Friday, February 23, 2018

FAF 249

Dear ones,
The longer we hang around planet earth, the more we enjoy what is ephemeral, seasonal or momentary: the opposite of a tomato grown in a greenhouse and trucked off somewhere to become tasteless refrigerated pulp wearing a thin red dress.
That momentary flower (what's it called?) that people write poetry about in early spring
Speaking of ephemeral, we developed an appreciation for this word, and its meaning, when we were sixteen years old (aspiring to become a French poet) writing a research paper about Claude Monet (1840-1926).  Any time a person finds a passion, an obsession, a career - there a few important entry points, and for The Art Ranger, Monet's paintings provided one such doorway.
Impression Sunrise, 1872 from which the art movement got its name
One of the many haystack paintings       times of day    seasons    moods  
Clearly, we are in favor of discovering "art" in the world, not necessarily fabricating it in a formal studio.  That (art) is, in part, about perception itself.  And from Monet, we learned that light was a worthy thing to study, in fact, you could spend a lifetime doing just that.  We think this contributes to our enjoyment of the same tree over and over and over and over; it can can be so very nourishing:
Thank you dog god for taking us on walks ... and birds who live there

 how things are framed
Monet's haystacks in winter
Thanks to newly portable tubes of paint after 1840, art making could be more liberated from the constraints of the indoor "studio", or the awkward pig bladder container.  Can you tell we are not an art historian?
Have you ever tried to paint water?
Also, it made such an impression that this art left some work for you the viewer to do, to put this image all together in your own brain:
Plus - the beret    The hipsters thinkin a drinkin a pour over?
And if ever your eyesight or your legs or some body part fails, we should still make our art as Monet and Matisse did producing some of their finest work in the later years.
yah - we don't know what that glowing thing is   - hmmmmmm
And speaking of "ephemeral" we are most humbled when whatever we were trying to capture is already gone before there was a chance.   More soon, more later.  And you?

Friday, February 16, 2018

Found Art Friday 248

Dear ones,
We are going to zig zag through it today, such a slalom of insides and outsides that a person must wrestle with.  Art Ranger's job is to watch out for the (art) in the everyday world and to encourage you to do so as well.  What with "the world" being so up in your face, we must swing a pendulum to survive our own narratives:  ...... b  r  e  a  t  h  e  ......
Bonnie Hotz uncovers rat nest in tarped wood pile: very resourceful are they
Thank you to those who still can find our inbox and share some Found Art Friday/ FAF, such as this. We can imagine a day in the Anthropocene era where we subcontract to rat farms who gnarl down our overwhelm of plastics, vigorously munching and crapping the blue planet back to its fossil self.  Blue tarps the world over have delivered such short months of false plastic security, before disintegrating  - beyond the leaky roof, a molecular detritus.
This is what someone named a bandaid  - how elegant!
This is what art is, it's a "frame" delivery system.  We corner off and put together an area for you to look at.  Here's mindfind froth relief collage from: The National Sanity Administration:
Revoltingly and irrationally, sordidly and sorrowfully addicted to guns and war
  People we can vote those people out 
who do nothing about this!

Meanwhile, when humankind is so heartbreaking, we like to focus on plants who give us life:

From the  fascinating "The Secret Life of Plants" by Peter Tompkins and Christopher Bird (1972).
If everybody understood how interconnected all "things" are,  would it help ?  .....
Until we meet again.

Saturday, February 10, 2018

Found Art Friday 247

Dear ones,
Welcome to the Department of Homeland Inspiration where our job is to wonder how to discover the art in daily living.  The Art Ranger embarks on her eighth year here at her post and we welcome your participation, visitations and comments.  Art Ranger's art is to collect and reflect:
Nancy' Pelosi's foot giving 8 hours of DACA testimonials on senate floor
We started our weekly Found Art Friday quest intending to fold in some actual art history, paintings of Claude Monet that intersect with our daily image pathway.  But Sooooo often (these days) the week's external forces intersect radically through our soulgutz who are singing this song, so that we must deploy our sketchbook response mechanisms.
Nancy,  we hoped you soaked in Epsom Salts
We're glad that she did this, but ironically on about the same day this rocket thing is the story:
Elon's Musk must
Though the ingenuity, engineering and entrepreneurials are astounding, so is the hubris  ...  littering the orbit spheres with his car, even though space is big.  It's sort of heavy to be so lighthearted.
To be living in these times is to absorb more in your sponge daily than we are designed for.  The "idiocracy" is raging.  Naturally that predator would sloppily scatter around more predators in the office trying to insulate the layers of his lying machine bubble while taking extra ice cream during the stress of his, easily malleable yet thick lack, along with the cold sad sagging hyper-inflated.
Knickers in a twist
Then about a day after the rocket, it wants a Military Parade to prop its self up with violently costly display of ignorant impotence by a serial pucker-mouth grabber with spray-painted hair whom we wish we could ignore.
big buttons

Recently the Art Ranger returned to her breeaeaeathtthing lessons class, which also encludes stre -e -e -eetchhhing, and the words very good just often enough so that one wants to just be centered. 
We love you  - beautiful tree, The Work Around
Art Ranger tries to build core strength so that one may do this when necessary.  Resist and persist, for instance. Grow around with alternate support system planted in earth.  Until we meet again.......

Friday, February 2, 2018

Found Art Friday 246

Dear Ones,
Have you gotten to the end of your rope and made it back?
Thank heaven for celestial events that can take us out of our shallows and allow us to lean in to the navel of the moon instead.  Great big and yet far away, how otherwordly it looked from nearly anywhere, like imperfect fruit hung up for gods that they show us once and a while.
Jim Lindenthal captures super moon using "birding rig"
Heirloom Squash back at ya response to moon

Now most of you who visit the Department of Homeland Inspiration, or who live by the same principles, know that the Art Ranger relishes the Why? of this image spotting vocation and service.
As we stroll one street off the main drag,  here it is all alone in a tall dark empty nameless storefront:
and even stranger that it seems to be a plastic replica of an old thing
 We are trying to shift focus and not get ground up in its beef, or fibrillated by the information debris trail. 
Each day so jaw dropping that there are now dents in our floor and bloodied tongues as the misguided missile clowncar careens across the blessed earth.
An exercise in looking at shit, acknowledging it and moving on  - without engaging with it
Have a stellar week, and we hope you may enjoy the random encounter with visual chatter.