Speaking of things I love, what is not to like about this fantastic image by Peter de Sève?

More info on his blog here about the creation of the artwork.

I love everything about this screen print by Tom Whalen, but the thing I love the most is Snoopy’s little dog house in the circle near the bottom. Perfection.

You can buy a limited edition screen print here if you want your very own copy.

Tommy Kane’s Art Blog

How true! Now let’s all go do something creative!

One never knows what they will see on a ranch, and I don’t mean when you are visiting. Live there for years and shovel enough muck (both virtual and literal) and eventually you will experience things that are just downright odd.

This morning I was standing in the barn waiting for the bottle calf to finish eating and I was in deep la-la land daydream mode. Suddenly there was a whirring of feathers and a bird flew through the open door and almost slammed into my face. Once my heart rate came down and I established that nothing was trying to kill me and eat me, I took a look and I saw it was a young meadowlark, no doubt testing his wings for the first time.

Now here’s the curious part: close on his heels was another bird. No, not his anxious mother, but a plain old house sparrow. The meadowlark flopped and flailed around for about five more minutes inside the barn and where ever he went the little sparrow followed.

I’ve never seen anything like it and I have no idea if:

1. the sparrow was simply curious.

2. the sparrow hatched the meadowlark egg and thought it was her own baby

3. the sparrow was ticked off and chasing the meadowlark away

4. the sparrow was going to eat the meadowlark

5. the sparrow owed money to the cat and was out calling in loans (“Yeah, Mrs. Meadowlark, about those grasshoppers I loaned you last week? Well, I’ll take payment in the form of your firstborn chick. What can I say – inflation!”)

I have no idea, and frankly, not knowing is much more fun.

New York Times photographer Damon Winters has come under criticism lately for using his cell phone and the Hipstamatic app to take a series of photos of US troops deployed in combat overseas.

For the life of me, I can’t see why. Since when have photographs not been manipulated? Even in the olden days of film you could wildly distort reality with exposure times, manipulation during developing, cutting, pasting, and on and on. Perhaps everyone has their panties in a bunch because Mr. Winters won third place for feature picture story from Pictures of the Year International?

I say bravo to Mr. Winters for an excellent series of photos honoring an under-recognized group of very brave people: our troops on the front lines.

See the photos and read Mr. Winters’ reaction to the “controversy” here:

http://lens.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/02/11/through-my-eye-not-hipstamatics/

Fantastic video showing how Terry Gilliam (of Monty Python fame) made his cutout animations. Pure gold!

From the Blast From the Past Sketchbook 1.

And here it is… the final page from this sketchbook. I love the drawing of the trees in the wind – very Dan Price-ish. The stories about the rodeo queens are also absolutely true.

From the Blast From the Past Sketchbook 1.

A sketch of a photo from a stock art magazine. I love the hatching and the way the rope shines through the transparency of the fish’s tail.

From the Blast From the Past Sketchbook 1.

I had changed jobs by this time (my previous employers sold the printing side of their business to their son, whom I went to work for) and I cheered up a little. I do remember being a little perplexed by the impatience of some of the customers. Everything was always rushed, and getting out to the country to just sit and watch a rabbit hop around was a soothing balm.

I like the colors and the line work on the flower and branch.