Waiting and watching -

"The Private Detective"
digital collage by Mick Mather

"... a really good detective never gets married ..."
- Raymond Chandler

Visual slang -

"The Urban Alchemists Midnight Wholecar Dream"
digital collage by Mick Mather

"... the media controls your thoughts,
kill yourself ..."
- Unknown (Graffiti Slogan)

Feedback loop to the max -

"Mandelbrot Mathematics Explain the Rose"
digitaly manipulated fractal flame & collage by Mick Mather
- click image to view full size -

"... order doesn't come by itself ..."
- Benoit Mandelbrot

Fix the potholes -

"Now They Know How Many Holes"
digital collage by Mick Mather

"... Q: What's the difference between
a lawyer and a pothole?
A: You swerve to miss the pothole ..."
- Unknown

Roll and roll and roll -

"Yellow Journalism"
digital drawing & collage by Mick Mather

"... sensationalism gets them every time ..."
- Joey Skaggs

Illustration Friday: Disguise -

"Disguise"
digital collage by Mick Mather

"... a weed is no more than a flower in disguise ..."
- Unknown

Thursday Challenge: Blue -

"Blue"
manipulated digital photograph by Mick Mather
- original photograph by Ann Ballard -
- click image to view full size -

"... he walked ahead, salving the scar,
her lagging effort a bridge too far,
the sunset, weighted with many a hue,
sinking hopes in a sea of blue ..."
- Unknown

Pop! goes the easel -

"Peter Max's Dresser"
digital drawing & digital collage by Mick Mather

"... I never know what I'm going to put on the canvas,
the canvas paints itself, I'm just the middleman ..."
- Peter Max

Susu's challenge -

"Birth of A Painting II: The King"
tempera-on-paper painting by Mick Mather
- click image to view full size -

One of the Finnish Sisters, my good friend SusuPetal, has thrown down the gauntlet so to speak, with a documentation of one of her fabulous mixed-media paintings. Over at her blog she says, "I challenge you to document your process of making something you like." Okay, here's mine.

NEW from The Revolution Series -

"Revolution Five"
digital drawing & digital collage by Mick Mather

"... you say you got a real solution,
well, you know
we'd all love to see the plan ..."
- The Beatles

Home Sweet Home -

"An Old Salt Box"
digitally manipulated tempera-on-paper painting by Mick Mather
- click image to view full size -

"... ain't got time to fix the shingles,
ain't got time to fix the floor ..."
- from the chorus of "This Old House"

NEW from The Chairs Series -

"The Amazing Walking Chair"
digital drawing & collage by Mick Mather
- click image to view full size -

"... haven't you felt a peculiar sort of worry
about the chair in your living room
that nobody sits in ..."
- Nicholson Baker

Illustration Friday: Influence -

"Sketch for Influence Diagram: Trinity #27"
digital drawing by Mick Mather

"... he who influences the thoughts of his times,
influences all the times that follow;
he has made his impress ..."
- Unknown

Thursday Challenge: Friends -

"The Civil War Reenactment"
digitally manipulated photograph by Mick Mather
- click image to view full size -

"... life is a mosaic of pleasure and pain: grief is an interval between two moments of joy; peace is the interval between two wars; you have no rose without a thorn; the diligent picker will avoid the pricks and gather the flower; there is no bee without the sting; cleverness exists in gathering the honey nevertheless ..."
- Sri Sathya Sai Baba

NEW from The Mister Existence Series -

"Sister Existence and Her Dog on the 12-Mile Walk"
digital collage by Mick Mather

"... my little dog - a heartbeat at my feet ..."
- Edith Wharton

Works-on-Paper -

"Work in Progress"
tempera-on-paper by Mick Mather

"... the studio is less important than other things,
like the burning desire to paint;
if you don't have this disease,
you can't catch it from a nice studio ..."
- Warren Criswell

Dropping to zero -

"The Acid Eaters Binary Brainscan"
digital drawing & digital collage by Mick Mather

"... because of acid I now know
that butter is way better than margarine ..."
- Mitch Hedberg

NEW from The Selfportrait Series -

"Selfportrait of the Artist As A Broadcaster"
digital collage by Mick Mather

"... broadcasting is really too important
to be left to the broadcasters ..."
- Tony Benn

Turn a tip -

"A Fakir's Bed of Nails"
digital drawing & collage by Mick Mather

"... carnivals built this country,
the carnival part of it anyway ..."
- Homer Simpson

Illustration Friday: Swell -

"Society Swells"
digital collage by Mick Mather

"... one week he's in polka dots,
the next week he's in stripes,
'cause he's a dedicated follower of fashion ..."
- The Kinks

Thursday Challenge: Empty -

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

"... empty after the rain,
idling in the sun,
no children there to run,
bereft of games or fun ..."
- Unknown

Sunday drives -

"Benson Road Pond"
manipulated digital photograph by Mick Mather

"... four ducks on a pond,
a grass bank beyond,
a blue sky of spring,
white clouds on the wing,
what a little thing
to remember for years,
to remember with tears ..."
- William Allingham

NEW from The Midnight Dream Series -

"The Weavers Midnight Dream"
digital drawing & collage by Mick Mather

All of a sudden it occurred to me that I have a new series going. I was amazed to find that the roots of this body of work goes all the way back to January of 2009; and, the most recent before this one was just a few days ago. Anyway, enjoy these and remember what the lovely Edie Adams once said: "All the dreamers in all the world are dizzy in the noodle." Would we have it any other way? :)

Primitive features -

"The Mask Makers Sketchbook"
digital drawing & collage by Mick Mather

"... he who wears a mask cannot see within himself ..."
- Unknown

500 Miles -

"Running as an Exercise in Disappearing From Herself"
digital collage by Mick Mather

"... life's battles don't always go
to the strongest or fastest man,
but sooner or later the man who wins
is the fellow who thinks he can ..."
- Unknown

NEW from The Chairs Series -

"Another Red Chair"
digital collage by Mick Mather

"... the last stroke of midnight dies,
all day in the one chair
from dream to dream and rhyme to rhyme I have ranged
in rambling talk with an image of air,
vague memories, nothing but memories ..."
- William Butler Yeats

Illustration Friday: Imperfect -

"Imperfect"
digital collage by Mick Mather

"... the true perfection of man
lies not in what man has,
but in what man is ..."
- Unknown

By a nose -

"The Handicappers Midnight Dream"
digital drawing & collage by Mick Mather

"... horse sense is the thing a horse has
which keeps it from betting on people ..."
- W.C. Fields

Lighting off the boiler -

"In A Steampunk's Basement"
digital collage by Mick Mather

"... as machines become more and more efficient and perfect,
so it will become clear that imperfection is the greatness of man ..."
- Ernst Fischer

Can you dig it -

"The Unidentified Fossil"
digitally manipulated fractal flame & collage by Mick Mather
- click image to view full size -

"... the sand stones had fragments of charcoal
on some surfaces but found no recognizable fossils ..."
- George Mercer Dawson

Erosion Bundle Project Reveal -

"Erosion Cube - Final Reveal"

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

Here's the final result of "Erosion Cube", my addition to Kris Henderson's "The Erosion Bundle Project". As promised, I finally plugged in the blender containing the remnants of the cube and chopped everything up. Since a blender is not exactly a papermaking beater, lots of chunks and globs were left behind and made an especially thick slurry of paper pulp. The pulp was poured straight into a 5-gallon plastic tub filled with about a gallon of tap water and stirred vigorously. I made my own mold & deckle from an old food container (the omelet that came home from the diner in it was delicious and never made it into the paper) adding a screen in between from an old mesh bag that once contained onions. These three parts, held together with two spring-lever paper clips, were dipped into the stirred pulp. After lifting the screen - thickly covered with fine paper pulp along with chunks, lumps, thread and string - the clips were removed, frame & deckle taken apart and the screen was turned over onto a layer of fabric. The pulpy mass was covered with a paper towel and kneaded by hand to flatten, remove excess water (there was a lot) and to free the screen. After the session was completed, the wet sheets were placed in direct sunlight and allowed to air dry - about 4 or 5 hours. No, I didn't use felts or a press or a rolling pin or an iron or anything too fancy and I must admit that I'm completely satisfied with the results. For a photomontage of some of the steps described go to No Matter What Shape - The Archive.