Sunday, October 14, 2012

Autumn art

Leaf rubbings by chaimann
Leaf rubbings, a photo by chaimann on Flickr.
Autumn has been working its way toward us a little earlier than usual. I think the trees were just worn out from the drought, and at the first sign of cool weather, they said, "That's it, we're done." We've had some gloriously beautiful fall colors, but the end is clearly near.

I found this mostly perfect leaf by the door this afternoon. It was still soft, and felt like a cross between leather and paper. Like the colors, a leaf does not last forever, either, so I made a leaf rubbing.

Do you remember leaf rubbings? I didn't, and had to look up how to do them when an artist friend mentioned them. It's pretty darned easy. Put a piece of paper over the leaf, and rub the paper with the side of a crayon. I didn't have any normal kid-crayons, so I used Conte crayons, and they were fine.

Here are a couple of outstanding artists, both of whom I had the honor of seeing perform live, with their own tribute to Autumn Leaves.



(Want a more traditional treatment of the song? Famous Iowan Roger Williams plays his well-known version here.)

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