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The Colorful Engineer

fine art by caroline serafinas

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Maryland-themed Art

April 13, 2012

Recently we went through a one week period where things seemed to be breaking everywhere. The shelves in the pantry where collapsing. We had flying ants in the house. And my decorative shelves in the living room fell off the wall.

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It was very sad. There was a lot of broken glass.
Rather than go out and buy new shelf decorations (Mike calls them knickknacks) I thought I’d make do with what we had around the house. Then I decided to make something. You can catch a peak of our Baltimore painting hanging on that wall. So sticking with the theme, I decided to make some Maryland-inspired art.
Quiz: What wildlife makes you think of Maryland?
Answer: Blue Crab, Baltimore Oriole, Black-Eyed Susan
I don’t think the Blue Crab is officially anything to Maryland (except an awesome meal), but the other two definitely are: the state bird and state flower!
So I found some pictures of each online and began cheating tracing.

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I wanted some fun, bright colors for this. I considered going with a solid background, but decided instead to be a little more crazy. Either probably would have turned out just fine. And I even kind of like how they look when the design is just outlined.

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After a bit more coloring, here is the set.

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When they stand up the crab picture is a little unbalanced. I should have noted the poor craftsmanship before starting. Oh well.

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So there we have it. Showing my Maryland pride yet again.

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Garden 2012

April 9, 2012

In addition to it being Easter weekend, this was the weekend we decided to start our garden and do our yearly landscaping. Once a year our front yard looks awesome. Then, slowly, we forget to water things, weeds start sprouting, and we give up.
But once a year our yard looks like this: fresh flowers! It’s a little hard to see, but those are fresh flowers and mulch under the tree.
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Now for a street view.

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Every year we seem to try out a new annual. This year we planted a bunch of marigolds. I mean they are every. Where.

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And I’m well aware that they smell terrible, but I don’t care. I hear that they repel mosquitoes, which is really what I was after. I had pinned this handy article on Pinterest and they were the only plants on the list I could easily find at Lowe’s. So we’ll see what happens.

As for our garden, our major accomplishment this weekend was weeding it. It was completely overtaken by weeds. Anyone else have those weeds that seem to shoot seeds when you touch then? After weeding, we mixed in some manure and hummus (which seemed to work awesome last year) and planted some spring onions, spinach, and lettuce. No pictures, unfortunately, since, the garden is still a heap of dirt.

We’ll save the tomatoes and peppers for when it gets a tad warmer. We have the seedlings going in our kitchen and Mike has been diligently tending to them.

Instead of planting herbs in the garden again, we decided to change it up and use pots on the deck this year. Last year the herbs got so devoured by the tomato plants that the basil was the only one that really took off. So hopefully we have better luck with pots. Plus, by being on the deck they are easier to access. You know, instead of taking that grueling walk down the deck stairs!

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And last but not least, our new tenant. This guy has been building a nest under the deck. He’s woven a piece of balloon and ribbon into a nest, which leads me to believe he’s a party animal. Plus he’s got some tasteful decor.

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Happy Easter!

April 9, 2012

Terrible Photoshopping job, but I couldn’t resist…

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Pencil Drawings: The College Years

March 31, 2012

I’ve been doing some cleaning up this weekend and finally putting away a box of old textbooks from college. Biological Process Engineering, Essential Chemistry, Spanish Three Years… exciting stuff. Actually that last one is from high school. Apparently I’m a hoarder.
I also made this unfortunate discovery.

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That’s TWO copies of Essential Chemistry that we own. TWO! Why did neither of us ever sell back our college textbooks?

Among other things, I found a sketchbook I kept during my college years. Or at least years 2003-2005. It seems I did find time to do some sketching. But only six sketches worth. And I know that three of these were for a school project.

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Random? Yes. Especially that hammer.

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Avocado Pies

March 30, 2012

Not just avocado, but avocado and lime. And coconut. And pistachios! It sounds crazy, I know. But these pies were awesome.  I don’t usually post about food, but in addition to being yummy, they were some good-looking pies.
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I also forgot to mention the kiwi. Lots of green here. Very St. Patty’s Day appropriate.

Yes, I did make them on St. Patrick’s Day.

Here is the recipe. Go make these:
Avocado-Lime Pie with Coconut Cream and Pistachio Crust

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Shooting Stars

March 17, 2012

Not actual shooting-across-the-sky stars. But shooting/photographing stars. I can see why you might have thought that though.

These two guys have been shining brightly since at least last night. I only know this because Meatball has actually been letting us walk him at night. I did some intense Google searching and I think they might be Venus and Jupiter.
I know nothing about stars or planets so I could also be wrong.
BUT I did find this….
Looks kind of like my picture, right? And Earthsky.org says:
“Venus blazes like a lighthouse in the west at dusk in March 2012, as seen from all parts of Earth. In fact, all through March 2012, Venus and Jupiter – the sky’s two most brilliant planets – are the first “stars” to pop out at evening dusk, with Venus being the lower planet and Jupiter the higher in the first half of the month.”
I’m going to have to say its Venus and Jupiter.
The waxing crescent moon won’t appear until late March. It’ll just be another excuse to drag my tripod onto the front stoop. Yes, I’m that person…

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Berndnaut Smilde

March 16, 2012

Washington Post, you’ve done it again. You’re always opening my world to new things. First, pink slime. And now, this.
Okay, you can skip the pink slime article but you should definitely check out the Berndnaut Smilde article. Smilde is a Dutch artist who can, apparently, control the weather.
Nimbus II, 2012, Berndnaut Smilde
Nimbus, 2010, Berndnaut Smilde
See, I wasn’t kidding. A perfectly sunny room is turned into a cloudy day. Crazy. The video on the Washington Post link is also worth watching. It’s not in English, but you’ll get the gist.
 
I was also browsing his website and found this interesting piece.

Cumulus Beeekstraat 98, 2010, Berndnaut Smilde

The caption reads:
“Aerogel, also known as frozen smoke consists of 99.8% air and is the lightest solid material on earth.”
Never having heard of this until today, I am intrigued. 

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Meatball

March 12, 2012

Lots of dog postings going on around here lately. Last one for awhile, I promise.
Meatball
Completed 2012
22″x28″
Oil
 I finally finished up Meatball’s painting. I have no idea where we are going to hang this. But isn’t he cute?
I worked for a good 15 minutes to try and get him to pose with his painting. He was unsure at first.
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Then finally.

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He’s such a good sport. Or he just got tired of me stalking him during his naptime.

*** UPDATE: prints available here ***

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Sammy

March 1, 2012

My parent’s beloved dog Sammy had to be put to sleep yesterday. He suffered from some health issues. It was his time. He was only 4 years old.

Sam was one spunky Golden Retriever. He was not at all like Rusty, the Golden we had growing up. You know the dog in Marley & Me? Yea, Sam had a similar sense of humor. He made sure you knew he was there. Even on the last day I went to visit him the little bugger couldn’t help himself and tried stealing my scarf.
To Meatball, we referred to him as Cousin Sam. (Meatball understands.) Although the two didn’t always get along, it was nice having another dog in the family to help “socialize” Meatball.
Meatball didn’t always share though. And anytime Sam tried to play with one of Meatball’s toys, Meatball would snatch it back. Sam learned quickly to wait until Meatball was sleeping. Then sneak attack! They were an unlikely pair but they made it work.

Everyone says a pet is a member of the family. It’s true.

We’ll definitely miss Sam. Luckily Rusty will be there to welcome him into doggy heaven.

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Jowls

February 20, 2012

Sunday would have been a good day for some of that snow we were supposed to get. That never happened. Instead I had no good reason for not leaving the house all day. But worse things have happened.

I did mostly spend the day working on Meatball’s painting. His eye is piercing blue but I like it.

In other Meatball news, we played fetch today. This might surprise a number of people, but he CAN actually run. And he runs quite fast. But most importantly, he makes ridiculous faces when he runs. Like any respectable bulldog, his jowls flap in the wind!

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Yes, it was a great Sunday.

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About Me


Hey there, thanks for stopping by. The Colorful Engineer started as a blog to record my various artistic activities. Nowadays I focus mostly on my painting and my blog closely follows my Instagram account.

 

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