Wednesday, March 29, 2006

Rain rain go away.


Today was okay, but here's a pic from yesterday. It was sunny in the morning, rained and hailed in the afternoon... Mud is becoming part of life, I am wondering if it will ever dry out here. Weird weather!

Oh to be a cat!:


It was 18 years ago today that I hatched my first chick. Well, okay, technically the incubator did the work... His name was Pheasant, and he was a Spangled Old English Game Bantam, and he was very spoiled, but very cool. It's really odd to imagine only hatching one chick a year. The following year I hatched five. Things have changed! :-)

I have spent the last two days working on my taxes, and I still have a lot more work to do. Taxes suck. I hope I don't get thrown in jail for saying that.

There has been some discussion lately on an online poultry forum about the merits of photographs versus artwork for Standards, and of course this is quite relevant to my work these days! I was surprised to read some pretty strong opinions stating that the Standard ought to use photos. I know there are species that do use photos (and some foreign poultry standards) but I have never thought they come across looking "ideal." I am quick to take offense when people say that artwork cannot capture the accuracy that a photograph can, but I have to remember that only a handful of people have seen my work I've done for the Standard (since it's not printed yet, nor is it even all done! Ack!), and they are not the ones wanting photos. Personally, I think that good artwork can depict "perfection" FAR more accurately than a photograph, because artwork can "fix" whatever flaws the photo has. There would be no way to have photos of all the birds that are currently illustrated (whether those are my upcoming illustrations or the ones already in the book). Finding a perfect example of every variety of every breed... I just don't think that could be done. I can only hope to knock the socks off some of the skeptics when that day comes that they get to see it. ;-)

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Howdy!
Yes, the rain just keeps coming, who knows when it will EVER dry out :-). The only appreciation I have for it ...is in the knowledge that we will have to deal with the yucky heat sooner than we know!
You brought up an interesting topic about the pics vs. the artwork; I can't imagine them trying to locate "perfection" and attempting to get a picture of it...not to mention the man-power, judging the "perfect bird" and so on...yikes! I am quite certain your work will not only impress, but convert ;-). -- CS

Katherine Plumer said...

I know, it's horrible to think how soon that nasty hot weather will be here (which of course just gives me something else to whine about, after all blogs are really just whine-fests I think...) ;-) Then again I DO need a tan... hehee.

Yeah, it's been an interesting discussion on TPC forum about art vs photos, and I think I can safely say that some people will not be converted! I can't make everyone happy!