HAPPY HALLOWE'EN -

"Trick or Treat I, 2009"
manipulated digital photograph by Mick Mather
- click here to view the original photograph -

"... at first cock-crow the ghosts must go
back to their quiet graves below ..."
- Theodosia Garrison

Illustration Friday: Skinny -

"Skinny"
digital collage by Mick Mather

skin-ny (skin-ee) noun
a. accurate information; data; facts
b. news; gossip: What's the skinny on Mick!

Thursday Challenge: Cloths -

"Cloths"
digital photograph by Mick Mather
- click on image to view full size -

"... I pity the man who wants a coat so cheap
that the man or woman who produces the cloth
will starve in the process ..."

- Benjamin Harrison

Blind faith -

"A Mean Pinball"
manipulated digital drawing & collage by Mick Mather

"... ever since I was a young boy
I've played the silver ball ..."
- Pete Townshend

What goes up, must come down -

"An Astronaut's Retirement Bungalow"
digital collage by Mick Mather

"... it's been a long way
but we're here ..."
- Alan B. Shepard

Meter made -

"No Off Street Parking"
digital collage by Mick Mather

"... the best, the most exquisite automobile is a walking stick;
and one of the finest things in life is going on a journey with it ..."
- Robert Coates Holliday

Digs -

"The House"
digital collage by Mick Mather

"... our houses are such unwieldy property that we are
often imprisoned rather than housed by them ..."
- Henry David Thoreau

Faux Slide Series -

"Slide Six"
digital collage by Mick Mather

"... how could drops of water know themselves
to be a river? Yet the river flows on ..."
- Antoine de Saint-Exupery

Illustration Friday: Fast -

"Fast"
digital collage by Mick Mather

"... the best way to learn to be a lady
is to see how other ladies do it ..."
- Mae West

Thursday Challenge: Simple -

"Afternoon Shadows"
digital photograph by Mick Mather
- click image to view full size -

"... what was it? They could not tell themselves. They only knew that the dark shadows at the top of the staircase had thickened, had coalesced, had taken a definite, batlike shape ..."

- Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

NEW from The Trinity Series -

"Trinity #23 - Hinsdale Road Readymade"
digitally manipulated photograph by Mick Mather

"... the self is not something ready-made,
but something in continuous formation
through course of action ..."
- John Dewey

Slings and arrows -

"Cupid's Reliable Map"
manipulated digital drawing by Mick Mather

"... Miss Buss and Miss Beale
Cupid's darts do not feel,
how different from us,
Miss Beale and Miss Buss ..."
- Unknown

Criss croft -

"A Walk Across Familiar Pastures"
digitally manipulated photograph by Mick Mather

"... tomorrow to fresh woods, and pastures new ..."
- John Milton

Working man's blues -

"The Lorry Man"
digital collage by Mick Mather

"... as you heft a load of dust that was Magherafelt,
then reappear from your lorry as my mother's
dreamboat coalman filmed in silk-white ashes ..."
- Seamus Heaney

Last of the warm, sunny days -

"The Screen Door"
digital collage by Mick Mather

"... how many slams in an old screen door?
depends how loud you shut it ..."
- Shel Silverstein

Illustration Friday: Frozen -

"Frozen"
digital collage by Mick Mather

"... only God above can refill the ice cold hole
where your heart used to swell ..."
- Anonymous

Thursday Challenge: Beauty -

"Beauty"
digital photograph by Mick Mather
- click on image to view full size -

"... but we, how shall we turn to little things
and listen to the birds and winds and streams,
made holy by their dreams,
nor feel the heart-break in the heart of things? ..."
- Wilfred Wilson Gibson

Over hill, over dale -

"The Hill"
digitally manipulated photograph by Mick Mather

"... we were soon free of the woods and bushes,
and fairly upon the broad prairie ..."
- Francis Parkman

NEW from The Chairs Series -

"Desk Set"
digital collage by Mick Mather

"... a desk is a dangerous place from which to watch the world ..."
- John Le Carre

A wee lassie -

"Elspeth at the Loch"
digital collage by Mick Mather

"... ah, when love dies, women lose two and a half inches in height ..."
- M. C. Beaton

In the evening, rain -

"Drizzling Showers"
digital collage by Mick Mather

"... the best thing one can do when it's raining is to let it rain ..."
- Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Carrying on -

"Beneath the Street"
manipulated digital photograph by Mick Mather
- original photograph by John M. Mora -

"... the words of the prophets
are written on the subway walls
and tenement halls ..."
- Paul Simon

Illustration Friday: Flying -

"Descoloramiento de Los Picadores"
digitally manipulated drawing by Mick Mather
- original drawing by Leighlund Ruth Vincett -

"... after the picador's ruthless blade
and the matador's flying cape,
stands the defeated, head bowing low,
spending the last of his strength,
defiant through the fall ..."
- Mick Mather

Thursday Challenge: Golden -

"The Golden Girls"
digital photograph by Mick Mather
- click on image to view full size -

"... flowers are love's truest language ..."
- Park Benjamin

The art of walking -

"Walking the Big Sky"
digital collage by Mick Mather

"... among men and women, those in love do not always announce themselves with declarations and vows. But they are the ones that weep when you're gone. Who miss you every night, especially when the sky is so deep and beautiful, and the ground so very cold ..."
- Alice Hoffman

NEW from Seneca River Walk -

"Harbor Master"
manipulated digital photograph by Mick Mather

"... I must down to the seas again,
to the vagrant gypsy life,
to the gull's way and the whale's way
where the wind's like a whetted knife;
and all I ask is a merry yarn
from a laughing fellow rover,
and quiet sleep and a sweet dream
when the long trick's over ..."
- John Edward Masefield

Where, oh where?

"No Healing Time"
digital collage by Mick Mather

"... the full breadth of time
is a tormenting fence,
and this small picket
like an arranged marriage,
suggests that we will,
that we must,
learn to love our
limited host of hearts ..."
- Anonymous

Living in fear -

"Masking the Terror Within"
digital collage by Mick Mather

"... love is what we were born with,
fear is what we learned here ..."
- Unknown

Reach for the sky -

"Here Comes the Sun"
manipulated digital photograph by Mick Mather

"... sun, sun, sun, here it comes ..."
- The Beatles

Illustration Friday: Germs -

"Germs"
digitally manipulated fractal flame collage by Mick Mather

"... apparent failure may hold in its rough shell the germs of a success that will blossom in time, and bear fruit throughout eternity ..."
- Frances Ellen Watkins Harper

Thursday Challenge: Art -

"Art"
manipulated digital photograph by Mick Mather
- click image to view full size -

"... the only time I feel alive
is when I'm painting ..."
- Vincent Van Gogh