Mixed Media Collage--Using Original Photos

I finished this piece about 5 weeks ago and apparently never posted it. I've used collage and archival copies of original photos--that's our pasture and our old pony. I love the odd color combinations on this, and I loved continuing the tree using pen and ink. I tried to do something like this a couple of years ago, and was very dissatisfied with the result. I may have the knack of it now.

Illustration Friday: Backwards

Estelle no longer needed to continually glance over her shoulder, looking backwards into the past that she feared would catch and engulf her; she finally felt she could look forward as she strode through life...

Estelle, Original mixed media painting by Karen Smithey on 8"x10" gallery stretched canvas

Snakes

Last night, I dreamed that my yard and my house were filled with pairs of snakes. Everywhere I looked there was a pair of snakes twined or coiled together, waiting. I kept trying to see if they were rattlesnakes or gopher snakes. Even the ones with the wide pit viper heads didn't have rattles, and confusion just filled my chest. I picked one snake up. Its tail was wriggling on the floor, having been cut off. I said, "This one's a gopher snake," and it bit me. Big fangs pierced my skin, I watched the venom filling the wound. And then I...waited. And waited. To see what was going to happen to me.