Found Art Friday 242

Dear ones,

As the year tilts toward continuum, we review some images in the rearview.   

Art Ranger continues to do her job of watching out for art as it intersects with the everyday, but during these months, our pursuit has been sliced and slashed through by current events at an unforeseen rate.  Hard to find any calm on the seas.  Nevertheless, we try to plant our feet, to touch base. 

Gentleman Jeff bike commute sunset

A few days ago:  Palm Springs Art Museum - rearview noted by mother Phoebe

Last month, congressman Elijah Cumming's face encapsulated the year beautifully with: "This is a fight for the soul of our democracy  ... so guard it carefully people, for the things we hold most dear are at stake" ( or something like that) underlined and punctuated by the extremely weathered bags or rumpled suitcases under his eyes.

THE MARCH January 20, 2017: "Pussy grabs back"

Forget who wrote it, from NYT Art section, but it sure was appreciated
  
Art Ranger is proud of the resistances that have cropped up. The ones in the hallways of Capital Hill, on the streets and the Twittering back-o-sphere, those with new callouses from writing so many postcards. And we applaud the true soldiers of true journalism.  About the #MeToo that every female we know has experienced some version of: "We wish it would just stop" said Jodi Foster on TV, "so we can get on with whatever it is we are supposed to be doing" such as good work, being a friend, etc.,

January 20, 2017

We are looking forward to joining another March this January.  In preparation, the "pussy hat" is having a third eye sewn on it.  Yes, a we are watching! eye.  Also, we are studying rhythm as applied to pots and pans:  Caceroladas - a form of protest that we admire

Being an engaged citizen is everyone's job now - like never before.  

Offspring #1 in his element

As we were attempting to finish this blog post started two weeks ago, came a loud knock on the door.  Do you have a cat?

RIP Monkeyface Kitty Juno orphan rescued from a ditch - we enjoyed your sweet short slightly naughty life.

See you in the new one.  Please send your found art to FAF@homelandinspiration.org

blue sky

Found Art Friday 241

Dear ones,
As the year draws to a close, "you can't make this stuff up" has become a most common turn of phrase during these turbulent months as our riveting Made4TV country implodes, and eats its own puzzle pieces. What's left?  Just moments ..... 

Three tone ants sharing honey, shared by Offspring #1

Parking lot Scene - snack vault?

Back yard scene

Recently, the Art Ranger borrowed the line "From Sea to Shining Sea" from the lyrics of the song America the Beautiful to title and describe this sculptural map contraption:

featuring the US Mexico border stretching from the Pacific Ocean to Gulf of Mexico (also a tunnel and a flag collage) ...

In preparing to speak to a class of 28 Japanese students, Art Ranger figured she should be ready to answer questions about said line and song lyrics written by Katherine Lee Bates. Until a few days ago, we're not sure if we had ever (carefully) read further into this earnest poem/song.

Verse #2 for example ....

^{O beautiful for pilgrim feet
Whose stern impassioned stress
A thoroughfare for freedom beat
Across the wilderness.
America! America!
God mend thine ev'ry flaw,
Confirm thy soul in self-control,
Thy liberty in law!}

 ^{( Hmmmmm)}

^{About Katherine Lee Bates, it's worth reading.  Quote from her Wikipedia page:
In 1910, when a colleague described "free-flying spinsters" as "fringe on the garment of life", Bates answered: "I always thought the fringe had the best of it. I don't think I mind not being woven in." [5] Wikipedia:}

We are very proud of the women who are coming forward to disarm the system. The fringe is swinging which rimes with singing and rather than the national anthem with its "bombs bursting in air", we will sing America the Beautiful in solidarity.

While we hold our collective ground staving off the toxic forces, let's strive for this mindset:  "If you are a poet, you will see clearly that there is a cloud floating in this sheet of paper." words of Thich Nhat Hanh from "The Heart of Understanding", shared by Julie Regan who studies close up to such tender air in bones we share.

found under rusted mattress springs

What does your "Sea to shining Sea" see? Please send to FAF@homelandinspiration.org.

Found Art Friday 240

Dear ones,
We hope that you've done some wonderful thanking/thinking and that perhaps you may be immersed in a uncommercial moment somewhere.  A toast to ThanksGivings: now we'd like to spread more thanking out to each day.  Carefully to butter the toast; which requires having enough bread and butter to do so with. The opposite of micro-aggressions, we could use to give off and witness graditudinals for as many angles as possible, sprung up from the surprising mush of this life.

Who would ever predict the way research may meander us on this here internet? 

Now, the following visuals are provided by our most reliably wholesome and fun friend in New Hamspire, recently featured as Vegetable Judge for the Sandwich County Fair.  Here, she is a participant who documents steps taken in order to arrive as a single bite of protein to your mouth.  A small scale "farm to table" experience (selectively cropped by AR):

We did - did you?   Before  - yes, they must be chatting quietly

Even though Art Ranger thinks she wants to see what needs to be seen in this world, we notice that our desire to sanitize and de-animalize food processing runs more deep and visceral than imagined. We zero in on part of anything and it goes easier ... leaves more to the imagination (pointless though it is) and yet, this draws us closer in to the vital event.  Each bird was hand carried and delivered to this point/edge.

a cone, a sharp tool, a process

Plucker with flexible rubber fingers that spins.  Stainless steel  - so cold it's warm.

Naturally, feathers get used for something else

And there we are .... instead of goosebumps they are turkey bumps, legs, thighs, knees, tendons so very similar to our own.

Okay ....

We can't not love your face Tom - and when we wanted to know more about your prodigious wattle - surprising yet logical, we learn this:

And let us all who are wishing to be locovores make note of the amount of human labor involved in satisfying our thoughtful tastebuds.

Dear ones, may your world view include unexpected details and reflections.  Please share notables to: FAF@homelandinspiration.org, subject: FAF sure helps us find it again easier :).

Found Art Friday 239

Dear ones,
Welcome back to our service area, the (found art) contemplation zone. Yes indeed. Lately, Art Ranger has not been out on the range, but in the studio producing an art exhibition about produce, leafy green vegetables raised here in the Salinas Valley.  When photo documentation is available, more bits can go out to the sphere.

As tends to happen, we were most compelled by the process, actual leaves and their structures were the main character  - while deveining and unpacking the political context of agriculture and the people who make it possible.  Those are some of the themes stuck under our fingernails.

 Never in our wildest dreams did the small freckled one who became us think that she would eat things like this and truly enjoy them.

try your whole life to know how to use color as well as this leaf does as it ages - get out your paint brushes

 many prints

During our Artist in Residency at Open Ground Studios, we labored over the art installation parts and the whole (a whole only made possible by being around people who could help).  As soon as any component was about "finished" we were just getting the hang of it, whatever the task.  After a few days of work on a 9' x 4' pastel mural, we moved on to become enthralled with the floor and its

sweepings.

drop cloth

photo by Nicki Sucec of cardboard mural with "la linea" in ammo strip.

For several weeks, we frequented the small city of Seaside, going up and down the sidewalk of a different neighborhood that has a DIY spirit, a carry-on-make-it-work-somehow patina:

Moon's 99 cent store is NOT a chain!

tape skeletons from months or years of efforts (small and large) to make ends meet

More to come  ... that's what this whole blogging thing is about. You move the frame as you go - see it, say it and carry on  - How about you?  Has any Found Art worked it's way into your eye crawl? If so, please send it to FAF@homelandinspiration.org.

Found Art Friday 238

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Dear ones,

Today is a new day.  This pomegranate sitting alone in a dusty bowl is not even trying to be beautiful, but as it dries, it becomes more elegant, revealing its cellular structure and undercolor washes.

Now this creature is a year old. REmember that book title  "She's not that into you?" - that's this little sphinx. But no matter what, a cat is artistic, just the tail alone.

I only like their furniture - and the canned turkey is good

Viewer discretion or desecration allowed, as now we are going to highlight her gross way of expressing herself:

other times she leaves just a rump

This morning we are happy to report a successful bird rescue.  First birdy drank water out of a spoon.

5 minutes ....
 

LBJ - Little Brown Job's ordeal is over.  Now go tell your friends to watch out!

THEN IT FEW AWAY AWAY ........

Now for the heartiest participants, we post a sort of "Found Poem".  Before deleting the incessant Next Door APP, we took DNA samples and coagulated it into this:

NEXT DOOR APP / first world problems

Looking for talented dog trainer

ANTS!

Police on 3^rd Street

Big Cat Footprints

Long shot!

Missing BLOODHOUND Found !!!

 Scorpion in the kitchen

Apricot Thief

Voles

Young man with pick up truck

Hair and Nails

Stranger chasing my car

Lost bird

Loose chocolate Labradoodle?

Cocker spaniel at cvs

Voles

Pet sitter

Jerky box

Screen repair

Does anyone know?

Piano teacher

Cluster flies

Real diamond ring!

Houses and cars being egged last night

Doll house and babydoll crib

Illegal fireworks

Computer hackers asking for ransome!

Need a good plumber who is prompt

Looking for yoga/stretching

Grab bars

Mexican Chairs

Wheelchair – needs TLC

Rabbit proofer

Missing Cat

Vanity

Does anyone have a RING doorbell ???

Coyote still hanging around

Kitty Kitty

Skunk Problem

voles

Helicopters

LOST BLACK AND WHITE RABBIT

 It's a certain snapshot.

They (US ECONOMY) now put up X-mas at the same time - gag!

Wherever you are, there you are as they say - Have a nice time dancing with the dead this week.  Say hello. Work their spine out.  We need each other.  As life gathers meaning from its opposite. 

Please share a bit so we may re-share it. A form of community supported artful moment making: FAF@homelandinspiration.org

Found Art Friday 237

printing palette - extremes capture

Dear ones,
Yes the whipsaw continues to buzz with dark incompetencies while glib blob dodges the jibes with fibs and delusions.  How to keep just the right amount of news in our diet?

Meanwhile, Art Ranger has been busy making prints at Open Ground Studios : a cooperative.  To work there is a delight that lowers blood pressure, both the people and the facility.
In our sojourn there, we travel from quasi-rural to more "urban" and sidewalky environment:

solo cup that has lived through a lot

And what may happen to a stick of gum

More on that Soon ....

We admire all the decision making that went in to this self-regulating community: secret town off Freedom Boulevard.

Our drive traversed at least 10 different crops ranging from artichokes to strawberries to brocolli, to lettuce starts.  For upcoming exhibition "Perishables" Research has taken us far and near to our topic of "The Lettuce Curtain" - what does that really mean?  Through artist's eye  - we crunch images where others crunch numbers at the latest stats on this ill-conceived "borderwall" plan.

This sums it up, here is a border agent doing housekeeping and removing useful devices such as ladders, medieval catapults,

etc

.

This migration seems ruled by love and hope and work; desire to live lives of heartfelt decency. These longings make a fifty foot concrete wall feel like an insanely wasteful flimsy sardine can or inert lump in the wilderness tossed about in the windstorms of political and economic force. Way out of date.  ASStromonical price in dollars and environmental stress.

Let's all reach for some Yoda.

 From a series called: Moments in Fencing

still hanging on, becoming one through rust splint in time 

We hope you have images that reach out to you this week and that you may send them to FAF@homelandinspiration.org. Also do you have a favorite shade of green? somewhere in nature or culture, a green hue that you remember to admire.  Your contributions may be added to our green vault.

Found Art Friday 236

Dear ones,
Come to think of it, today our findings are structured by a small collection savored on "desktop" for one reason or another.  Firstly this discovery from Friend in the Bay Area:

 Elf  2017 -  waving?

Elf with mushroom 2015

How quizzical and whimsical that someone, in two separate sitings two years apart, would be leaving these small paintings at the foot of some telephone poles in her neighborhood.  The Art Ranger can relate to the small format of service being provided.  Mild wonderment.

Found art can be Hmmm or wow, why? and huh?  Curious indeed - which is how we would like to remain until the end of our days.

Here are two from of all places, the gym: we like it when we do not understand where a reflection is coming from.  For a brief moment it could be outer space:

a drawing of light that made us curious - what was causing that?

 

 

where the mirror used to be now cosmic or biological

At the gym there are some fellas that grunt and gasp while they work out which causes us to like punk rock or rhumba more than ever.  One gentleman with capped teeth does pose of a child - anywhere any time.  Some of them appear to be having militarized memories.  There are so many different ways to look in a mirror.

Tree sidewalk interface

We do admire the years of work-around here.   The usual human to nature abatement.

What have you eyed lately?

Please share at FAF@Homelandinspiration.org

Found Art Friday 235

Dear ones,
Thankfully, there are so many wonderful people in this world. This blog is about finding small moments that lift us out of our continuum where an aesthetic or gutteral splash or dash here and there connects with our own thought entanglements.  Here at the Department of Homeland Inspiration, we are certainly glad there is a category called Vegetable Art:

at The Sandwich County Fair (New Hampshire) where our dear former college roommate serves as a Vegetable Judge.  She gets to put ribbons on squashes and also to stroll around and look at pigs sleeping snout-to-snout.

Yes we tend to play with our food

Not okay, here we are again, (one?) nation under gun, leaking out dire facts about ourselves. On our recent drive through Vegas, we were actually digging the wallpaper, slightly off-center polka dots and the specially spray-painted matching golden ice bucket.  We were developing a soft spot for it. 

Cheap hotel outside Las Vegas

Gold dots that slightly miss

Along with the distressing revolving tragedies, it's been bothering us that the Secretary of State responsible for moderating the possibility of Nuclear War with North Korea says they are "probing"- that's what he calls his attempt at diplomacy?  Perfectly logical for someone who does drilling for for a living ....

Calm down now and breathe ....

Grass Roots Resistance noted by Normi Burke in vast parking lot

A hint of green to be cultivated, a poignant chuckle.  The tree man told us that the heavy acorns this year indicate we may have a wet winter; the trees wouldn't bother if they didn't already know what was coming to soften the soil for germination.

Yep, we took note, we wanted to say Thank You for your slant

Field Work Brewing Company

We will leave you with this - Why? Because it makes us glad for humans who continue to innovate.  How someone had the light bulb spark to realize that if you tilt the roll a bit, gravity and spin will not send the TP wastefully cascading to the floor as it does and has for decades.

If some image comes to take you away from whatever was your day, please send to FAF@Homeland Inspiration.org.  Sometimes they await friends in the inbox to tell their story.  Sometimes they are lost in the blur of existence, but we intend to improve our folderizing.  Peace to you and your environs.