Canning Tomatoes with Jane.

Isn't it crazy?  I'm learning how to can whole tomatoes.  I still don't understand why it's called "canning" tomatoes when the containers are clearly made of glass.  Do people ever call it "jarring" tomatoes?  Because that would make sense.

A Finished Painting.

"Snake Nest (tentative title)." 12 X 12, gouache on paper, 2012.

Smashed pennies!

I love it when my friends travel, see a smashed penny machine, and KNOW that I would appreciate the gift.  So, a big thanks to V. Farmer for the Navy pier penny and the Iowa 80 Truck Stop penny. Also, a big thanks to "Sorry Charlie" for the Iowa Hall of Pride penny and the Blue Bunny Ice Cream Factory pennies.  And last but least, thanks, E-Daz for the Omaha Zoo Seahorse Penny. 

Just Some Photos From the Garden.

My cement gorilla is master of the garden. He's very zen.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jrmUqqFJ3zc

I'm not sure what the flowers in the back are called but I've dubbed them "the devil's paintbrush"

Vintage Coke Bottles and a Strange Owl.

Someone enlighten me.  I have no idea what this is.  It's an antique but that's as far as I've gotten.

The coke bottle was made in 1923.  The Pepsi bottles are pretty old as well.

A broken Native American Artifact and three fossils.

This summer has been horrendously hot.  The earth is dry and the water in the river is incredibly low.  There are some perks to having the water low, things that have been hidden under the water for years and years are finally exposed.  It's a good time to be a pirate and walk the river bank looking for treasure.

And treasure is what I found. We did some cyber sleuthing and found out that the Coke Bottle is ridiculously old.  The internet says it's from around 1923 (-1931) and I always believe the internet...

Along with the vintage bottles (and fossils and arrowheads remnants), I found this really strange owl.  I have no idea what it's origins are but I'm assuming it came from a bed post.  It was pretty cool to pull it out of the water, it's quite the find.

A Painting in Progress.

I was able to work on my painting for several hours and I think it's coming along pretty nicely. 

A Painting in Progress.

"Snake Nest" 13X13, windsor and newton gouache, 2012.

I'm trying to work in a smaller format and it's extremely challenging.  I've painted in a 22 X 30 format (or around that size) for the last 5 years of my life.  This is a tough, tough, tough transition but it's always good to challenge oneself.  I'm thinking about making 12 of these smaller paintings and presenting them in a modified grid on the wall.  Sooooo, painting in progress, guys, not too shabby.

Happy Friday.

The elephant has been tagged.  Courtesy of Mustard Sucks, 2012. Stay classy, Iowa.

I own a bird dog.

No birds were harmed in the making of this photo.

While I was taking pictures of flowers, Mudd managed to slip away from me.  When I found him he was sniffing a fuzzy-something and refused to come to me when I called.  I walked closer to the dog and saw what he was snuffling.  It was a baby robin.  The bird looked hot, it's been 100 + in Iowa with no end in sight.  I picked robin up, took him out of the sun, and placed him under a shady evergreen shrub.  I assume the bird is alive and doing well.

Some Grey Tree Frogs.

Tree frogs.  You hear them but rarely see them.  I got lucky the other day and came across two. 

I've Been Working on Ideas for a New Painting.

Sketch on Bristol paper.

the first sketch of the idea.

Every painting begins with some rough sketches.

New Painting!

"Chupacabra, MahaskaCounty"  22X30. Windsor and Newton Gouache. 2012

Here's another painting that I've been working on.  I'm pleased with this piece as well.  It's based on my legendary chupacabra sighting from last year.

A New Painting.

 13 X 24. Windsor and Newton Gouache. 2012.

detail

detail

Well, Well.  What do we have here?  I finally hunkered down, strapped myself into my studio chair, taped a paint brush to my hand, and finished up the final details of my most recent work  I'm happy with the piece (even though I have yet to come up with a title) and am ready and excited to begin working on a new painting for my most recent body of work.  Thanks for looking.

My Foot Hurts.

Best Friends!

Bonsai Marigold and pepper leaf.

I stepped on glass about a month ago.  Its still in my foot and a hearty and painful callus has built up around the area.  Needless to say, it's pretty painful to walk and it's affecting my bloggability.  I can't get too many places and as a result am running a little low on blog fodder.  I'm getting the wound looked at on Monday and hopefully they'll cut the glass out and this whole mess will be over.  Moral of the story:  Wear shoes.

Let's See How Much Money I Can Waste.

I'll admit it, I'm obsessed.  For the past few weeks I've been walking to the train tracks with one thing in mind...wasting money.  All I want to do is smash change.  I don't want to spend my hard earned loose coinage on candy or pop, I just want to put it on the train tracks and make it worthless.

There's something totally wonderful about my most recent obsession.  A giant train runs over your coins, flattens them, and turns them into a new and wonderful object.  The sound three smashed quarters makes when you jingle them in your hands is hypnotic.  Each coin reacts differently to the weight of the Union Pacific...older coins are sturdier and produce a more satisfying impression and sound.  New coins, pennies especially, will shred under the intense pressure and leave razor sharp edges.  I've cut my hand while jingling the 2012 train track smashed pennies.

I have ideas for these objects.  The sounds they make begs me to turn them into some kind of a wind chime for my garden.  I have a drill, I know how to link objects together, perhaps I'll do that after a few more trips to the tracks.

Anyone who has followed my blog knows I've been obsessed with collecting smashed pennies from tourist attractions.  Now I can finally do it myself.  I dub this summer, The Summer of Loose Change and Heavy Trains, and its going to be a good season.

Enjoy your Friday.

grackle nest.

Isn't this the most perfect nest you've ever seen? I'm pretty sure these guys are baby grackles.  Don't worry though, no babies were harmed in the making of this photograph. I found them by accident and my entire encounter lasted approximately 20 seconds.  The baby birds look so cute and fuzzy, I want one!  I'll bet they have bird lice.

sidenote:  adult grackles are one of the most annoying birds I've encountered in Iowa.  For several weeks straight (I assume while they were tending to this nest) two grackles would follow me around the garden, hopping from tree branch to tree branch, and yell at me.  I shit you not, the birds would yell at me.  I would look up into the trees and try and intimidate the birds away from me...nope.  The birds would stand on their branch, hold their ground, turn their heads sideways, and glare at me with their strange, yellow eyes.  Then they would yell at me some more.  They're beautiful, that's for sure.  But, oh man, they are very confrontational creatures.

BIG BLUE RIBBON!!!

A few weeks ago, I won the regional Iowa Artists competition.  It was pretty great to receive recognition and win an adorable, tiny, blue ribbon.  After the regional show,  I was invited to hang the blue ribbon winner in the Iowa Artists State wide competition (in Decorah, Iowa).  There were about 100 pieces and I won this BIG ASS BLUE RIBBON!  And 50 bucks...(I just realized I have no idea where that check is).

I've never seen a ribbon so huge.  I'm happy that the people of Iowa responded well to my work and rewarded me with this BIG BLUE RIBBON.  My hand looks a little gnarled and creepy but that's ok.  At least it can hold a paint brush.

Artifacts, Iowa.

A bird point I was lucky enough to find.

A Madison Triangle, 2 broken Madison triangles, and a nice broken piece of pottery.

A thumb scraper and a broken spear.

I was sick with a 101 degree fever this weekend.  Yup, I was pretty much worthless.  I basically sat on my porch and looked at flowers and birds for hours at a time with a thermometer stuck in my mouth.  You can be sick inside or sick outside.  I chose to be sick outside.  Good times.

Because of my 24 hour flu, I wasn't able to get much done so the blog today is a catch up entry.  I found these artifacts about a month ago and failed to post them in a timely fashion.  I think they're all pretty great and I'm especially proud of my pink bird point arrowhead.  I found all of these pieces in fields that were tilled.

I hope you guys had a good weekend.

A Painting in Progress. Warning. Slightly Motivational Speechy.

I've been diligently working on a new painting.  I'm happy with the colors, composition, content, etc, etc, etc

In 2009, I received my MFA from Northern Illinois University.  Shortly after graduation I moved to Iowa and found myself in a pickle.  I was not inspired.  Everything I painted was shitty and I didn't know what to do with myself.

The whole thing made me really depressed and I decided to put painting off to the side for awhile and concentrate on pen and ink drawing.  The process of drawing was good for my brain.  I had to focus on the basics again.  Composition.  Value.  Line variation.  Content.  My drawings began to do all of the things that my paintings were not and my confidence returned.

It was time to paint again.  I am happy to report that I am finally back.  This is my 4th painting (in about 3.5 months).  I'm on a roll.  After three years I feel like myself again.  I learned something important over these three years, don't feel sorry for yourself.  If you start to feel sorry for yourself, draw.  Or do something else that makes you happy.  Just don't wallow.  Wallowing is for suckers.  And hogs.

Whitetail Deer Antler Shed, Lovila Iowa

I was walking though a field the other day and found this little, chewed up beauty.  It was partially buried in the dirt and a lot of it has been chewed up by rodents.  Although this little antler is in rough shape I'm still happy to have found the thing.  Every day is a treasure hunt, friends.

Memorial Day American Toad.

can you see the worm he's about to eat?

An obnoxious and prickly bush was recently cut down and abolished from the garden.  Along with the piles of dirt (from the uprooting) came piles of worms.  Along with the piles of worms came an American toad.  He came to fill his belly with worm meat...yum.  I was able to watch this guy attack and gulp down two earthworms.  I tried to coax him into eating a third (as you can see in the top photo) but he wasn't having any of that.  Too many human smells.

Their camouflage is pretty impressive, wouldn't you agree? 

Train Track Nickel and Dime Smashing.

Want some wholesome/dangerous fun.  Here's the rules.

1. Find a rural train track. If you are in the city/suburbs and the track has a third rail....back off.    Electrocution is imminent.
2. Look both ways to make sure a Union Pacific isn't going to hit you in the face.
3. Place your change on the rail and make note of where you put the stuff.  The change will move a bit when the train smashes them.
4. Return in the morning.  You'll have a bunch of wonderful trinkets.  Also, your money is now useless.  

Yup.  I've been a busy girl.  Today I'm thinking about smashing a quarter, a Susan b. Anthony, a gold dollar with stupid Andrew Jackson on it, and maybe a fork.  Happy smashing, folks. 

A beautiful garden.

 I'm finding a lot of peace in my garden.  All of the colors fill me with an automatic calm.  I suppose you could compare my garden to a Valium....or a fish tank.  Whatever you choose to compare it to, I'm sure that all this gardening is lowering my blood pressure. 

 Here are some of the peppers that were planted.  Three different kinds!  We'll see if they even grow with all of our rabbit activity.  The jerk store garden rabbits don't even eat the peppers, they just bite off the tiny bud and drop it on the ground.  I swear they are just doing this to make me mad.  Oh, well.  I have to remember that they are just rabbits and are not capable of doing something "just to piss me off."

an odd blog contest. winner gets a drawing.

Alrighty, this is probably the oddest blog contests I've ever heard of but here it goes.  I found these hip bones in a field a week ago.  I don't know what kind of animal they came from and I'm curious to find out.  Curious enough to offer one of you fine readers a drawing if you answer correctly.  If you ask nice I'll even send you these disgusting bones!

This is a gross contest.  Good luck.  Happy Friday.

Bumble bees and bad luck.

not the greatest photo but i took it.  all will be explained.

Alright, so it was raining pretty bad the other day.  I enjoy watching the rain so I opened up the screen door and proceeded to admire the weather. Before I could even ogle,  three bumblebees tried to find refuge in my kitchen.  I wasn't about to let that happen and slammed the screen door as fast as I could.  The bees were wet and could hardly fly. One found shelter on the lighting fixture above my head (on the other side of the screen door, of course and in the photo).  Once the rain stopped the bees left.  Remarkable creatures, really.

Ever since I refused entry to those three bees my pod has been having terrible trouble with the creatures.  The day after it rained K was stung on the hand.  The next day Mudd came shooting up the stairs and jumped straight onto my lap.  He had a stinger in his lip.  The dumb fucker tried to eat one.

And the icing on the cake?  Last night I was walking around, checking out the garden and I felt a prick and a BURN on the bottom of my naked foot.  Damn, those stings burn and ache and hurt.  I'm swollen and have to spend the rest of the week walking around on a bee sting on the arch of my foot.  Boo.  Oh, yeah.  My other foot has glass stuck in it.

One foot full of glass, one foot full of venom.  Shoot, that might be a good title for a book.

Iowa Channel Catfish and a common carp.

I did a lot of fishing on Saturday.  This strikes me as odd because three years ago I would have never agreed to do so.  Not because I thought it was wrong (unless people are catching endangered fish or are using explosives as bait) but because I used to be completely scared of fish.  As a matter of fact, one of the first blog entries I made on FLUX BIOTA was about my fear of fish.  I must still be a bit scared because neither of those hands holding those fish are mine.  I still don't like to touch them.

The fish up top is a tiny, tiny channel catfish. I caught about 5 of those and they were set free. Channel Catfish are known for their slimy texture, delicious taste, and ability to stab you with their fins.  This is why I don't touch fish, unseen dangers like tiny spear barbs on their fins or poison!  The fish on the bottom is an introduced species called the Common Carp.  They are gross and are related to the goldfish you kept in a bowl when you were a kid.  They are not as evil as the bighead carp, silver carp, or black carp that are currently destroying the ecosystem of the Des Moines river.

EDIT (may 29th): the common carp is not invasive to iowa.

Save the drama for your Llama.

handsome llama #1.

handsome llama #2.

I was driving around and happened upon these "handsome" Llamas.I don't have much to say about the encounter...except I laughed quite a bit.  Enjoy.

A Smashed Penny from Minnestoa!

My good buddy, Big T, just got back from a school trip.  Where were they? Minneapolis.  Damn, I love that city.  And since T's a good guy he already knew that I collect smashed pennies. He brought me back one that prominently features a moose and another with a wolf.  That made me a happy Jane.  I love animal themed smashed pennies.

Oyster Mushroom?

There is a pile of elm wood on the side of the garage.  It's good to have a stockpile of wood.  Its even better when your stockpile begins to grow edible mushrooms.

These oyster mushrooms were found growing from the fire fodder on Cinco de Mayo.  They were quickly plucked and eaten after they were fried in butter for five minutes.  Delicious!

A jog. Some pyrite (more fool's gold), and a deer tooth.

I'm not a health nut but have been trying monitor my less then admirable qualities.  I've quit smoking and after a rage filled month of horrendous mood swings I think I'm on the up and up.  I've cut down on fast food and have even jogged the entirety of a 5K without stopping to walk.  I was sore for three days.

So, just to keep on with the keeping on, I went for a jog with Mudd after work.  It was super humid and uncomfortable but we did it, we jogged a mile.  During our cool down walk/stretch I found some more fool's gold on the ground amongst the limestone.  This time I found pieces of pyrite that were separated from the limestone and they were shaped like tiny cubes.  I was pumped when I found them.  I also found a deer tooth...not as cool but it went into my pocket.

Have a good weekend, jerks.

Wood tick, paranoia.

I feel like to only time I'm inspired to write short narratives is when something has gone terribly wrong.  Of course this isn't always the case...but it has been for the past month or so.

If you are a contemporary of mine and were asked to write a short list of things that disgust me it would go something like this

1. The sound that hands make when they rub across carpet (the sound of snow pants swooshing together is equally nauseating)


2. Asian carp (look it up on youtube, I'm horribly afraid and disgusted by these animals and I'm sure there will be a long blog post about how much I hate them in the near future)

3.  TICKS!

I hate ticks.  Hate them.  There are no reasons for their existence.  Wood ticks are horrible parasites that will crawl up your leg unannounced, attach to a warm part of your body, and then begin stealthily leeching the blood from your unaware veins.  They are disgusting, blood filled, disease carriers and everyone should duct tape their pants to their legs to prevent an encounter.

With that being said.  There was an encounter last night.

This spring has been a ticky bastard and I've had several encounters.  For some reason I let my guard down last night and played fetch with Mudd in tall grass.  I threw a stick, he joyfully leaped like a deer into the weeds, and fetched the stick.  This went on for some time. 

Eventually, the dog grew tired of the game and trotted inside for a Jane-cuddle-session.  As I calmly pat the dog and watched tv I noticed a bump on his neck.  A TICK!  Of course I couldn't touch it so I screamed for Kyle to come and yank the tick off Mudd's neck and cut it's head off with an exact-o blade.  I thought the ordeal was over after the beheading.  I pet the dog some more.  Another tick and the same reaction from Jane.

So, we sit down and tick check the dog.  My heart is pounding.  Kyle found a tick on his ear and tried to grab it but the tick literally disappeared into thin air.  Of course, I'm freaking out because the bastard was somewhere loose in the carpet.  I was asked to "chill out" because a loose tick is going to find blood.  Ten minutes late I heard Kyle chuckling as he watched a tick crawl up his hand.  THE TICK FOUND KYLE!!!  I was horrified.

All in all we found 7 horrible ticks on a 15 pound rat terrier.  It was terrible.  Booooo.

First Place Blue Ribbon.

Hooray!  I received a first place in the 2012 Iowa Area Artists Show.  Now I move on to state!