The Corgi and the Snow Pile
Saw this in Nagahara. A blanketted corgi straining to check out a pile of snow at the foot of a lamp post.
Fighting Over Sleigh
On a superb ice-covered slope little sister trying to wrest a plastic sleigh from her bigger brother; voices raised and razing.
Clearing Snow
Me clearing a safe ice-free path out of the entrance to our building
Trash Bag Sleigh
Ingenious kid using a plastic bag to slide on the icy slope.
Cut up newspaper snaps: Japanese cranes + soccer player`s shaved head + cherry blossom and sky + white background.
First attracted to the black on white pattern of the cranes and rotated it to find a satisfactory viewpoint. This determined the placing of the rest.
The cut-out of shoulders and cleavage a happy modification; white edging to head effective accident due to shoddy scissorwork.
Cut-out necklace allows white background to show through ( with her bizarre make-up probably redundant ).
The bulbous white area top left a mistake.
The whole has been cropped, rotated, colour saturated and sharpened. Happy with the facing left but withdrawing right flow of composition.
Title a humorous link to a sharp-nosed old bat from the 20s London literary scene wearing a seasonal frock.
Background: diagonally cut strips of text layed in opposite directions.
Top: German stamps.
Centre: Newspaper cartoon.
Gratuitous addition: wrinkled leaf pasted on cut-out of skirt and legs made from gold chocolate wrapper.
Border randomly notched.
Completely missed the eye-shape from the illustration as a compositional guide line. Suggestion of a goldfish`s eye or turtle head. Might have had an acquatic theme.
Used photo-software to saturate, sharpen and vary colour disposition; retrieved two copies from this activity.
`Separating the red peppers`
Mrs K. is separating red peppercorns from the tangle of her otherwise excellent spaggetti dish for pre-detonation reasons.
`Impromtu Recital`
Y. and I playing `Smash the Windows` at Frau Monica Brier`s exhibition of her folktale illustrations in Okayama. A small appreciative audience do the usual.
`Dandelion Garden`
Wonderful garden with dandelions and tulips owned by the intangible gardener.
`Snail Pace`
I walked this path a week earlier and noticed, and avoided stepping on, a young snail traversing the path. A week later saw the same snail on the same path but in a different place. My role model.
`Barrels`
Saw these humungous barrels in a disused soya/miso factory. Just the mother and daughter live there now. Wonderful feeling to the place.
`Garden Movie`
I used my little Lumix camera to shoot a movie of the garden from rose gate to stone latern. This place is magical.