Aurora!

The task this week at Kim Klassen's Texture Tuesday party is simply to use her "Aurora" texture on a photo.  Click here to see some truly amazing photography and texture work!  I have to say, I really like textures that have text, but sometimes they can be hard to use.  I love this week's "Aurora" because the textures are just on the edges -- enough to give you some visual interest, but not enough to overpower the image on the photo.

(two layers of "aurora" plus Kim's "canvas back magic")

sooc

sooc

("aurora," "canvas back magic,"  plus a ShadowHouse Creation texture)

My birthday was the other day, so I decided to spring for a macro lens and hopefully it will arrive before next week. I can't wait to see what I can capture with it!  Here you can see that I really want to get in close, but my camera reaches its inherent limits:

sooc

(Three layers of "Aurora" with "Dropcloth")

("Aurora" with two layers of "Mayzee")

sooc

On 90 percent of these images, my family all prefer the version without the textures. I just can't see why! To my mind, textures add a sense of timelessness and a feeling that there is a story behind the picture. I'll bet you might agree if you are visiting from Kim's site, but then again, maybe it's just my husband and kids' way of telling me I need to work on this some more!

sooc and with "Aurora"

Letting go and trusting that there will always be enough

I am really enjoying my class with Jane Davies!  I love playing with paints and papers in my kitchen, and it is wonderful to have a mentor on the other side of my computer screen giving me constructive feedback -- it doesn't get any better than this!  Here are my final collages from our second lesson on landscapes:

collage #1 before......                                 collage #1, final version 

collage #2, first stage                                      collage #2, final version

collage #3, first stage                               collage #3, final version

 collage #4, first stage                               collage #4, final version
  

One of the comments I received was about the courage it takes to completely cover over existing work in order to take a piece where it needs to go.  I guess I had never thought about it in those terms before.  Certainly, being willing to work interactively with your creation is very important.  That, and not having a preconceived notion of what the outcome should be, really help you make better decisions on the fly.  For me, the most important part of the process is letting go and trusting that I will hear the voice of my work telling me what it needs, and that I will find the right way to let it be whatever it needs to be.

It is also very much about letting go of any sense that my work -- and the materials I work with --  are "precious."  I try (and this is a constant struggle) to detach from any sense of value.  When I remember that there is always more where "this" came from, I don't hesitate to follow my gut instincts and I lose the fear that I won't be able to replicate or replace whatever it is I'm working on.  Quilters and collage artists are probably most susceptible to this fear -- don't we all have those gorgeous hand-dyed fabrics or specialty papers that we never use because they are just too beautiful?  (We say to ourselves that anything we could do with them could not possibly do justice to their intrinsic value...)

I try to hold onto the thought that if I trust that there will always be enough materials, ideas, and creativity available, then I will find them when I need them.  If instead I hold on and hold back, I am cutting myself off from the flow, which is the source of everything.

I think there's a life lesson in there, too.

Pink!

I am so not a pink girl; I much prefer saturated, vibrant colors.  Much to my dismay, this week's theme over at Kim Klassen's Texture Tuesday party is "pink."  Now don't get me wrong.  I love her soft, dreamy, vintage style images, but somehow things like that never seem to come out of my camera.  So the best I could do is a watermelon.... I mean, sure, it's pink...sort of.  Well, it's as close as I get.  Click here to visit Kim's Cafe and see the work of some truly amazing artists.

processed with Kim Klassen's "Silence" (soft light @100%), "Golden" (soft light @100%), "Canvasback Magic" (soft light @79%), and "Golden" (color burn @100%)

I did find a pink rose (with some interesting brown spots), which I'm adding almost as an afterthought (flowers are too easy):

processed with Kim's "Canvasback Magic" (soft light @50%), "Warm Sun" (overlay @58%), and "Greyday Slate" (overlay @52%)

I don't know if photographers have this problem, but as a quilter and mixed media artist, I have "issues" with certain colors.  They just don't naturally appeal to me, so I don't feel comfortable using them.  The good thing about the pink challenge is that it moves me outside my comfort zone.

This week in my online class with Jane Davies, we have been working on simple collaged landscapes.  Here are some of my preliminary color studies:

I even used some pink!

An excuse to play!

I am on a roll now with internet-based learning opportunities -- I just started another online art class. This time, I am studying dynamic composition with collage artist Jane Davies. 

 I love taking classes because they give me a justification for spending hours every day on my art.  Somehow, because I am paying for the privilege, art becomes "work" that I have to do.  This "work" -- which is really play -- takes precedence over mundane things like laundry and house cleaning by virtue of the deadlines that come with class assignments.  Now, if I can only figure a way to be this focused without spending any money..... 

I'm just playing with shapes here:

Last Friday, I decided I needed to make some ATC's, and was really getting into the mood:

But then I looked at the clock.... we were expecting house guests for the Fourth of July weekend in less than an hour, and my kitchen table still looked like this:

 I really zone out when I'm playing with color!

All I can say is:  lucky for me our guests were running late, too.... We had a lovely holiday weekend, culminating in our town's annual picnic and fireworks display.  I did not take my SLR to the fireworks (I don't even pretend to know how to properly capture fireworks); instead, these shots were taken with my iphone:

This one is kind of cool -- I think it looks like the aliens are landing:

 ...while this one looks like a flock of ghostly birds flying toward the sun:

 I hope everyone had a great weekend!

All good things must end

First of all, here's my quilt -- finished after a very long time sitting in the quilting hoop!  The quilt is actually a bit more turquoise than the photo shows... I had some lighting issues when I took the picture.  (One thing I have learned from my "silly photography" class is how vital it is to have good lighting -- but  knowing that is one thing, and achieving it is something else entirely!)


Here are some detail shots of the hand quilting:

My "silly photography" class is now over, and I have to say it was a fun way to get me to read the manual for my camera!  Here's my final image for the class, which I processed with two layers of  Kim Klassen's "golden" plus one layer of Shadowhouse Creation's "faux daugerrotype."  Check out Kim's Texture Tuesday party to see all the wonderful images that people create with her textures each week.


For me, the hardest assignments in this class were the ones involving strangers.... like the day we were told to take at least 100 snapshots of random people on the street.  I was planning on taking daughter #2 into the city for some shopping anyway, so I figured I could easily do both at the same time.  Let me just say that our shopping expedition was much more successful than the photography!   Although my eye is beginning to see things I might never have noticed before, I was stopped again and again by an inner voice that said, "don't go too close, you might offend someone."  I saw so many interesting things that day:  a toddler sharing his ice cream with a dog, a street vendor dozing in his chair, a little boy in front of a cupcake display trying to make a decision, a couple walking arm in arm oblivious to the crowds on the street.... but I was too afraid of intruding to capture any of those images.  How do street photographers get right into the scene and shoot?  

Here are the pitiful best of my shots that day:

(cupcakes sans little boy -- I didn't want his mom to think I was a stalker!) 

(I cheated here... this is my daughter!)

Sigh. Maybe I should stick with bees and flowers... and quilts!

(I used two layers of Kim Klassen's "golden" and one layer of her "dreams")

A Teaser

Oh, I'm so excited I can hardly stay in my body.  I finally finished the hand quilting on a piece I've been working on for three years.  No, it's not that complicated or intricate; the amount of time it's taken to finish is merely indicative of how busy my life has been over the last few years!  I can't show it until I've put a binding on, but here's a glimpse:


More soon.... I hope!

Silly Portraits!

My silly photography class is so much fun.  Luckily, one of our assignments this last week was to do a portrait.  This was serendipitous because that is the theme for Kim Klassen's Texture Tuesday.  You can click here to see all the amazing images that are submitted.

One of my daughters was willing to be my guinea pig subject, so we went outside so I could get the right light, and this is the result....  I used Kim's pourvous, warmly vintage and serendipity textures to give it a vintage feel.

Now I have to give you the back story. I love this photo, but it is not the one I intended to take that day!  It was the other daughter who was my subject.  This one was most definitely not cooperating.

Daughter #1 and I were on a roll (so to speak), and I was getting some nice images:

Then, daughter #2 decides to come outside with snacks... and the dog.  Now I can't tell you how many snaps I have of #2 with a goofy expression on her face -- I think she is constitutionally incapable of smiling directly at the camera.  The mood changed abruptly:





The party moved out onto the lawn, daughter #2 decided to put up her hair, and I captured this:

She is nothing if not mercurial.