RMW Ramblings

  Armando the Armadillo Will He See His Shadow? Armando may or may not see his shadow on Groundhog Day from his home on a Florida golf course.  We won't know, because he lives in a gated community.  The little balls along the bottom show Armando rolling up to shield from the paparazzi.  My dasypus novemcitus (he has nine plates)  was inspired loosely by Albrecht Dürer's Rhinoceros.  

  "Bibliotoons" Occasionally when I edit the Delaware Bibliophiles Endpapers publication, I add a cartoon-like illustration to accompany an article. Appended to a short article by one of the DB members about the fun and camaraderie of road trips to book and paper ephemera fairs and events,  was this "bibliotoon" that I drew...     The original was an ink line sketch and I added the color digitally. To a DB member's report on a visit to several book fairs in London, I added my book version of London's Tower Bridge...    

  The Chickens Are Home to Roost 2 Caligula Caligula is another chicken now roosting in our dining room.  This is a smaller painting than Chanticleer, less stylized, and without an ornate frame.  Acrylic on canvas board. Here they are side-by-side...  

  The Chickens Are Home to Roost Chanticleer   Mary is fond of decorative chickens, so I painted this very stylized rooster, Chanticleer, for her.  Chantacleer lives in this ornate found frame. I usually sign my paintings with a monogram, frequently designed to fit the subject.  Here Chantacleer is signed with an RMW chicken monogram  

  The Cabbage Soup Diet An American Samizdat In the Soviet era dissident publication of banned and underground material was circulated as hand-made documents that came to be known as samizdat ( самиздат).  In America a fad diet of long standing circulates the same way.  Xerox copies of copies, carbon copies, hand copied, and now, of course, via the Facebook, TikTok, WhatsApp and other social media.     The diet has been variously attributed to the Mayo Clinic, Sacred Heart Hospital, the US military, the Miami Heart Institute, and even Dolly Parton; none are true.  I have been unable to find its true origin, but it will circulate long after I'm gone. Don't take this posting as an endorsement, but the diet is an effective diuretic.

  Wisteria Gate A Found Frame Painting This little frame is an example of the Aesthetic Movement decorative arts in the late 19th century.  It was a thrift store find that I put away with my other interesting found frames awaiting a painting that I felt fitted the frame.  In the early months of the Covid isolation I did this painting, Wisteria Gate .  The view is the gateway into our small courtyard, wrapped by our house, garage and two stone walls.  I built the rustic brick pillars and pergola decades back. The frame presumably was intended for a photograph.  It has a gold-tone arched mat with burgundy  velvet-textured trim.  The gold geometric patterned decoration on the black painted wood is typical of the Aesthetic Movement.  My little painting is acrylic on art-board.

  Another Philadelphia View Water Works This little postcard-sized painting, Waterworks (acrylic on canvasboard), shows the old Fairmount Water Works along the Schuykill River in Philadelphia.  It was built in 1812-15 and operated until 1909. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fairmount_Water_Works)  On the hill, Fair Mount, stands the Philadelphia Museum of Art (1928), referencing the classical revival architecture of the Water Works. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philadelphia_Museum_of_Art)