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Arting for 365 Day 52: Mountain Girl

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8 x 10″ Mixed Media: Ink and watercolor

With her southern drawl you’d never peg her as a mountain girl. Surely she would feel more comfortable in the Tennessee heat. Such an assumption would be wrong.

Instead she flees to the trails and enjoys the cool, crisp air that is present at elevations of this magnitude. She insists on collecting antlers, and skins, and anything woodsy; and saves the branches from fall trees to adorn her cabin for special occasions.

While she sits on her porch, sipping coffee from her earth colored mug, she delights in the fact that the deer nibbling on the grass in front of her will be back tomorrow. Because that is how it is in the mountains.

This piece available for purchase at https://www.etsy.com/listing/102580263/mountain-girl-mixed-media-original or email me at micah@azzlsoft.com

Arting for 365 Day 51: All a Part of the Plan

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Day 51 (6/18/12): All a Part of the Plan

8 x 10″ Mixed Media: Ink & Watercolor

The elaborate scheme to capture the bug was foolproof. The man had hidden among the flowers for days, logging the flight pattern of the curious little creature he now watched. He laid low in the grass, peeking through thin blades in anticipation. Timing the gentle pinch of the puppet fingers was key. He had successfully pinched stray Cheerios in midair hundreds of times, so his confidence was not lacking.

With veteran-like skill, the man moved the strings. The puppet fingers stopped the bug in its tracks. The helpless animal buzzed madly.

The man, with pride in his incredible plan, smiled from ear to ear.  With another switch of the strings, he released the animal, and thought about what it was he might do next.

This piece available for purchase at https://www.etsy.com/listing/102491704/all-a-part-of-the-plan-mixed-media-ink or by emailing micah@azzlsoft.com

Arting for 365 Day 50: In Constant Motion

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Day 50 (6/17/12): In Constant Motion

8 x 10″ Ink and watercolor on paper

Goal: To create one work of art each day for 365 consecutive days

I’ve got a few people in my life who seem to be curious about anything and everything. They are constantly seeking out new information, interested in nearly any subject and can’t help but ask why or how at least 1,000 times an hour. I love being around these people. Not only do I find them fascinating, but they tend to be talkers – which I enjoy since I am not always a big talker. AND, as a super bonus, they are just basically amazingly caring people.

Day 50’s project is a portrait of one of these folks. I have taken a somewhat sci-fi approach to portraying what I imagine his brain is like. Feelers reach out in all directions, trying to get a grasp of and understand everything around it.

This piece available for purchase at https://www.etsy.com/listing/102414410/in-constant-motion-ink-and-watercolor or by emailing micah@azzlsoft.com

Arting for 365 Day 49: Locks

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Day 49 (6/16/12): Bangs

4 x 5″ Mixed Media (Hair – both straight and braided), ink and thread

My friend Mary cut my hair for me yesterday – chopping off a good six inches from my front locks to give me bangs. She did a great job and it was fun to see such a big chunk disappear. She asked what I wanted to do with the hair, and at first I thought, throw it away. But instead I asked her to set it aside.

I’d like to say that I get why people may want to keep a soft ringlet from their baby’s first haircut, or that keeping the 20 inches of hair that they chopped off long ago is kind of fun or sentimental. But if I’m going to be perfectly honest. I don’t get it. Perhaps this is because I’ve never had a baby and never really been attached to my hair. To me, stray hairs are kind of gross. I don’t like finding them in the sink or the bathtub, so why in the world would I actually want to keep them?

Using the remains of my haircut and some ink, I opted to explore the strangeness of keeping locks of hair for day 49’s piece. I was a bit grossed out while manipulating the hair but I actually really like the design. Even at that, I don’t think there is a big buyer’s market for this one on Etsy.

Arting for 365 Day 48: Conglomeration

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Day 47 (6/15/12): Conglomeration

Each square 4.75 x 4.75″ Ink and watercolor on paper. I like the idea of  displaying these on the wall w/tacks so they can be easily rearranged and spaced as you like.

I had a lot of energy yesterday. Some of it was anxious – I think due to some lingering projects that just don’t seem to be going away – but a lot of it was a result of an eagerness to figure things out and to create. I have a notion all of the energy kind of balled up, conglomerating and morphing into day 47’s project. I’ve got to say, I’m pretty happy about it.

Starting in on the piece, I didn’t have a vision as to what the finished work would look like, but I did have an approach in mind. Similar to the exploration in some of my other projects, I thought about how pieces and details come together to create a whole. This time, though, instead of keeping the whole intact, I broke up the whole into 12 separate, yet connected pieces. I really dig the result.

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 This piece available for purchase at https://www.etsy.com/listing/102256139/conglomeration-mixed-media-abstract or by emailing micah@azzlsoft.com

Arting for 365 Day 47: The Carrot and The Desert

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Goal: To create one work of art each day for 365 consecutive days

Day 47 (6/14/12): Carrot and Desert

Carrot: 5 x 4″, Desert 5 x 4.25″ Pastel on paper

As I looked at day 47’s pieces, I couldn’t help but create a little tale for each. Enjoy!

Carrot & The Farmer

The farmer knew he had a good crop, but this behemoth was quite a surprise. Bending at the waist he carefully observed the deep orange gem. He was curious of the taste. Would it prove to be sweet and delicious, something he could share with friends as a tasty side dish or decadent cake? The thought put a smile on his face as he hurried home for the tools to unearth the lovely root.

Defiant Flower

Not a cloud in the sky. In fact, the sun had beat down on the cracked earth for weeks now. No animal dared make an appearance, even if it had had access to sunscreen. And yet, there, with towering crags of rocks as its backdrop, a small flower grew; defying the sun to beat it down.

Carrot available for purchase at https://www.etsy.com/listing/102196148/man-carrot-pastel-drawing

Desert available for purchase at https://www.etsy.com/listing/102195617/desert-plant

Or just email me regarding either.

Arting for 365 Day 46: Eggs in One Basket

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Day 46 (6/13/12): Eggs in One Basket

24 x 36″ Ink and acrylic on canvas

Goal: To create one work of art each day for 365 consecutive days

Some of you avid followers may recall that I made a piece titled Subtleties on day 30 in which I experimented with painting using only light colors. That piece has been hanging out on my easel, wondering what to do with itself ever since. Subtleties, it seemed, just did not fit in at this house. It lacked any sort of personality and longed to be given attention. So yesterday, I did just that.

With the wise old saying, “Don’t put your eggs all in one basket” on my mind, I created the work for day 46. As I did so, I realized that while the saying is really quite true, sometimes it’s worth the risk to load up the basket and hope for the best.

This piece available for purchase at http://etsy.me/NlXCQI or by emailing me at micah@azzlsoft.com

Arting for 365 Day 45: Attachment

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Day 45 (6/12/12): Attachment

~5.5″ cirmcumfrence x 3″ Mixed Media: Seeds, egg shell, ink, paper and lid

It’s funny, the things we get attached to. A lovely blue water bottle whose lid sometimes leaks or an old shirt with holes here and there may seem average, but they are anything but. We worry about them if they are misplaced and are quick to defend their value.

I think for most of us it is not so much the “thing” we get attached to as the memories and feelings we get that are associated with the thing. This, I realize, is why I seem to have become a bit attached to the little seeds I collected weeks ago.

Each time I pull them out to work with I am reminded of the jog we were on when we picked them off the ground. I remember feeling so excited about the prospect of making something from the found little treasures. When I create using the little seeds, I always feel very calm and at ease – enjoying the simple act of building up form.

The seeds are now dwindling. I’ll be able to eke out one more piece if I’m lucky. After that, I’ll have to wait in anticipation for another year to roll around so I can once again collect them.

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This piece available for purchase at https://www.etsy.com/listing/102046424/attachment-found-object-sculpture or by emailing me at micah@azzlsoft.com

Arting for 365 Day 43: Wired for Empathy

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Day 43 (6/10/12): Yawn for Empathy

~5.75 x 2 x 3″ Mixed Media

Goal: To create one work of art each day for 365 consecutive days

As I was piddling around, trying to figure out what in the heck I was going to create for day 43’s project, I decided to turn on a Ted talk. I chose a presentation by Frans de Waal titled Moral Behavior in Animals. The talk seemed pretty interesting and chimps, which always promise to be adorable, were going to have a role in it.

De Waal had lots of good info, but what stuck with me most was a very minor piece about yawn contagion. Turns out that those contagious yawns we experience are partly due to people being empathetic. De Waal presented a study proving that chimps are not immune to contagious yawns either, helping to prove that they too experience empathy. I was amazed by the whole idea.

I began looking for images of yawning people and came across a picture of a yawning baby. It turns out, that while babies yawn, they don’t experience contagious yawning. This fact got me thinking about the relationship between human and chimp. I wanted to explore the idea of adult chimps being more human than humans at certain stages of life- at least in terms of morality.

This piece available for purchase at or by emailing me at micah@azzlsoft.com

Arting for 365 Day 42: Plinko

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Day 42 (6/9/12): Plinko

8.5 x 11″ mixed media on cardboard

Goal: To create one work of art each day for 365 consecutive days

I am a titch obsessed with the smell of wildfires. I like to think I have an amazing sense for detecting them via snout. In fact, I would go so far to say my uncanny ability is as near to a super power as one can get.  That is why I was shocked to see smoke from an 8,000 acre fire burning outside of Ft. Collins yesterday, long before I smelled it. I fear my super power is deteriorating. But don’t worry, I’m pretty sure I can replace it with another if needed.

For day 42’s piece I used black and red as homage to the smoke and fire taking over the hills outside of Fort Collins. I wound leaves and roots through what made me think of a red, plinko-like design created by painting bubble wrap and pressing it onto cardboard.

This work available for purchase at https://www.etsy.com/listing/101823707/plinko-acrylic-painting or by emailing me at micah@azzlsoft.com