Flew the coop -

"Summer's Abandoned Nest"
digitally manipulated fractal flame by Mick Mather

"... there are no birds in last years nest ..."
- Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Illustration Friday: Cracked -

"Cracked"
digitally manipulated fractal flame by Mick Mather

The theme of the week at Illustration Friday is cracked. Not so long ago I posted a few images in the Database Series that fit pretty well, but I've already used them. What to do? A search of my fractal flame files was rewarded with a piece that I knew would work just as well after a detour through the Secret Visual Laboratory. I'll be off for a few days, although you're not likely to notice ... in the meantime, please keep those who fight for freedom in your thoughts and prayers over this Memorial Day weekend.

Illustration Friday: Hierarchy -

"Hierarchy"
digitally manipulated fractal flame by Mick Mather

Something fun for this week's Illustration Friday theme, hierarchy. I ran an old fractal (that seemed a good, abstract fit for an ascending order of things) through the usual array at the Secret Visual Laboratory and posted it here for your perusal. Now, I'm closing in on the cocktail hour ... cheers!

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EXTRA! EXTRA!

You can see my final documentation of "Stimulus Package I (Final Documentation View)" that's part of Seth Apter's "Disintegration Collaboration". Where? At No Matter What Shape-The Archive.

Fever, headache, body ache and sinus -

"Study for an Unnamed Monument"
manipulated fractal flame by Mick Mather

Okay, okay! I'm still in fever mode and Susupetal just explained that I am NOT to be working at all while sick. So, from the overheated banks of synapse and gap, here's today's post. Back to bed!

In search of the perfect brew -

"Tea Ball"
digitally manipulated fractal flame by Mick Mather

I love tea. I drank it for years, my favorite being Twining's "Irish Breakfast Tea". At one point I even had a beautiful, silver tea ball that looked a bit like this - tarnished and stained with a long, sail-like hook at the end of its chain. From time to time, in my haste, the ball would roll off it's tiny tea plate onto the linen tablecloth, staining the fabric with shadows that never really came out. As I reconsider this, wouldn't I love to have that table cloth now? I'd cut out the tea stained patch and frame it alongside today's post. :)

For the birds -

"Birdhouse I"
digitally manipulated fractal flame by Mick Mather

A new series seems to be emerging from The Secret Visual Laboratory. The key word here is emerging, and decidedly so, since the original idea has been quite a long time in development. It started not quite 2 years ago in British Columbia with a marvelous photograph of a birdhouse by Lelainia N. Lloyd who has an equally marvelous blog called Tattered Edge. I fell in love with that image and wasted no time requesting permission to fiddle about with it. Anyway, this birdhouse is not a manipulation of Lelainia's birdhouse, but it's due to follow along in short order I believe. Keep a birds eye open for it, okay?

More playtime -

"Hive Activity I"
digitally manipulated fractal flame by Mick Mather

I took an old fractal that wasn't really going anywhere, tossed it into my digital drawing software and started to play around. After adding a half dozen drawn elements, carefully layered over the top to obscure the parts I didn't care for, it went into another editor for some well deserved, heavy filtering. The first few rounds of that are almost always experimental but, rather early in the game, out comes this image that reminds me of nothing quite so much as a hive of bees. So, here you have it, enjoy!

NEW from The Mr Existence Series -

"Man and the Moon"
$50 Unframed - LUCAS GALLERY
digitally manipulated fractal flame & collage by Mick Mather

This is a series of work that goes all the way back to my earliest days of digital drawings in MS Paint. You can see the piece that got me started down this road in this block-of-4 artistamps or, since you're here, why not go see the whole series. Come to that, yes, I know I have some work to do to make things continuitous as regards Mr. vs Mister but, what the hey! I'm too busy looking at the current addition to worry about that right now ... hmm, I better send myself an email reminder. Anyway, there's a connection here with the lower right artistamp and we must ask the question, is Mr. Existence tired of being The Man in the Moon? Here, he seems to holding the moon at arms length having just accomplished some prestidigitation using the distraction of a yellow handkerchief. Applause, applause!