My marigold garden is looking pretty fine.

I noticed my flower's proliferation yesterday. Little, tiny marigold greens are popping up all over the place. I was clumsily weeding when I saw the marigold babies. I yanked a few (by accident) before I realized what they were...in my defense, I am not a gardener.

A list of things I like about marigolds.

1. they smell odd.
2. I've heard they attract bees.
3. orange, yellow, etc!
4. Nirvana wrote a song about them.

enjoy the song...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zqhh9Vvi0mA

wow, another fantastic trip to Des Moines.

Des Moines is never a bad time. When you live in a rural area you learn to appreciate all those things you took for granted. . . Like bars that make drinks in Tiki cups. This is a photo at the bar in Fong's pizza. One day I will drink out of this monkey's head. Jeez, it seems like everything I think/talk about is Fong's pizza. I love that place. This time we had the Thai Chicken pizza. It came with cilantro and peanut sauce. Delicious.
Nice little addition to the sign, skateboarders. Good work. Now all the roller-blader folk are going to be offended/hurt.

Wall DRAGON has captured my imagination. I've been thinking about dragons a lot, I don't only think about Fong's pizza. Too bad the wall dragon bar wasn't open, I would have enjoyed sitting with a tiki drink under the beast. That damn place is never open.

its been a good bird week.

This Robin, named Bandit Rodchester, has a zip tie on his ankle. My only guess is someone hand raised him before he flew the coop. He's been hanging out at the campsite for over two weeks. I can hand feed him mulberries.
These are the turkey vultures of Buzzard Island. I don't know why they hang out on the wood pile but sometimes there's as many as 50 turkey vultures walking around. It's pretty gruesome.
Cranes from the wall of Fongs Pizza.
Iowa has pelicans. This still shocks me. Why are you here? Why?

i drew. i was a kid.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7gz1DIIxmEE

the truck sunk.

A couple weeks ago this truck sunk in the DesMoines River. After a few days of submersion, car help arrived and the wet truck was yanked out of the muddy depths.
The debris looks nice wrapped around the hood ornament. It looks like the eagle is making a nest.
The interior was filled with silt and dead fish. Notice there are no human bodies present, no one was hurt when the truck sank. Lucky ducks.
I don't know where it came from but there was a deer skull laying in the truck bed. It couldn't have been in there before the truck sank, a skull would have floated away. Did someone throw it in there after the accident? I wanted to take the skull home with me...but I'm pretty sure that would have given me bad luck.

Small brown bat. Photographed on the hood of my Honda by the DesMoines River.

Animal specimens helps inform the content of my work (no animals are ever harmed by my hands and have died natural deaths). I am able to get an up close encounter without all the hassle of harassing small mammals. The photographs are often incorporated into complicated paintings or drawings. Real observations of real animals are important to my work and its more personal then picking an image to draw off of google image search (not that I don't do that occasionally).

cute guys.

The toad has a natural defense mechanism. Urine. Noone likes to get peed on. He tried to pee on me but only managed to pee all over the porch. His natural defense didn't work on me...but I'm pretty sure his skin secretions gave me a mini-rash.
This slug was about 4 inches long. Brag-able? nope.

poor baby.

I noticed a lot of bird chatter. Oriole bird chatter, to be exact. Frantic and concerned oriole chatter. I couldn't figure out why two adult birds were so upset with me...until I almost stepped on their reason. A tiny baby bird was sitting, scared, next to my big toe. I knew I couldn't do much for the baby bird but I could at least keep him from becoming a dog's breakfast or a mess on someone's shoe.
I put the lil' guy a tree and he scooted up the bark like an old pro. He was safe for the time being. Little baby oriole perched himself on a branch and began to sing at his parents. This went on for over three hours until he lost his balance and fell into the bushes. His parents, who were never far away, began to freak out...again.
We all know there's not much you can do for a baby bird, it's the circle of life. I picked him out of the bush, set him on a tree branch, and let nature take it's course. He sang to his parents for the rest of the afternoon.

a gift from the dog.

We own a puppy now. I am constantly yanking objects out of his curious mouth. Bottle caps, paper goods, rotten food, underpants, pennies. All sorts of fun things.

While camping, Mudd pranced up to me like he'd found something good, something super good. his tail was wagging.

"drop it, Mudd!" yells jane.

Mudd droped his treasure. A flattened and dehydrated leopard frog. Good eye, dog!

We went out arrowhead hunting but ended up as fossil hunting. Check out these beauties.

(Brachiopods)

These shells are among the most common fossils found in Iowa. Brachiopods lived inside the protective cover of two hinged shells, attached to the floor of warm, shallow seas that once covered the state. These eastern Iowa specimens are about 375 million years old (Devonian).

lovebugs. click on the image for a better view.

Also, I just caught wind of a great blog. I was in a print exchange called "Leftovers". The exchange was put together by Wingtip Press and encouraged artists to use their "leftover" paper to make a 20 prints. I silk screened hog on kitikata paper...because everyone likes leftover bacon. You can check out all the clever art from clever artists at the blog:

http://leftoversanyone.blogspot.com/

penny. penny!

I'm a collector. I collect rocks, bone china, books, fossils, postcards, nick-knacks, and basically any other small (and interesting) souvenirs. People know this about me and when my friends travel around this beautiful country they'll make me smashed pennies. I love smashed penny machines, they're classic Americana. Any good tourist trap will have a penny smashing machine. They're cheaper then anything(51 cents), even a postcard. So, why not get one? I'm planning on making a giant shadow box frame to display my amazing collection that would only partially exist without the help of my worldly, road tripping, pals.

i captured his essence. click on the drawing for a more accurate viewing.

fortune cookies that should exist: don't eat Cheetos for breakfast.

he's cooler then we are.

A Challenge for Jane.

(first drawing I've made in awhile, they'll get better. let's observe progress)

Confession: The puppy made me complacent until about a week ago. I got heady and cranky. I was upset because all of my drawings looked shitty. To feel better: I'd start a new drawing, work on it for 10 minutes, get pissed off at the sophomoric proportions, tear the drawing apart, throw it in the can, and play with the puppy to make myself feel better.

No more! I am not going to let myself get into the habit of not drawing. I took a hiatus. The hiatus is over.

My goal: a drawing a day. (I can't post on weekends, no inter-web access).

Wish me luck!

This is the best coaster I've ever seen.

A wild eyed, rearing, black stallion BLASTING outta two cans of delicious Busch light.

Three cheers, Busch.

I'm Hijacking This Blog.

Just when I've figured out how to get my way in Korea, it's time to leave.

Sigh.

And not in an "I'm an American. I'm entitled!" sort of way. Not in a way to take advantage of people. But a way to make my life easier.

I've learned my role in society and how to use it to my advantage.

Before, when my phone got stolen, I ran around yelling at everyone and demanding that I not have to pay because it was STOLEN AND I'M FROM AMERICA. This did not work because

1. I did not speak Korean
2. My translator was too embarrassed to translate my angry American demands
3. I didn't understand how Koreans work.

Now, I think I do.

Now I've figured out how to make my day easier. For example:

Yesterday, after working out, I went to the grocery store. I bought ground meat. Next stop was one of my favorite soup places for lunch, but was worried about letting my meat sit out. (ha)
But, since I frequent this place, and Koreans view foreigners that eat alone as lonely, sad souls, I knew that the ajummas* would maternally grant my request. A simple request. Woman to woman. I showed them my meat (ha) And woman to woman, they understood I wanted to keep it in their fridge.**

And thus, my day was much easier. In the past, I would have fret about going home first to refrigerate the meat and then go to the restaurant, but by then, I'd be STARVING...etc...

Now, life is much easier. And the ajummas love me.

*married Korean woman. Usually older with short, permed hair and mismatched floral clothing. They wear visors year round and when encountered on the subway, have elbos and shoulders made of cement.

** this post is not a metaphor about banging the ajummas at the soup place.

You can read more of my adventures at I am in South Korea.

meet mudd.

This is why I've taken a blog hiatus. Meet Mudd. A little rat terrier that has stolen my heart and my time. Dang, he's cute.

Sorry about the brief hiatus.

jeez, puppies are a lot of work.

When I come back...puppies, drawings, poems, and a story or two!

much love.

baby birds kind of creep me out.

I went to the store, my bill was 5.99. I gave her 6 bucks and this was my return. Today's my lucky day.

quick lil' ramhead drawin'

The Bison of Madison, South Dakota. I thought he had an interesting paint job.

catfishmonster.sympatheticmagic.

"iowa diary" 2011 Here's some photographs from the Madison Area Arts Council's two-man show, Instinct. It was a damn fine show and a damn fine time. Thanks to Cassie and the Madison Area Arts Council for the invite. It felt good to bang some holes into drywall and hang some new pieces. "Spatiotemporal Fork Biota"
Left to Right: Mouth Rot, A Small Herd, Spatiotemporal Fork Biota

I caught frog!

drawn in South Dakota.

Another momentous day for Jane! I found my first matching set of deer sheds! Granted, they're not the biggest sheds that ever fell off a deer but I think they'd be in the running for the cutest sheds that ever fell off a deer. And also, there's my toe...bottom right. (the big antler was found buried in a creek bed. it was part of a skull at some point). http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_X73Yg6UCro (watch this. incredible)

The other night I had a dream that we were walking along the edge of a cornfield. As we walked, I looked down to stare at my bare feet buried the black mud. I saw something purple and shiny next to my big toe. I reached down and pulled a perfect, purple, three pronged arrowhead from the dirt. Then I heard a loud noise. Wha Wha Wha Wha. Alarm. I was groggy but the dream was a good omen. We put on our rubber boots, hopped into the truck, and off we went into the hills of Iowa to look for arrowheads. We trudged through the mud and the muck, through water and rocks and above is what we came up with. Three pieces, two of them...perfect. The dream was pretty damn prophetic...three pronged arrowhead and we find three arrowheads. Purple? If you look at these in the light, they are all shades of purple and reddish purple.

i was looking at Albertus Seba.