Found Art – Page 10

Real-life ECO-ART From Nature’s Tiniest Builder

August 31, 2016 by Lonnie Lardner

(Pic #1) Mother hummer steals my discards for her own functional art installation. Photo by Josh Kaplan, 2016.

A 2-ounce feathered thief recycles my work for her own.

Like many artists, I hate most of what I do. I will start out with great enthusiasm, craft a piece for hours or days, worry over each brush stroke, each last detail and then, realize I hate every single drop of paint. My rational mind knows that there is no such thing as a wasted artistic experience. My logical mind tells me that even if I didn’t come up with something I liked, the process is important. I acknowledge I always learn something, either technical or emotional, from each time I try to create something. But those considerations always seemed to take a back seat to the reality that I HATE what I made, and it was a colossal waste of time. At least that was true until yesterday.

Sometime last month I had been working on a piece, sitting outside enjoying the sunshine and the birds chirping. I had taken one of Josh’s photos, and was coloring over the top of it. And as so often happens, I tore it up at the end, lamenting the hours of my life I will never get back.

Apparently though, not all the pieces of torn up art made it to the trash can — some cialis floated away in the breeze — and turned up somewhere amazing.

(Pic #2) Closeup of hummingbird nest, with sewn-in scraps of torn matte card stock.

This is our most recent hummingbird mother, (Pic #1) sitting stoically atop the nest she painstakingly built to shelter her eggs. It is made of leaves, and twigs, using spider webs for glue. But look closely and you can see that there is something else. (Pic #2) Mama bird somehow found the scraps of my discarded art, and used them to help build her nest.

I know it’s silly, but when I saw this it finally made sense to me. No artistic endeavor is ever wasted. Ever. The end result may not be what we had in mind, but as artists, we don’t always get to choose how something we create is interpreted, judged, or used.

Maybe this little story won’t help you next time you spend hours on something that winds up committed to the trash heap. But I think from here on, I will consider the long game when approaching my art, my life — when a tiny scrap of paper can become the foundation for a much bigger project, in a way smaller world.

Hacienda bougain : LL sketching copy JPG

(Pic #3) Sketching by the scene of the crime. / Mama bird lives (and makes art) in our overgrown bougainvillea.

Art Underfoot

April 30, 2016 by Lonnie Lardner

(Pic #1) Gorgeous stained cement walkway spotted in Ventura, California. Photo by Josh Kaplan

One more argument against walking while texting: the beauty below.

While Fort Lee New Jersey has already passed a law banning texting while walking, other towns are considering the move, in an effort to make streets safer. I applaud it — but for a slightly different reason. Just look what you miss. If your face is buried in the small screen, chances are pretty pharmacy no rx slim you’d see the art beneath your feet just waiting to be discovered.

I grabbed the pictures below with my iPhone while on a walk on the streets of Calabasas. I swore off texting while walking on this day, and feel the universe rewarded me with these.

(Pic #2) Quirky geometric “sidewalk sketches” in Calabasas, California.

(Pic #3) An insecure start to a game of Tic-Tack-Toe, carved into the sidewalk in Calabasas, California.

The Fish That Makes Art

January 31, 2016 by Lonnie Lardner

True love found 80 feet down on the ocean floor.

(Pic #1) Close-up, creative pufferfish.

I think my husband could be a slacker. Look what this minuscule (5-inch) creature can pull off — in 10 days’ time — to attract a mate. Josh is always trying to find new ways to court me, and I think I need to share this report.

Not long ago, off the southern tip of Japan, a dedicated oceanic photographer named Amami Oshima discovered what he initially called a “mystery circle” — a shockingly intricate, rippling geometric pattern nearly 6-feet wide on the ocean floor. Well it turns out, the master architect of this stunning example of “environmental art” is a tiny pufferfish. He creates the mandala-like nest with his fins, digging furrows to attract the attention of passing female puffers (Click video, above.)

Before the female fish arrives to inspect his handiwork, the male forms quirky patterns in the fine sand of the central circle. He also decorates the peaks of the outer portion with shells and fragments of coral. (In contemporary art, we would tramadol call this texturizing or creative use of “found objects.”) Scientists believe, “when a potential female partner arrives on the scene, the male stirs up the fine sand in the nest’s inner circle. If she deems the nest (and the male who built it) satisfactory, she lays her eggs and leaves.”

(Pic #2) For a sense of scale: A male pufferfish (center) photographed by crew in 2012. Photo courtesy Kimiaki Ito.

Experts aren’t sure exactly what the females are looking for when they assess a male’s nest. It could be the patterns of fine sand, the decorations on the outside, or the nest’s size or perfect symmetry. But they do know that because the process is so time-consuming, a larger nest could indicate a stronger or “more fit”male suitor — both desirable traits to females.

Dudes: Take note.

FISHY FUN FACT: According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration less than five percent of the world’s oceans have been explored, meaning that 95% of what lies deep underwater on Earth has yet to be seen by human eyes.