Orchid © 2014 Laura Maaske Medical Illustrator - Medimagery LLC

An Alphabet for Grasses: Making Complex Simple with Chinese Brush Painting

The Aleph is the first stroke of the universe. Back before I stumbled upon a ?first stroke? of my own, I thought of the Aleph as a tree. It was like the solid base of a trunk: the source. This is not wrong. But then, I found a new way to see it. Drawing letters, playing with curves, might allow you to explore the strokes you like best and choose from among them. Certain strokes do hold more than others. which is what I learned painting these grasses ?a magical idea.

Impurities in water bring a wrinkled texture to icicles

The Mystery of Wrinkled Icicles: Solved

It’s still cold here in the Midwest and not yet through our arctic winter, but with all the cold has come this beautiful array of icicles not yet melting. I have just learned that icicles are smooth if they are made from distilled water. And they are rippled if the water has minerals and salts. This rippling, in fact, occurs at the same wavelength, world over. Nobody claims to know why the wavelength is the same, or even how why the ripples form as a result of the impurities.

eye

My Dad in Conversation

I have a childhood image of my dad
which carries through all the years.
He’s standing at the patio door with his hands interlaced behind him
silently engaged with a tree (or it might be the moon).
Even when I was very young,
I kept at a distance, so as not to disturb the feeling he created there.