This 'n That

I have a painting and a collage in the works but nothing ready to show, so here are a few pics I've taken lately that I thought you might like.

"No, Mom. I haven't been digging in the herb bed because I distinctly remember you telling me you would whack my fuzzy little butt if I did."

"Me, sniffing the poppies? Of course not! Why do you ask?"

"Nope, Dad. I don't remember where my new golf ball came from, but it's definitely not one of your collectibles!"

My sister Nan and I spent the day together, and we stopped by the Old Mill park.

Nan on a bridge, Senor Dionico Rodriguez, a sculptor and artist, was responsible for all the details of each piece of concrete work made to represent wood, iron or stone, as well as the designing of the foot bridges and rustic seats. Rodriguez's secret techniques were so detailed and exacting that you can identify the species of trees in most of his work. Rodriguez worked without any written plans, but there are unwritten stories that describe how Rodriguez envisioned many of his works. "A black locust tree grew in the soft earth on the bank of the little stream. When it reached a certain height it was blown down, but continued to live. A woodsman who wanted to use the trunk of the tree as a footbridge cut off the limbs and..."

We thought the park would be lush with spring blooms, but there weren't many yet.

Jonquils were in full bloom on Deb's table, though, when I drove up to visit her, Dave and Mollie. I thought this was such a pretty arrangement using soft drink bottles in the little basket.

Mollie's compact horse.

She showed me the rest of her menagerie, including hermit crabs (camera shy), baby chicks, ducks, geese, rabbits, dogs, cats, and all kinds of critters; it's like visiting a petting zoo.

And that's it for now during these busy, happy spring days.
Thanks for stopping by!
Cat & Marley

Tea with Marley

Picasso and Matisse were two of the most famous collage artists, and while I don't have delusions of grandeur, collage is one of my favorite art forms. We all did collage in elementary school, fingers all gunky, and the smell of paste and construction paper and crayons in the air, it was, and is, creative fun. This is my second one I've done lately on a birch panel, about 24"x18" and leans more toward realism than I have in a while. My artsy friends and I (We've yet to think of a name for our group.) take turns giving prompts for the next project, and this one was dishes. The thing about collage is you can make up your own rules and then break them in the same painting. My kind of art!

So, my li'l shadow, Marley, thinks his place is wherever I am, even when it means lying on the table where I paint. He drinks my brush rinse water, knocks over paint bottles, samples the rice paper, and would eat gel medium if I'd let him, but mostly he's very well behaved and looks out the window and growls at the occasional passing monster......You may be able to see that his muzzle is pink from investigating my art chalks.

I began with a simple pencil drawing over clear gesso, including some blossoms and a dragonfly that didn't quite make it into the finished piece and then did a watery paint wash over everything. My main colors in this one are going to be orange, rust, teal and gold.

This is the dragonfly that I did use, made from heat sensitive soft rubber foam, embossed with a rubber stamp and then dry brushed with metallic paint.

I have a little collection of Chinese hand carved seals (called chops), and since this piece is taking on a definite Asian feel, I added a seal to it. I couldn't find my red sealing wax, so I used this new gold one, and when I lit it, it smoked and burned my eyes, and made my throat sore.....Alas! How we suffer for our art.

The background is pieces of torn rice paper, some of it painted, some left unpainted, but it's so transparent that my under-painting colors show through pretty well. The torn leaves are painted watercolor paper, and the blossoms are torn from an old counseling book and shaped after being highlighted with chalk and acrylic paint.

The marbled papers I used had gold on them, and I added more gold leaf. One can never have too much gold....or puppy kisses.

I used the same Asian rubber stamp and embossing powder that I did on the blueberry collage because I plan to hang them close to each other.

Now here's the element that caused me to argue with myself for a couple of days, but in the end, it stays. I'm not even sure what it is. I pick up little chotchkies at garage sales to use in my art, and this might have been a shoe decoration at one point in its life, but I like it, along with the canceled stamps and paper scraps because it's unexpected, and it gives the viewer the chance to make up his or her own story about what's going on at this tea service.

For me, the best collages leave something to the viewer's imagination. I have my story about this piece. Do you?
Thanks so much for stopping by. We'll see you soon.
Love,
cat & Marley

A Time to Play

Hi! It's me! (Not many photos today; Mom is knee deep in her mosaics.) She said her cousins asked about me at the family get-together, so I thought I'd tell y'all what I've been up to. Mainly, I've been growing! I'm 6 months old, and I weigh almost 8 pounds. I don't eat much, especially since it got so hot outside, but I've got Mom feeding me peoples food one bite at a time, and she keeps organic puppy chow and filtered water down all the time. She says I'll grow a little more but not much. Geesh! I was sure hopin' I'd get big enough to reach those door knobs......

I've started liking people, a lot, no matter who shows up at our door. Back when I was a li'l kid, like last month, I thought everybody was here to steal the peanut butter, and I'd bark and growl at them till they went away, but now I know they just came to play with me! Well, most of 'em do, but like the guy who came to look at the carpet and the ones who hang out with Dad in his shop, not so much. And then there are the ones like Shawn......when he came for supper, he got down on the floor and let me give him kisses and threw the ball for me and rewarded me with Cheerios! Only trouble is, they always leave.

I am not loving this Arkansas summer, though! Excuse me! Whose idea was this? I mean if you're butt nekkid, or close to it, this 100 degree heat and humidity might be almost bearable, but you try playing out there in a double-layered fur coat and see how much you love the good ol' summer time! Dad says it will only get worse thru September, so I'm stickin' indoors, except for quick trips out to do my business. In the mornings, the dew is so heavy that I come back lookin' like a drowned rat, so I mostly play in the backyard in the evenings after the sun has set. You just wait till winter. You guys will be sitting around shivering, and I'll be the one all toasty and rearin' to go!

Dad didn't stay mad about the little bit of tinkle on the bed, and I've been sleeping with them a lot! It's my most favoritest thing! I start out at the foot of the bed, being all nice and quiet and chewing on Mickey Mouse, but towards morning, I get a little bored, and whenever one of them moves or makes noise, I think maybe they want to play! So I move up and kiss them on the face, but usually they say, "No, Marley!" all grumpy like. And then it's just me and ol' Mick again, all alone in the dark. People sure are serious about their sleep.

Mom is still tryin' to leash train me. I get Cherrios for not biting it, but mostly I bite it and roll up in it. A Shih Tzu will do whatever you ask him to..............as long as that's what he was planning to do anyway. Well, it's almost time for Dad to come home. He only works 2 days a week, but he's my best play buddy, so I miss him really, really bad! When I hear his truck pull into the garage, I go bonkers......I think that's him! Omigosh! Omigosh! See ya!

Spring Planting

This morning I bought multi-colored Snapdragons, blue Creeping Phlox, red & gold Ranunculus (Ranunculi?), magenta Wallflowers, and lavender Petunias for the backyard flowerbed. It's a start. Most of the summer I'll be finding pretty plants I can't live without and adding them. I don't have a particularly green thumb; I call the ones that make it the survivors. Truth is, I can't help myself. Come warm weather, I must dig in the dirt. This spring, I've got a helper. Trouble is, he tries to eat the dirt, flowers, spade, and flower pots. Planting with a 4 month old puppy is a whole 'nother thang.

I got out my old pink Croc knock-offs. Yes, they're pink, and they're just as dorky as the real deal. Marley also tries to eat them. I still haven't found a puppy chow he really likes, but evidently everything else tastes great.

Ranunculus blooms look as if they're made from tissue paper. Someone who changed my life, way back when, planted them, and so there's a memory attached.

I didn't even know there were really Wallflowers. They're an old fashioned flower, and I read online that they're a biennial that takes 2 years to complete its life cycle.

I also bought red Geraniums for the big pots beside the steps. Geraniums never thrive for me, but I think it's the law that you have to buy them and try again each year.

Do you know how to make Snapdragons' mouths open and close?

I nestled the little Creeping Phlox behind my Rosemary bush that has made it through 5 or 6 winters and is about 3 feet high and 4 feet wide. It should be happy back there. The scent is wonderful.

The Wisteria (named Harry) that climbs over the arbor is budding. I'll post pics when it blooms. The little fruit trees have bloomed, and the Forsythia branches are waving hither and yon. I don't like when people prune them into flat shapes.


Hope Springs Eternal.

It's Spring!

(Click on the pictures to zoom in)

Hey, you guys! Whassup?! Since I talked to you last, it has turned spring! That word means "Puppies can go outside everyday", and mom has moved my papers onto the screened-in deck, so we're working our way toward being potty trained outdoors. I luv, luv, luv outdoors!! I've grown a little, and have learned lots of stuff, but about the time I got really good at barking, mom and dad decided barking wasn't a good trick, so they tell me, "That's enough, Marley"; also, when I get the zoomies and start racing around and biting them, they say "No bite!" and stick a chew toy in my mouth. Gimme a break! Biting is the most funnest thing! I also love to chew on furniture, wires and plants, but mom says, "No, Marley!" and sprays them with Bitter Apple, so I have to go look for something else to chew on. So-many-rules! But mostly, we get along swell.

Their training is coming along good, too, like the other day when they went out to trim shrubs and blocked me into the kitchen. It's so embarrassing when they do that, like I'm a bratty li'l kid or something, but mom thought it would be fun to tap on the window so I could watch them working. Well, I started screaming! I mean really screaming and yelping like I'd broke a leg or somethin', but it was only my heart that was hurted, and here she came, tearing into the house (Who knew she could move that fast?) and scooped me up to see if I was okay. After that, they closed the blinds so I couldn't see them outside, but I'll have to remember the screaming trick.

I would probably eat all the time if they'd let me, but you know mom's a health nut, and I only get to eat at meal times, a little puppy kibble, but mostly real food like brown rice cooked in organic chicken broth, salmon, baked sweet potato, green beans, apple slices, and even bites of her healthy cookies that she gave you the recipe for a while back; of course she sneaks stuff into my meals like brewer's yeast, fish oil and flax seed oil.......gotta love her. When we play in the afternoons, she gives me Cheerios for easy stuff like sitting, jumping through a hoop, and bringing a golf ball back to her. In the mornings while I get combed and cleaned up, I chew on cold snow peas, and they feel soooo good on my teething gums. If I think mom has forgot about my combing, I scratch on the bathroom door to remind her.

Oh yeah, and this one night when dad forgot that the burglar alarm was on and opened the door onto the deck, all heck broke loose! I hate loud noises, and when the 2 policemen rang the front doorbell, I was still shivering, but I stood tall in the doorway and bristled and barked at them, letting them know that this house is protected by more than just a noisy ol' alarm. I don't know why they laughed.

When ya first saw me, I was black and white, but now I'm parti-colored, brindle & white with a white blaze on my forehead and the tip of my tail, which is something breeders like, but mom says she'd love me whatever color I was. The hair on my face is getting long, but we haven't got it trained or mastered the top-knot, so dad calls me fuzzy face. I've had my final puppy shots, and the lady at the vet's office thinks I'm gorgeous and loves on me and said I don't smell like a dog, like that's a good thing? Let me tell you, I was totally miffed by that remark, but hey, she's a people and mostly they mean well.