Ranch Ramblings: Day Five

A ranch meeting of sorts will be held at Madrono this weekend and it's been a hive of activity in preparation.  Honing into hyper-focused, work-making mode and climbing into the mind set of complete solitude is a challenge even in the most quiet of settings but it's an added obstacle with mowers buzzing.  In a nerdy way it's comical - here I am making work about thistle like my life depended on it and they're outside mowing it all down.  

Thistle Massacre of 2013:  

The Photo Documentary

To take my mind off of witnessing the carnage of my favorite invasive plant, I decided to get some work done.

Solar print of a turkey feather.

Above is my interpretation of the little dude below.

core from a cypress tree seed

I started a painting of a blob of lichen (far right) and after seeing these small works together will now call them, Alien Objects from Nature.

Before I was out of daylight, I went on an Alien Objects from Nature subject-collecting-expedition.  I found that when you're specifically in search of stuff that looks like it is from outer space, its impossible to find.  But you know what I did find?  

A DANG TURTLE SHELL!

It still totally has some fresh guts in it so I need to remedy that.  For tonight I'm keeping it in the cab of my mom's truck so the raccoons, hyenas, chupacabra, etc. won't get it.  Just kidding Mom!  We swapped vehicles for the trip because her Tundra is way better equipped for buffalo demo derby, doing donuts and burnouts, and picking up shifty hitchhikers.