Mares of the Night, ​The moon shines down on a wild night landscape out of a dream or a nightmare.

The moon shines down on a wild night landscape out of a dream or a nightmare, with a horse, lotus plant and flower and a cabin with Cock crowing on a fence.  A wild jumble tangled in phone wires and laboratory experiments, cooked up on a late night myself no doubt!
Wonderful old illustrations and my own drawings made on asphalt roofing material, paper and.  The rough tooth of the roofing material and Plexiglas is a wonderful surface for pastels, as it becomes a flat, reusable layer with a beautiful ground. I drew with pen and pencil on the surface with good results.  After scanning all those images into the computer, I have a stack of images layers to work with and then the fun begins, until I have something I just can’t tamper with any longer. I can make a custom print to order from this original collage file..

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My next blog will be about the David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust, and the African Fund for Endangered Wildlife (Kenya) Ltd. ​

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​This is one of my favorite quotes; it is a great description of one the best ways to be productive as an artist…

​“To have original, extraordinary and perhaps even immortal ideas, one has but to isolate oneself from the world for a few moments so completely that the most commonplace happenings appear to be new and unfamiliar and in this way reveal their true essence.”
Schopenhauer, 1851: Parerga und Paralipomena. (1.)
 
It is sort of a description of a state that I have always readily been able to fall into even as a kid.  I remember riding in our family’s 1957 Ford Galaxy (which I later learned to drive on), which was black with a black and white interior.  The ceiling of the car was white with tiny black dots. I remember riding in the car, laying on the long bench back seat (no seat belts then) on a long vacation, bored and staring at nothing.  Gradually I noticed that black dots had floated off of the white background and were floating around the space of the car some inches forward and back to the ceiling and I could manipulate it to some degree by squinting.  This was my first memory of falling into this state of daydreaming, reverie, meditation, guided imagery; or whatever you want to call it.
 
I am sure that this is a state that many recognize themselves, and in fact it is been written about extensively.  Another favorite artist of mine, Linda Barry has done a great job of this, with her children’s book, What it is, Drawn and Quarterly; 1st edition (May 13, 2008). (2).

​This wonderfully illustrated book is about Linda’s way of being creative and how anyone adult or child can draw on her ideas to jump-start their own creative world.  She speaks about being both “ there and not there” to get in the active creative mode.  Check it out of your library; it is wonderful.
 
So this mode of there and not there, isolating yourself from the world, daydreaming, or runners high, is a state many people strive for. Artists, craftsmen, athletes, scientists, inventors, musicians, and nature lovers are some examples I imagine.  The important aspect for everyone is to strive is to cultivate the habit.  It is a wonderful space to inhabit, especially if you are using your hands or your mind.  But you can’t think about it, or ask yourself about it, then it’s all over.  It has to slip in naturally and that takes practice.
 
This place is not only in your head but also in your body.  I find you need to be physically comfortable.  Temperature is critical for me for example.  I can’t be hot or chilly, but that is me.  Noise is hard for some, but not so much for me, I just focus on letting the noise surround me and define the outside space but not intrude inside my head.  I also find if my hands are doing a repetitive task it is so much easier. This is a great time to brainstorm or actually do work like walk, draw or photograph.
 
 
Mentally I find several things.  One is I don’t have to be mentally calm, focused but not calm, just physically calm.  Often if I am jazzed by an idea or a place or music or a piece I am working on that can trigger the whole process.  Other times, the mood comes first; I focus on the calm mental state and then find a project.  But I try almost every day to find this place.

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Leslie Miller 2017

1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parerga_and_Paralipomena


2. https://www.drawnandquarterly.com/author/lynda-barry
​http://www.artnews.com/2014/06/05/comics-artist-lynda-barry-on-teaching-non-artists-to-draw/

Odd and humorous and likable  statues dolls and toys from my archives of images for collage work

​While working on several new collages I was surfing around in my photographic archives for ideas, and as always I come across images that bring back great memories and that I think are just great images on their own.  So I decided to share a few of them every so often on my blog.
 
Here are a few images that I picked because they were humorous and were thinks I just had to snap while wandering around antique shops, flea markets or anywhere.

​The Chaos of the field, the weed patch, the English perennial garden gone to seed, the forest edge.

The Chaos of the field, the weed patch, the English perennial garden gone to seed, the forest edge; that is what I love.  So I create my own versions that are super revved up with extra color and detail crammed into every corner. 
 
These digital Collages are made with some photographs of fields, wildflowers, my own gardens and walks through nature.  Added to that illustrations out of old books of home farming I found years ago in used bookstores, and my own pastel scenic drawings made on asphalt roofing material.  The rough tooth of the roofing material is a wonderful surface for pastels, as it becomes a flat, reusable layer of pastel with a beautiful black ground. After scanning all those images into the computer I usually have 8 or 9 different images layers to work with in the beginning, and then the fun begins, with lots of experimenting with the different layers and effects until I have something I just can’t tamper with any longer. I also draw and paint digitally with pastels, oil stick, and watercolor effects on the different layers with many beautiful results.  These prints are hand-made multi-media collages made from my digital originals.

These 2 prints and many more are available at my shop:
​https://www.etsy.com/shop/ARTaboutEDEN

​Pictures from the Missouri Botanical Garden after the killing temperature this early spring....

​The first time I went walking thought the Missouri Botanical Garden after we had a frost early this spring I caught a few beautifully strange pictures of the damage even a light frost can do to the petals of flowers.
 
So when I was editing these pictures I had to go back to Botany 101 (which I took so long ago) and look up the process of cell damage by frost.  The cells inside the plants are damaged as the water inside the cells form ice crystals that puncture the cell walls.  After the temperature warms up the ice crystals melt and the cells fall apart, destroying the plant more or less. (1).  This is called intracellular freezing for those in the know. (2)
 
Another really cool thing I learned while researching frost damage is the definition of the term killing temperature. 
“As the trees begin growth in the spring the buds begin to swell and lose the ability to withstand cold temperatures. As the buds develop, warmer and warmer temperatures (still below freezing) can damage them. The killing temperature is often called the critical temperature and is defined as the temperature that buds can withstand for a half-hour.” (3)

  (1)  The Basics Of What Causes Frost Damage
http://www.gov.mb.ca/agriculture/crops/production/print,spring-frost-damage-bulletin.html
 
 (2) CHAPTER 4 - FROST DAMAGE: PHYSIOLOGY AND CRITICAL TEMPERATURES
http://www.fao.org/docrep/008/y7223e/y7223e0a.htm
Natural Resources and Environment
 
(3) Michigan State University Extension
http://msue.anr.msu.edu/news/assessing_frost_and_freeze_damage_to_flowers_and_buds_of_fruit_trees
Posted on May 14, 2013 by Mark Longstroth, Michigan State University Extension