Phoebe, a North American Wood Elf

"How Phoebe Got Her Name" - digital - 2012, DS

"... It was a small brown bird with a tufted head which, staring straight at her said, "Pheebee! Pheebee! Pheebee!", and then dove straight at the stag beetle.

The bird, of course, was a Phoebe, which is normally a flycatcher and ignores insects which crawl on the ground. But this was a young bird and curious... although, once it saw that it's prey was not really made for dinner, it flew off to its favorite hunting ground, the air. The stag beetle, on the other hand, who was not as dangerous as it appeared, was thrown off its game altogether, and, turning in its tracks, lumbered away as quickly as it could, back to the rotted stump it had come from.

The relieved elf just stared in awe. But, then she felt a familiar stirring in the air above her head, and heard Laura's strange, far-away voice say:
"Well, elf, I think you've just been named. Your name is Phoebe."

And so the birds sang to the wind and the wind whispered to the trees and the trees informed the stars that an elf named Phoebe had come to live in the old forest."

- Excerpt from Chapter 6 of an unpublished children's book  MS - The Tail of the Tail-less Mouse - Copyright 1999, Dia Sobin

***

Born of a mouse and befriended by a Victorian ghost, Phoebe is one of the mysterious and rarely witnessed denizens of the forest which comprises my back-yard: a North American Wood Elf.

I initially wrote her first story in 1999 as a children's picture book proposal, but the story has expanded into a chapter book for young readers, and I recently finished my first illustration for it (1 of possibly 4 or 5)... see above.

Of course, trying to interest a publisher in a book by a new author (who is not a TV celebrity) is next to impossible these days - with or without a literary agent (and no, I don't have one) - but then, I don't do anything for the express purpose of  financial gain. Obviously. Perhaps, this isn't wise. In fact, I know it isn't... but integrity dies hard. My intuition, however, is that the Phoebe stories - which sprung from my own childhood fascination with the worlds created by known naturalist/authors for young children, Beatrice Potter, Hugh Lofting, and Thornton Burgess - will eventually find their way out into the world. 

That's the one advantage of life in the digital age - digital self-publishing!



(This text replaces the former paragraphs posted here on the original posting date.)

More Artifice: "The Flower of Life" (Updated)

I was digging through some old files today when I came across the "fabric swatch" above. I thought it might be a good addition to my other posts regarding faux items created digitally.

It's an optical illusion, of course. The "folds" in the fabric are not really there at all. I simply "airbrushed" a static pattern of mine over a solid black ground to create an illusion of rippling fabric.

(That "static pattern" incidentally, is based on the geometric pattern referred to as "The Flower of Life". For more information on this pattern - and the graphic below - see this Trans-D post.)

Hint: the simpler your initial tile is, the better it flows. Avoid rectilinear, "cubic" designs, such as my faux lace pattern. Circles and hexagons fill space far more seamlessly!

A graphic created for "The Circle Zone" - 2008 - DS 

Cicada 7/17/12

... found by the side of the road, during one of my walkabouts.... Cars were driving by, and I felt weird stooping down to pick it up it's lifeless body, but I couldn't just leave it there. Cicadas are one of my personal totems... dead ones appearing at significant times.

I guess the Dog Days of Summer are almost upon us... already? 

Meanwhile, there's shortly to be a "For Sale" sign going up in front of my house. This means, I will probably have little time for blogging. Wish me luck, and enjoy what remains of this summer!

Till next time...

D

(Later note: A future - 2013 - post in which the cicada, once again, emerges: The Jewel - Image and Premonition)

Queen Anne's Lace

Queen Anne's Lace flower - "live' scan

"Her body is not so white as

anemony petals nor so smooth—nor

so remote a thing. It is a field

of the wild carrot taking

the field by force; the grass

does not raise above it."

- excerpt from William Carlos William's "Queen Anne's Lace"

Trans-D is not generally a "how-to" digital art site, but every now and then I get the urge to document my methods of madness as they present themselves. Todays foray into digital technique was inspired by a common roadside wild-flower I come across frequently in my weekly walkabouts - Queen Anne's Lace, also known as the "wild carrot". Like the starlings in my last post, Queen Anne's Lace also has the dubious distinction of being an "invasive species"... which pretty much just means it's a survivor... give it an inch and it takes a mile. That's okay by me... I'm a "plant person". Which pretty much means I have more of a rapport with plants than I do mammals. But, make no mistake - and even Science is coming round to this opinion - plants do have a kind of sentience... an alien one in many respects, but a kind of consciousness none-the-less.

That being said, for all of it's notorious robustness, Queen Anne's Lace, which got its name from a tiny red floret that sometimes appears in its center - I've yet to see one - said to represent a drop of blood from Queen Annes finger which she pricked whilst tatting lace - also has its selling points. It's seeds, for instance, are often used by women for contraceptive purposes. It is also the host food for the larvae of the Black Swallowtail butterfly. Apart from it's other medicinal properties, it is also used by Blue Jays to line their nests - apparently its foliage contains a natural insecticide. Oddly enough, in organic gardening, it's recommended to plant Queen Anne's Lace - along with chrysanthemums and marigolds, etc. - as a "companion plant" in your garden, for the opposite reason; it attracts beneficial, aphid-eating insects like ladybugs.

My sudden interest in the plant, however, has nothing to do with any of that. Basically, I've been inspired to create a new image which insinuated itself into my middle eye last week... another of my humanoids... this time an ancient (possibly) Martian woman who wears a singular veil partially obscuring her face. I'm not here to argue about the reality of Mars - for an artist, if something emerges from the creative unconscious, one just runs with it... or perishes. That simple.

So, the veil is key in this illustration, but how to create it? My mind's eye rested on the Queen Anne's Lace growing by the roadside. On impulse, I plucked one - apologizing and thanking the plant first (silently), I might add - placed it on the scanner bed, and took my best shot. Above is my scanned image of the flower. Lovely as it may be, I still didn't quite see how it'd be useful, so, I did what any artist should do - I blew it up. Musing, I snipped out a fragment and began rearranging it  (via cut & paste) - organic geometric patterns are, to a great degree, my forte. Experimenting with this arrangement, I finally cleaned up a version, tiled it and - presto - Queen Anne's Lace created with Queen Anne's Lace! It's not what I intend to use for my Martian veil, but I thought I'd share it anyway.  I also realize there's plenty of fractally, computational ways of creating patterns digitally - but, this is my preferred way!

So, here are three steps to virtual "lace-making". Click on images for larger views.

the blow-up

the pattern

the tile

And this is why I went digital! :-)

In Search of the Transdimensional: Murmurations (Repaired, 12/2023)

I was sent a link to the above Vimeo (new link for Sophie Windsor Clive & Liberty Smith) by a friend, not long ago, which really set my mind whirling. I didn't connect it with recent work, but, in a strange way, it and my recent preoccupation with nature - specifically the woods behind my house - do somewhat go hand in hand, so to speak. The Green Man is all over my psyche these days.

Currently I'm working on an illustration for an old children's story of mine... about a wood-elf. No, I'm not referring to Tolkien's variety - as lovely as they may be - nor the pretty little Victorian fairy variety either. Without going into detail, however, I've felt oddly connected to the natural world again... in the way that healthy children generally are, and my current illustration features a bird and a beech tree. So, it's all about birds and trees... and bugs.... and, for an artist, the amazing spaces in-between.

I've heard of murmurations before... which is a rather perfect word describing a flock of starlings... but what few clips I've seen never did justice to the actual phenomenon itself, which is fairly astounding.

Starlings, of course, at least the variety one sees around the east coast of the USA, are fairly obnoxious birds, and the most scruffy, least attractive birds I've ever seen. But then, I've never witnessed a murmuration... I'm not even sure they occur here... certainly none so remarkable as the ones shown in this video of Otmoor, below. And the starlings across the pond are quite handsome in their own way, though, apparently, not terribly popular there, any more than they are here.

In any case, after viewing the video above - and really, the reaction of the women at the end is priceless -  I consulted Youtube and found two videos composed by Dylan Winter featuring some breathtaking starling formations over Otmoor, England.

Interestingly enough, Otmoor and its environs were said to be an occasional haunt for Charles Dodgson, better known as Lewis Carroll. His chessboard in Through the Looking-glass was said to be inspired by Otmoor and the area is known to this day as Alice's Meadow. (Note: Not only are European Starlings under attack, but apparently Otmoor was, too, till concerned citizens rallied and saved it from the bulldozers! See here.)

According to Winter's short documentary (found here) murmurations happen every day throughout the winter! Winter makes a tepid case for predation habits and social status as an explanation for the birds' behavior... but I get the impression that he's no more convinced than I am.

A predator's search strategy? Starlings maneuvering for social position...? Somehow I think there's more to the phenomenon than simplistic biological explanations. Why then do starlings take part in such remarkable displays of aerodynamics? My guess is because they can. And these displays are not motivated by biological needs but - dare I say - are inspired by needs and abilities humans can just barely understand. We do, however, engage in sports - feats of physical prowess exhibiting the capabilities of the human body to conquer limitations imposed by the three dimensions of the "solid" world. "See what we can do?" is our implication as we turn our somersaults, or fly thru the air over an ice-skating rink.

I think the birds are doing the same. "Ah, but see what we can do?" they seem to be saying. And don't you just wonder how they do it? How thousands of birds can form massive currents in the air with their bodies, synchronized in ways no human can imitate? Apparently science affords us no answers. Not even the most complex algorithm can explain what we're seeing. And, keep in mind we are only seeing these formations from one angle at a time. (!) 

The bird's odd dance has an almost alien, enchanted quality - like something you might find in one of Merriam Zimmer Bradley's Arthurian tales. I think of Lewis Carroll and his marvelous looking-glass. I think of old wives tales and folk tales featuring sorcerers and harbingers of death. I think of moire patterns and broken symmetry... I think of M.C. Escher and his tessellations.

(2023 note: see also: this Guardian article.)

But I wonder, is this a transdimensional phenomena we're witnessing... an indication of some vast organic fabric of which we can only glimpse - or wholly miss -  through  our telescopic lenses and Hadron colliders? Can the discovery of any "god-particles" really fill in the gaps in our knowledge? I've often felt that animals, and wild-life in general know a great deal more than they're able to let on... but then, perhaps, "knowing" is somehow different for the denizens of the natural world. I suspect that the starlings effortlessly and gracefully gliding over Otmoor are not thinking about or planning their activities, writing "How To" books, or uploading themselves on to Facebook. They have no need for words, diagrams or marketing strategies... they're simply utilizing elements of physical reality we have little recognition of, coupled with abilities to traverse space and time in ways that render our mass-transit systems (and mass-communication systems) clumsy and infantile.

So, here's to birds, particularly starlings - godspeed, feathered cosmonauts!

***

PS: Synchronistically, that night, after writing this post, I was watching a PBS mystery centered around the theme of Lewis Carroll's "The Hunting of the Snark". From the Wiki article:

"Here is how Carroll "explained" the Snark in 1887: I was walking on a hillside, alone, one bright summer day, when suddenly there came into my head one line of verse – one solitary line – For the Snark was a Boojum, you see. I knew not what it meant, then: I know not what it means, now; but I wrote it down: and, sometime afterwards, the rest of the stanza occurred to me, that being its last line: and so by degrees, at odd moments during the next year or two, the rest of the poem pieced itself together, that being its last stanza.

In the midst of the word he was trying to say

In the midst of his laughter and glee

He had softly and suddenly vanished away

For the Snark was a Boojum, you see."


***

PPS: Regarding a comment I made on this post regarding magnetism, I happened to find this article about the earth's magnetic fields and it's effects on animals. Could our starlings be utilizing these magnetic fields for their own purposes? 

Got me. But it doesn't really rule out transdimensionalism... as I suppose one can view a magnetic field as a kind of transdimension... ;-)

***

7/20/12 UPDATE: I found this unfortunate afterword to my murmuration post on Graham Hancock's news page tonight. Guess it's a quick trip from the "invasive" list to the "endangered" list these days...

Ray Bradbury (8/22/1920 - 6/5/2012...)

“A long time back, she thought, I dreamed a dream, and was enjoying it so much when someone wakened me, and that day I was born. And now? Now, let me see...She cast her mind back. Where was I? she thought. Ninety years...how to take up the thread and the pattern of that lost dream again? She put out a small hand. There...yes, that was it. She smiled. Deeper in the warm snow hill she turned her head upon her pillow. That was better. Now, yes, now she saw it shaping in her mind quietly, and with a serenity like a sea moving along an endless and self-refreshing shore. Now she let the old dream touch and lift her from the snow and drift her above the scarce-remembered bed.” 

― Ray Bradbury, Dandelion Wine*

***

Perhaps one of the most significant writers of the 20th Century died yesterday at the age of 91, but watching this video, one that I had found on the National Endowment of the Arts website a year or so ago, convinces me more than ever before that death must be an illusion, or merely another phase of life.

I haven't merely posted this video on my art blog as a tribute to a great man; I've included it here because, in it, Ray Bradbury - in a discussion regarding his "Farenheit 451", touches upon every conceivable facet of human creativity... with humor, warmth, wisdom, and a vitality that can only belong to one has envisioned - and come to terms with - his own immortality.

See you on Mars, Ray!

P.S. And a trip to Mars may happen sooner than any of us think... check this out!

***

An essay by Bradbury published Monday, June 4, 2012 in the New Yorker can be found here.

* Dandelion Wine, a favorite of mine, and the novel that Bradbury noted as his "most deeply personal work" was expected to join the list of screenplays that have been adapted from his novels - "The Illustrated Man" and "Farenheit 451" leap to mind - via this article from the summer of last year.

"Drinking the Dandelion Wine of Ray Bradbury" by Alice Hoffman.

RayBradbury.com

Neil Gaiman - "Make Good Art"

"When things get tough, this is what you should do: Make good art. I'm serious. Husband runs off with a politician -- make good art. Leg crushed and then eaten by a mutated boa constrictor -- make good art. IRS on your trail -- make good art. Cat exploded -- make good art. Someone on the Internet thinks what you're doing is stupid or evil or it's all been done before -- make good art."

Neil Gaiman - Commencement speech, University of the Arts, PA

Well, I guess it's the season for inspiring commencement speeches from admirable creatives, and as Neil Gaiman has been constellating in all my recent web forays, I thought I'd give his speech a listen.. and I'm glad I did. I only wish I could've heard it about 35 or so years ago, when I was just starting out on my own life of artistic "crime". 

But, then again, there was no internet in those days, and no road-maps at all for quirky people with big inspirations but a decided lack of funds, connections, and worse still - the very worst, really - a decided lack of courage. It really only takes balls, you know... and maybe the smallest amount of confirmation - from some person place or thing on the "outside" - to blow a little wind into your sails.

I seem to be obsessing a lot about "success" and/or the lack of it lately. This coming from a woman who recently sold her car just to pay the bills. Perhaps, for me, "success" is merely being able to survive as my authentic self at this point in time... when "authenticity" has become a word as obsolete as the technology from 2010.

I found this video on Lee Wind's SCBWI (Society of Children's Book Writers & Illustrators) blog. I'd been concentrating on several children's stories of mine before financial high anxiety reared its (very) ugly head, and was considering joining the society. But, it occurs to me that, sans automotive vehicle, perhaps I can afford the membership fee, after all.*

* quintessential "silver lining"...

Laurie Anderson - First (& Last) NASA Artist-in-Residence

Laurie Anderson - Photo Credit: Ivan Prokop - found here

I always admired Laurie Anderson for her performance art, but I had no idea she was also a hands-on visual artist. If you're currently in the New York City area, however, you have until June 23 to catch her most recent exhibit - Boat - at Vito Schnabel gallery, 126 Leroy St.

Anderson is not only one of the most innovative artists to arrive on the scene in the past 3 decades, but also the most astoundingly prolific. But, NASA artist-in-residence? Too cool! Her stint at NASA was not a lasting one - apparently for lack of funding - but she describes this experience, and her life as an artist in general in the video clip below - a commencement address she gave this year at the School of Visual Arts' (SVA) graduation ceremony, held at New York City's Radio City Musical Hall, May 10, 2012.

The video is lengthy but well worth the listen. She is a remarkably inspiring woman who not only describes her own quirky, fearless approach to art, but an artist's approach to living and designing a guilt-free, uninhibited, contemplative artist's life. She proposes a few interesting concepts as well... for example, artist-in-residence positions opening up across the board: in congress, the White House, and the Department of Defense!

Laurie Anderson's website can be found here.

MOCA Exhibit

MOCA Virtual Museum

Have just had the pleasure of working with curator, Kaki Ettinger, in uploading several of my images to the MOCA 2012 AutoGallery. Most images do appear on this blog as well, except for 2 of them, but larger views are offered. As I suspected, my work appears fairly anomalous amongst the mix, but I don't suppose that's altogether a bad thing. My MOCA page can be found here.

Thank you, Kaki, for your patience and efforts!

The Art of Illumination - In Memory Of Maurice Sendak

“Once a little boy sent me a charming card with a little drawing on it. I loved it. I answer all my children’s letters — sometimes very hastily — but this one I lingered over. I sent him a card and I drew a picture of a Wild Thing on it. I wrote, “Dear Jim: I loved your card.” Then I got a letter back from his mother and she said, “Jim loved your card so much he ate it.” That to me was one of the highest compliments I’ve ever received. He didn’t care that it was an original Maurice Sendak drawing or anything. He saw it, he loved it, he ate it.”

- Maurice Sendak, found here

Just heard the sad news that illustrator Maurice Sendak died today via this article from Yahoo. I was always a fan of Sendak's work as well as inspired by it. I didn't realize he lived not far away from me in Connecticut. I wish I'd known him. 

Of course, his masterstroke and probably most popular children's book was "Where the Wild Things Are", and there many tributes to Sendak and that particular story going up on the web as I write this. So, just to be different, I'm including in this post two more delicate illustrations from two of his other books. The first is from "Outside Over There", a "Labyrinth"-like tale (which proceeded Labyrinth) about a little girl who neglects her sibling while baby-sitting, and then must retrieve the baby after it is stolen by goblins. The second is from Sendak's adaption of a lesser-known Grimm's tale: "Dear Milli". I tend to feel that the "Father Joseph" in this illustration is Sendak himself... with his "dream-daughter", the one he never physically sired, but, you know, and I know, existed nonetheless. Fare-thee-well, Maurice Sendak, and thank you.

Below is a 2002 PBS news-clip featuring Sendak.

P.S. I don't know why this is, but everywhere I go on the web lately, I seem to run into Neil Gaiman... not that this is a bad thing... it's a very nice thing actually. Here's a link to Gaiman's thoughts on Maurice Sendak via a Wired memorial. (via Boing Boing)... and Gaiman's related journal entry.