IF: Snow

The Skating Party © Peg Nocciolino 2012, monoprint

IF: (safe) boundaries

 watercolor, digital

The swollen Susquehanna River here in Binghamton, raced out of its banks and over flood walls causing much destruction.

Usually I think of the river as such an asset in our community...

Bob Dylan (Midsummer Night) Movies

Bob Dylan © 2011 Peg Nocciolino,

watercolor and digital

Referenced from Bob Dylan © Daniel Kramer 1964

Used with permission.

Just finished watching two films about Bob Dylan. One, a former academy award nominated "I'm Not There" about Bob Dylan and directed by Todd Haines.  You can watch the trailer here.

But, I would recommend watching "No Direction Home" first, (here's the trailer)

"...a documentary film by Martin Scorsese that traces the life of Bob Dylan, and his impact on 20th century American popular music and culture. The film does not cover Dylan's entire career; it concentrates on the period between Dylan's arrival in New York in January 1961 and his "retirement" from touring, following his motorcycle accident in July 1966. This period encapsulates Dylan's rise to fame as a folk singer and songwriter, and the controversy surrounding his switch to a rock style of music." (Wiki)

"An artist has to be in the constant state of becoming"-Bob Dylan

Happy 70th Birthday!

IF: Woody Guthrie (swept)

Fire swept through much of Woody Guthrie's past, taking his childhood home and the lives of his sister and later, his own daughter.

 Experimenting ....color swept around the background...

IF: layer (paint and mark making)

 Been trying out a looser sketchbook approach layering paint...

IF: Santa Mail

© peg nocciolino 2010

Santa mail was always so exciting for my children to get when they were little.

Been looking a lot at Vivienne Flesher lately. She seems to be bringing me around full circle. For years I worked in pastel. Feels like home. Maybe more with this approach.

IF: garden tools "afterwards"...

©peg nocciolino 2010

Putting the garden to bed for the winter but afterwards comes the cleaning of the tools...

Starting a series of illustrations of all things garden for a project...I found this weeding hand fork in an antique shop in the Ferry Building in San Francisco last year. The tines are made of wrought iron.

IF: Fearless

The little chef was fearless in his determination to grow what he ate.

©pegnocciolino2010, gouache

if: detective...of wildflowers

One needs to be a detective to find all the different wildflowers in a garden

IF: Entangled (Organized Entanglement)

On a recent trip to Northern California, we saw many vines entangled in an organized
way. This vineyard where the vines were planted on steep rugged terrain was at the base of the Russian River where it empties into the Pacific Ocean. Breathtaking....
And this from Arenas Flowers...

For Bacchic-pleasure seekers, the sight of a grape vine is tantamount to finding Elysium on earth! Yes, grapevine undoubtedly symbolizes intoxication. Scientifically, the vine, from which the intoxicating drink of wine originates, belongs to the Vitis family.

In fact, all literature-especially originates from the celebration of Bacchus, the wine god and this ritual of song and dance was inevitably incomplete without wine and tender entanglement of grapevines.

Read more: Grapevines Flowers Meaning | Meaning of Grapevine Flowers | Grapevines Flowers Information

Welcome

A welcome read,...Ben Shahn's, The Shape of Content.

"I believe that if it were left to artists to choose their own labels, most would choose none."
– Ben Shahn

Strong: Cochin Bantams

A fashion forward Barred Cochin Bantam chicken.

IF: Impatient

©peg nocciolino 2009
This was made from a drawing, that I made into a monoprint, then imported into PhotoShop, then into Painter 11 for some more work. I took the reference photos at a friend's farm. As a beginner, I was really impatient to try Painter. I like the color overlay option. So much more to explore.....:)

IF: Shaky

Doing some research for the Dream assignment and came across a photo in the Library of Congress of E.L. Mitchell, a Denver Colorado Councilman who was associated with the KKK in 1880. It inspired this illo....creepy...a politician with shaky credentials.

IF:Crave

A place of one's own is craved by many today....
Thoreau understood this.

Image made digitally in Photoshop and Illustrator. The bird was drawn into the image in Illustrator.

IF: Adapt

"...Faust had a different take: throughout his life, she said, Lincoln adapted to his surroundings, rather than withdrawing. Noting his changing attitudes toward military service and religion, she said Lincoln “was a learner—he continually evolved.”
Drew Faust, Harvard Magazine,Who Was Lincoln, Really, Feb 10, 2009

Original Sketch(pen and ink)> AI (watercolor effect)>Live Trace> colored digitally

IF: Legendary Catkins

According to an old Polish legend, many springtimes ago a mother cat was crying at the bank of the river in which her kittens were drowning. The willows at the river's edge longed to help her, so they swept their long graceful branches into the waters to rescue the tiny kittens who had fallen into the river while chasing butterflies. The kittens gripped on tightly to their branches and were safely brought to shore. Each springtime since, goes the legend, the willow branches sprout tiny fur-like buds at their tips where the tiny kittens once clung.(http://www.moggies.co.uk/html/legends.html)