Montana Peace

Had a great week away with extended family. Here are a few shots of scenery up in NE Montana. Very different from the mountains, but pretty too.

Famous landmark near my grandparent's place. Four Buttes.

This is a grain elevator, of which there are plenty in the prairie.

The texture is wrong on this with proportions because it doesn't show how vast the sky is. But there are a lot of fields and pretty sunsets to look at all around.

There's lots of corn here in Iowa (mostly dead this year), and lots of wheat in Montana. Both places feel like home.

From my Protege

My 5-year-old did a few of her own etches while we were on the road. This wasn't the best one but it was clever.

 

I believe this is also a depiction of North Dakota scenery.

Nort Dakoooota

We spent most of the day driving across North Dakota. There's a joke my aunt tells. You know the North Dakota state song? It goes "N is for the N in North dakota. O is for the O in North Dakota. R is for the R..." so and on and so forth. It's funny. For a while that's all you see. My landscape up there. Then it turns to some more trees, and eventually you hit some pretty badlands. i enjoyed the scenery though. It's relaxing to be able to see for so many miles ahead.
Now we're here with the relatives. Breathe and relax. Pretty scenery. Pretty skies. More sketches tomorrow (hoepfully).

Heading for Texas and Home

 

I've got my cowboy tunes loaded up, four suitcases, a bag o food and of course, Etchy packed and ready to go. We're heading west. Not to Texas. Because that's actually south. (You can thank Roy Rogers tunes for the post title--LOVE that guy). 

I hope to post a few sketches from the road, but internet can be a little sparse out there where the towns are 50 miles apart. I'd better stop making etches and get my butt to bed.

Crouching Flowers Hidden Squirrel

This is the background of the page, which is too dark to actually see, so I wanted to share it.
This all started because my kids wanted me to draw them pictures on the etch a sketch, preferred much over scribblings and getting stuck in the corner like they usually do. So this one I did for fun, and while sitting there, I realized that it would be fun to share these with more than three other people.
Squirrels and I have a long history. I cannot explain it or I would have to kill you. Actually, they would probably get to you first.

Ninja Shepherd

Nuff said.

Well, I guess you might prefer a convoluted explanation. I'm not even quite sure how it came about. One minute we were discussing Psalm 23, and then someone wanted to know why a shepherd needed a rod and a staff. And then we were looking up what a rod was, and... some how we arrived at this. I can't really give you anything better than that. Hope you enjoy. He's supposed to be rebounding from a roundhouse kick (notice the Rex Kwan Do pants?) and throwing a star at the wolf, who is hightailing it OUT of the scene. The sheep is laughing. Because he's happy to be safe.

Singin in the Rain

It's been forever since we had a storm. http://weatherwatercooler.kcrg.com/2012/07/30/little-pattern-change-overall/
I got groceries today and enjoyed running through the torrents and getting soaked.

There are photo blogs. There are video blogs. There are art blogs. There are political blogs, pet blogs, teenage blogs, theater blogs, food blogs... the list goes on and on. This is my response.
Nothing deep here. No profound statements about the state of our world. Just a little break from all of that heavy stuff no one wants to actually think about.
So here we are. More to come. Better edited blog to come too (some day).

You Know You Wanted It

Testing, testing, one two three.