On Monday, I saw a dragonfly flittering around pretty as you please in the warm February sunshine while I was sitting at a traffic light on my way to get some lunch. I was amazed because the weather is still up & down … warm sometimes and cold or only chilly other times. I think dragonflies must be hardier to chilly weather than I thought … February in the Houston Texas area is not exactly friendly all the time with the chilly/cold weather still happening quite a bit.

One of these days … I need to get a book about dragonflies and do some reading … yes I still buy physical books and read them … everyone in the world seems to be going digital and reading ebooks … but I am a bit old fashioned when it comes to books I plan to read for enjoyment … I like a book I can open, carry with me to the doctors office or just from one room and chair to another.

At work, I create PDF files most every day for one reason or another .. I’m not adverse to reading or creating ebooks .. I just like real physical books that will sit on my book shelf after I read them so I can go back and re-read them again … and I do not have to worry if my computer is working or not either … I can just admire the cover art of a physical book and the time plus the planning that went into creating the entire book. Being a technical book writer … I really appreciate the effort and work that went into creating those books.

Dragonfly by Wes Hanson

Right now outside my window, the sun is shining and the sky is blue - it is chilly out there though because a cold front came through last nite - having a dog to walk at 6 AM, I know what the weather is like before 8 AM … … it was really windy and cold last nite about 9 PM but it is fairly nice this morning and appears to be warming up some plus the wind is not blowing hard as it was last nite. The weather is not nice enough for dragonflies (in my opinion) and I haven’t seen any this morning either though at 6 AM we heard birds but they were not in sight.

While out and about yesterday with my daughter and the grandkids … I happened to see a dragonfly tattoo. When I was originally looking for tribal dragonfly images on t-shirts [that I could not find and then created my own tribal dragonflies for t-shirts (and more)], I had searched on the net and the only tribal dragonfly images I found at that time several years ago were images for tribal dragonfly tattoos from various tattoo artists and tattoo image distributors. Until yesterday, I had not seen a real physical dragonfly tattoo - this one was not very well done in my opinion but of course I did not say so to the person whose body it adorned. I just happened to be wearing one of my tribal dragonfly long sleeve winter shirts so I found that to be an interesting coincidence too. I have lots of Fine Art Prints of my tribal dragonflies for sale at Imagekind and I have several for t-shirts / sweatshirts / etc. for sale at my Barbara Burns Art Dragonflies Printfection shop.

Imagekind Gallery dragonflies
Copyright (C) 2008
I have a Dragonfly Muse so there are lots of dragonflies in my art. Art dragonflies are much prettier sitting still than real dragonflies to me though a real dragonfly in flight is an amazing creature that brings a lot of joy and wonder to my life. Because of having a dragonfly muse, I've learned a lot about real dragonflies. I still like the looks of a dragonfly flying better than sitting and art dragonflies are much prettier than a real one staring at me a few steps away.

Unity Dragonflies

I created this design for the Imagekind Summer Games contest - Unity Theme, August 2008.

Dragonfly on a Dragonfly

I took this photograph in front of my house about 6:15 PM - 8/22/07 - I came home from work and there it was - a living blue dragonfly on a plastic dragonfly - it is on the tip of the top left wing of the brownish-clear plastic dragonfly - I ran to get the camera expecting it to be gone when I got back - yet there it was - waiting for me to take it's picture - I took several pictures but only this one was a clear photo. All the other photographs I took - the surroundings were quite sharp and clear but the dragonfly itself was smeary, fuzzy and blurry. It didn't look to me like it was moving but the camera doesn't lie - the dragonfly was shimmering just enough to blur in the other pictures.

Patriotic Tribal Dragonfly

The patriotic dragonfly came about from the scorpion tail - the message is clearly saying Don't Tread on Me I Sting Back. The dragonfly is a fearsome hunter in the insect world.

Patriotic Tribal Dragonfly on Black

The patriotic dragonfly with the scorpion tail is very dramatic on a black background and the patriotic message is the immediate focus.

Lone Dragonfly 1

This was my very first dragonfly design - it has a leaf type antennae - real dragonflies do not have antenae but art dragonflies do so it became a plant like appendage.

Lone Dragonfly 2

I turned my very first dragonfly design facing the opposite direction for a wall grouping opportunity - real dragonflies do not have antenae but art dragonflies do so it became a plant like appendage.

Pink Tribal Dragonfly on Black

The pink tribal dragonfly with the scorpion tail is very dramatic on a black background.

Pink Tribal Dragonfly

The pink tribal dragonfly appears to have a scorpion tail but I liked the effect of the curved tail on the dragonfly in pink as well as the patriotic dragonfly.

Flare Tribal Dragonflies on Black

I love drama in my designs and these are very eye-catching - the golden against the black background.

Flare Tribal Dragonflies

The orange tribal dragonflies came about because of seeing flares along the freeway and I wanted to create that effect with a dragonfly.

Dragonfly Swarm 1

There are a variety of dragonfly types here ... from the leaf antennae dragonfly to the tribal dragonflies.

Rainbow Tribal Dragonflies on Black

I really like the rainbow illusions of these tribal dragonflies on a black background.

Rainbow Tribal Dragonflies

I wanted a rainbow of colors for these tribal dragonflies though only one dragonfly appears more of a rainbow color.

Royal Tribal Dragonflies in Purple

These purple dragonflies are the royalty of the insect world - Royal Tribal Dragonflies.

Green Tribal Dragonflies on Black

I found these green tribal dragonflies on a black background very dramatic and added the shadows for an even higher drama effect.

Green Tribal Dragonfly

These green tribal dragonflies framed in green look great on my dining room wall - very dramatic statement.

Blue Tribal Dragonflies on Black

I liked the effect of the blue tribal dragonflies on a black background.

Blue Tribal Dragonflies

I created my tribal dragonflies because I couldn't find any searching the Internet awhile ago and because both tribal design and dragonflies fascinate me. Blue is my favorite color too.

Dragonfly Flower Collage

I liked the flower I had painted with watercolors but decided I would like it better translucent with bold dragonflies around it thus it became a dragonfly flower collage - a mixed media painting since the dragonfly is vector illustration and the flower wascreated in watercolors, then scanned into the computer.

Dragonfly Toadstools

Since I didn't add any Faeries to the watercolor painting, I decided to collage in tribal dragonflies. I like the effect of the watercolor painting with vector illustration dragonflies. Contrast is a lot of fun thus this mixed media painting was born.

Dragonfly Spring

I like to collage my landscape paintings with my vector illustration graphic design dragonflies - a blue dragonfly with this fruit blossoming tree gave it musical movement so I added more for a dragonfly symphony mixed media painting.

Dragonfly Square

This vector illustration graphic design of dragonflies in a square came about because I needed a dragonfly background for my Dragonfly or Dragon Fly Theme web site - I started from an optical illusion point of view. I have since changed the web site background but I made this into an art print because I found it to be lovely to see the stars & dragonflies together.

Fire Tribal Dragonflies on Black

I really liked the effect of these red and yellow tribal dragonflies on the black background - drama in my art is one of my favorite things to create.

Fire Tribal Dragonflies

These red and yellow tribal dragonfly vector illustrations were a lot of fun to create - they look wonderful in almost any color harmony ... from the office to the boardroom to the bedroom to the bathroom.

Electric Dragonfly Swarm

These dragonflies appear very electric to me on a black background and have immense drama contained within the contrast between the black and the bright colors.

Dragonflies Swarming on Black

These dragonflies swarming remind me of fireflies on a warm Iowa summer night. I like the depth created using three black mats with a black frame - very dramatic too.

Dragonfly Swarm 2

Until I saw a swarm of dragonflies, I did not know they gather in a swarm at times. It was very awe inspiring seeing them - this was my second Dragonfly Muse inspired vector illustration graphic design of dragonflies. Real life and art make great bedfellows!