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crankyowlet.bsky.social
cranky owlet
@crankyowlet.bsky.social
410 followers 760 following 75 posts
AA Shock, AZ desert mudhand,
artist/owner at Three Star Owl Clay: Bring the Wild Inside, and Always Eat from Art!
Birds, toads, & other wildbois, especially owls
Sundevil fam 🌵 AZ/CA
All photos mine unless noted
IG @three.star.owl
FB @threestarowl
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crankyowlet.bsky.social
Been a bit of a while since I posted here. Please enjoy some new work: "Regal Horned Lizard with Small Passenger" effigy bowl. #pottersofbluesky #animalsculpture #threestarowl #ceramics
Horned lizard (aka horny toad) bowl, hand-made from clay, with a shiny turquoise glazed interior and smaller horny toad inside the bowl. The horny toad has a long-suffering but wise expression and is gazing right at the viewer. Its spikes stand out against the deep black background.
September 8, 2025 at 12:16 PM
crankyowlet.bsky.social
A Cassin's vireo pauses to look at the camera in the middle of stocking up for the rest of its trip north. #birds #vireo #migration
A small gray-green bird with white spectacle-like markings around in eyes perches in a gray-green tangle of mesquite branches and leaves. It's a Cassin's vireo (Vireo cassinii).
May 7, 2025 at 4:18 AM
crankyowlet.bsky.social
Worm Blood Moon eclipse almost in totality, from my Arizona backyard last night. #eclipse #moon #bloodmoon #wormmoon
Worm Blood Moon eclipse: a red moon with one whitish edge on the deep black background of the night sky.
March 14, 2025 at 11:02 PM
crankyowlet.bsky.social
Very small owl-and-dove bud vase fresh from Mesa Arts Center clay studio Δ10 soda kiln. Copper stain and soda atmosphere provided delightful unplanned mottling, including mysterious night-eyes.
#pottersofbluesky #animalsculpture #ceramics
Minimalist light clay owl bud vase with removable dove stopper on head for easy filling. Darker and green blotches due to copper stain and soda firing atmosphere.
March 8, 2025 at 2:31 PM
crankyowlet.bsky.social
Love love love the tiny busy Rock wren (North American version, not the NZ Rock wren pīwauwau). This one posed nicely right at my feet on the Rio Verde north of Phoenix AZ. One of the best binomial names, too: Salpinctes obsoletus!! ❤️ #birds #rockwren
Although it's a speckled brown bird on a speckled brown rock against a speckled brown background, it manages to look ornate anyhow!
February 22, 2025 at 9:27 PM
crankyowlet.bsky.social
Roadie is back for the third day, singing for love from the rooftop. Somehow he is both fluffy and spiky at the same time!
[This image started as a digiscoped photo, but my phone isn't really up to it, so I "arted up" so it looks more like painting].
#birds #greaterroadrunner #meepmeep
A photo of a streaky, buffy Roadrunner sitting on a brick chimney against a turquoise sky. It's edited to make it look more like a painting than a photo.
February 20, 2025 at 9:51 PM
crankyowlet.bsky.social
Sometimes this is the best shot you get, but I always love seeing a Roadie in the 'hood. This one was giving its wistful, down-sliding call from the neighbor's roof at midday. #birds #meepmeep #backofthecamerashot
Crummy image of the rear screen image of a Greater Roadrunner calling from a shingled roof ridge. The photo includes the entire back of my camera and the black red and green floral neckstrap.
February 20, 2025 at 3:00 AM
crankyowlet.bsky.social
Owlcloud
#blueskyartshow #monochrome #animalart #ceramics #sculpture #ThreeStarOwl
February 16, 2025 at 4:20 AM
crankyowlet.bsky.social
We all carry our own predators with us: "Run Bunz Run II"
#ceramics #sculpture #animalart
A hand-sculpted ceramic Desert cottontail runs across a white wall. Its body has saguaro cactus carved in shallow relief, a Great horned owl is perched at the top of one.
February 12, 2025 at 2:27 PM
crankyowlet.bsky.social
Because tonight's world news is so wretched, here's a Western screech-owl eyeing you crankily. #owl
Streaky, gray Western screech-owl hiding among the gray branches and twigs of an acacia tree
February 5, 2025 at 3:13 AM
crankyowlet.bsky.social
Photo of two social media posts, one by the president lying that the US military entered California and "turned on the taps" taking credit for providing ample water to the state, the second a fact-based response by the CA Dept of Water Resources that there was no military and that already plentiful water in the stae was augmented by pumps being turned back on after 3 days of maintenance.
January 28, 2025 at 3:29 PM
crankyowlet.bsky.social
Undercat overhead.
#cat #cats #catsofbluesky
An almost abstract photo of a cat, blurrily seen from below through a transparent, corrugated plastic roof. Is blurrily a word?
January 28, 2025 at 12:22 AM
crankyowlet.bsky.social
"Stars and Stripes Blep" Jaguar, Sonoran mountain kingsnake, Montezuma quail (glazed stoneware clay and high temp wire, for the wall). Please read alt text on image for more details. #artshare
A clay wall sculpture depicting a yellow jaguar's face with black spots (the "stars" in the title) and wire whiskers, curling its pink tongue in a blep gesture. There is a black yellow and red kingsnake ("stripes") and three Montezuma quail (more "stars") entwined around its features. All three are species endemic to the Borderlands of the Sonoran desert mountains of Arizona and Mexico
January 17, 2025 at 6:11 PM
crankyowlet.bsky.social
Last night's Wolf Moon at the very moment of Mars' kiss. It's hard to see the tiny red dot is SO tiny at about 7 o'clock on the lower left edge of the Moon's belly. #occultation #moon #wolfmoon
Photo of the full moon against the black sky. A nearly invisible red dot at the lower left edge of the Moon's gray disk is the planet Mars at the moment it begins to pass behind the Moon.
January 14, 2025 at 4:24 PM
crankyowlet.bsky.social
I've never fully grasped the phylogenetic relationship between Dinichthys and Dunkleosteus. #extinctfish #dinichthys #dunkleosteus #ancientfish #fish
A plastic toy figure of an extinct Devonian fish is shown next to an old-fashioned hand-held staple remover, their shadows vividly cast against the wooden stump they're lying on. The visual joke is that they both have strong jaws and sharp teeth like Dinichthys and Dunkleosteus.
December 30, 2024 at 8:36 PM
crankyowlet.bsky.social
Step by step for making tiny, loose horny toad "sketches" in clay -- no more than 5 minutes each: gotta keep the toad flow going! #reptileart #hornedlizard #workinprogress
December 29, 2024 at 11:06 PM
crankyowlet.bsky.social
NOBODY puts Godzilla on the Naughty List! #godzilla #gojira #santa #kaiju
December 23, 2024 at 4:59 PM
crankyowlet.bsky.social
movie poster for Eddie Murphy film "Dolomite Is My Name"
December 21, 2024 at 1:54 AM
crankyowlet.bsky.social
"He's right behind me isn't he?" When your next meal is on your head, like an orca wearing a salmon hat. (Roadrunner wall mask, stoneware, 7"x5" ThreeStarOwl/Allison Shock) #birdart #roadrunner
A clay portrait of a Greater roadrunner with a lizard on its head hangs on a white wall.
December 4, 2024 at 5:03 AM
crankyowlet.bsky.social
Gnatcatcher upskirt pic.
(photo by me) #bird #blue-graygnatcatcher #IRWDSanJoaquinMarshandWildlifeSanctuary
A small gray bird lifts its tail to show off puffy white undertail coverts and long black and white tail feathers. In the background there are thin gray twigs and blue sky.
December 1, 2024 at 11:31 PM
crankyowlet.bsky.social
By way of introduction, here's "Toad, owl, Phainopepla stack jar" (by me, AllisonShock/Three Star Owl Clay Studio) #art #owl
Artwork shown: hand built brown, textured clay jar of a cranky-looking owl with one yellow eye open, sitting on a red-spotted toad with a black fly on its tongue, and a crested, black bird on the top of its head, which is the lid of the jar. The bird has a red berry in its beak, and is the knob of the lid.
November 29, 2024 at 9:48 PM
crankyowlet.bsky.social
Bioluminescent waves, Orange Co. CA beach, last night. #invertebrate #bioluminescence
November 28, 2024 at 5:20 PM
crankyowlet.bsky.social
Thought I'd share an art I did, Jack and the Bee.
A clay sculpture shows a cross-looking brown hare with huge ears, messy whiskers, and a yellow and green flower on its head. It also has a black and yellow bumblebee hovering over the flower.
November 22, 2024 at 11:13 PM
crankyowlet.bsky.social
This Western screech-owl often hangs out in a nestbox we hung on the back wall of our house. It looks permanently peeved, quintessential Cranky Owlet.
#owl
A small gray owl with yellow eyes stares from a wooden nestbox; only its head is sticking out of the hole.
November 20, 2024 at 10:13 PM
crankyowlet.bsky.social
Sonoran bumblebee. #bumblebee
November 13, 2024 at 5:34 AM