Lost Aussie on the loose

What Little Girls Are Made Of..

         

"What are little girls made of?
            Sugar and spice,
            And everything nice,
            That's what little girls are made of."

Not really quite sure where the nursery rhyme originated...and there's probably a whole slew of equal opportunity and sexist material that would suggest that girls are just as happy playing with frogs, snails and puppy dog tails.. and I am probably one of them.

I don't recall owning any Barbie dolls or other such creatures as a child, other than one old faithful called "Mary" who kept me company for many a year and was the compliant subject when I tried my first barbering experience - much to my Mother's chagrin!

Now, surprisingly enough, I'm the proud owner of one Blythe doll and am actually contemplating growing my collection with a couple of other funky limited edition dolls that have caught my eye.....not for dress-up purposes of course (cough, cough)...but as more Photoshop fodder...of course!

Artful purpose is a great excuse for buying just about anything.....ask my poor beleaguered husband :-))

Call It Yours

When I first started using Photoshop, some six years ago, to create mixed media digital art, folk were not that complimentary.  A huge debate raged over the "original" issue - as many people felt that anything that was computer generated did NOT constitute "originail" art, given that it left you with the ability to print and re-print as many times as you liked.

So, I confess it is with a somewhat jaundiced view, that I have seen so many folk jump on the digital art bandwagon and embrace it, without remembering that they were the authors of so many scathing remarks in the "early years"!  Surprise, surprise!

For me, Photoshop is just like any other tool I have in my Studio, be it paint, papers or my stash of vintage ephemera.  Scan, manipulate, alter or erase.....the end product is derived from some unforeseen inspiration dictated by my imagination, and that, to me is all that counts!

So when Nancy was here this past weekend she remarked to me, that after a few sessions at the computer, she viewed our photography expedition into New York City with a new eye.  Normally she is one for taking well considered photos, with great composition.  I take photos with a different persepective....one that sees not only the focal image, but shapes, textures, and snippets that can be used as good "stock".

There is nothing wrong with using the commercial stock photos sites or copyright free images that are available from many sources to create your art, but at the end of the day, if you want to "call it yours"!..there is nothing better than using your own images.  and in this, the day and age of the digital camera there's no reason why you can't take the day out to snap 500 pictures to bring home and use as good material for your digital or "real" mixed media artwork!

So grab your camrea and look beyond the obvious and think about training your eye to the possibilities, which are endless and could be, dare I say it - ORIGINAL!

Love and Light

Well I'm pleased to say that I am over my shopping funk of the previous post!
Largely due to the fact that for the past four days I have had the pleasure of the company of an art friend of mine, Nancy, from Canada.
Nancy is a very gifted and talented lady, a great photographer and jewelery maker!

Apart from spending time together cruising around NYC, checking out the Bodies exhibition and snapping photos, the main purpose of Nancy's visit was to hone her Photoshop skills.
After 4 days of fairly intensive tuition I'm proud to say that I have a student of the first order and the digital collages she produced during the few days we spent together have turned out beautifully!  Not mine to share, but I'm sure in time she will post a few on her website .
Thanks Nancy!  It was a pleasure and joy to have you here! xoxo

On another note, over at the Altered Page Seth is off and running with a new edition of his online feature - PULSE, this time called "Playing Favourites".
If you have a moment to stop over there and peruse his amazing selection of artwork and commentary from an impressive array of artists, do so.  There are always new and interesting links to track down after reading the entries..a sure fire way to chew up a few hours browsing - and who can resist?

And with that I'm off to catch up on a few things around the house.
Ciao for now!

"R" is for...

...Ridiculous, Rotten, Rude and Retail!   Can I tell you how much I hate shopping these days?

Whatever happened to the old fashioned notion of "customer service" and by that I actually mean BOTHERING to SERVE the customer!  Let alone add a modicum of civility to the experience!!!

It seems like just about every shop you go into these days, you are hard pressed to get even one employee who is willing to quit their sidebar conversation with their colleages to help you. 
Every checkout experience is just that...check out mentally for about 1/2 an hour until their is someone available to LET you pay!

And don't even get me started on manneRs!..there are none..no one says 'excuse me' , thank you or thanks for your business.... RUDE just seems to be an acceptable standard of behaviour these days...and not just among retail employees either....

There's an inordinate number of folk around these parts that seem to think that their large quantities of BLING endows them with the Right to interrupt your customer experience at will and have absolutely no perception of anyone's space in the retail environment except their own.  Talk about "coupons" at 50 paces and death by shopping cart misadventure!...you'd think with all those false fingernails that they'd at least pop their own bubble and get some perspective!

I've decided that from now on, where possible I shall just shop on the net and be content with the very polite and pleasant emails that are generated by a machine following my transaction...at least someone bothered to programme the 'puters to be REFINED and RESPECTFUL!!

Painting with Pixels

It's not often that I take a LONG time to create any of my digital collages, a couple of hours at most, with the usual pattern being opening multiple files, cutting, pasting, blending layers and running a few different actions to achieve the desired result.

Every now and then though, I reign myself in and take time to create something a little different, with a lot more effort.

Today, after reading a few new articles on the Adobe website and following some neat links, I decided to revisit digital painting. Pieces that I have created in the past have never passed (my) muster, but I spent a lot longer painting this time, used a number of more elaborate layer masks and am pretty happy with the end result.

I pulled a close-up so that you can see the painterly effect and this little snapshot is of the entire picture.

I'll print him up tomorrow on some wiz bang Fine Art paper and see how he looks in "real-life"!

Rainy Daze

After last week's sunshine and bone chilling 30F's we now have a thermometer nudging the 50's, but with rainy 'embellishments'! 

I am never one for wishing the days away (as you usually don't get them back)..but I sure as heck wish that Spring would hurry itself along.
Google is all ready with it's new seasonal and flowery banner, so I'm wondering if Mother Nature is connected to the NET and au fait with the change???

Anyway, regardless of the weather I hauled out the Nikon today, and snapped some photos.  Raindrops are such fascinating things.  I love the way they act as mini mirrors of what is around them....can you spy the leafless trees in these ones?

Spring is flourishing indoors, at least, thanks to the local supermarket....

And...

..this one fell out of my head before bed...

Sleep tight my honey's ...mind the bugs don't bite
xox
Mum

"Fai-Muss"

Well, I had my five minutes of glory this past week, splashed out in the Real Estate section of Long Island's Newsday on Friday.

I'd almost forgotten to go and get a paper and we ended up stopping at a 711 on the way home late that night.  I think the guy at the counter thought we were nuts to buy 5 copies, but I will have to snip and cut a few clippings to send "home' and one of course..for that scrapbook I am supposed to have!

(I wonder if backed up hard-drives are considered as suitable familial archival substitutes for scrapbooks?)

Cats, as you  may have noticed, make very reluctant models!  Lucy was ready to bolt out of my arms and Annie was barely civil enough to interrupt her nap and open one eye!

Oh, and yes, we are STILL painting...ergo the ladder and other bits of general mayhem!...

Photo Credit "Karen" from Newsday

A Quiet Day At The Office

My trusty 'fine fingered' friend Max spent the day sleeping on my desk today...testament to the amount of activity that was going on I guess.

I've packaged up my ICE-10 collages and they will head off to New Zealand tomorrow.

I added an updated photo album in the blog sidebar on the right, so you can take a peek if you'd like.  An eclectic mix this year.  Some straight digital and the rest, mixed media pieces.

Things are slowly returning to normal in the house after a week of corporate stress.  Merging banks, apparently is not all that easy?  Whodathunk?  All I know is that it's been ME taking the trash out all week! (Domesticity is such a leveller!)
Hot Kudos moment though as DH was there to help ring the bell to close the New York Stock Exchange yesterday!  Way to go Darlin'!!!!!

Revisions, revisions

One of the most attractive aspects of creating digital collage art is that you can change, alter and revise it as many times as you like until you arrive at THAT moment when it all comes together and the light bulb goes off.  I think I am 'almost' there this this piece, but only time will tell.

Sometimes I think that creating digital art is like dreaming through your fingers.