A proclamation of spring -

"It's Coming"
digital collage by Mick Mather
- click image to view full size -

"... awake, thou wintry earth,
fling off thy sadness!
fair vernal flowers, laugh forth
your ancient gladness ..."
- Thomas Blackburn

A little something for you -

"The Gift II"
digital collage by Mick Mather

"... we should give as we would receive,
cheerfully, quickly, and without hesitation;
for there is no grace in a benefit
that sticks to your fingers ..."
- Seneca

Sentinel -

"Soon to the Fertile Field"
digitally manipulated photograph by Mick Mather

"... the farmer works the soil,
the agriculturist works the farmer ..."
- Eugene F. Ware

Illustration Friday: Swarm -

"A Swarm of Heretics"
digital collage by Mick Mather
- click image to view full size -

"... cold hopes swarm like worms
within our living clay ..."
- Percy Bysshe Shelley

Thursday Challenge: Movement -

"Movement"
manipulated digital photograph by Mick Mather

"... it whirls, it whirls ..."
- Alexander Calder

NEW from the Selfportrait Series -

"Selfportrait of the Artist As An Entertainment Industry Interest"
digital collage by Mick Mather

"... always give an autograph when somebody asks you ..."
- Tommy Lasorda

Blow wind, blow wind -

"Storm Damage"
digital collage by Mick Mather
- click image to view full size -

"... like two doomed ships
that pass in storm
we had crossed each other's way;
but we made no sign,
we said no word,
we had no word to say ..."
- Oscar Wilde

Sunlight and shadows -

"Summer of '58"
manipulated digital photograph by Mick Mather

"... hey, Mr. Spaceman,
won't you please take me along ..."
- The Byrds

Far afield -

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

"... then sing, young hearts that are full of cheer,
with never a thought of sorrow;
the old goes out, but the glad young year
comes merrily in tomorrow ..."
- Emily Miller

NEW from the Selfportrait Series -

"Selfportrait of the Artist and A Stand of Foxtail"
digital collage
- click image to view full size -

"... 'tis round Ruadh Aisrihd the tussocks flourished,
sheltering, curly, handsome, tall;
and every green plot hath its herbage swaying,
as the wind sweepeth it to and fro;
the root of deer's hair grass, the tip of arrow grass,
erect rye-grass, kneed foxtail grass,
the potent bent grass and copious groundsel,
are round the secluded covert, haunt of the stags ..."
- Duncan Ban MacIntyre
from "Song to Misty Corrie"

Illustration Friday: Layers -

"Layers"
digital drawing & collage by Mick Mather

"... ideas, ideas, backward and forward;
his influence is layers and layers of spirit ..."
- Dizzy Gillespie

Thursday Challenge: Trees -

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

"... beware the pine tree's withered branch,
beware the awful avalanche ..."
- Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Put it on the mantle -

"Admiring A New Acquisition"
digital collage by Mick Mather

"... the Holy Grail is to spend less time making the picture
than it takes people to look at it ..."
- Banksy

Down the hatch -

"The Pigeon Sisters Find the Cream Sherry"
digital collage by Mick Mather

"... get up and dance,
get up and smile,
get up and drink to the days
that are gone in the shortest while ..."
- Simon Fowler

Happy Valentine's Day -

"Be Mine"
digital photograph by Mick Mather
- click image to view full size -

"... love is the only gold ..."
- Alfred, Lord Tennyson

NEW from The Drawing With Leighlund Series -

"The Dancing Gazebo"
digitally manipulated collage & drawing by Mick Mather & Leighlund Ruth Vincett

"... let the little girl dance ..."
- Glover & Spencer

Snow blind -

"Struggling to Recall Last Summer"
manipulated digital photograph by Mick Mather

"... the young have aspirations that will never come to pass,
the old have reminiscences of what never happened ..."
- H.H. Munro

Illustration Friday: Sweater -

"The Sweater Knitter"
digital drawing by Mick Mather

"... if you are a dog and your owner suggests
that you wear a sweater, suggest
that he wear a tail ..."
- Fran Lebowitz

Thursday Challenge: Texture -

"A Decorative Container"
manipulated digital photograph by Mick Mather

"... there is something magical in seeing what you can do,
what texture and tone and colour you can produce
merely with a pen point and a bottle of ink ..."
- Ida Rentoul Outhwaite

The horse knows the way -

"An Old Country House"
digital collage by Mick Mather

"... over the river and through the wood,
trot fast my dapple gray ..."
- trad. Folk Song

The one in the middle -

"Living Room Window"
manipulated digital photograph by Mick Mather

"... a habit cannot be tossed out a window,
it must be coaxed down the stairs, a step at a time ..."
- Mark Twain

When the Saints go marching -

"Reliquary"
digital collage by Mick Mather
- click image to view full size -

"... any relic of the dead is precious,
if they were valued living ..."
- Emily Bronte

The sky is (still) falling -

"A Contemporary Chicken Little"
digital drawing & digital collage by Mick Mather

"... today is the tomorrow we worried about yesterday ..."
- Unknown

Kookie, Kookie, lend me your comb -

"Bad Hair Day"
digital drawing & digital collage by Mick Mather

"... the beautiful uncut hair of graves ..."
- Walt Whitman

Illustration Friday: Reverse -

"The Reverse"
digital collage by Mick Mather

"... turnabout is fair play ..."
- Unknown

Thursday Challenge: Red -

"Erosion Cube (With Red Threads)"

digital photographs by Mick Mather
- click image to view full size -

Kris Henderson has moved forward with The Erosion Bundle Project, a continuation of Seth Apter's marvelous Desintegration Collaboration Project. I'm a little bit late, having just found out about it via New Zealand's sweetheart, "Lucky Dip" Lisa, but was finally able to get my own piece hung outside yesterday. I spent a bit of time building the 3" X 3" "Erosion Cube" and when the end of the project arrives, a small documentation booklet will likely appear. If you haven't seen my documentation of Seth's "Disintegration Collaboration Project documentation, "From the Proverbial Ashes", you can still get it for FREE here. Anyway, for full info and a peek at what others are doing with Kris's next step, click on The Erosion Bundle Project link above.

Levittown revisited -

"The Burbs"
digitally manipulated fractal flame & digital collage by Mick Mather

"... but the restlessness was handed down
and it's getting very hard to stay ..."
- Billy Joel

Candy bar wars -

"What's Inside?"
manipulated digital photograph by Mick Mather

- click image to view full size -
"... come over to the dark side...we have candy ..."
- Unknown