Found Art Friday 218

Dear ones,
This week's Found Art Friday is a collection by our family clan member Uncle Dave, bird whisperer and professional Falconer, working in Fort Ord.  Man and birds in communion have provided the service of preventing Swallows from nesting in the "blighted buildings" during demolition.  Would you have thunk it?

Art Ranger and her DIY tribe, we love to make things.  However, always looming on the horizon are destruction and impermanence; and how beautiful that can be once we let go of the pieces. And let the pieces go.

How could we ever make something so lovely. Chunks clinging so doggedly to their re-bar beginnings

Watch Mora the Aplomado Falcon do her work of discouraging Cliff Swallows:

 Mora comes back to the man's arm -  day after day, month after month, asserting her food chain presence/ prominence:

Amazing!  (while Art Ranger can barely find her vehicle in the parking lot).

In Spanish, Aplomado means having aplomb, being poised, confident, sure-footed (or winged?).  May we all achieve the right amount of "aplomado" now as we celebrate the holidaze and transition into a new year full of being present, even in the tiniest moments (despite current events).   Please continue to send your art incidents to FAF@homelandinspiration.org where the Art Ranger plans to take up a seventh year of this blog, this invented "place" we seek to share with you.

Found Art Friday 217

Dear ones,
 As we close our seventh year in the saddle here at The Department of Homeland Inspiration, we welcome your contributions of visual wonderment or inexplicable passing moments, such as this one from Diane Gage:

Dismayed poet admits to not understanding this at all

Thank goodness WE LOVE.  While we were out looking for something to be glad about, we settled on the variety of carrots available today:

Compared to when we were twelve years old

On its way to becoming a component of the "mire poix" for the bean dish, soon to be absorbed dutifully into flavor (along with celery, onion, garlic).  Mire poix translation could be see the weight, therefore the ballast of your soup.

Another thing to be visually glad about this week was our special conversation with Arte Mendoza about his vehicle.  From the Phillipines, Mr. Mendoza explained pridefully all the customization and special mounts, as well as the green-edged hole for "air condition" so "no wind no come BAM you to street".

 Especially fond of the pink steering wheel cover in these not soft or fuzzy times.

 

Go Arte!  We would also like to buy a popsicle now, but that is not his gig.

 Back to our discussion of vegetables and visuals:

Custom print by portabella mushroom packaging

Every (moist) year in the same place.

 Sculpture is about Proportion.

Has anything of note reached out to you lately from the universe of surprises?  If so, please let the Art Ranger know: FAF@homelandinspiration.org, and she will try to weave it in to her macrame.

Found Art Friday 216

Dear ones,
Our hearts go out to the array of pain around the Ghost Ship tragedy in Oakland.  The creatives are talking about this.  And so should the regulars.  The fact that we see these as two different camps is part of the problem. Artists are on the front lines, transforming and revitalizing our spaces and places, holding the mirror up to our faces, vigorously digesting our turbulent reality.  We the People need to invest in the well being of artists, celebrate and nurture our contributions, otherwise what a vapid and sterile existence.

Here at the Department of Homeland Inspiration, we are nearing the end of our seventh year of service.  We try to nourish with images:

blurb, blah blah blah   

 Let's just develop this color scheme:

No Explanation whatsoever - Whole Foods Market

you do what you can

These are moments we have collected over the past week, while simultaneously being interested in the moments you may hve gathered, and why.  Making this blog is not a substitution for making art, but a way of sharpening our knife, being attentive, inventive? and not interested in fitting in a box.

Pride in the ride

Wow!

Speaking of which, The Art Ranger had some cause for pause, some nearly tailgating over the DODGE.  We wanted to know more about this person, this personae, this ART GIRL swagger.  As on the surface this vehicle doesn't say (to us) ART GIRL, but maybe says - retired detective, or guy who sold something.  We want to think - she's got a gig ......

Please send us something that you do not understand at all to: FAF@homelandspiration.org.
FAF stands for Found Art Friday, which is a breath of visual freshness that can, of course, can happen at any time on any day.

Found Art Friday 215

Dear ones,
The Art Ranger wants to know - why does the dental hygenist always try to talk to you?
This week, while dealing with the "storage full" error message, we fixated on this shot from a visit to Crystal Bridges museum in Arkansas (where our dearest 102! year old aunt lives). The painting by William H. Beard (1824-1900) is called "School Rules":

titled "School Rules".  We've been drawn lately to all the great satire in the world.

Which goes quite nicely with our latest book search:

 

"Well Glory bee!" as our grandmother used to say, and "Life is the most interesting thing on earth":

During this time of national reckoning (wreck)oning) we thank our lucky stars to know some literature and art, full of ripe, healthy parody and satire that lays bare the truths in a creative and timeless way. One that comes to mind (again) is the farcical play, Ubu Roi by Alfred Jarry, produced in 1886. First written to make his school mates laugh,  a few years later performed with marionettes, then as a short play (pre-Dada, Surrealism or Absurd Theatre), Ubu Roi points out the buffoonery of self-inflated power in a very direct and bawdy way.  And the first word of the play is "Merdre" loosely translated as shit! but with an extra r added to make it extra coated with it and ever more full of poop and pomp.

Jarry's Woodcut.

Amazingly, we saw Ubu performed in 1979 inside of a trash incinerator facility in Switzerland.  Not kidding.  Foreign exchange student sitting on folding chairs with makeshift risers amidst very clean machines, pressure valves and gauges colored green yellow and red.  "Merdre!" bounced against the surfaces boisterously. This was the traveling  "circus" that came to the small catholic town.  We think we were baffled and smitten.

Back to William H Beard.

 And you can see now how seductive the offer was for some, what the making it "great again" pretend nostalgia was grasping for.  A big blond man on a horse with an expensive coat directing his own TV show.  A show of farce of epic proportions.

Art Ranger attends her first Peace Rally in Monterey, California with founder of Open Ground Studios
and creator of sign in foreground.

Our art can not help but take action, as we must live life intensely like a raw sponge.  Perhaps the absurd theater of our country rolling itself in "merdre" in front of our weary eyes can have an unforseen salve.  That is, really noticing what matters to you. 
What is on your mind? or what intersected with your visual-temporal panorama of existence?  Please send some to:  FAF@homelandinspiration.org.

 When in doubt, we look at the adoptee baby streaking through the mint or playing paw hockey with a pistachio shell, a coffee bean, a slice of celery.

Found Art Friday 214

Dear Ones,
How are you? The Art Ranger realizes now how much she actually values the concept of nationhood and still has ideals and high expectations for how it should be. Our community feels strengthened in some ways, clarified as we see what threads to pick up.  A poet friend and Found Art Friday appreciator Diane Gage, called herself "highly discombobulated" this week.  Those words stick on fork so accurately. Yes -  poetess touched the nerve with her Gage gauge.

Unlike some nightmares, you wake up in the middle of the night and the situation doesn't dissipate in the morning,
Unmoored, we sail into a frightening yonder.

We didn't believe that it meant the same thing to everyone, but we did believe and we do believe in most of our constitution, if we could just do it with empathy and love.  OM om om om om ommmmmm...... insert Bone Breathing........ ....... .......

Wise sentiments heard in auditory form from writer Isabel Wilkerson, How our country is now like an old house.  And we are going to have to look at what is in the basement that needs attending to.  The stuff in there is not going away (paraphrasing). Dang - the old house needs a lot of work!

Crosswalk siting - ouch the bruises, no arms and legs, fun colors though

Artist At Large who Teaches, despite being "highly discombobulated", can report that the students still make the endeavor worthwhile.

OPERATION OBJECT APPRECIATION cardboard sculptures casual coffee shop moment

 Tampon Grounding Event by Monica Mata

 East coast (local) correspondent, Julie Regan, observes a patch of sky revealing the

True Color of leaves 

At rest, when they are no longer hungry to produce chlorophyll       -     phew

 producing more space for limited light

Maybe it is hormonal, our world.

 Please send evidence of your uprisings and musings to FAF@homelandinspriation.org

Found Art Friday 213

Dear Ones,
As you might imagine, we have been severely highjacked again by an irrepressible urge to rant
while searching between the ears for remnants of the Homeland Inspiration Espiritu.
How is your emotional hangover? The what just happened? Numbness. 

We’re agape aghast and our PLEDGE ALLEGIANCE to the flag’s at half mast

Blindsided, horrified, gut-punched and wounded.

AND THE REPUBLIC FOR WHICH IT STANDS

Never before, have we taken it so personally, so physiologically, and never before has it felt like a national time of mourning and dissolution along with disillusion.

 The day after, we find ourselves out by the mailbox pulling weeds in the fog, trying to root out the sadness and face it head on while admiring our Yes on Z  lawn sign.  Yes, the Citizens Initiative in Monterey County to ban fracking was a success! We fended off a $5.5 Million dollar+ blitz of loathsome lies plastered upon us by the oil and gas industry giants.

Fie on you Mr Gas Pants!

We sort out thoughts like weeds and save some seeds. Watching the last cartoon gasp of white imperial dominance flaming itself out.  Woman-with-too-much-baggage overtaken by the monstrosity we’ve created. We (we)(they) (just who is they?) watched, (we) ate it up and allowed ourselves to be devoured.

WHITE WOMEN?  Huh? Wow ladies, how could you??? ? Of all people, acting out of fear
instead of love. Now do you feel “safe”?  Maybe you are still mad about the cookies?  Did you feel threatened by a woman who is that intelligent and composed? Are all ya’ll so beaten up that you need this man like a pimp?  What gives?  Evidently not pride or support.  Well gals, do you know what you signed up for?  Do you know what bus ride you just got on?  Is your amnesia that deep?  Go on back to sleep now with the TRUMPsteak over your eyes.

Where are the crumbs?  How do we find our way back home?

 ONE NATION (wait  - is this the problem?)

Poles of the polarity stretched so deep that we’re melting the ice caps in double double time. Tickle, trickle drip drip the venom, a different kind of waterboarding the election cycle was.   

As the woman on the spin cycle next to us said, “I feel so stressed, I feel like it’s Christmas”  Out of breath, we commiserated the civil discourse come unhinged.  

Offspring #2 having trouble concentrating on his Government textbook

-->

Though it appears that the country ached/voted for change, what they’ve demonstrated instead is fear of change.  And that is change that has already happened.  We are peopled here with a multi-cultural and creative earth-loving intelligence.  Huge steel mills aren't coming back. The "change" they voted for is really the worst of the "more-of-the-sames", such as misogyny, and trickle (not at all) down economics.

Could we send him to outer space to watch climate change happen?

BLOWHARD DONALD and his little PINCHED PENCE

(I'm so going to miss Obama's relaxed smile despite how arduous it has been) 

 We must hand it to hand it to the Donald for manning the communication waves.  He managed to be somehow fascinatingly repulsive.  A sort of Jabba the Hut of a pre-roasted, angrysickballsack thing. A cotton candy topped greed-based narcissist, snake oil salesman who achieved brand recognition, suspense and terror while barely spending a dime.  Bombarding the bullyism upon those with weakened understandings (or something).  And the ever devouring piranha of his lips, mangling civility as he went. All twittered and frittered and fried into indigestible lumps of negativity.

Oh ELECTORAL COLLEGE vote - despite his propagandizing to the disenchanted, the "blue collar" left-behinds, it's the ELECTORAL COLLEGE (drafted in the 1880s) that clinched it.  Now looking like an obscure, elitist, collegey, fake, complicated, obfuscated Credit Default Swap.  

-->

one nation(?) indivisible, with liberty and (justice) for all."

 "WRONG"

INDIVISIBLE, hmmmm

--> WITH LIBERTY(surveillance) AND (JUSTICE) FOR ALL (some) 

Now they talk of (the wall) as not a real wall you know, but a system.  The Trump con/ card worked.  We are at the Casino now and we’re pretty sure that we know what is going to happen.

Whoah. Feeling freighted with the weighted.  As the offspring says: "Stop talking mom!" 

Breathe breathe breathe – locate your your chi ball in the rubble and confusion and we attempt to stoke it with some rays of hope.  Breathe all the way into your bones, and give yourself extra oxygen these days.  And as  Bob NO WOMAN NO CRY Marley said,
(observing the ypocrites)
MINGLE WITH THE GOOD PEOPLE WE MEET

ALONG THE WAY   .........
It's their art and music and writings and hope and humor that are going to get us through.

Found Art Friday 212

Dear ones,
Just a few more days now. Stay calm, can we?  How could the spin spin more farcical the madefortv tweety sadslapstick movie of ourselves? Fanning the flames of our dollar-fueled gladiator machine.

From Herzog's "Fitzcarraldo" - have you seen it?  A beautiful essay about hubris.

 Friend in the Bay Area sends this from a visit to an "alternative art space".  Framed and Valorized, a chemically aged time map for the building and its complexion.

Friend in the Bay area also saw this:

Yard Art - Oakland area

(Inspiring) Yard Art sign

Oftentimes, the Art Ranger has run out of "storage" on her photographic device that she did not start this blog with.  When she goes a deleting along, it's an accidental a voyage back in recent time and texture, a form of memory stored elsewhere than your brain. Not that many people take pictures of squashed gum and such. Here's today's catch:

While taking time off from teaching, gladly a mouse put to use the contents of the Art Ranger's work

 in a drawer

Nothing could put things in better perspective, the practice of teaching; you want your contents to be used somehow, if not to build a nest, then to feed someone.

We hope that you may soon be pleasantly surprised by your own homeland world and send evidence to: FAF@homelandinspiration.org

Found Art Friday 211

Dear Ones,
Tis the season to wear glow-in-the-dark fangs.  Now, when we think of candycorn, those orange cones of October, we realize what 40 years of highfructosecornsyrum has done to our nation.   Halloween must still be fun and culturally necessary, as people need an identity release valve.

Friend in the Bay Area shares this highly enterprising elementary school class creation:

Not sure - is it Prince being licked by a giraffe?  In any case, these kids have some skills and some guts.  We shall set up our picnic on the sidewalk and await the puppet show to begin.

"Cradle to Cradle" product marketing

"For easy Trance Port" - Wowy //////// we could use some of that.

Speaking of spooky,

A Facebook gleaning: 'A scene from "The Birds"' notes Alice Bush

Some photos are images, some images are photos. 

Yesterday, we took a walk without our lump of technology, and of course, there at the pond, was both the blue heron and the snowy egret and the freshest greenest sprout color along with a mossy-blue-green-grey and mauve algae swirl with twelve coots resting softly on its edges;  all of which made us want to be Claude Monet.  All of which, had we the usual device in our hand, we may not even have noticed.

Here is a rare to share category, called  Posits and PhoNotes:

WATCH FOR A PEDESTRIAN WALKING ON THE ROADWAY IN CIRCLES

Feels like our Madefortvmovie country

August 2016, regarding the unmentionable the ubiquitous the candycorn tan Narcissist creep

Wake us up when it's over? 

 Have a vitality-filled week and send us some moments, oh please to: FAF@homelandinspiration.org

Found Art Friday 210

Dear ones,
Isn't it exhausting?   We the people hold these truths to be self evident and now tortuous.
Quite often the Art Ranger notices objects produced in collaboration with "nature" that are so extraordinary looking that we should plainly hang up our artlady-must-make-things hat and just watch life move instead.  All the more, here at the Department of Homeland Inspiration, to continue to strive for a life slice where the "art" is  right under your feet.

! I must eat your foot right now or swing from your drapes!  I also can climb up onto the counter and lick the rim of your butter dish

How could anything be more funny and enchanting and nimble and clumsy than a baby animal?  Even if the creature is going to (in a very short period of time) reduce your home into various piles of unraveled of fibers.  How can you not be in favor of a creature that amuses itself so thoroughly with just a ball of foil or a toiletpaper roll, or even her own foot.  Of course, we understand now, the internet hypnosis of catness as antidote to our cultural pycho-ness.

 I am absolutely serious about playing with the utmost vigor

The other built-in awe in our immediate vicinity is the cornucopia from the garden created largely by our Gentleman Spouse.  Yes, these living sculptures have us bowing and squatting and doing plank pose while praying with delight at the shapes and tones and gestures and cellular vibrancy of these holy vegetables. 

Yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes

 

 We will never tire of looking at this thing!   

And then, there is a siting from the world of commerce:

Sundried dumpster edge tomato

 Have you any slices of life to share?  How about it - FAF@homelandinspiration.org.