Popsicles

This is something I made in Illustrator a while back. I was just playing around with various tools and effects, just for fun. Perhaps I will use this for a greeting card.

Shoe Fence

There is a fence near where we live that has acquired a lot of shoes. First there was just one workers boot. Then more appeared – a child’s shoe, athletic shoes, and even high heeled shoes. Then we noticed that someone had added brightly decorated footwear. It’s fun to go by the fence and see if any new shoes have been added but it also raises questions:

• Where did all of these shoes come from?
  
  
  
• Who is putting these shoes on the fence?
  
  
  
• Is it an art exhibit/work in progress?
  
  
  
• How long before every post on the fence has a shoe?
  
  

Origami: "$2 Pantsuit"

This is from a Page-A-Day origami calendar. It's actually a two day project and the idea is to use dollar bills. I'm too cheap so I used joss paper instead. The joss paper used here is the Ten Thousand Heaven Bank Note which is very close in size to a dollar bill. Joss paper is traditionally burned at Chinese ancestor worship ceremonies or funerals. I would like to make more shirts using patterned origami paper.

What'll I Color?

This is a small coloring book I acquired in the early 1980s. It is rather cheaply made and is only 2.5 inches by 3.5 inches. The pictures although cute are generic clip art. I like the elf juggling acorns but why did they include the cowboy boots? They should have had a picture of a monkey or maybe a duck.

San Diego Wild Animal Park

On Sunday Dan and I went to the San Diego Wild Animal Park and took lots of pictures. First, we took the Journey into Africa tour that replaces the Wgasa Bush Line Railway. The tour is shorter and only covers the African section but it is still a good way to see some of the larger herds. The cheetahs were out this time (first picture) and we got to see one of the baby giraffes (second picture).

Next we walked through the Heart of Africa section. We saw a number of exotic birds and spent a lot of time watching the flamingos (third picture) and feeding the ducks. The colobus monkeys were out on their island (fourth picture). We also saw the warthog, bat eared foxes, gerenuks, okapi, duikers, and gazelles.

We had lunch by the lagoon and watched the water birds including the shoebill stork, and a family of pelicans (fifth picture). The park was the most crowded that we have ever seen so we only got glimpses of the lions and elephants. Even the condors had a large crowd. Still, it was a fun day at the park.

Cool Culture Trip

Dan and I took a trip last weekend to Escondido. On the way we stopped at the Orange County Museum of Art to see Birth of the Cool: California Art, Design, and Culture at Midcentury. The exhibit was extensive and included painting, sculpture, furniture, photographs, film, music, architecture, and design. They played music in the Jazz Media Lounge and had film clips like Toot Whistle Plunk and Boom and Gerald McBoing Boing for viewing. I especially enjoyed the paintings by the Abstract Classicists. The second image shows one of my favorites, Black Pillars, by Karl Benjamin.