Along came a spider...

I'm posting the 5th installment of my Fiction Project today. I took photos of every page in my fiction journal before I sent it off to Art House Co-op's Brooklyn Art Library in New York. It was a really fun project that I worked on last Winter. And if you click to enlarge the photos, you may even be able to read my story. Yesterday I finally uploaded 12 images to Art House's portfolio at http://arthousecoop.com/users/sharonrwagner The whole journal is inspired by our travels in Costa Rica. And this entry produced my journal's title, "There's an Iguana on my roof!"

A beautiful, but scary Golden Spider in Costa Rica.

Look what clings to the leaves at night. But only if you're looking!

This is the photo that inspired today's post. We watched the fantastic Aquatennial fireworks last weekend in downtown Minneapolis. But before the fun started we passed the time watching this little guy and all his friends going about business on the Stone Arch bridge. Do you see the full Moon towards the bottom?

A Tarantula on a night hike at Bosque Eterno De Los Ninos in Costa Rica. That's it for today. I'm crawling off to paint!

I'm not afraid of my own shadow!

This post was certainly a no brainer. In fact, it was my love of shadow photos that led me to choose the poem I illustrated in my last post. And this is my favorite shadow photo of all time. It was taken on the beach in Dominical, Costa Rica. I just love the swirl of the sand and the quiet pooled water.

I took this photo last fall on the Split Rock trail in Duluth, MN.

This photo was taken in Duluth last fall as well.

This photo was taken on a hike at Castle Mound Campground in Wisconsin.

I took this photo by lake Harriet, Minnesota.

I LOVE this photo. It was taken last October during our yearly Halloween walk through Lakewood Cemetery. The late afternoon Sun produced long shadows. And the tree creepily spreads it's shadowed branches all the way to the headstones.

This photo was taken at Jay Cooke State Park in Minnesota. It's my last shadow entry in today's post. But I could dig up many more if I was so inclined. Thanks for stopping by www.marblespark.com/blog/ to vote! If you haven't stopped by the link yet, please do. If I get enough votes my illustration could end up in a book!

Moonstruck

My illustration is up at www.marblespark.com/blog/ And you can all do me a big favor by stopping by the link and voting for my art! I illustrated the poem, "Where Does Your Shadow Go At Night?" Written by John Carey. It gave me the chance to paint in black and white for the first time. And it gave me an excuse to paint yet another Moon. Moon's have been turning up in my art more and more lately. Hmmm. I wonder what that means. The shadows have a mind of their own in John's poem. So the one on the left I depicted holding a mysterious football. And the one on the right is the shadow of the innocent teddy bear. Except that he's stealing the young boy's shoe. I decided to have a little fun and paint the boy jumping on the bed instead of sleeping. I didn't want the shadows to be having ALL the fun!

Many Moons later.

This is where the wild things are.

I illustrated the painted moose art for the Minnesota SCBWI's Summer field trip to the Zoo. To see the flyer visit http://www.minnesotascbwi.org/ I like to think that after the beaver finishes painting the patient moose, the moose decides to kick the beaver sharply in the be-hind. The paint and the beaver fly into the shallow water. Unfortunately the poor beaver is forced to swim away through a swirl of paint clutching the paintbrush tightly between his two front teeth. The End. In honor of Zoo Day (which I missed, darn it all) I decided to create a HUGE post of animal photos. Have fun at my Zoo!

Corn chips.

This fawn was photographed in Hatfield, WI.

A Howler monkey at Playa Hermosa, Costa Rica.

Standing tough.

Baby

My pet bat...not.

Owl butterfly.

I'm talk'in turkey at Fort Snelling.

Akua

White faced monkey.

Monster Hummer.

It's a Kinkajou raiding the hummingbird feeder. At Monteverde.

This behind belongs to a Coati.

We like to think that we saved this frog from the volcanically heated pool. He didn't say thank you.

This sloth dared to cross a busy highway. Luckily a local gentleman stopped his vehicle and escorted him safely across. Near Fortuna, Costa Rica.

A Red-lored Parrot perhaps?

This is the extremely rare White-throated Magpie-Jay. Ha!

This is a beloved house cat. Hana! To see more beloved house cats visit http://www.gattinamycats.blogspot.com/

Wild Flowers

Our 4th of July tradition is to spend the weekend in my college town of Menomonie, WI. And one thing is for sure. I didn't spend any time enjoying the simple pleasures of wild flowers while I was in school. I didn't even do much painting. My major was graphic waste of time design. I drank way too much and hardly held a paintbrush. But Stout did teach me how to take a photo. And when I should have been studying for WWII class, I was probably in the dark room. Yes, dark room not digital room.

We had a wonderful time over the weekend. We spotted 13 different kinds of birds on the Red Cedar trail. Including a young eagle. We foraged for Black Raspberries. And we enjoyed a peaceful hike at Hoffman Hills. That's where I took these wild flower photos. We also might have done just a little bit of drinking. But only for old time's sake!

Ein Prosit der Gemutlichkeit!

The title translates to mean, "A toast to you in friendship!" I lived that saying as me and the hubb's tried 6 different beers at the Schell's Brewing Company in New Ulm, Minnesota. I couldn't resist posting photos of our brewery tour and tasting there. Sea Shells...Schell's Brewery...what a perfect relation to my previous post! I'm still relating my art and photo posts by the way. My last combo was sticks and stones.

But let's get back to the important topic of beer. My favorite was the Stout. It was actually my 7th taste because after tasting 6 you were lucky enough to get a full glass of your favorite. And they didn't have the Stout in the tasting line up.

The Schell brewery has been around for 150 years and is the second oldest brewery in the United States. During the tour we learned that August Schell and his family were very friendly with the Dakota Indians. And because of this, the brewery was untouched during the Dakota conflict in 1862. Meanwhile, the town of New Ulm was burned to the ground. Befriending the Dakota sounds like a good enough reason for me to support the Schell Brewery. Oh, and their beer tastes darn good too. Happy 4th of July to my fellow beer drinking Americans!