And yet more Zymoglyphic finds

"There's treasure everywhere"

Still working on defining Zymoglyphic. Here are the previous posts. On the wall of the Zymoglyphic Museum Jim has this Calvin and Hobbes cartoon.

This is a particularly interesting find. It's crushed aluminum, found on the street. The age, dirt and texture transforms it into something strange.

This piece of wood caught my eye because it looks so animated, like a little person. I'm very curious to see what it becomes in the museum.

Another stick that doesn't really look like a stick.

This is a piece of a tree that must have blown over in a recent storm. There was bark and moss all over the street so Jim made a nice pile of the good stuff and we continued our walk up to Mt. Tabor. When we came back down the slope we could see the tree removal team was already there. Jim can walk much faster than I can, so I said to him "rush over there and get your stuff." Jim went over and told the guy by the truck he just wanted to pick up some moss and bark. The guy said "okay." But as Jim walked away I saw him kind of roll his eyes and shrug. Very funny. I assume he was thinking "only in Portland do we get these odd balls." But Jim did recover all his bits, that's the important part. This one is about 15 inches long and 12 wide. Some of the smaller pieces with lots of moss were placed in the garden. A few years ago Jim found some pieces of a tree that had been cut down, they had ferns and moss growing on them. He brought them home and put them under a shrub. The ferns have rooted and are happily growing there. The moss didn't transplant so well, but moss is hard to move.

Here's a very nice piece of plastic. New plastic is horrible, but when weathered it can be interesting. This one looked like it had potential to be a good stand.

A large weathered piece of bone. Unfortunately I don't remember anything about finding this.

This is my most recent find - and one of my all time favorite finds. It was on the sidewalk. Can you read the photo? It's a leg from an animal statue. Really gorgeous weathering and so much potential. This is a work of art in itself.

The Anti-Hallmark Cards

Jim and I make cards for each other for events like birthdays and anniversaries. Over the years he has often echoed whatever kind of book art project I am working on at the time. Here are a few recent cards. I love their roughness because they are so sincere. I believe that's a "28."

He is heavily influenced by all ameboid styles of art. Note the staples to hold the pop-up in place.

Jim is also an excellent grammarian.

Umpteenth might not be romantic, but we have been together a long time now. Puns and bad jokes are his mainstay.

Update on Zymoglyphic Finds

I have fallen behind on the "defining Zymoglyphic" posts. I'll have to split my finds between 3 posts. These go way back, and I lost some of the originals. Sad story about changing to Dropbox and my lack of understanding.

This photo is confusing - the actual object is the diagonal piece of wood. It's about 12 inches long. I believe this was in the "potential base" category. Still, once things are in the boxes of parts, they can end up being anything.

Magnolia flower petal. They tend to be leathery and very attractive when dry. Probably not chosen because it's beautiful, more because most people won't know what it is.

Not sure what this was. It looks like cement or stone.

A particularly interesting stick. It seems weirdly symmetrical.

I suppose everyone recognizes this - a dried red pepper. I'm not sure how it passed the test - seems a little too obvious to me, but it is nicely wrinkled.

And speaking of wrinkles, here's a beauty. Neither of us remembers what this is, if we ever knew. Clearly a piece of dried up fruit. Jim says it's interesting because of the nice patina and the you-don't-know-what-it-is factor.

More Zymoglyphic Finds

I love it when I pick up something and Jim's eyebrows go up in appreciation. Just today I found what might be a mostly dried apple, it's dark and a little soft still. Jim liked it at first glance, but then rejected it because it's soft. So I placed in on our covered porch, to either mold and melt, or to dry up more.

I don't remember this one - it looks like a piece of cement with moss. Jim is a sucker for moss.

Some kind of seed pod, it may not count because I think it fell apart later. Jim saw wings.

A part of a wasp nest. It's a little torn and possibly will be unidentifiable in a diorama. Which adds to the appeal.

And because this post seems very boring - here is an amazing Bushtit nest, found by Jim, not me. Made of lichen, spider webs, other plant material. Here's a great article about Bushtits. The best part - other Bushtits help build the nest, and the assistants help feed the baby birds. All birds, the parents, the babies, the assistants roost in the nest at night.

More Zymoglyphic Finds

In my search for an answer to the question "is it Zymoglyphic?" I have more finds. Mostly these things show up when we walk around, and I sometimes forget to take a camera. And when I take the camera I don't find anything.

This is one I kinda wish I had kept. It's a frame - from a mirror or some picture? I found it in the grass when we were walking around. People in Portland put things they don't want any more out at the curb. It's interesting and sometimes a gold mine.

Not much to say about this - plant material. I was a little surprised it was accepted, but it does look like a tiny tree.

A leaf skeleton - seems like a fairly ordinary thing, in the sense that they must be all over. But it's not easy to just walk out and get one when you need it and this one is almost intact. This and it's partner are already in a sculpture.

I regard this as a real treasure - a mat of leaves, moss, seeds, twigs, probably some dirt. I found them in a drainage gutter I was cleaning out. When they came out in big chunks, I thought they were perfectly Zymoglyphic. A big win!

I believe this is a leaf of an echinops, a perennial I am growing. It must have fallen off and been on the ground awhile. It's nice and dry and brittle. In the "what is it?" category. And extremely fragile.

Defining Zymoglyphic

People often ask Jim what makes an object suitable for the Zymoglyphic Museum? I don't have a good handle on it myself. About a week ago we were out walking and I found a piece-of-wood-rotten-root-thing that he liked and kept to use in his museum. I often hand him stuff I find, hoping it will meet with his approval. I think about 10% of my finds are accepted. When I handed him the rotten wood and he accepted it, I felt victorious. So I decided I need to document the successes. And maybe some of the failures.

We just came back from a few days in Rockaway Beach. There had been a storm before we arrived so there was a lot of stuff at the high tide line. Below you can see what I found on the beach that Jim thought he might use in the museum - I was doing unusually well for some reason.

There were mole crabs all over the beach, in various states of decay. These were interesting because they still have their digging parts attached.

This is possibly a piece of bamboo. The harder it is to tell what it is, the better Jim likes it.

I think this one was accepted because of it's interesting texture. The piece of bark in Jim's left hand was found by Jim.

This one is very twisty and ambiguous in size. I believe it has already been assembled into something.

I don't remember anything about this.

This chunk of wood was selected because it's potentially a stand - things with holes in them are useful that way. I would have brought this home for myself if Jim didn't take it.

Another with interesting texture.

The appeal of this one mystifies me - it looks like just another chunk of driftwood to me.

There was a large log on the beach with a beautiful pattern. I was amazed when Jim reached for his camera to record it. I had to take a photo. He almost never reaches for his camera.

This is the log texture that Jim couldn't resist.

And finally an end-of-the-day shot. Happy treasure hunting to you all!