F is for Flaherty

F is for FreeSketch

"Draw a tank with Mickey Mouse shooting apples and threatening Ted Turner."

-idea submitted by Peter R.

( to submit an idea email kellyleannflaherty@gmail.com )

A boy, no older than 5, would stand at the corner of the street every morning and wait for the stray. He would stare at the passing trains and rubber ducks in the clouds until the dog tickled him with a lick to the neck. He called him Toto. Like the dog in his favorite movie. His stubby fingers would grasp a tuft of greasy orange fur on Toto’s back and the two would walk. The boy’s head would tilt back up and he would stare at the frogs in the clouds while Toto steered him across the streets and down the road to school. Another tickle to the neck and the boy would dawdle up the stairs and into class.

The stray would pant towards a house with broken shutters and peeling paint that was once a brilliant robin’s egg blue. An older women, who was once brilliantly beautiful herself, would be holding a plate of breakfast scraps for him. She called him Charlie. Like her youngest grandson. Charlie would slobber on the Daily Bay when he picked it up for her. She would just gather her hands in the front of her faded moo-moo and wipe them dry. Charlie would lay on the concrete porch by her rocking chair, and listen to her ramble as she fell asleep. The mailman would walk by, Charlie would howl, and the women would wake up and go inside.

Across town was a barefoot fisherman who would spend his afternoon gutting and cleaning the catch of the day. The fisherman would struggle because birds would swoop down at his fingers. The stray would come sprinting down the dock barking and biting at the birds. The fisherman called him Gilligan. His number two. Gilligan spent the evening up and down the harbor keeping the birds away until there were no more fish to clean. The fisherman would lean against the railing, pick a splinter from his toe and throw back a beer, while Gilligan lapped up water from a old tuna dish.

The stray dog was sleeping on a gravel road at the entrance of town when a van pulled by. The man inside was passing through St. Monica’s Bay and whistled to the stray. He slid open the door and decided to call him Red. Like his father. The man talked to Red while they drove through town. The man was at a loss for words at the sight of the little boy looking up at the sky, then at the woman in a moo-moo sleeping on her porch, and finally at the barefoot fisherman swatting and screaming at birds to get away from his catch. The man in the van scratched Red behind the ears and sighed as they left St. Monica’s Bay which use to have a stray dog.

F is for Fiction

F is for Fiction is a new recurring segment for this blog. It features unfinished pieces of my writing. Many of these are first/second drafts and open for commentary and constructive criticism. They can be short stories, character briefs, clips of conversations or even occasional song lyrics.

F is for FreeSketch

"Draw an ice cube mowing the lawn in the sun saying its hot and sweating ice cubes."

-idea submitted by Peter R.

( to submit an idea email kellyleannflaherty@gmail.com )

F is for FreeSketch

F is for FreeSketch is a new recurring segment in this blog. It is similar to the exercise of freewriting where you put your pen to the page and continue to write without stopping to critically think about what it is you're writing about. You begin with a general idea or nothing at all and end up with a fragment to develop. FreeSketching replaces writing for sketching. The hope for both is to both loosen up the mind and develop/practice your skills.

If you would like to submit an idea for the FreeSketch segment email me at kellyleannflaherty@gmail.com

F is for Fetch

(above is a sample of some of the different kinds of shells in my collection)

I have been collecting, or fetching, sea shells for years from several beaches (St. Augustine, Florida; South Padre Island, Texas; Gulf Shores, Alabama and San Diego, California). I am drawn to their patterns, shapes, colors and textures. The idea is to transform my tangible collection into a digital one with more than photographs. For it to become a reference guide and starting part for color combinations, patterns, and shapes that all stem from an individual shell. Taking those elements out of the context of a shell and into a digital graphic form.

If this were to be an online reference guide it would be interesting to set it up so you could take a digital journey on the beach and pick out shells. Once you chose a shell it could reveal its parts from its graphic standard and you would begin to understand what it is about the shell you are gravitated towards. It could be a helpful tool for both graphic and interior design.

F is for Family

The Meiners-Hodes-Aumuller family claimed to be the largest multi-generational family in Kansas City years ago. This family is 7 generations strong and has around 3,729 living members. I am apart of this family. This year we had our biennial family picnic where 760 of us gathered at a local high school for an entire day. (We also have a summer bowling league with around 21 teams of 4)

A family tree for the Meiners-Hodes-Aumuller clan needs to identify the following 5 major things for each person. (this is in addition to capturing the family line of everyone)

1. Which one of the 8 major families do they belong to? (The family started with 5 brothers and 3 sisters. Two of the sisters married Hodes boys and 1 sister married an Aumuller. This family identifies themselves to others by stating which of the 8 they belong to.)
2. Which generation are they?
3. Are they married in or are they blood line lineage?
4. Are they dead or alive?
5. Do they happen to be one of the few that actually belong to two major families? (As weird as it may sound down the lineage line individuals that belong to a Meiners line have married in the Hodes line and vice versa. This is not incest due to the fact they are far enough apart and are barely, if any, blood related!)

Informational graphics can be breathtakingly beautiful while at the same time completely functional. They key, for myself, is to understand the information I am working with in and out. This might take some time, even though all of the information I need is within a directory that is staring at me on my desk.