it. I should landscape it! I just had this thought. I'll do that and take another photo and post. Heehee!

I figure there are a few of them that use this little tunnel. I see one or more of them from time to time, especially on sunny days. You don't see a lot of chipmunks in Mississippi, but they are natives. I'm just really, really lucky to have these little critters hanging at my place and calling it home. They are so fun to watch and way cute.

They are fast as lightning too. If you say to someone, "Hey, there goes the chipmunk" by the time you get the words out of your mouth, the critter is long gone. If I could pin down a way to distinguish how many there are and which is which, I'd give them all names. But for now, I just call them all "Ringo."

I felt the need to be creative this evening. But geesh! My creativiy has been very absent of late! Sometimes the muse just is not there.

I often do collage to try and break out of that mode during those times when I just can't seem to squeeze out a drop of artistry. It was so bad this evening that I had a tough time finishing this piece. At one point I actually shoved it into the trash can and began to put away my materials. Something made me go grab it out of the trash a few minutes later, and try to salvage it. I'm just not a quitter. Heehee...maybe I should learn to be one though ;-)

Here is my latest creative effort. It's a collage I've done for my friend Tammy Allen who is the owner of a local coffeehouse near my home. I've been helping her with some creative issues for the new location that will open soon. She thought a collage would be cool for a menu cover and this is what I've come up with. I don't know what, if anything, that she will do with it; but whatever she wants is fine with me.

Tammy's husband Larry is a collector of antiques and the coffeehouse theme is retro, thus the name Flashbacks. Tammy and Larry change out the furniture and other decorative items periodically. You never know what it will look like inside! This makes it a very interesting place to visit, plus the food is great.

The Vanilla Wafers play the last Saturday of each month at Flashbacks. We are looking forward to the grand re-opening so we can get back to playing live music. We have several new songs to perform once we get back to it.

Here is an art doll I made some years ago. I will post another soon. This one's head is made from fat pine that happened to look like a native american head dress to me. With a little trimming and some paint he has a very distinguished profile. That's real rabbit fur I found at a leather shop, and some suede. The moons and stars on the necklace are real turquoise and black onyx. He's stuffed with Spanish moss that I snagged from a tree.

Check out this cool looking mushroom. Looks like the faeries danced holes in the top of this one. I found it out in my little wood recently.