Our front door

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Our house was built in 1929.  This is our old-fashioned front door.  When I was a kid I wanted to live in a house that was surrounded by a moat.  The idea still kind of appeals to me.

Portal

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Jim's birthday is Tuesday.  That got me to thinking about how birthdays are a threshold into a new year that may be filled with mysteries and surprises, and that got me to thinking about the symbolism of doorways in general.  Now I'm looking around for interesting doors to photograph. 

Montreal street art

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I took this photo in Montreal when we were there back in September.  I have no idea what message the artist was trying to convey but I like it simply because it's so colorful.  Looks like maybe God and the devil are playing "rock, paper, scissors". 

Our Christmas

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Jim and I don't celebrate the holidays in traditional ways.  Yesterday I worked in the studio and finished this painting.  For dinner we had Chinese stir-fry, then watched "Cabaret" for probably the sixth time.  I still think it's the finest movie ever made.  This was the best Christmas I've had in years.

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Bear's grave

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A couple of weeks ago Jim and I watched a documentary on Bear Bryant.  Considering that I'm not much of a football fan I found it very interesting.  I do remember being quite awed by the Bear every time I saw him on campus when I attended the U of A.  One day I saw him coming toward me on the sidewalk and I stepped off into the gutter to let him walk by.  It was raining.  He never even looked at me as I stood there with water flowing around my ankles.  Anyway, Bryant is such a legend in this state that I expected some kind of grandiose monument to him.  I was surprised to find this discreet and modest marker.  The only remarkable thing about his grave is that people put pennies on it.  Is that sort of like tossing coins into a wishing well?

Rusty chair

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Of course I love the rust and the peeling paint but I also love the grid pattern of the chair itself.

Fresh Market therapy

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Walking into Fresh Market always just perks me right up.  Everything is so beautifully displayed that it makes me want to actually buy a vegetable.

Still best buddies

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'Tis the season to post cute cat photos.

Nall!

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We went to an opening tonight for the one and only Nall--Alabama's most famous and infamous artist.  I had heard lots of stories about his outrageous behavior but he was quite charming to me.  Nall is the one in the hat.  I have no idea who the other guy is.

Ceiling

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I like the low budget, industrial look of this ceiling.

Local graffiti

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I found some pretty great homegrown graffiti right here in Birmingham.  This will undoubtedly end up in one of my paintings soon.

Waffle

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Some days you just NEED a trip to Waffle House for a pecan waffle.

Rust

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Still in love with rust.

Porcine mystery

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There's this enormous, beautiful house near us.  Very tasteful and elegant.  Really spectacular.  And it has a life-sized bronze pig in the yard.  I just know there must be a story there.  Maybe they made their fortune from pig products and they are showing their appreciation.  

Our holiday tree.

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We've put up our Christmas decorations.  There they are.  That's all folks.  Happy holidays.

Guess what?

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Quinlan Castle

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Here's another of my childhood fantasies--Quinlan Castle,  As a kid I wanted to live there.  What imaginative kid wouldn't?  My mother told me that only "bad people" lived inside--which, of course, made it seem even more exotic to me.  Quinlan Castle has a rocky and checkered past but I'm so glad the city hasn't torn it down.  I love the place and I still smile every time I pass by.

Tree house

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Is this not every child's dream?  Lucky, lucky kids that have this in their yard.

Making his mark

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"Footprints on the sands of time".

Rust fetish

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By now everyone knows how much I love to photograph rust.

Greenery and machinery

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I like the contrast between the worn and rusty utility box and the lovely vegetation behind it.

Beauty and Beast

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Beauty and her brother, Beast, live just down the street from us.  Whenever Jim and I walk by their house Beauty runs as fast as her short little Corgi legs will carry her and then flops down on her back so I can rub her belly.  I love this ritual.  Beauty obviously does, too.  See the smile on her face?

Rusty fence post

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I love the colors but I guess it's time to have our backyard fence repainted.

Jim and Em watch TV

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Jim and Emmy enjoyed watching the Iron Bowl last night.  Em is an Alabama fan but Jim doesn't like Nick Saban.  Still, they thought it was an exciting game.

Rust + yellow

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I love these colors together.  This rusty pole is in Golden Temple's parting lot.

Maple tree

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Just one of the reasons I love fall--the magnificent colors.

Fresh bread

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I feel so fortunate to live within walking distance of Continental Bakery.  I love to go in there just to look around and smell the wonderful aromas.  Sometimes I even buy stuff.  A couple of my favorites are the wild yeast sourdough and the crawfish pie.

My latest experiment

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"Matrix", mixed media on gallery wrapped canvas.  24x18.  I'm still loving red.

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Naked Art

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Naked Art is a jolly place.  Wacky and wonderful art.  Wacky and wonderful people.

Zoe's

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A trip to Zoe's (used clothing store) is always a cheerful thing to do.

Space critter

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This sort of reminds me of R2D2's long legged cousin.

Autumn leaves

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Wet leaves and berries on my back steps.

Table top

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This is a close-up of the table top in my studio.  I love the energy of the splashes and splotches and squiggles.  I think maybe I've been wasting my time working so hard to get my paintings just right.  Maybe I should just start flinging paint around and see what happens.

Coasting

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I like the juxtaposition of the wood grain, the crumbling cork and the stone background.

Through the looking glass.

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Two mirrors on perpendicular walls in my trippy bathroom.

On Beth's back porch

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                                                         I love these colors.

Enchanted mushrooms

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     I found this stand of mushrooms in my yard.  It was the warm, rich colors that first caught my attention but when I got closer I discovered that some of them had faces.  I particularly love the one in the top left corner.   I think of them as little mushroom elves.

Day of the Dead altars

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     Last Sunday, even though I wasn't feeling well, I took some great photos of the Day of the Dead festival site but by evening I was too sick to actually attend the festivities or to post the photos.  Now I'm feeling much better but the photos are no longer timely.  Still, they are so bizarre and colorful that I felt compelled to post at least one anyway.  It was hard to choose just one.

Lichen covered ball

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     This photo is the result of more late night wandering around, looking at ordinary objects through the lens of my camera.  Everything just seems more interesting to me after midnight.  Have I mentioned that before?

New painting

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     Today I photographed a couple of my latest paintings.  This one is 12x9, mixed media on gallery wrapped canvas.  I'm trying to paint messier, which is hard for me since I'm kind of a control freak.

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Ed in charge

                                   It's hard to brush my teeth with a sink full of Ed.

Toast

     I was wandering around the house late last night.  I do that a lot.  Sundenly the toaster seemed really interesting to me.  Seems like everything takes on new life late at night.

Knob

                                 The aggregate concrete knob on top of a steel post.

A selfie

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     Jim is in Boston.  I'm just keeping myself amused by playing around with my camera.

Happy feet

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           I knew I could find something to do with those plastic feet I bought.

Green

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     My neighbor has such a huge yard that it's almost like living across the street from a park.  I am immensely grateful to be surrounded by so much green.

Barf

     I don't care if Tony Bourdain and other celebrity chefs have made it fashionable to eat "the nasty bits", the idea makes me gag.

Deviant gourds

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                          This bowl of knobbly gourds looks and feels all festive and fallish.

On County Road 55

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                                      I spotted this sign on the way to Della's wedding.

Della's donkey

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     Yesterday I went to a friend's wedding in rural Alabama.  It was one of the neatest, sweetest weddings I've ever attended.  I took several photos but I wasn't happy with the way any of them turned out--except for the donkey.  His name is Jack.  I don't think Jack liked being all dressed up for the festivities.  But maybe he did.  With donkeys it's hard to tell.