April is National Poetry Month

 

In honor of National Poetry Month I created some postcards that I left in the Little Free Libraries in my neighborhood. It was my first Free Art Friday activity since moving to Minnesota and it was really fun. Nice that so many libraries are in my area, then I don't have to worry about work getting rained on or blowing away and becoming litter.  I'll be doing this again for sure!

Beyond Printmaking: So Many Bunnies

 

For spring I spent a few evenings sketching rabbits (one lives in my yard and I have been watching for its tracks in the snow all winter)

I carved and printed a few of my favorite bunny images from the sketch sessions and loved how they turned out. Black and white is crisp and lovely!

 I wanted to enhance the block prints with some pen and ink. Sometimes I miss being able to draw and be spontaneous -- printmaking can become repetitive and predictable and careful - so I started adding pen and ink to the prints.

  

 Then, because it is spring after all, I felt like there needed to be some color, something fresh! So out come the water colors...

My favorite results are the ones that combine a little bit of everything. And now I have more bunnies than I can count....

swamp art or a brief musing on ferns

ferns are an overlap that i have found in mossy forest and oozy swamp and in my own backyard in every state i've lived...  i like their nearly universal knack survival. i've seen them in volcanic craters in hawaii, with sulphur gas coming from nearby cracks, their tendrils creeping up to the surface... in greenhouses they are exotic winter indulgences. they make me a little less uncomfortable in the humid florida air. they are green and tender yet tough and tenacious and threaten to take over their surroundings which isn't an entirely bad thing in my opinion.  here's to ferns. prehistoric and modern. quaint yet potentially sinister. making the best of wherever they are.

they also bring to mind a tale from my creative hero edward gorey, the evil garden.  which if you haven't read it you should.