UPDATE: Strange Alien Plant in Cedar Tree CHANGES !!!

Interesting.... the alien plants that landed in our cedar tree are CHANGING even more (~~~Twilight Zone music playing~~~). (See about two posts below for pics of when I first found them and the spikes were red). The small red spikey things that covered them have CHANGED --- to long ORANGE puffed up things! Should we run? I swear that one looks like it's holding a tiny camera... and the other one... oh NO... the other one... it looks like it's wearing a pink.... FLEA collar! Oh, my! Do I hear it saying "Help me! Help me! I'm on the shelf."? (Lilo-ish guessed that one right, good job.) Here are some pics we managed to snap just before we heard that loud CHEWING munching sound (Langoleers, anyone?)....

Still no clues anyone? Alas (sigh).... admittedly this is probably caused by an icky fungus of some sort (notice how my hand wisely still doesn't come in contact with the thingys). But I can hope, can't I??? (laf a lot)
Have fun and any ideas on what this odd-looking thing is are invited ;)

annie

The Artists and Illustrators Collaborative Annual Art Show

Here are some pics from the annual AIC (Artists and Illustrators Collaborative) art exhibit held at the Portage (Michigan) Library every year.

The show looks great and there were a lot of very Spring pastel landscapes and florals. The grounds of the Portage Library are beautifully landscaped with LOTS of flowers, trees and plants every year, tulips especially, so the whole experience was very SPRING:) Isn't this a great dog done by Barbara Marquis? It's even better in person, I'm just not that great a photographer. Barbara did several pet portraits and has her own website that you'll want to check out www.barbaramarquis.com. Her critters are fantastic :) The amazingly detailed graphite self-portrait was done by Dave Middleton (great job Dave!) and the beautiful floral in the hand-made-by-her-husband pickled finished frame is by Kris Klesney. There's my "Ancestor" painting right down here.

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Our crab apple trees are just about ready to BURST into bloom. Tomorrow should be THE day! However, they're predicting SNOW, yes that's right, snow, for tonight so we're hoping that the bossoms don't get frozen, that would be sad. Our neighbors lilacs are also just about ready. Their lilacs are old lilac bushes from the 1950's and they smell so fragrant. The scent billows in our windows on one side of our house. One year they were so strong that we were just about high on lilac scent for two weeks in Spring.

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I decided to show you all the damage-job I did on my drawing of Dan's rose as a cautionary tale for all the artists out there who "overdo". Artists, namely me, sometimes have a hard time deciding when to s-t-o-p on a painting. Here is a pic I took of the rose before it was quite finished, and you'll see it looks pretty good. Then I ruined it by adding all the background silly stuff. Well, nothing ventured...... :/

I've started a new painting of a girl swimming. Hopefully I'll know when to s-t-o-p (hear that Annie, STOP) on this one :) Have you all been checking out the EBSQart website? I do mean it when I say there is some spectacular art to see there (including mine, tee) so don't miss out. Here you go: www.ebsqart.com
HAPPY SPRING and Happy Art :)

annie

Strange Alien Plant Lands in Cedar Tree ;)

Speaking of strange alien plants...

We'd just finished watching one of our favorite movies, the 1950's version of "Invasion of the Body Snatchers" and... here are pics of a very ~s~t~r~a~n~g~e~ object I found in my cedar tree. Is is an alien plant? It sure looks like one. It's as hard as wood and covered in mean-looking red spikey things. I found two of them. Anyone got any ideas? At first I thought it might be a bug nest (eeeewwwww) but it's not, it's too hard like wood. I also thought it might be the unusual insect that once fell out of my brother's oak trees and landed on the top of his car as we were all leaning across the top of his car talking. That thingey, we finally found out, was called a scale insect and looks like a star-fish about the size of a 50-cent piece, can you imagine? But it's real. Alas, this thingey is probably just some sort of fungus, but there's always hope, isn't there :) Notice how I'm wisely not touching it with my finger. Pod people anyone? Hey, do I see a little pair of glasses and a beard on that one... beginning to look sort of like Rick? :oO Or a ponytail on the other one??? RUN! "They're here, they're here! YOUR next! Your n-e-x-t!" (laf a lot

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UPDATE on drawing of Dan's rose....

It was coming along sooo nicely too :( Well, I had a case of what Rick calls "overprocessing" - when artists add-to and add-to and add-to their painting and finally destroy it. First I thought, gee this looks good but it needs a little something. So I added writing all around the edges of the plant - a poem by Walt Whitman, my fav. Then I thought, uh oh, this is looking not so good, guess I'd better add something to it (very wrong). So I added a curvey white background. Sounds good = looks bad. Then when I stepped back from it (and I tested it out on Rick too), it looked like a COMPLETE total mess :9( Much too bad to post the photos here. Oh, well, back to the drawing board so to speak. Thanks for your generosity in letting me try my hand at drawing your beautiful rose pic, Dan. I've been told too many times by too many people that I should stick to my small whimsical humorous drawings and forget the fine art stuff and... ya know, it's true :)