Illustration Friday: Imagine

With her trusted companion, Poporo, she rides to school on the head of a big fish. She can't imagine a better way to travel, though the fish has other ideas. Seeing all that salt has him wondering if that road leads to the sea.

Illustration Friday: Surprise II

I found this on the web, and even though it isn't my art, it fits the theme so well I just had to post it.

Illustration Friday: Surprise

Ilustration Friday: Blue

This is a quilt that my mother (who did most of the actual sewing) and I created as a gift for my mother-in-law. The design is based on a Japanese motif, and we used primarily Japanese materials for it's construction. I found the design in "A World of Quilts: 10 Projects Using Ethnic Fabrics" by Beth Ann Williams. The comforter pictured below was assembled with rejected materials and scraps from this and other quilts. It is tied to a down comforter rather than quilted. As you can see my cats, Prudence, a Bombay, and Anais, a Russian Blue, rather enjoy it.

Illustration Friday: Small

And how much smaller the world has become since . .
Created in Photoshop

Illustration Friday: (Not) Free

Shortly after posting my offering for this week's Illustration Friday, I was brutally reminded there are many in this world who are not free, and slavery is not simply something we read about in history books, or read enough about in today's newspapers. I was inspired by the Polaris Project to produce this collage.

Illustration Friday: Free

Great Wall of China

Photoshop altered image of a photo I took of the Great Wall north of Beijing, which I had the pleasure of seeing last September. Incredible!

This version was built by the Ming Dynasty to keep out northern "barbarian" tribes of nomadic horsemen.

The Ming fell to one of these groups, the Manchus, in 1644. Did the wall fail? Not exactly. Disgruntled Ming generals, hoping to overthrow the dynasty, enlisted the aid of Manchurian horsemen, and opened the gates. But the Manchus proved stronger than these generals expected.

The Manchus conquered China and ruled it as the Ching Dynasty until the early 20th century.

This was also my initial choice for Illustration Friday: Strength.