Friday, December 20, 2013

Found Art Friday 137

Dear Ones,
Last week, we missed the boat  -  and this week almost, and next week we shall surely despite our regular intentions. C'est la vie.
Today, we experienced a special moment in commerce to share with you. This was from a man with Jim embroidered on the white rectangle of his stiff blue shirt, who operates a unique hybrid of automobile repair/ fishing supply store:  "What I say to people who complain is  - ain't nobody give a doo doo about it - so why waste your breath".
 Yet Another Special Moment in the World of Commerce
Telecollage discovered by Bonnie Hotz in Witchita

They still have hope somehow

He does not Tweet!
We hope you have been both naughty and nice.
 
And thank you to those of you who responded to the nearly impossible guess about this image.
You deserve the honey honeys.
Sea Urchin Sperm
Because this is (what THE INTERNET said it was). 

Enjoy your world corners.  We'll see you around the bend.
Share up some pixels at FAF@homelandinspiration.org

Friday, December 6, 2013

Found Art Friday 136

Dear Ones,
Welcome to the Department of Homeland Inspiration once again, in case we've lost the trail of breadcrumbs.  Now as the Holidaze start to heat up the planet, we have the following humble visual happening:
What's in your sink? as witnessed by Bonnie Hotz.  Whoah
And it's a throwback to the early Art Ranger posts.

A while ago,  Blogger service ran out of memory for The Art Ranger's images and began charging a monthly memory fee, so we had to prune our kitchen sink diary.   It blows our mind, the fossilfueled "cloud" we're helping to feed.  Technologies gorging on whole new kinds of consumption.
This sink glimpse conjures up quite a tadpole, eggy, fisheye, early life morphology.  Is it coming or going?
egg and sperm

Human Embryo
With a very early fashion sense. 

#################

Now for images gathered in the mindcamera while talking on the phone with The 82 year-old Mother of Art Ranger.  Picture the berries and ju ju bees on Phoebe's front door Christmas wreath being about the same color red of the embryo compartment above. (Phoebe does themed napkins and doors, but goes short of a mailbox cover with her enthusiasms). 

############
 

For the past several days, she reported, a clever and brazen Magpie has been eating all the berries off her Christmas wreath.  Every last one of them.  Evidently Magpie is angry about all the synthetics.  Perched awkwardly upon the wreath, the large vigorous bird (known for robbing eggs) is thrashing and jingling and pecking the tiny bells off this ring of greenery-ribbon-berry-smell.  She had to let it continue .... the bird so determined, pointedly and patiently working at his nature reclamation project.


GUESS WHAT THIS IMAGE IS OF and you can win a  8 oz. jar of Corral de Tierra Honey.
Send guesses and images to FAF@homelandinspiration.org.
May you have enough fresh air and energy for your dazes.

Friday, November 22, 2013

Found Art Friday 135

Dear Ones,
We received ten words on Tuesday that pushed the cart before the image:
According to the 
frog in the drain
it may rain 

And it finally did.
"Fuzzy heads" from A Villa in San Diego
While performing routine iphone maintenance, we came across "reminders" (that can't be explained to anyone). They are the would-be-photos. Thought orphans that may spawn images.

a woman with a big bandaid on her face doing latin grammar
homework (aloud) in the waiting room

survival molecules

the wild trees

Catdelic

wolf lichen

take control of the memory 
by writing about it

a hummer with jesus on the bumper

the sound of doves

or the humble discarded mattress

bottom of the world

black bumblebees bathing in orange poppy

citigroup wrote laws that congress passed 
to help regulate themselves

a soapy smelling older woman

beeswax ephemera (music)

the spills (music)

"tell the wolves I'm home" (book)

drive by truckers (music)

gossamer gases in interstellar space

Several months since checking the gleanings.  Now to weave images from you folks at large:
All-Season Heads, witnessed by Friend in the Bay Area
Exit Door with non-permissional art, 
Or
Back Stairs Temple, also from Friend in the Bay Area

Thinking ahead, which she rarely does, Art Ranger will be (at Large) due the Thanksgiving, so we leave you this bonus of an art news story of the week:


Lovely imagery to accompany Climate Summit in Warsaw this week: Cough 4 Coal campaign: pink-lungs- worth a read

Our finale, is this deep cultural sample from the Fashion Analysis series:

Which reminds us again, that we are clearly in the wrong business.  Pet get-ups for pet folk dancing is where it's at.

However, our job satisfaction is at 172%!

Have a relaxing holiday - wait, is there really such a thing?

Please document all oddities, plus humorous and/or visually favorable moments and share them here:

in our one-of-a-kind repository of thought and image: FAF@homelandinspiration.org.

Saturday, November 16, 2013

Found Art Friday 134

Dear ones,
Today again we share our collection of random image happenings:

by Sherry Hastings in the Bay Area.
Sister waiting for brother. Some joie de vivre. Having the time to be full of verve and vigor and being upsidedown. Which we usually forget to do later on in life.
from: cartographer Cornelius de Jode,
The child's perspective brought us here to a print from Speculum Orbis Terrae of 1593, a mapmaker's
quest to describe the land and imagine the inhabitants of the yet unexplored Southern Hemisphere.
Sea Swine Down Under
 @@@@@@@@@@
(did you ever imagine using that thing so often?)

Now we are going to switch tracks. Hop skip and a jump to some Fashion Analysis: 
a whole new Art Ranger category:


Men's Sweater at Target
 
No really. Okay hush puppy, not jammies, not fancy, so doggish, so kitsch, so cute, so camp. Who at corporate chose to put this out front and center? All needlepoint and pixel. A pillow becomes sweater for someone who likes to stay indoors?  Our countrymen and women seek comfort in a bashed around economy with disposable creditcard clothes. And governmental woes.  But the right hat or joke and it just might work. 

Yep, she's a traveling eye to eye saleswoman, portal to portal, enjoying your contributions.  It's Images or bust - that's our gold.  Please send some moments to FAF@homelandinspiration.org.

Friday, November 8, 2013

Found Art Friday 133

Dear Blogsports,
You are here! And here we go  - back from our time-warp exile.
Technologically speaking, blogging can involve receiving outstanding spam about eye floaters,
vitreous detachment does cause some disturbing symptoms it normally does not threaten sight. hacklers hacklier hackling hackneys hacksawn hacksaws hackwork haddocks spleen  spelled speller  spelter  spelunk"
We're not kidding.
Phew, our eye opener for the day is this outcropping from Bonnie Hotz:
My hernia through an egg
Several times this week, we read great tributes to Lou Reed such as: Patti Smith's

For that reason his songs have been rattling around and emitting feedback in our head.  So when the dog caused us to walk through this tunnel under the highway, we naturally "took a walk on the wild side" and hummed doo te doo doo doo te doo while capturing this series of images for you: 



Hello Kitty
 And all the smells.
Hello randomness of life.
And thank you for artists such as Lou that sing sang sung about something.

As always, please share images of your own Homeland Inspirations here:
FAF@homelandinspiration.net

Friday, November 1, 2013

Found Art Friday 132

just when we thought we were over the Squashed Abandoned Glove ....
Dear ones,
Where was the Art Ranger?  She was At large.  In the field.  And home on the Range. Both overwhelmed by the number of humans she is supposed to pay attention to,  and underwhelmed by having only 6 visitors to visit some posts.  Facebook algorhythms decide for you.  But we're back thanks to the enlivening contributions of A. Villa from San Diego:
A collection to be savored and shared in two parts, for now ...
Clean hands
Three - what a lovely number of gloves.
and
plus ...

The clock makes this so poignant.  Jesus and Mary have morphed.  Well there it is, MoM  - the greatest privilege and challenge the Art Ranger has ever had on this earth! We still do seek to make art just to try to get a taste of creation, that urgency, that heart aflame.  To practice making something out of nothing, we need guts.  So thank you for the reminder to just keep doing it no matter what.

Please visit often, and send your finds/ friends to FAF@homelandinspiration.org 


Friday, October 11, 2013

Found Art 131

Well Dears,
Art Ranger is still practicing the art of self-furlough in protest to our unraveled crapocracy.  In lieu of our regular Found Art Friday, "we the people" are going to offer a few choice re-blogging actions. (Now maybe Arianna Huffington will see this).  Jeez, we strive to create "content", but it is so handy to just pass stuff around on the splinternet.
Today while driving along the rural highway, we spotted an upside down flag.  For a moment it seemed a fitting mistake, but then we thought again:  Upside down flags, a symbol of distress:
Dig the fringe!

And now switch gears for an uplifting and eccentric character who has been sited walking along that same scenic highway as well as by the friend of a friend, etc.  Art Ranger is very admiring of this purposeful life performance:
.Have you seen a guy walking with 3 mules lately? 
"To answer the most asked questions: Who are we? Where are we from? and Where are we going?  We are mules. We are from the outside. We live outside all day, every day. Where are we going? Nowhere, we’re here- the outside, the web of life- a beautiful  place like no other.We have come to this place-a place of golden sparkling light, a place for anybody and everybody. If your faithful of energy to this place at which time you connect to it and you’ll see the magic and endless possibility of infinity. As you walk in this place with these mules you spread the awareness that this beautiful earth like no other can only be protected by the way we live one day at a time."
The Mule man with his mules “Little Girl," "Lady" and "Pepper”
How sincere and pure.  If you haven't seen Mule, how about any good meteors, flying saucers or very hot chilli peppers?  Please share at: FAF@homelandinspiration.org

Friday, October 4, 2013

Found Art 130

Dear Ones,
Art Ranger is at her Post but feeling emptied out. She is practicing self-furlough as advised by the National Sanity Administration in solidarity with those suffering due to idiocy at the top.  The Department of Homeland Inspiration depends on Freedom of Speech and yet we are truly disgusted by some people's version of it.  A moment of silence shock and awe over the level of shortsightedness and dysfunction we are currently experiencing ...............
Respectfully at your service,
The Art Ranger

(Shhhh she is going to take a nap and hope she wakes up some day soon to her village sending in their own image findings to inspire our musings about art in everyday life.  Pretty or not so pretty please send to FAF@homelandinspiration.org

Friday, September 27, 2013

Found Art Friday 129

Dear Ones, 
Yesterday it was Tuesday, now it is Friday.  Here are some things that have zigzagged through our world, and yours?
Maya Hotz "beet art"
Drive by Fresh Faces spotted by Noah
Really?  You like it here so much that you become our wallpaper? We're very flattered - thank you for visiting.
How can we still eat bacon after meeting her?
Camel Rides  -  $5  - We just want to have an ancient all day conversation with this loose lipped creature.
Clearly, the eyes have it!

Please send your finds and wonderment to FAF@homelandinspiration.net

Friday, September 20, 2013

Found Art Friday 128

Well Hello,
The Art Ranger has spent a lot of extra time at the institution lately.  The classrooms are full, and spongebrain has 65 faces to name.  The technology does and does not work.   Will we reach any of them?  Regarding "art", 99% have almost zero background knowledge about it when they arrive (and yet it surrounds us).  It would be as though you had students who weren't yet aware that there existed both earth science and also biology.  So we start each batch from scratch over and over again.

Here are some words selected from their world that made Art Ranger's day. 

Student from  Malaysia:

"I would like to use art as a warm and peace way to color on my life and helping the community; and show to the world what art is."

after learning about the Dada movement:

"Now people see such deep meanings in pieces of art that i think is beautiful. Back in the day people people saw a picture of a lady and thought of that is a great picture of a lady. Now people have art that could just be a toilet. The people back in the day would have thought that it was not even close to art and should not even be considered such a thing. Now they see that it represents something like the world has lost hope and is destined for nothing but but to end up in the toilet. I feel that art is a beautiful concept and should be treated as such."

So now we realize that if one has never been shown much art, the two or three images you pull up to illustrate your point may have overfed significance. 
wow - look at us now               (This is how the NSA scandal makes many people feel too )  

The new faces are themselves concerned about the role of technology in their everyday lives and they care greatly about privacy:

Which is why Phone Troll WANTS (YOU, US, THEM) to be able to turn that thing off!
What do your "notes from the field" look like?
 Please send thoughts and images, haiku too, to FAF@homelandinspiration.org.

Friday, September 6, 2013

Found Art Friday #127

Well Helllllo ....
We are back in range now as Labor Day has passed and we are again able and willing to gather our mind for this again - "this" being the collection and celebration of found "art" that manifests itself in the form of images.  Meanwhile, the back to school smell of new schoolbus yellow pencils has been replaced by a slippery black rectangle that sometimes replaces 40 lbs worth of books and other times becomes a shark who eats smaller fish or a cyborg who punches.  The hypnotic technological genie is out of the bottle.  

Over the summer, Art Ranger received a few submissions to share with you today.
From Nancy Grover in the bay area.  A spot where people leave offerings.




Here are two from  a friend in the bay area:
Hand cut flowers in the shop window
And Driveway Robot
We are interested in these visual actions that are extra work.  You aren't required to have a driveway robot, but what drives a person to put in the effort, either to make it, leave it there, or to take note?

Here is where the every day meets the serendipitous:
Witnessed by Bonnie Hotz: bird bathing in dogwater
How is it that our fried egg residue has become a migrating honking Canadian goose?
After Breakfast
That is all for your visual snack of the day.  Please join us any time with your found art submissions at FAF@homelandinspiration.org

Friday, August 16, 2013

Greetings from The National Sanity Administration!

Dear Ones,
Some summer left summary:
While the Artist has been at Large and the Ranger out on the Range, we have gathered a few thoughts.  For kids these days, summer ends at all different times, unceremoniously. Some are already in a hurry to already take tests. 
We hope that you have been experiencing some perfectly ripe fruit or a blossom at its absolute peak, things that only this sweet season can bring about.  Perhaps an over-sized moon.  Maybe some bare feet upon a new surface.  Green lawn in the wrong place for a short time. Or a new kind of smoothie.

Don't know about you but, the Art Ranger has been rather captivated by the NSA, Edward Snow Den drama.  Everything is still fuzzy like those Russian winter hats.  People seem to either think "hero" or narcissistic fool.  Not much inbetween.  We knew we were metadata - just not how much.
Holy Cow!! Please go Solar.  Please compost your food scraps and make energy  - something!
Tell you what, if the A Ranger had some $$ to invest, it would be in DATA HALLS. What a gargantuan coal-fired-energy-extravaganza to store and enable all those servers to purr 24/7 x infinity and to not overheat or overeat its citizenry. See all them servers in your mind, wearing little aprons carrying trays of hot data.  And they themselves all need to eat in order to feed the need.
Edward online a few years ago - perhaps a protesting nun in training?
How could Edward hold all that information inside himself? *
He must have been "snowed in" by all that OMG data and so he just had to leak, like kids do.  Plus, there are holes in everything, we are just lil molecules holding hands. We're glad there is Booz in the subcontractor's name, because our country (that we actually love very much) is certainly addled and bamboozled by computers and subcontracting the subcontracts for maintaining and swaggering it's military aggranda.
Or did Edward just botch the job?
In honor of this mother of all METADATA moment, we at the the Department of Homeland Inspiration have started a new NSA which is: The National Sanity Administration. Yes, that's right. 

A thought collage brought to you by Art Ranger + google images, scissors, and glue
You have been pre-approved for participation in our NSA just by reading this far.  What do you do? to keep acquiring knowledge and yet stay sane?  Name yourself a great sanity producing activity - such as making a strawberry milkshake ... Or doing exercise that makes sweat drip off the end of your nose ... Or knitting. What gives? What replenishes? What allows you to calm down about world events or local politics and put them in perspective?  Like all art, you don't need to have an answer, but you do need to question.

As far as the Art Ranger's usual Friday posts, we'll be back right after Labor Day. So please join us with your contributions, your found art/Art moments, and your own activities for the National Sanity Administration at any time: FAF@homelandinspiration.org.  

*painting by Peter Paul Rubens, circa 1617, "the Head of Medusa". As this story unfolds...