Kick the Can...

Last December, I started kicking around the idea of taking something that is seemingly useless...an old, tin can, and making it interesting by painting something on it.  These are a few of the little paintings that I have done on cans:

Here's a little lady to go in our garden (time for something besides the Gnome)

This was done last December....a nativity "can" family

And my favorite thus far....needs no introduction

 ...and a little old lady "can."

Catching up from a while of not posting....

Here's just a few things that I have done, but have not taken the time to post....first, an unfinished sketch of an old southern shack

An entry done yesterday in the "Bug Book"

A little sketch done a while ago of various critters...

A bug pic. for a friend

I got a call the other day from a friend who has been asked to go through some pretty tough times.  How I wish that I could just take from others their sorrows and challenges.  Yet, there is growth and development that comes as we are stretched and we can learn things we never hoped to learn through such trials, of reacted to with hope and perseverance.
She asked if I would do a little something for her to put on the wall, and gave license for what came to mind. So, I've been pondering the whole process of birth, sleep, transformation, stillness, flight, etc.  I've also thought about the moths suicidal obsession with a flame, or scorching light.  This is what I came up with:   My favorite part was antiquing the paper before painting on it.

E.D.M. Challenge #16, Draw Your Favorite Tool

I stayed home today and worked from the home office.  I knocked out as much as possible quickly, and found that I had a couple of hours of solitude at home whilst the lovely wife was away doing errands.  The EDM challenge that was next for me was "Draw Your Favorite Tool."  At first, I thought of screwdrivers, because I use them constantly at home...and for things that they weren't designed, but that's a different story for another time.
Earlier I had explained that I was going to start illustrating or journaling some of the entries or letters that I wrote to my dad after he passed away.  I reflected back to some of the things that I had written, and pulled up this portion of a letter I wrote.  It also fits the EDM challenge.

This tool.....A BOOT-REMOVER that was carried across the plains by my ancestor, John S. Haslam

(Here is his picture)

His Grandson, Ralph Wesley Haslam, was my Great Grandfather, and he had the boot-remover in his living room and I remember it from when I was just a pup.

Here is a picture of my Great Grandpa Haslam with my brother in his front lawn...in the house that I used to visit when I was a boy.

Here is the resulting doodle and "journaling" of my letter to Dad:

EDM Challenge 15, Draw a Tree

I had to sketch my favorite tree for this one.  I haven't seen many or really, any of these in the part of Georgia where I live...yet, back home in Utah, I recall spending lot's of time in the mountains in the groves of the Quaking Aspen watching the leaves dance in the wind, but seeing the white barked trunks as friendly pillars to walk through...and some, even to leave your mark upon if you remembered your pocket-knife.

EDM Challenge 14, Draw Something You See When You Wake Up

This one may be a little off color....but that's o.k., it's honest.  

Beetle-Mania

I realized that I had sketched another entry into my Bug Book the other day and hadn't scanned it yet.  I've been trying to get most of my catches recorded with a little doodle, and I'm falling behind.  But here is August 7th's entry:

You can see also from the picture below, that I have run out of yet another box to house the "pinned" ones until I can decide which ones I want to put into a display....time to visit the cigar shop again to pick up a big, empty cigar box.