I painted this one a little while back. It was hard to photograph, as the metallic gold paint misbehaves in the presence of my flash.
I've noticed a significant change in my main dream themes over the past 10 years or so. I used to dream a lot about dead or murdered children (most often killed or endangered by their mother.) More recently, my main recurring dream theme is police. The police aren't typically protecting or coming after me (although, of course, in different dreams they sometimes do either or both.) Most often they tend to be just...there. Interpreting what they mean depends highly on the context of the dreams they appear in, but they often seem to represent power (& it's potential for abuse,) generalized authority figures or my superego. 
I went to a group "paint out" this afternoon, sponsored by the Art for Madisonville group I belong to. I met some wonderful people (a couple of which live very close to me, as it turns out,) & had a good time. My regular readers may recognize this painting, which I've done many times now. Just last week I shipped one to a friend in Canada, who wants it as a tattoo.
This is a photo of the launch of NASA's Space Shuttle, "Discovery," on June 2, 1998. This was the last shuttle mission to Russia's MIR space station. They were also trying to detect antimatter & it was the first time they used an especially lightweight paint on the main fuel tank (the large, orange unit the orbiter is attached to before launch.) Formal statistics regarding this mission are here. The building not far to the right of the launchpad in this photo is the VAB.
One of my photos has made it to the semifinals in an art contest hosted by "A Singular Creation" & your vote is needed! Final voting ends July 31st.
Brown thrasher & one of two chicks.
Juvenile Eastern towhee. It has yet to come close enough to the house for me to get a really good picture. At some point between Friday & today, it lost all of its tail feathers (presumably to some kind of attacker.)
I was delighted today to learn that a pencil sketch I'd submitted last year for the cover of Charles' new, poetry chapbook, "Wanting the Mouth of a Lover," was accepted & published.
This morning, I spotted this juvenile red-headed woodpecker out back. He followed the juvenile red-bellied woodpecker around like they were brothers (much to the seeming chagrin of the latter.)
This morning; a wild hibiscus.
Pale meadow beauty. (The "haze" is this morning's high humidity on the camera lens.)
Unknown, small, yellow flowers.
Yesterday evening; A 2nd rudbeckia Indian Summer starts to bloom.
This picture of a mourning dove, a brown rat & a r@t b@$t@rd are from yesterday afternoon. The rat has gotten bolder--I watched her chase a female cardinal & a dove away from the seed before settling down to eat. Shortly after that, two, smaller rats came from the same area to also help themselves to birdseed. This is the first time we've seen what I'm assuming are mama rat's babies. Athough there are also local predators (snakes & whatnot,) the birds have more competition for seed now than they have since we started feeding them. I'm giving more thought to installing more rodent- & raccoon-proof feeders. I'll have to do some research, visit some local birding stores, for starters.
I was at some kind of museum event with other artists where alcoholic drinks were served. One of the guys who had a display had done an incredibly lifelike painting of a huge slab of reddish stone that he also jogged around. It was only about 2.5’ high, but probably spanned an acre or more. Some of us jogged with him for a while. 2 other young, new, female artists were given much attention. I was largely left out. Very few people were featured at the event & the older/more established the artists were, the rarer were their displays. One of the young women had designed a bridal ensemble. She was told she still needed to create a "pea bag" (purse) for the outfit. Another related side project involved large letters made of fabric. I was asked to create an "e" for this. I intended to do a printed, capital "E," but all of the other 3 letters were of a different style. I considered a cursive, lower case "e," but that would be too simplistic. I had a pen in my hand as I thought about it & one of the people running the event came over to ask me if I always drew out my plans in pen. I said "no," that I was just using the pen to sketch some ideas.
One of these blue jays is a chick (it still does the "feed me" wing fluttering & chases its parents around.) The cardinals are all young. There are many more than this, but they're so all over I can't get them all in one shot.
Even the crows come by (on occassion) with their brood. There were two more, seeming to act as lookouts, out of range of this shot.
This young cardinal is starting to show his maleness.
I can't resist putting up another picture that includes the red bellied woodpecker chick. He's just adorable.
I have 2 of these trees on my property. These pictures are from the smaller one (the lowest branches on the taller one are at least 20' off the ground.) I have no idea what kind of tree these are. They don't really seem to match anything in my field guides.
I thought maybe they're some kind of magnolia (particularly as they're evergreens,) but further investigation hasn't turned up a likely match in that department, either. The leaves & flowers are too pointed & neither have the usual "leathery" consistancy of magnolias.
In addition, magnolias in our area all seem to bloom at the very beginning of May (like clockwork.) The flowers on my trees didn't bloom until the 2nd week of June. I e-mailed these pictures to the horticultural department of LSU.
The other day I noticed this large, strange flower blooming by our front stairs. These first 2 pictures are from yesterday. Although I did plant seeds when we first moved in, either they never bloomed or our yard guy just keeps cutting everything down (against my specific instructions.)
I've largely forgotten what I'd planted by now, but this seems more like a weed than a formal "flower," anyway. The entire plant is pretty hairy (even the backs of the petals.)
This picture is from this morning. The flower's pretty large--about 5" across. The plant's about a foot tall. I can't find this in my field guides or net searches, either.
I was honored today to see that Michelle (from Artscapes,) awarded me with the Arte y Pico award (& on Canada Day, no less!) Michelle is a wonderfully talented painter who makes realism seem easy. She has a keen eye for interesting photographs, as well. I highly recommend a visit to her blog. 
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