Rainy Day Stuff

Two days ago I thought the weather would never stop pouring rain. Wednesday it cleared for a bit enough to watch a squirrel leap for a huge acorn in the neighboring Bur Oak. I had no idea the fascination it held for me either. Watching him hurry down the fence and into my yard made me even more happy the adventure was unfolding here.
Curiosity got the better of me quickly so my dog and I ran out to see the new acquisition we had literally dropped in our grass. The squirrel in his haste cracked the acorn shelled it and took the nut with him.
I gathered all the parts to the shell to my studio where I could try to recreate what nature had so beautifully rendered for all to see and use. This acorn is one of those fringey kind with bumps all over it's exterior at least 2 inches in height it is one of the biggest ones I've ever seen. It broke in so few nice sized pieces I thought it would be a piece of cake. How silly we mere mortals can be. Naturally not the shell pieces are too moist to accept glues and as it dries it shrinks.

Clearly nature does not need human interference so I'll wait maybe tackle it again but in the mean time I'll keep looking up in these gorgeous trees to see the beauty of the reproduction of nature at it's best.
The impetus for this experiment for me is the ideas I gleaned from it will help me produce an art piece for an up coming show at Paseo. The container show, get it? It doesn't matter how literal this has been when I create the end result it will be my interpretation: a container of a kind that will always remind of this strange little occasion with the squirrel and the acorn.

Later on, yesterday, still rainy, overcast and then clearing again; a squirrel, it looked like the same squirrel? Since he'd been there before, he jumped straight into the oak and brought down, in five more trips acorn after acorn. After being scared out of our yard he decided to crack the acorn on the fence and take the nut to his nearby home.

During the squirrel's preoccupation with his food for the winter shopping, a beautiful black cat stealthily came upon the scene, watching the squirrels progress from another fence. The squirrel, gone on a delivery run, was away long enough for the cat to slip ever closer to the target tree. Lili and I watched with the fascination of theater-goers at the drama in the back yard. I began writing a mystery story involving a thief and an observer, it could be quite a story.

The relating of this adventurous tale is to emphasize that an artist never really knows where the spark of creativity comes from, if we are wise, we don't question it, we do't belabor it we Just Do It!!!!!