Despite dragging with a cold, I managed to finish another painting this weekend. This is for my upcoming show in Massachusetts. The gallery director suggested that I do some pictures with seasonal themes, as that would be attractive to visitors, especially in New England during the colorful fall. So here is the one I came up with for Autumn. It's a homage to those clever surrealists who play with image puns and transformation, such as Rob Gonsalves. Gonsalves' art is full of neat ideas, including ones with autumn leaves, so I figure, I can do it too, using my background of space art. So in this picture, the autumn leaves which the New Englanders will be raking up at the time of this show, turn into a galaxy in the whirls of the November wind.

In other news, my flowering cactus has been identified. It is a Discocactus zehntnerii, native to Brazil. This plant always blooms at night. As I expected, the cactus experts online immediately knew what it was, and once I knew the Latin name, I looked it up in my encyclopedia of cacti and there it was. I like the name "Discocactus," it conjures up visions of a cactus dancing all night to a repetitive late '70s pop beat while sticking its flowers up in the air. Or perhaps its globular shape is suspended from the ceiling as it reflects glitter light onto the hot dance floor. Boogie down, Bucky.

Posted at 2:15 am | link