Runnin' Raven

If Corvids Were Archangels....

I love downloading the camera after taking pictures of the American Crows that sometimes hang out in front of my house because images like this appear. If you don't agree with the angel idea, how about Las Vegas Showgirl Crow?

The Crow Bar Coasters

If you've visited my Crowcentric blog (all things crow) you will have seen a posting about a pub and kitchen in Corona Del Mar, California, called The Crow Bar. I had a delightful dinner there. So I'm featuring their creative coasters as well as a lovely piece of etched stemware by Alone Larsen.

Lint Trap Crow

Yep, it's the lint trap from the dryer.

Monotype with Crow

Deliberation is a monotype where I have introduced patterning and symbols that are part of our cityscape along with the American Crow, also part of the city.

Thousand Dollar Corvid

Stencil Crow

Mesh Screen Crow

Computer Crow

Wire Crow

We used to park our '67 Mustang on this area of the driveway. This wire image is actually about 3 feet tall.

Charcoal Crow on Sandpaper

Hmmm, looking around my studio, I spotted a piece of sandpaper left over from a project. Add a charcoal stick, take advantage of the resulting powder...fun!

Inauguration Day Crow

...with apologies to Shepard Fairey...and in honor of the inauguration of Barack Obama on this day. I wish the crow looked a little less stern. Maybe he's a member of the Supreme Cawrt.

Torn Paper Towel Crow

This negative-space crow was challenging and fun. I nabbed a paper towel from the ladies' room at a restaurant (it's cool, isn't it?) and thought I could just "draw" the crow with water and then tear it out. Not so fast Kemo Sabe. The water just wicked throught the paper at lightening speed--well outside the desired crow outline. I had to let it dry a little and call on a pair of tweezers for edge-plucking of the outline. It was fun.

C is for Crow

A few "C" stamps, an ink pad and a stencil caused this corvid to appear. One of the most BORING things I've done in a while. Even the crow looks like it's about to go to sleep.

India Ink Crow

India Ink was one of my favorite mediums when I was a young kid. I always keep a bottle or two around. Claybord is also a versatile surface to work on so I got to do a little scratching on this crow after the ink dried.

Drizzle, right

Drizzle is really a diptych This is the right half.

Warm Amber Crow

My sister left her pot of Warm Amber Cream here after her last visit. I was trying it out and thought, why not scoop it out in crow-shaped dabs?

Tear On Dotted Line Crow

So I bought this nifty little tool at a scrapbooking store, that allows you to make a perforated line. I rolled it around the outline of a crow and then just tore it. You can see some of the little tufts left where the paper wasn't cut by the tool. Crafty crow!

Orange You Glad You're a Crow?

Crow Apple

Comin' At Ya Crow

Sometimes when I use templates to carry ink in monoprinting, I don't clean it when I'm finished. Can you blame me? Look how gorgeous that green crow is. I have an old piece of plastic on my rusty tables outside that I used to carry the crow. Lifting slightly to light it from the back with the sun, all the minute scratches became part of the composition.

Fence Crow

Where can you spray paint on a fence and not get arrested? In your own backyard.

Crow in the Spa

I placed a clean frosted Mylar template of a crow with extended wings on the surface of the water. You can see a few air bubbles that were trapped in the body area. The Mylar blocks the sun and creates the interesting shadow you see on the seat of the spa.

Drizzle, left

Leaf Crow

I had trimmed this bird of paradise leaf into a smaller shape for the arrangement it was in. That had ended, and on the way to the green trash with it in hand, I found some scissors and called out the crow.

Circle Crow

I have long gathered random items created in factories that are undeclared symbols of our industrialized society. The corrugated cardboard circle with an off-center debossed ring just seemed to fit with the white crow.

Garden Pot Crow

This crow was cut from the pot in the previous post. Not too easy to cut through such thick plastic. And the curve of the pot lived on in the crow.

Crow Paper Dolls

I hadn't put the origami paper away and it looked so appetizing just sitting there. Once I cut them out, the puzzle was how to photograph them.

When Cooper, my favorite Labrador Retriever, spent the day with me, he had a blast chasing and chewing one of those large plastic pots you bring home from the nursery with a tree in it.

I was intrigued by the patterns left by his teeth on the plastic and saved it. Then I taped the Crow Paper Dolls to it. A great background, don't you think?

Chair Crow

I have an old metal chair on my studio deck. I clipped one of my stencils to the back of it and photographed the shadow on the stucco.

Crow on the Roof Tile

aka: Environmental Graffiti

Our roof slopes on either side of my studio deck. Warm and sunny in Southern California, so I thought, Why not try just using water through one of my stencils? The tile was so hot that it just soaked up the water. I figured I'd have to be ready quick with the camera.

The "test" left a lovely dried halo to enhance the outline and you can see one wet spot that hadn't yet been absorbed.

Reminded me of the reverse graffiti artists who use cleaning solutions through their stencils to leave their images on dirty city walls. Moose (Paul Curtis) has been cleaning the UK for about 10 years. Check it out: www.environmentalgraffiti.com

Happy New Year!

Here we go! Crow Number One is a little origami number.