Playing in my Virtual Studio!

 

I've been missing my studio, but haven't had time to get in there, prepping for our upcoming trip.  So, tonight, I decided to play in my virtual studio - my laptop!

Love is what Matters

Today, on the news, there was a lot of bad news, depressing news, and just all types of things negative things on the radio and TV.  This is my response to that - let's focus on the positive - that's what will help us get thru anything!

 

UP 4 fun

Next,  I thought about our upcoming trip, and how much fun we're going to have.  I found some great CitraSolv background I created some time ago, added vintage photos of kids having fun, and had some fun with text cut-outs, paint swirls, and ended up with an uplifting mindset!

A Walk in the Country

My last creative endeavor of this evening was to take a photo I took from our hike earlier this week, convert it to a stylized drawing, and build a collage around it.  I have wanted to do something like this for a while - I think I'll do more of these for my upcoming art travel journal - it will probably take me a few months to get it done, and it will focus on our next few trips! 

 

Enjoy!



Windows of Kennicott

As you all know, I love deserted cabins.  There were plenty of uninhabited buildings in Kennicott, and many, many cool windows!  I decided to have some fun with the window images and used them as the basis for a few digital collages.

 

 

I imagined a family that lived in the building this window belongs to.  I love the wistfulness of this image - a sort of forgotten family history....

 

 

This is a building you've seen in a previous posting for Kennicott.  I call this one "Nobody Home" - at least nobody who is with us in physical form.  However, there are many who are with us in spirit - and here are 3 that I imagine may have lived in this house.  Imagination is a wonderful thing!

 

 

I really loved the old wood surrounding this window, and somehow just saw this gentle soul looking up from reading her book to gaze out at us.  Her refined elegance is a lovely counterpoint to the rough and falling apart exterior.

 

Enjoy!

New Digital Art

Here are some digital collages that I created this morning, when my mind was in too much of a buzz about creating something to let me sleep.....

 

The basis for the piece above was a sunrise shot I took a few days ago.  I added watercolor painting, a music sheet and this lovely quote from Lao Tzu.  When I think of this quote, I cannot help but think that true power is the only thing that lasts.....strength is fleeting.

 

The foundation of the above piece was also a sunrise shot I made a few days ago.  Same digital ephemera was added, and the quote about sunrises and sunsets.  Isn't it the truth?  How often are we too busy to notice the beauty around us?  And if we are missing this, what else are we missing?

 

This final piece is using another sunrise as its base, with a winter tree silhouette.  When I saw this quote, I was immediately taken with it.  Another way of saying live your life to the fullest, altho Confucius says it better!

 

Enjoy!

Digital Collage Pieces - Deserted Cabin Area

Woke up feeling a bit creative this morning and decided to play with the images I shot the other day of the deserted cabin and the area around it.

The above piece is based on the photo I shot of the road and bushy little tree that was next to the cabin.  I started with a Citrasolv background, added a map image, a post card, and Zelda.  She's a vintage image I got from a photo I got off of ebay a few years ago, and is one of my favorites (as you can tell, since I've named her!).  I then sort of blended and merged all the layers for this result. It reminds me of that line from Robert Frost (I believe) - "and miles to go before I sleep".

 

Whenever I've shot this little cabin, I can't help but wonder about the family who might have lived there at one point.  This piece is meant to capture that sort of nostalgic feeling.  I started this piece with a digital watercolor paint background, added some letter text and an image of a family who may have been like the family who lived there at one time, at least in my imagination.  This piece seems to have a bit of a bittersweet feel to it for me.

 

Enjoy!



Digital Collages

Here are some new digital collage ATCs I created for a swap.  The theme of the swap was "Forgotten Places" and most of these have scenes from some ghost towns we've visited here in New Mexico.  Take a look......

 



This first image is of a door, specifically the doorknob, of a deserted building in the town of  Chloride.  Some of the layers include a watercolor background, a vintage postcard, and some brush-stokes in the shape of keys that I downloaded online.  Oh, and of course, the image of the doorknob.

This second piece is based on an image I shot in a cemetery in Cerillos. There are layers of watercolor, some background paper I made using the Citra-Solv technique, a music sheet, and the image itself.  The cemetery is still used, I believe, but this image was from a section of older graves.

This image is not of a ghost town, altho the background of the room looks like it might be.  Actually, that tattered room is another of the Citra-Solv backgrounds I've come up with.  I included some text in what looks to be a child's handwriting.  The image of the young woman is from a vintage photo I have, altho I don't know who she is.  She is one of my favorite subjects, tho.  The little girl in the center of the piece is actually a photo of my Mom, taken when she was quite the young child.  Remembering one's childhood can stir up all types of emotions, and I think you can project your own onto this piece.

The non-existent town of  Waldo is the subject of this piece.  The only thing left of this town are the foundations of some old coke ovens.  The town was built right along the tracks, and the coke ovens were just on the other side of the tracks.  We actually had to climb over a fence to get here.  I'm sure we weren't supposed to, but, there wasn't anyone there to see us!  And, I just love the vintage photo of the young lady with her bag and a determined look in her eye, waiting to board her train.  I added that vintage postcard again, and decided the piece was complete.

The town of Fulsome is shown above.  The old main street really had a great feel to it, in terms of making you feel the spirit of the town as it once was.  The background was another of my Citra-Solv background, and I had to add the image of the raven.  The text across the top of the piece was text that remained after the Citra-Solv technique.  I thought it added such a good touch, I decided to just leave it there.

This last piece is another one that is not of a ghost town.  The background is another Citra-Solv number.  I added in the handwriting from (I believe) a vintage postcard.  On the far left of the piece is a vintage image of the young soldier who I'm imagining wrote the letter to his love, the haunting woman shown in the lower left corner.  This woman is actually a photo I took of one of the statues at the Cemetery at Ricoleta in Buenos Aires, Argentina, when we visited there several years ago.  This statute is one of my favorite images from that cemetery.  As a little tidbit of info, that cemetery is where Eva Peron (Evita) is laid to rest.  No statute like this at her family's crypt, tho.

 

 

Enjoy ~

Summer & Wisdom

I decided to play with my new background paper and create some digital collages.  The first piece, below, creates the impression of summer vacation.  The background paper has the mom with her children at some sort of beach amusement park.  The distressed effect of the background creates a sort of vintage feel to it.  I added the child's ticket in the lower right corner, and also the vintage postcard.  The postcard is from France, so in my imagination, this is all taking place in a village along the French seaside.

This next image also continues the summer feel.  The background paper has the surfer image on it, and the texture around and below him makes me think of him coming back to a beach cottage after a morning of surfing in the ocean.  The young woman is the girl he left behind in the city, wondering if he's thinking of her and misses her.  

This last image has more of a somber tone to it.  The phrase across the top of the piece references the souls of the dead and wisdom of the gods.  I feel like the image of the ghost town street reflects the souls of the dead.  I have always thought that ravens and crows seemed to reflect a sort of timeless wisdom, and so I chose the image of the raven to reflect that.  You have to wonder what the wisdom of the gods was when deciding which towns would survive and thrive.....and which would not.

Enjoy!

Mixed Media Mini Art

Here's a new idea that I tried initially to submit a Readers' Challenge to Cloth, Paper, Scissors magazine for possible publication (still haven't heard if my piece is selected).  It gave me the idea to take the idea I had for note cards, and use that idea on mini-canvases.  These are the results of that exploration, and were Christmas presents for some friends this Christmas.

The above piece is based on a photograph that I took of a lily in our front garden this past summer.  I used PhotoShop Elements 10 to enhance the image so that it looks more like a painting that a photo.  The background of the piece is a couple of layers of paint in a color complementary to the photo.  I then added some handmade paper, and other decorative paper to slightly contrast the color palette, and added the word "Live".  My feeling is that we should all strive to truly live each day of our lives, and not let life pass us by while we are unthinking passengers.

This piece speaks to me in terms of reminding me to be fully present every day.  The bright yellow flowers were taken this past summer when we were in Victoria, British Columbia, Canada.  It would have been very easy for me to miss these beautiful blooms, given all the beautiful blooms in that area of Victoria. However, slowing down and looking down showed me these wonderful treasures.  Again, I added handmade and decorative paper to complement/contrast the basic palette of the piece.  Ribbon is added around the edges of each piece, which you couldn't really see in the first piece, but is more noticeable in this piece.  And, the word "Be" speaks to being present. 

There was something about this fern leaf that reached out and touched me when I saw it.  We were in Juneau, and had ridden the tram there up to the top of the mountain immediately next to the city.  Atop the mountain was a rain forest with a path winding thru it.  This fern was one of several photos I took up there, but it just sort of spoke to me as being the best image to use for this piece.  I love the fact that the handmade paper I chose to complement it has a leaf embedded in it that seems to echo the image.

This final piece uses a digital collage that I created as it's theme.  I love the image of the little girl and there is some handwritten paper in the background of the piece.  The autumn leaves reflect the coloring of the little girl, and the original title of the digital collage piece was "Someday I'll Write".  I decided to stick with that title and used the word "Someday" for this piece.  The snippet of handmade paper with handwriting stamped on it echoes the handwriting in the digital collage and the decorative paper is in keeping with the color palette.  The little piece of ephemera I added to the piece is not a feather, altho it sort of looks like one here.  It's actually a piece of sort of fuzzy ribbon that I thought added just the right touch.  I really like the sort of whimsical dreamy feel of this piece.

Enjoy!