Month: October 2014

working on the giraffe

It was one of those gorgeous late fall days that kinda resembles an early fall day except with less leaves on the trees. The kind of day when a cat climbs on the giraffe you are trying to repair and you absolutely have to stop and pull out the iPhone, wishing you had time to go in and get your “real” camera but knowing if you do, the cat may just decide to go visit the neighbors while you are gone so you decide to take whatever picture you can get. The type of day where lying on the grass doesn’t happen until after 11a.m. but then it is imperative to lay down and look at the sky, except there is a giraffe in the way so you have to take a picture of that too because, quite frankly, how often have you had a chance to lay on the ground and look up at the under side of a giraffe, even if it is steel. There is a good possibility that it will happen again but perhaps not soon as it is, after all, late fall and frost and snow are not that far away. And you look forward to tomorrow when the generator might work a little better because the mechanical wizard came home from playing golf and has worked his magic on it and also reminded you that the little welder, which you haven’t touched in years, has a dial for regulating the gas which you seem to have forgotten because you are, well, forgetful and old(er) and impatient. But for now you are content to just lie in the grass and contemplate a cat and the underside of a giraffe.

hi mom
hi mom
I'm upside down!
I’m upside down!
Can I get in?
Can I get in?
max and his giraffe
max and his giraffe
from below
from below
the front
the front

orange

Why did the

female marble orb weaver

cross the road?

traveling to somewhere
traveling to somewhere
female marbled orb weaver
female marbled orb weaver

Because the grass is always greener on the other side…or something.

This little spider was crawling across my driveway as I came back from the studio. You know, the studio is really not that far away from the house and yet the amount of interesting nature I see between here and there is quite remarkable. Today mama marbled orb weaver was taking a little jaunt. Chances are that she has laid her eggs, or possibly she is looking for a good place to do just that. October is the month that they choose to do this although she’ll be around until frost.

All I know is that she is difficult to photograph well, she is constantly moving and I didn’t have time to really set the camera up correctly. But I think you’ll agree that she is beautiful. And the orange/yellow is very striking against the green of the grass.

I had to look her up and if you want to know more about her you can check out this website or this one.

approved by inspector 43

What do you do if someone puts a life-sized steel giraffe in your yard? Why climb it of course!

Max and Izzy
Max and Izzy
Max
Max approves

“Vulnerability” came home yesterday after spending six years or so at Quiet Waters Park in Annapolis, MD. Quiet Waters is a county park and as such has no money so they have been enjoying the giraffe gratis for all this time. Not that I’m stingy or anything but I decided that enough was enough and it was time for me to enjoy her for a while. In the process I came to a momentous decision…within the next year I am going to be turning my little six acre “farm” into a sculpture garden. The musk ox and the egg will be following suit in May and as you already know, I am going to be making some new sculptures (like a kangaroo) to add to the pack (herd?). I have been wanting to do this for years and, thanks to my wise sister, I have decided to cross the threshold between dream and reality.

So, the first step was getting the giraffe home, a move that seems to be meeting with approval from all directions (except the neighbor next to me who has the lovely view of a giraffe ass…don’t worry Don, it will be turned eventually). I have a little repair work to do, some of the pieces were in danger of flying off in transit so I took them off before we left. The move was exciting, albeit a little wet. I left the actual moving to the pros…the guys with forklifts and ratchet straps and years in the business…

strapped onto the forklift
strapped onto the forklift
the head and neck wait on the ground
the head and neck wait on the ground
getting on the flatbed
getting on the flatbed
being strapped down
being strapped down
driving behind the trailer
driving behind the trailer

The cool thing is that I can see her from my reading chair in my office. She looks happy. So am I.

at home
at home

 

towering above

Starlings

gather in an

out-of-the-way

place

viewing the world,

passing on gossip

and sometimes

getting in a

brief raucous scuffle

over nothing

in particular.

catching up on the news
catching up on the news
gossiping
gossiping

I was out test-driving my camera this morning and decided to see what it would do if I tried taking pictures of the starlings on top of the electric tower. I can barely see them with the naked eye (the birds, not the towers) although I knew they were there by their squawking and screaming. It’s kinda thrilling to have a machine that can capture a picture of something you can barely see. I know I still need to work on exposure etc. and I also know that while this camera is good, it still makes things that far away a little grainy but it is so much fun to play like this!

I really like the juxtaposition of the big geometric shapes made out of the linear steel bars and the little curvaceous beings that hang out on them.

 

 

make me happy

If you’ve been reading my posts this summer, you will know that I have been trying to help the local monarch butterfly population by planting milkweed. When I went for a walk the other day I was thrilled to see some native milkweed that has already been growing down near the stream. I’m hoping that next year the milkweed count will increase even more!

I'm sooooo happy!!!
I’m soooooo happy!

In other news around the place, I thought you would like a sneak peek at something that began yesterday in my studio. I can always use more pictures of these guys, and not necessarily the beautiful pix, but the ones that show the profile from different angles and details of different body parts…(fozziemum….help!!!)

the first drawings
the first drawings

 

take a walk with me

It’s a beautiful late fall day, would you like to go for a short walk with me? You never know what you’re going to find around here. I actually didn’t have to walk very far to see something I thought you might find interesting. A stroll to the other side of the barn shows someone busy clearing out the grown up weeds.

what's around the corner?
what’s around the corner?
weed infested
weed infested
Willy is a hard worker
Willy

In the process of pulling weeds, it seems that Willy has also found remnants of an oak floor. I am already working on how I can incorporate them into a sculpture…

see what he's found!
see what he’s found!

The pokeberry has had a field day (so to speak) growing next to the foundation of the torn down building.

poke berry next to the wall

While I was taking pictures, this fierce creature appeared in the underbrush. She is so very photogenic I just had to snap a few. Of course she is curious about what is going on, I think she’s worried her rodentia cafeteria is being demolished.

someone is watching
someone is watching
jumping...
jumping…
made it!
made it!
not impressed
not impressed

Over on the opposite side of the barn, the giraffe remains unperturbed.

oblivious
oblivious

I promise that I will soon reveal the reason why Willy is working so diligently to clear this section of the property of weeds and underbrush…something exciting this way comes!!!

 

 

 

personal boundary

Okay folks, here’s a sneak peek at something that came out of my studio today…hope you like it!!!  Click on the picture to go directly to the website to read and see more about it…

 

sneak peek
sneak peek