Found Art Friday 140

Dear Ones,
We unearthed this accidental "art":

Inside lid of long neglected box of pastels.  Pastels that have been somewhere.  Moved and jiggled around, longing to become form, volume, light - pears, flowers, chairs.

Otherwise, the Art Ranger is entirely missing her senses of smell and taste.  Instead of being out on the range, we've been what we call "under the weather":

not under the sun

cumulus clouds, the word "cumulus" from the latin word for "heaps" of something - in our case it's um, heaps of used tissues.

 Now let's talk about chicken soup.  When you are sick, you have too much time to think about such things as the fact that Kleenex tissues are pathetic little wastes of cellulose and Puffs are superior. Or in this case, why is chicken soup so right to eat when you are sick?  Okay, your own core is munted (favorite slang from New Zealand), so that is why you need to slurp down the marrow of other creatures to restore yourself. And, of course, you may be feeling too blah to make your own chicken soup, so you reach for:

Andy Warhol, genius

But here is what else we discovered after having not had a can of  Campbells  Chicken Noodle SOUP in maybe 15 years.  That whole "gargle with saltwater" thing your mother told you when you had a sore throat - Campbells has totally got this covered in the soup. That 8oz. can has 940 mg of sodium!  According to some calculator for heart patients, it's about 17 teaspoons. Yep, and those feeble little half strings they try to pass off as noodles just further slither your mouth in salt like automatic carwash brushes.  After that, "drink plenty of fluids" pretty much becomes a survival tactic as you hallucinate amongst your cumulus of tissues about being lost and parched in the desert with a sore throat, holes in your socks and no mommy, while desiring a soothing lime green or blue snow cone.

Or maybe just a little art moment.

Louise Bourgeois

Have a heart felt week and may you have the time to make your own soup of life.

Send recipes to FAF@homelandinspiration.org

Found Art Friday 139

Well folks,
Unseasonably warm as it has been here in California, something big is telling us something bigger.  You just can't reason with the earth's atmosphere.

This week's "found art" has come from the biosphere of 1s and 0s, the bits and bytes.  As Art Ranger sits in front of her screen machine putting together the digital doorways to the semester's teachings, she runs across some accidental gems:

Print called "Wolf Girl" by Kiki Smith, 1991
and
(this makes us feel okay about not plucking our eyebrows since the 9th grade, or having an occasional feeling of hairy teeth)
not to mention Little Blue Riding Hood .....

Two deer on Nepal paper, also by Kiki Smith (refreshingly good artist)

"Wild Vegetation", Vincent Van Gogh - ( near the end)

We artists are always having to counter-act the vibe of this stressed, hungry, tortured artists' image, but no matter what  -  we absolutely love
the frenetic feelingness of his art 

"Makin Hay", 2005 , Sculpture By Tom Otterness in the Palo Alto hills

Which reminds us   -   We would enjoy hearing your comments on this recent story:
"CROP CIRCLE" from my neighborhood.

Please send your revelations, reveals or the real deals to:  FAF@homelandinspiration.org

Have a lovely week and perhaps pray (or over pray) for rain .....

Found Art Friday 138

Dear Ones,
Have you been having a renew year? Phew! Right out of the blocks, we received two images from
A Villa:

Dig the octopus Midwife!  How come most women in the US of A still try to have babies while lying down in bed?

Dumpster may be down in the dumps today

(What we do here at the Department of Homeland inspiration is celebrate the art in the every day)

the eyes have it

Unsuccessful yet scenic attempt at communication

 A visit to the ceramic studio: accidental earthenware glasses:  Pottery by Bonnie Hotz

 Send the Art Ranger some evidence of your visual life, okay - FAF@homeland inspiration.org

Another Annual Retort

Welcome to Year  five of The Department of Homeland Inspiration!

We are at your service in search of Art in the Every Day.  It is a radical and defiant act to decide to stop and take a picture of Not Selfie. The walk around the block, the corner out back, or maybe what has grown into a fence.  It's here and there for you to see and cultivate.

As we change into 2014, here is a mash up of images and thought fractals from the year gonebye:

Right here in the U S of A where we ate "homemade" Macaroni and Cheese next to a man in his blackened suede welding jacket.

Our job is tending The Department of Homeland Inspiration:  (by now, you all have your own version of this so please send in some image evidence to: FAF@homelandinspiration.org.) Your participation is the reason in chief we continue this unknown blogging vision quest.

A handy Pocket Review for you

Okay, we had our debt ceilings and gov shutdown fist poundings. Bad hurricanes and tornadoes and

polar ice sheets melting with atmospheric carbon now reaching over 400 parts per bill.

MORE horrific gun stories. The Giant technological gaff of health care debacle. The biggest typhoon on earth. The chillax shift in Marijuana laws.  

And We have got to Stop Fracking already!

Certainly, we are very unsconsed in the unfolding case of Edward Snowden (who is working on the screenplay?).

Almost a horse race

And here's a fat footnote:  Bitcoins.  Have you felt it in the air lately? We've read three articles about this and understand less than before we started. Yup, Bitcoins and Bitcoin mining. Their computing power has increased 30,000% this year (or something) even more than the NSA.   They have these machines in Iceland that do math problems 24/7 and poop (or birth) out little bitcoins you could own (or something). What a bitcoin is worth is constantly fluctuating based on demand and limitation (we made that up). Yes Bits and the silent partner, Bytes. Bitcoin transactions leave no trace of place of origin as there is no sovereign nation upon which to base it. Yet the enterprise is taking up 100s of thousands of square footage, computing power and energy. It seems the pinnacle of mathematical capitalism and yet the pinnacle of democratism.  No bank fees for transactions. Anyone with 25 cents and an internet connection can join in.  Why are we even talking about this? Our mind noodles are trying to wrap around this new form of Casino ism. It's extra- terrestrial virtual money - a new way to shovel $$it$$ around that hardly anyone understands. Do you?

Overwhelming news of the world better to swallow alongside the fruits of our small gardens, the "liquid gold" made by bees, the shape of eggs laid by big useful birds, the skincolor of plums in July.  The crumpled and folded socks of boys. The whirlwind of daily.

sometimes we get holes in us

Wishing you and yours much Peace and Reasonable well-being in the new year.  Please visit often.

Sincerely Yours,
Art Ranger and colleagues