Walking with cats and painting with foraged pigments
Walking with cats and painting with foraged pigments
Titles are hard. I wrote some stuff. I added some pictures.
“Come on buddy. I’m tired of staring at this wood pile”
I’ve been taking Eggs out for a lot of extra walks. He often gets fixated on stuff. Just when I was fed up with standing in one place and started telling him him we needed to stop staring at the stupid wood pile I spotted this checkered beetle, and then an itsy bitsy acorn ant.
Lean into boredom. On the other side is wonder.
Checkered Beetle
Acorn Ant
There is even less easily accessible information about Temnothorax schaumii, though Ant wiki says they nest in living trees, in branches, logs and oak galls. I really like thinking of a tiny ant colony living in an oak gall, and I wonder if the oak galls I’m thinking of are the oak galls they might nest in. Bugguide says that some Temnothorax species nest in acorns which is EVEN CUTER to think of. But what happens when the squirrels bury your house? Who knows, maybe that is part of the strategy.
Rove Beetle
On the same outing I saw this tiny rove beetle on a stump. Someone on iNaturalist identified it as a Weakly-keeled Ocellate Rove Beetle. Probably not the LONGEST name ever, but long enough. Ol’ weak keel doesn’t have a wikipedia page and only has a ‘mostly harmless’ level of information on bugguide. All it says is that they’re most likely spotted between September and January with a peak in October, based on bugguide submissions. So you are free to give them any backstory you like. “Enjoys baking and reading romance novels by the fireplace.”
Painting with Foraged Pigments
A couple of weeks ago my friend Katrina shared a Pigment Foraging workshop that she was going to and I signed up too. The workshop was about collecting minerals, clay, and dirt (with minimal organic elements (not topsoil)) to paint with them. They talked about how they collect and process the pigments and then we got an opportunity to paint with some of them.
I made this robot painting using four kinds of earth (clay and other minerals mostly) mixed with water and some glue. I thought it might be fun to paint something mechanical with something natural. It might need some overdrawing, but I know that there’s a good chance I’ll kill it at that point. I need to do some experiments before I wade in to finish it up.
Meanwhile Katrina made this amazing painting of mushrooms. I love the brush strokes. It seems like she’s collaborating with the paint and finding the ways the medium and the mushrooms are aligned. Whereas I feel like my brush work looks like I’m fighting with the paint. That’s always been my relationship with paint and most media. We have a brawl and then I look for ways to highlight the aesthetic appeal of the demolished room. “Look at how those broken bottles in the corner sparkle and capture the light.”
I’m glad I went to the workshop because it forced me to set aside the time to just engage with making some art without getting distracted and jumping up to do something else. I was telling Brian this and he said “oh you need an art manacle.”
It was also really inspiring to see other people’s approaches and ideas. I was really in love with the d-i-y bound sketchbook of the person next to me and I’m contemplating putting something together to collect the boxes full of doodles I’ve cut out of work notebooks.
Grape and more grape
On my way home from the workshop I stopped at Cheshire Farms for grape ice cream and texted a friend a picture of the ice cream. She was nearby and suggested we meet up at Frequentem brewing where I got a sour grape IPA. It was good. Yes, it sounds weird but it WAS good.
Winter is coming
Before I get all obsessed with book binding. I am going to resurect the giant cardboard crab claw project I started last September. I might actaully have a halloween party to go to this year. I DID mean to work on that all weekend but it’s just too nice out to spend any time indoors that I don’t have to. How many more days will I be able to sit outdoors and write without a coat?
#Overheard
“We were larva then. We can’t be held accountable for anything that happened before pupation.”
As always I love this. First, starting with your opener: "Lean into boredom. On the other side is wonder." What a great thought. I've had many times where I just had to wait for something (traveling, too early for an appointment, etc.) Leaning into boredom opens up lots of moments for random observation. The other part of your blog I enjoyed is the "weakly keeled" beetle. I wonder if the person who named it was a sailor. The keel on a bigger boat almost guarantees that you won't capsize, but a "weak" or small one, well just look out. Poor little guy.