I'd like to thank the academy...

I'm posting this Sunny illustration in honor of my Sunshine Award from Linda Hensley over at http://lindahensley.blogspot.com/ Linda always participates in illustration Friday and often gives some great art tips. You should check out her calling cards post. Very interesting. Thanks Linda and right back at ya! So I need to pass on the award to 9 more people. And since comments are so darned appreciated, I picked the last 9 people who took the time to comment. And I even added all of them to my blog list. Thanks guys! And for all the rest of my loyal blog followers, if you leave a comment this time I'll add you as well.

Djan http://djanstewart.blogspot.com/
indigene http://indigeneart.com/blog
Tweedles http://tweedles-georgie.blogspot.com/
Wanda http://wanda-momentsofmine.blogspot.com/
Au http://blog.lepak.com/
Tes http://thecraftista.com/
Jama http://mummyjam.blogspot.com/
Maria http://reesspace.blogspot.com/
Sujata http://sunshineonmycanvas.blogspot.com/


The rules for receiving the award:- Thank the person who gave you the award.- Write a post about it.- Answer the questions below.- Pass it on to 10 bloggers who you think really deserve it and send them a message to let them know.


The questions:


01. My favorite color: Turquoise
02. My favorite animal: cats!

03. My favorite number: Whatever date the beginning of my next trip falls on.

04. My favorite non-alcoholic drink? Is there such a thing? Espresso, I guess.

05. I joined facebook, but not twitter (This was Linda's answer and mine too!)

06. My passion: One word...Travel.

07. Getting or giving presents? Well, in all honesty getting. But I do love shopping for presents on vacations.

08. My favorite pattern? Tropical.

09. My favorite day of the week? Friday

10. My favorite flower? Hydrangea puffs.

Zed-Leppelin

Well, first of all let me apologize for my lame coverage of Stillwater's Lumberjack days. We arrived at 6 pm for a Zed-Leppelin concert. But the concert didn't start till 8. And instead there was a kids jazz band till 7. It was a little hard on the ears to put it mildly. So you'd think we had plenty of time for photos. But even my photo of dinner (Olive's pizza) is a bad shot. It was really delicious though.

The boats were lined up for the fireworks. One dog jumped off a boat to chase a goose and had to be rescued after he started swimming in circles. Happy ending.

But the happiest part of the evening was the Led Zeppelin tribute band Zed-Leppelin. They do such a great job of recapturing one of the greatest bands of all time. I had a couple movies with sound but blogger wouldn't let me upload them. But they will be playing again at the Lake Harriet band shell on August 21. See you there!

I even tried to get a foot shot to send to http://toemail.wordpress.com/ with the band in the background. But I couldn't really get a great shot here either. I didn't want to stick my yucky feet that close to the people in front of me. I overheard the people behind me say,"What is she doing???" You know you are doing something weird when you are at a Zed-Leppelin concert and people think you are strange!

It was such an awesome night. The exhilarating sounds of Zed-Leppelin and the smell of all the food venders, like those smoky grilled pork chops. The sight of millions of bugs swarming the light poles (and not us) and a lively fireworks display. Ahhh, Summer.

The enduring beauty of Dominical.

The mist slowly thickened in the hills over the top of Dominical. A bolt of lightning flashed on the horizon. And a blast of thunder hushed the chorus of cicadas. Soon the vibrant green rainbow of forest completely vanished behind the clouds. The first raindrop fell on the leaf of the trumpet tree and bounced onto the large beak of a chestnut mandibled toucan. The sparsely decorated branches of the tree were no match for a jungle rainstorm. The toucan looked toward the ocean and quietly flew out of sight.

Perennial is the theme of the day over at http://www.illustrationfriday.com/ And I couldn't think of a more fitting illustration than the enduring beauty that is present in all seasons at Dominical, Costa Rica. It provides continual warmth and uninterrupted seasons of jungle growth. This illustration was part of 2010's fiction project for Art House Co-op. My illustrated journal can now be found at the Brooklyn Art library.

Fiber Tigers

Look what I found in the archives/attic. Fiber Tigers. I've been going through a huge redecorating and organizing of my studios. Yes, my old studio is plural now. And that fact is not lost on my real life cats. They are now able to cause double the chaos and cat-tastropes in there. I did the Fiber Tigers just for fun a l...o...n...g time ago. I think every artist has probably gone through a paper stage. And if you are shaking your head in denial, remember paper Mache in grade school art class? Enough said.

Here my tigers are hiding in the ruins of my old studio. This is one of their favorite games. They know they are not supposed to be in there. So of course it is the most irresistible thing to do in life. Except eat.

And sleep. For more flesh and blood cats visit http://www.gattinamycats.blogspot.com/

Zoo Boo

"You painted what on me? Surely you jest," barked the Moose. The Beaver boldly raised his arm and proclaimed, "I dared and I did. And don't call me Shirley!"

Gesture is the theme of the day over at http://www.illustrationfriday.com/ I've actually been thinking of this illustration lately. Because last weekend was supposed to be our annual MNSCBWI Field trip to the Zoo. I illustrated this piece for the promotional flyer last year. But between the State
Government shut down and our beloved illustrator coordinator moving away, http://christinarodriguez.com/blog/ Zoo Day was a bust. Nadda. Maybe it is being scheduled as we speak. Zoo Boo Hoo.

I SAW A SEA MONSTER!

I just read an article over the weekend about the deadly dangers of (!) overuse. I guess even Mark Twain was annoyed about it. Guilty as charged. But when you see a Sea Monster it seems like an apostrophe moment. (title) Do you see her in the first photo? If not you'll have to suffer through a few beautiful nature photos first.

I love the lighting in this one.

Who is this interloper?

As promised...Minnie the Monster, Lake Creature and local Nessy. She's at Brownie lake this year. So on Sunday we rented a kayak and crossed lake Harriet and Cedar lake on a journey to find her.

She posed beautifully. Boy, I'm such a good photographer. I mean how many people are able to capture a Sea Monster close up. Usually they are swimming away so fast that all you see is a blurry blob. You know kind of like all those Big Foot photos. I'm patting myself on the back right now.

At this point we are basically becoming fast friends. But it is almost time to go. Sniff.

What you don't see after we left is Minnie shedding an artificial tear as we paddled away. "Be sure to eat your mil foil!" I yelled back.

STAY HERE!

I love it when the http://www.illustrationfriday.com/ theme allows me to post new art. My illustrated map can also be found over at http://www.theydrawandtravel.com/maps/hopkins-belize-sharon-wagner It's part of a contest that will be decided later this month. Stay is the theme of the day. And who wouldn't want to stay in Hopkins, Belize. Hopkins is a small fishing and farming village. So it might not be fancy enough for some. But it has friendly people, delicious food and is surrounded by lots of fun adventures just waiting to happen. And here's another link I'm quite proud of http://theydrawandcook.com/ My Spiked Crepes recipe just got added to the featured collection over at TDAC. It's on the main page till tomorrow. And if the illustrated recipe looks tasty be sure to share it with your facebook friends. That feature is kind of weird because it's cool to see people sharing your art/recipe. But they are not your facebook friends so they are complete strangers. Actually I think most of us probably even have facebook friends that are little more than strangers. Ha! Just thought I'd "share" that thought. Actually that reminds me to give a shout out and thank you to my blogging friend Linda at http://lindahensley.blogspot.com/ She shared my map link and I forgot to thank her. Thanks for the facetime!

By Rook or by Brook...

We have been on a huge lucky streak this Summer. We just had the best 4th of July ever. Small town Parades, great food and lots of fun hiking. And just when we thought the weekend was over we ran across the best Black Raspberry picking to date. And topped it off by discovering that we could see 3 cities worth of fire works 1/2 block from our house. Summer rocks! But our lucky streak actually started a couple weeks ago. We were hiking at Interstate State Park in Wisconsin and ran across a Heron Rookery. All morning we could hear this weird sound. It was like a cross between monkeys and bird squawks. So before we left we did a slow drive by. We thought,"tree frogs gone wild perhaps?" Then we saw that the tree tops were alive and the forest floor was covered in a magical coat of white. O.K. it was no magic. It was poop! Some trees had 2-3 nests and it went on for almost a city block.

And our lucky streak continued. I just happened across 2 photogenic Owls last week. Just a few blocks from my house at lake Harriet. By a brook... honest! Does anyone know what the real saying by hook or by crook means? Hopefully it's nothing politically incorrect! Tune in next week for more animals. We picked up our Trail Cam footage last weekend.

An apple a day keeps the nightmares away!

This illustration is the cover for Art House Co-op's sketchbook project. The Nightmare themed journal can now be found at the Brooklyn Art Library. And I thought it was the perfect choice for Remedy. The theme over at http://www.illustrationfriday.com/ today. I really love this simple illustration. But I'm not sure if the apple would be the cure or the cause. You be the judge...