04-08-16.

Hotspur (321)

"Hotspur (321)", oil on canvas, 24x24". For sale on Etsy, $350.

"Sometimes he angers me
With telling me of the moldwarp and the ant."

Hotspur complains about his Welsh father-in-law in Shakespeare's Henry IV Part 1. The father-in-law is fond of poetry, using flowery language and mythical references whenever he speaks. Hotspur prefers to be blunt and plainspoken. He wants action and violence, not pretty words. 

The moldwarp (mole) and the ant are part of an unnamed Welsh legend. This is one of the very few references that Shakespeare makes to ants. For this painting, I challenged myself to join ants and Shakespeare (my randomly selected topics). All of the elements of this painting are taken from reality. My husband posed as Hotspur, staring in disgust and irritation at an oversized ant sitting on his smartphone. The ant is a toy that we own. The large face in the background is Shakespeare. It is part of a mural printed on a building façade in downtown Indianapolis. 

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04-05-16. A loading crane in the parking lot of NASA's mission control center.

04-04-16. Pirates do a synchronized skydive far above the crow's nest.

04-03-16.

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03-31-16.

03-30-16. A guest eats ice cream at the Children's Inaugural Ball.

03-29-16. A dancer wears barnacle earrings in the studio.

03-28-16. Shadows on the Berlin Wall in 1962, a year after it was built. (based on photo by Paul Schutzer)

03-27-16. A rental Ferrari with flying buttresses on the Atlantic City boardwalk.

03-26-16.

03-25-16. A woman looks out of her converted schoolhouse home while giving herself a facial.

03-24-16. Fresh toast for sale in the town square.

03-23-16. Wig worn by Blondie's Debbie Harry on display at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

03-22-16. A patron eats a kebab in front of the former bank vault in a restaurant.

03-21-16. A lady eats a Green with Envy mint doughnut at a Fractured Prune doughnut shop.

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03-19-16. Hunger in the captain's quarters.

03-18-16. A visitor carries a plastic bag inside a small public observatory.

03-17-16. A new marquee among Friends of the Penn Theatre in Plymouth, Michigan.

03-16-16. A giraffe in hog heaven.

03-15-16. Benjamin can pull himself up to stand.

03-14-16. A mosquito trapped in the planetarium projector during a Pink Floyd laser show.

03-13-16. A kid plays a kazoo at Redwood National Park in northern California.

03-12-16. A kid carries bake sale cake while his grandma votes.

03-11-16. A worker carries a wrench for maintenance inside the CMS detector of the Large Hadron Collider at CERN.

03-10-16. The ribbon is cut for a refurbished airstrip on a small resort island.

03-09-16. A camel at a coastal highway overlook.

03-08-16. A woman wears a souvenir T-shirt at the Four Corners.

03-07-16. Maxwell doing a puzzle at preschool.

03-06-16. A Death Valley camper eats pineapple upside-down cake.

03-05-16. After an oil spill, the Oil Free Seas Flotilla protests at the scene of the crime.

03-04-16. A woman carries her quilt bag alongside a mile of the Trans-Alaska oil pipeline.

03-03-16. Steam and fault lines near the Salton Sea in southern California.

03-02-16. A shopkeeper carries his calculator across Tiananmen Square.

03-01-16. Bumper cars on a birthday cake in a Swiss chalet.

02-29-16.

02-28-16. Cat toys in an overgrown backyard.

02-27-16. A baby holds his sippy cup in front of the United Nations headquarters.

02-26-16. Carrying a tote bag full of stuff to the toolshed.

02-25-16. A man grills steak atop a knoll.

02-24-16. Digital watermarks and a suburban cul-de-sac.

02-23-16. A woman wears a sand castle necklace at a Pacific Northwest fish market.

02-22-16. A doghouse at an international youth hostel.

02-21-16. A dumpster in Sleepy Hollow, NY.

02-20-16. A chinchilla in a junk sculpture park.