rain paintings

Dear blog o sorts,
Speaking of sorting, how do you sort out what is "art" and what is not? You commit the subtle yet radical act of caring enough about a small visual thing that comes upon you:

Snake or dragon?

These two images sited by Susan Needleman:

Discussing their Financial Affairs

This scrappy high contrast moment makes the Art Ranger want everyone to read this article:

http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/secret-and-lies-of-the-bailout-20130104#ixzz2HIrDzuGl

 Please take the time to wonder and be amazed and disgusted and informed by our financial "system".

 Phew, let's change gears:

How poetic  - complete the circuit and you may gain entry to the inhabitants

from the series, Rain Paintings

That's all for now..... what's in your now? or wow? send to FAF@homelandinspiration.org

Found Art Friday 101

Dear Peoples of the blog,
Just when we thought the Squashed Abandonned Glove series had dried up, it came upon us on a walk one day, the neighbor's car, a 72ish Mercedes deisel blue-gone-to-grey parked askew on the bank.  Mind you this neighbor, by now shaped like a fish hook, it was already outlandish to even see this man outside without his slippers.  All neighborly she asks, "is everything all right?". 
Turns out that the man was looking for a glove.  A blue glove. "I'll keep an eye out for it" says she ......  Little did he know how prone to finding one of things we were.

What has evolved instead from this series is a general squashed abandonned phenomena.  The collage of the collision of pavement or groundscape with humans.  And how it really surpasses litter, becoming part of something else:

Amazingly the Squashed Abandonned series now intersects with the Patina Series as these aged organics manage to dazzle like fashion models.

There must be a spirit animal there somewhere.

From the series squashed abandoned

Next week's Found Art Friday will be dedicated to:  Flying Saucers.  Or whatever you find interesting.  Please send to FAF@homelandinspiration.org

Found Art Friday 96

Welcome back to the Department of Homeland Inspiration!
In France they call the first week of September the re-entrance (la rentree). You pass through a threshold.  Though as Dennis the Menace said a few weeks ago: "Even summer doesn't last all summer anymore". Thankfully, several of you sent material in to the The Department while Art Ranger was out on the range.By now, you have the #2 pencil smell and the vinyl pencilcase smell, and the apple-in-lunch-too-long smell and you begin again again.

Juvenile Sea Gull not always begging: two images from Jim Lindenthal

Fawns in Front, also from Jim.

It becomes clear why humans invented good photography lenses and stuffed animals.  Because we want to hold things that are wild.

Our Aunt Madge found this surprising honeycomb sculpture on what she calls "Facecrack"

This appeals to our bee-loving soul. Interesting that the inside face is awake/open and external face is  closed. Given our cultural iphone-itus (condition of phone overconnection), do people still have internal images going on inside their heads when they close their eyes?  

Here arrived something from Esquire Anonymous in Bend, Oregon.  We name this tomato, Tammy.

Then, there are things we shouldn't find so lovely but we do:

Oak moth worms:: from the series, moments in fencing

Well, where have you been? Fill our hearts with accidental inspiration: faf@homelandinspiration.org

Found Art Friday # 90

Dear Blogopersons,
A bland sounding saying came to needle in:  "Wherever you are, there you are"

(it's no wonder that this was discarded - how can one's tongue lolli  a square pop?)

Two things found sort of near each other, which changed the way to look at each one

And a favorite moment in Signage:

 

Jim Lindenthal has found several expressions of the mysterious coastal rock sculptor.  Once, we read about a man who did this to soothe the constant ringing in his ears.  Let's hear it for gravity and all it's truthful lumps.  And for all that is temporary despite the effort.

Now we insert a special edition of HEADLINES HAIKU 

A chance poem in the spirit of the Dada ists (from a hundred years ago). They were responding to the upheaval of the between-wars conditions and we believe that they would be having artistic convulsions over our current absurdities.  To arrive at this “poem” the artist saved sets of two words per headline, saving couplets, discarding most.

Gleaned from the news dinosaur print edition

Monterey Herald, May 8, 2012

Developer Say

Valium Killed

Plot Thwarted

Dirty presidential

Making Miracles

Rates Creep

Classes at Risk

Theft Charges

Rethink Pay

Cuts Social

Opposition Boycotts

Your Roots

For Dredging

Have a great week.  Hopeful and stretchy.  And may you actually be present (wherever you are).

Found Art Friday 87

Dear Bright Blogspots,
Long ago, in the short life of this Homeland Inspiration blog, The Art Ranger received a surprise composition from under a dog bowl in snowy Montana.  Last week, that same Michelle Aranda sent a series of images with film-like reflection from a visit to Nevada City, site of a gold mining ghost town. "There was an old barn filled with antique arcade machines that told fortunes, played music, answered questions."

"it just seems like a tough place to eek out a life back then. Lots of hangings and shooting, lawlessness and mud-on yer-boots kind of life" says she.

o

MAYBE - though seems to be what keeps all these gold rushey things going.  Art Ranger enjoys the slight crackled irregularity of hand made things from another era. Yet a different kind of patina.  Lady with all the extra eyes has got your back and she saw when you messed up too.  Thank you Michelle for sharing these and for starting your screenplay abstract.

SWITCH GEARS, but not necessarily colors

Art Ranger is in the midst of a life with boys, consequently her photo library contains gems like this below the knee gash.

and "Are You Kidding me?"  actual under-oak-canopy front yard fungus who only reveals herself in photos.

Art Ranger recently thought of teaching drawing again, so looked at her used book:
"The Zen of Seeing/Drawing as a meditation" drawn and handwritten by Frederick Franck, (1973).
p xii  " A non-creative environment is one that constantly bombards us, I said, overloads our switchboard noise, with agitation and visual stimuli.  Once we can detach ourselves from all these distractions, find a way of "in-scape", of "centering," the same environment becomes "creative" again. SEEING/DRAWING is such a way of inscape from the overloaded switchboard.  It establishes an island of silence, an oasis of undivided attention, an environment to recover in  ..." We wonder what he would think of us now with regards to "agitation and visual stimuli" compared to 1973.

Though digital photography is a much quicker way of generating images than drawing, this outlook relates to our practice here at The Department of Homeland Inspiration, where we sift out images from the potentially mundane activities of life. We try to find "moment-scapes".  Gosh, on the internet, there is probably no such thing as "an oasis of undivided attention".

Please join us at FAF@homelandinspiration.org if something of your visual world speaks up.

 

Found Art Friday 74

Dear Blogofolks,
We are already seeing the sprouts of spring after being able to spot some rain paintings.

Then comes a triplicate from Jim Lindenthal, which links with The Squashed Abandonded Glove Series and its many cousins:http://artranger.blogspot.com/2010/10/saga-of-squashed-abandoned-glove.html

Insert juxtaposition by Art Ranger with a bluesy soundtrack "somedayover the rainbow ..."

 Sightings Nearby

some things beg for a story

Art Ranger Responds in kind with floating textury item from our Costa Rica trip

And the grand Finale, is a link to a link provided by (Aunt Madge www.mamasbelly.com) that is about another kind of found ness.  This involves the sculptural art of transforming Found stuff. In this case (a must visit) musical house:
 http://www.dithyrambalina.com/field-recording/
Have more than a knock on wood kind of week. Send images to FAF@homelandinspiration.org
Must be time to turn the soil in the garden by now.

Found Art Friday 71

Greetings Blogoshperians,
And Happy New Year! This first 2012 Found Art Friday begins with a hello from Sonya Devine's Soba drink. (Perhaps an eerie leery cheery consumer confidence indicator)?

Now the Art Ranger shall begin to blog on about where she was recently out on the range in the amazing country of Costa Rica. The following are fungi from the rain forest that caught our eye.

Fittingly, it was raining in our walk through the rain forest.  A tiny frog the size of your thumbnail was singing loudly enough for his love to be located by our guide and displayed on a leaf.

Fungi al Contraceptivo ?

"Mimosa" is what the smiling guide, who had repaired her own hiking boots, called this one.

How about Popcorn fungi?

This bark painting by nature was right near our hotel's on site composting operation, which involved food scraps, gardening detritus, tobacco leaves (natural pesticide), worms, etc.  That over-worked word, Sustainability actually might work.

Have a worthy week and take some walks into the new year with us.  Remember to send your images to FAF@homelandinspiration.org

Found Art Friday 68

Dear folk of the Department of Homeland Inspiration,
Today's Found Art begins with an observer in the bay area who sent "little bits of wonder" #1

It's great to have your backpacking trip without even leaving the parking garage. 

And speaking of garages. An artist in Melbourne, Australia is creating 3D paint garage enhancement.

Then, low and behold (where did that expression come from?) These two images appeared on the same day

in order to have an unplanned dialog

(also from friend in the bay area: "little bits of wonder"#2)
 

Different types of scarecrows anonymously working

snapped out the window by request of the Art Ranger while driving around the mud puddle loving teenage wannabe driver

From Sonya Devine watching an Art installation: http://www.ucsdnews.ucsd.edu/features/fallen_star_house_to_be_hoisted_atop_jacobs_school_of_engineer_building_tod/

And what is it that makes a photograph be designated as "Art"?  Consider seeking out some photographs displayed as such to determine what you think. Titles can be great doorways.

Left: Allan Sekula, "Churn." From the series "Ship of Fools," 1999–2010. Photograph, 48 x 52 inches
Right: Bruno Serralongue, "Feu de machines, New Fabris, Châtellerault, jeudi 30 juillet 2009.
Oceans and Campfires: Allan Sekula and Bruno Serralongue, San Francisco Art Institute

If you are interested in contributing your own "bits of wonder" to The Department of Homeland Inspiration, we recommend multiple shots/angles/or types of light - of anything that interests you and choosing the best one. Of course many things already vanish too fast, and that is often just the moment we are looking for.  The next bird on a line, curious fungus, poignant discard, or surprising cloud formation?  Enjoy your week and send images to FAF@homelandinspiration.org