Flying Colors

A Pink Delight... yum!

Today I harvested my very first watermelon and then I dropped it!
This watermelon spilled sweet juice everywhere...

...all over my shoes, it was like a downpour of  ❤ "pink rain" ❤

When one has tasted watermelon, one knows what the angels eat. Mark Twain

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Watermelon rinds are also edible, and sometimes used as a vegetable. In China, they are stir-fried, stewed, or more often pickled. When stir-fried, the de-skinned and de-fruited rind is cooked with olive oil, garlic, chili peppers, scallions, sugar and rum.

IF • Magnify

Garden Glove surfaced from
the image–word play around
the idea of “green thumb”.

I struck a balance between the clumsiness
of the glove shaped as a flower,
with it's color and delicate details.

The seam of the glove became the curved spine
of a caterpillar, awaiting its transformation
into a butterfly!

original painting - artist collection (for sale) - Nashville, TN  - USA - "Garden Glove"
watercolor, wax, rice paper, quilted • 19"H x 18"W • © Lisa Rivas

This piece is a tribute to George Washington Carver. His inquisitiveness about the world around him and his lifelong engagement with the plant kingdom benefited mankind in many ways. It earned him the moniker of “Green Thumb.”

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The greatest magnifying glasses in the world are a man's own eyes when they look upon his own person.
Alexander Pope

IF • Caution

Caution is the eldest child of wisdom. ~ Victor Hugo

original painting - artist collection - Nashville, TN  - USA - "Soaring"
watercolor, wax, rice paper, quilted • 36"H x 50"W • © Lisa Rivas

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The innocence that feels no risk and is taught no caution,
is more vulnerable than guilt and oftener assailed. ~ Nathaniel Parker Willis

IF • Wrapped

People give one another things that can't be gift wrapped. ~Nadine Gordimer
♩♪♭♮♫ ♬♯♩♪♭♮♫ ♬♯♩♪♭♮♫ ♬♯♩♪♭♮♫ ♬♯♩♪♭♮♫ ♬♯♩♪♭♮♫ ♬♯
It is a riddle, wrapped in a mystery, inside an enigma; but perhaps there is a key!

original painting - private collection - Caracas - VENEZUELA - "Disfrutado"
watercolor, wax, rice paper, quilted • 38"H x 36"W • © Lisa Rivas

A hug Is Two Hearts wrapped in arms. ~Author Unknown

"Red Spot" challenge!

A dynamic modern painting is occurring on Jupiter...
...plus the "Great Red Spot" is being challenged! imaged by the Hubble Space Telescope in May 2008.

Jupiter's Great Red Spots, Credit NASA, ESA, M. Wong, I. de Pater (UC Berkeley), et al.

The Great Red Spot is a great anti-cyclonic (high pressure) storm akin to a hurricane on Earth, but it is enormous (three Earths would fit within its boundaries) and it has persisted for at least the 400 years that humans have observed it through telescopes.
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An upstart storm now (since 2006) rivals the gas giant Big Red Spot as king of storms. A third red spot has appeared alongside the Great Red Spot and Red Spot Jr. in the turbulent Jovian atmosphere.
NASA/ESA/U.C. Berkeley

IF • Impatience

“The pine tree seems to listen, the fir tree to wait: and both without impatience -- they give no thought to the little people beneath them devoured by their impatience and their curiosity.”
~ Friedrich Nietzsche

"Curtains of The Lake" • 36" x 72" - watercolor, wax, rice paper • Coral Gables, FL • © Lisa Rivas

When someone is impatient and says, "I haven't got all day,"
I always wonder, How can that be? How can you not have all day?
~ George Carlin

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Tomato Art Fest!

This evening at 6:30 pm is the "Opening Bash of The Tomato Art Fest" a happening here in East Nashville, TN. Please join me if you are in the vicinity! This event will be going on the whole weekend and it will be all about tomatoes!
http://tomatoartfest.com/

I will be exhibiting my commemorative Tomato Art Fest e-Stamps at the Art & Invention Gallery, with many other artists and their fabulous "TOMATO ART".

•  "The Yellow Tomato" / e-Stamp (NEW) - click to purchase

Wonderfully delicious and fun, the Yellow Heirloom Tomatoes are open-pollinated rather than genetically modified - and are safe! They have less acid and with a lemony taste, perfect for someone suffering from ulcers who doesn’t want to give up on that delicious, home-grown tomato taste!

Try a Yellow Tomato Gazpacho with Avocados and Cilantro!

Rice Field Art!

Every year, since 1993, Inakadate’s 8000 residents and farmers have worked together to create huge agricultural works of art in their rice paddy fields.  Using green, purple and yellow-leafed rice, the “agri-artists” design and plant their rice, precisely plotting out the colours which bring the images to life. As the rice grows, the art becomes apparent from an elevated position, with the best viewing time in July.  In 2007 the farmers chose to combine two very famous woodcuts of the artist:
Katsushika Hokusai - "The Great Wave of Kanagawa" and "Red Fuji"

 

The farmers first sketch out their designs on computers so that they know exactly where the rice needs to be planted. Hundreds of villagers and other volunteers then help plant the four different colored varieties of rice in the vast fields.

The creations emerge in the late summer months after the rice plants have had a chance to grow.
More than 15,000 visitors travel to see the creation. For more images go here: Rice Paddy Art

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As the farmer who won the lottery said when asked what he was going to do with his winnings:
"Keep farming until it's all gone"

IF • Modify

Vertical Gardening is a modified way of growing plants while being a wonderful solution to create an attractive and functional garden from limited space.
Visit Patrick Blanc a master artist/gardener with "Le Mur Végétal"

Preserve substance; modify form; know the difference. ~ Dee Hock

• The Tomato Tree / e-Stamp (NEW) - click to purchase
Lisa Rivas © 2009 • archival pigment print on 100% rag paper

Once again this next weekend August 8 - 9 is the celebrated Tomato Art Fest,
a neighborhood festival in East Nashville, TN. - USA.

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IF • Idle

The idle man does not know what it is to enjoy rest. ~Albert Einstein

watercolor, wax, rice paper (detail) - artist collection - © Lisa Rivas - "Chimerical"

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A little knowledge that acts is worth infinitely more than much knowledge that is idle.
Kahlil Gibran

BRAVE NEW ART Exhibit

@: George A. Spiva Center for the Arts
You are cordially invited. I will be attending... more to come.

222 W. 3rd Street, Joplin, M0 64801  •  Phone: 417.623.0183

The Divine Chalice,

Within the hollow of all things in nature there exists a theme,
one of unity – the supreme power of the Goddess.
A divine Mother where all life is born from, and
then also returned to her at death to be once again reborn.

original painting - artist collection - Nashville, TN - USA - "Krater"
watercolor, wax, rice paper, glazed • 24"H x 24"W • © Lisa Rivas
Water continually dropping will wear hard rocks hollow. ~Plutarch

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Krater: a bowl used in ancient Greece for diluting wine with water
and used in religious ceremonies to hold libations.

IF • Worn

✿
I did not lose myself all at once.
I rubbed out my face over the years
washing away my pain,
the same way carvings on stone
are worn down by water.
Amy Tan

watercolor, wax, rice paper, quilted - 36"H x 72"W - artist collection - © Lisa Rivas - "Past Periods"
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In dealing with those who are undergoing great suffering, if you feel "burnout" setting in, if you feel demoralized and exhausted, it is best, for the sake of everyone, to withdraw and restore yourself. The point is to have a long-term perspective. Dalai Lama

IF • Drifting

Drift on and on through the enchanted dark
To purple daybreak, little thought we pay...
~ Thomas Bailey Aldrich (SLEEP)

original painting - private collection - Memphis, TN - USA - "Reverie"
watercolor, wax, rice paper, quilted • 30"H x 30"W • © Lisa Rivas

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Sit in reverie and watch the changing color of the waves
that break upon the idle seashore of the mind.  ~Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

IF • Unfold

Jump, and you will find out how to unfold your wings as you fall...
~ Ray Bradbury

original painting - private collection - Memphis, TN - USA - "Midstream"
watercolor, wax, rice paper, quilted • 72"H x 72"W • © Lisa Rivas

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It is the child in man that is the source of his uniqueness and creativeness,
and the playground is the optimal milieu for the unfolding of his capacities and talents.
~ Eric Hoffer