Monday, May 19, 2008

Dandy Lion


10x8" oil on canvas, SOLD

Every spring I wonder who decided that the dandelion is a pesky weed. I mean, they are really beautiful and grow without any encouragement. You can't say that about most flowers. My favorite part is the seed heads--what a great design! Each seed has it's own tiny parachute. So this painting is dedicated to all the little kids (and the big ones) who will help the Taraxacum Officinale in it's quest to cover the world with brilliant yellow flowers by blowing on it's fuzzy little head. And watching, in awe, as all those little parachutes make their way back to the earth! Go on, blow--you know you want to!

7 comments:

Mark Bridges said...

When I was a kid, we would pick the yellow flower and hold it under each others chins to see if they like butter. Chin glows yellow. Then when the flowers dried into the white globes, we would make a wish and blow the parachutes away. Saw your art in the mag the other day. Way to go.

Brenda York said...

That's a great story, Mark. I don't think I've ever heard of that "use" for dandelions! You must have grown up in the Midwest too--they are much more prolific there. Thanks for stopping by.

Cheryl McCarley said...

Love this one, fun painting! I remember blowing all the parachutes. Fond memeories of summer. The crazy thing that I learned growing up was taking the yellow flower and singing a little song...My momma had a baby and it's head fell off, of course it's all in the timimg of the thumb breaking the flower head off. Maybe it was an east coast thing to do.

Anonymous said...

I grew up in the Midwest, too, and always looked forward to spring and dandylion season! Not only did I think the cheery, yellow flowers were lovely, but we always curled their stems! (Plus, some people ate the greens in their salads [free salad bar in your own back yard!!]) Anyway, to curl the stems we plucked the tallest dandylions with a mature flower head, split their stems all the way up to the flower and dunked them into water. The most amazing physical reaction takes place: the dandylion stem curls up as tight as Shirley Temple's hair! We entertained ourselves plenty on early warm, spring days seeing how unusually we could make the curls take shape! Try it!

Karen

Brenda York said...

This is so fun! I had no idea there were so many fun things to do with dandelions. Has anyone heard of dandelion wine?

Sue J said...

I remember my mum telling me that in the war they used dandylion roots as ersatz coffee. I don't know if it was dried first, or just crushed. Probably tasted like crap.

Brenda York said...

Never heard of dandelion coffee...just dandelion wine!