More Photoshop

More working with Katrin Eismann's books today--this time I worked on Restoration and Retouching with an old photo my sister bought for me a couple of years ago that was scratched and faded. For a first attempt using new techniques, I feel pretty good about this. On the left is the original; the middle is color-corrected to improve contrast and remove color cast; the right has the scratches removed. Clicking on the photo will make it larger so you can see the changes more clearly.

TIRED today--the eighth grader went on his class trip to Sacramento, so I was up at 3 a.m. with him--took him up to the school at 4 a.m. and got back in bed at 4:30--up again at 6:30 to get other kids off to school. I have to pick him up at the school at 11:45 tonight--yawn. Good thing I've got something to look forward to tomorrow! Piano lessons--yay! Today was the first day I've missed my morning pages in three weeks...

I Am So Excited

Last night, I called the lady down the road who gives piano lessons, and I have my first lesson on Thursday morning!

I have wanted to take piano since I was in college (a long long time ago) and now I'm finally doing it!

I know this is a direct result of doing the Finding Water program!

Playing with Photoshop

Spent a lot of time today cleaning the studio and my files on the computer, but also squeezed in some time playing.

Another Art Quilt

Cleaning out the closet last night, I came across this quilt that I did about a month ago. You would think that the jiggy-jag edges would be easier to put together, but that's not true. This one was a real you-know-what! I like how it turned out, though. I'd seen one like this a long time ago, and when I came across the sketch in my journal, I thought I'd try it. It's about 30"x30"--a nice size to hang on a wall.

Finding Water

This morning my eleven year old daughter and I sat at the kitchen table and did our morning pages together. The big window looks out over the pasture (very green this time of year) and the beautiful snow-capped mountains. Such a nice start to the day.

I did my morning pages every morning this week and added responses to the Divining Rod sections in the evenings. I was going to go to an antique store on Friday for my Artist Date, but really just wanted to stay home and work in the studio all day, so that's what I did. I did go out one afternoon and take some pictures outside that I thought maybe I could use in my digital artwork, so I guess I'll count that. I'll make it to the antique store this week, camera in hand.

I haven't gotten as much chance to check in with other people's blogs as I'd have liked, so that's on the agenda for this week. As of right now I have no daytime commitments this week, which means lots of time in the studio! Yay!

I have noticed that I seem more full of ideas and energy for creating. Many others have mentioned the same thing. I know Katie was drawing both yesterday and today. This weekend was full for me with mom stuff--the two older kids had basketball games yesterday and all three went to a birthday party today--so I didn't get to the studio at all.

Teenage boy is waiting for his turn on the computer--more later.

Create a Connection

1. What is your favorite word? evanescent. I love how it sounds and what it means. I try to remember that all of life is evanescent.

2. What is your least favorite word? fart. I can't believe that I actually wrote that word on my blog.

3. What turns you on creatively, spiritually or emotionally? Wonderful music, words of encouragement from friends, and wonderful thought-provoking discussions.

4. What turns you off? closed minds.

5. What is your favorite curse word? I'm bad. Sh-- pops out of my mouth when something bad happens. According to my 13-year-old son, that's even what I said in the moment before we were in our horrible car accident last year.

6. What sound or noise do you love? The happy murmur of my kids playing together.

7. What sound or noise do you hate? Squealing tires.

8. What profession other than your own would you like to attempt? Journalist.

9. What profession would you not like to do? I wouldn't want to work at a fast food restaurant.

10. If Heaven exists, what would you like to hear God say when you arrive at the Pearly Gates? "Well? Was it as fun as I told you?"

If anyone else answers these, I'd sure love it if you'd share by leaving a link!

Illustration Friday: Communication

I've been working on this for almost two hours now, and I have to say, these IF challenges are wonderful for me. They push me to think in a different mode than I normally do and to use Photoshop and the computer rather than canvas and paint and paper. I'm never completely satisfied when I'm done, but that's par for the course for me.

More Photoshop

I've spent part of this morning working with Photoshop Masking and Compositing by Katrin Eismann. I've learned more about PS from this single book that I have in the five years I've been using PS. I think the biggest difference in this book and others I've read is that this one isn't simply a cookbook for creating certain effects. With this book I'm learning how to USE the tools that PS offers. I'm not articulating this very well. Sufficeth it to say I can't recommend it highly enough--I even put a link up. I've also purchased the same author's book Photoshop Retouching and Restoration, but haven't started working on it yet.

Today I finished learning how to use the pen tool to create paths and selections, and then started on the chapter called "Masks Are Your Friends." I think that this chapter may be one I'll have to work through several times in order to get it to stick in this old brain!

The power went out in the studio this morning--just the heater and the lights--I still had computer power and music. I let it get chilly in here before I went out to flip the main breaker--brrr.

I think beginning to work through Finding Water is really inspiring me. I've been having so much fun looking through the blogs of other people in the group! One of my goals for this next week is create a more comprehensive list of blog links in one of my sidebars--maybe a revamping of the W-List?

Monoprints

I was so inspired by the article on monoprinting in this month's Cloth, Paper, Scissors that I decided to make some of my own. Yesterday I experimented. Of course, I didn't have any glass on which to roll the ink so I used a piece of palette paper instead. And, oh gee, I didn't have any printing ink so I just used cheap acrylics with retarder added. I'm pretty good at making do when I have to.

I drew houses, much like she did in the article, and then added some big popsicle trees. I don't want to make a paper quilt with these, just individual prints. Yesterday I mentioned using this same process on fabric--that's on tomorrow's agenda. I'm still trying to figure out how to control the paint absorption by the fabric...

The bottom print is done, I think. I liked the combination of machine- and hand-stitching...

Finding Water

This is a copy of the contract I've signed with myself for this twelve week adventure for Finding Water, Julia Cameron's new book. I've been doing my morning pages for the last couple of weeks--I figured I'd start early--and have yet to figure out what my Artist Date will be this week. Maybe a trip to the fabric store? It's almost an hour away, so it'll gobble up the whole day, but that's okay, right?

I've been thinking about doing monoprints on fabric, then using the fabric for quilting. In truth, quilting is really just a fabric collage... I'm not sure how it would work--maybe iron the base fabric to freezer paper, ink up some palette paper, then draw on the back side of the freezer paper to transfer paint to fabric? Then I'd have the freezer paper to use as a template for the applique and quilting...

See? I'm already full of new ideas and ready for adventure! Lots of times, I used to worry that I was travelling down some path that would bear no fruit--in my old age (!) I see that every path has something to offer. Every single thing I've done in the past has made me who I am today, and there is no such thing as wasted time out here in the studio.

Off to play.

IF: Gravity

Holiday for the kids yesterday; basketball today--I'm a little late making something for Illustration Friday. I'd welcome any comments, as I'm not sure about this one. Let's call it "the digital experiment."

Also interested in responses to the new look of the blog, as well as my other art!

A New Look

I've been meaning to do this for some time--make a banner for my header, so that was my project for today. I'd like to set it up so that it's a rotating banner, but I may just create a new one for every month. Haven't decided yet. I also put Google AdSense on the blog--thought it wouldn't hurt to try it.

Gorgeous day here today--blue sky, sun, mountains all around--it was fun being out here today. I'm glad I put windows at both the east and west ends of the studio, it makes for such nice cheery light when it's sunny. And of course, the north window is for the view...

No Name

I'm stumped on the name for this one. I think my brain's just not working right...

I'm smiling as I write this, so obviously the dark cloud is lifting a little bit. I took Pissed Off Housewife's advice this morning, and I'm trying to collage my way to calm (although I suppose I could try to collage my way to clam, as I typed the first time).

Some Thoughts, If I Had Any

This may be one of those TMI posts, so if you're not interested or sympathetic, perhaps you ought to go somewhere happier. It seems to me that the last couple of months have been unusually turbulent around here, in every way imaginable. And I think I'm finally starting to crack.

On Saturday I scared everyone in my family with my anger, which included pointing out to the eleven-year old girl that "if you're hurt enough to lie in the middle of the basketball court crying and then come out of the game, then you're too hurt to play anymore--okay, you're hurt. You're crying. Dammit, get up and keep going." And though I've mellowed a bit since Saturday I can tell I'm not functioning at the same level of sanity that I was three months ago.

The question is really WHY? I need reasons. Is it the beginning of menopause (I'm 43) messing with the perfect balance of Zoloft in my system? Or is it just the worries about money and the challenge of having a thirteen-year old boy in the house? Am I finally cracking under the strain of being on the school board? Are my concerns about inept teachers just too much for me? Enquiring minds WANT TO KNOW.

Science Fair at the Memorial Building tonight, and Katie's project is in it. She did a great job on her experiment and I can't wait to see it. Board Meeting tomorrow night, but fairly routine agenda. One of my dear friend's mother just had a stroke, but she seems to be doing well. My kids are healthy and funny and loving and smart, my husband's terrific--but wow, am I ever wound up.

I know, I need to make some art, but I'm having trouble starting. I'm putting it off by doing anything else I can think of--yesterday I cleaned all the bookcases, for crying out loud! When I clean the house, you know I'm desperate.

Sooooo--here's a piece I just finished. I made my own handcut stamps from foam for the buildings. I was going to add some wispy words, but I think it's done. I'm going to go start cutting and pasting--I can prep canvasses and maybe that will get me going. Fingers crossed for luck...

IF:Crash

I'm stumped, so I'm posting something I did before that had, for me, a jarring quality to it.

Please look at my other recent work on the blog!

At Forest's Edge

This canvas sat on a shelf for almost two months; I loved the texture, loved all the cool text underneath the paint, but couldn't seem to do anything more.

I finished it today, and I want to explain...

Now, I like wind-blown meadows and wide-open fields--but what I really love--really really really love, and have since I was tiny--are little hidey-hole places in the woods. Where I grew up in Michigan, there were real forests, places where the trees just seemed to go on forever and ever, and while of course you knew that, well, yes, you could lost in there, you also knew that you could get lost in there and no one could find you. I don't know why that appealed to me so much as a child (and still appeals to me as an adult, mind you) but there you are. I love shady spots with dappled light and the sound of the forest breathing around me. I love how deceptive sound is deep amongst the trees, how repetitive the trunks appear until you look closely and truly see them, standing there patiently with their bark lined like elderly faces. I love the little hollows where years' worth of leaves have gathered for the winter, that good smell of decay and death and growth all mixed together. I said once before on this blog that I heard the trees shrieking as I drove past a fire once--and it didn't surprise me, because I've known all my life that all of everything--life and death and good and bad--live in the forest.

I've known since I was little that if magic were to happen, it would happen in a forest. Maybe that's why I've been dreaming of little houses sheltered by strange and magical trees...

My Dad

I love doing these types of collages--heirloom collages, where people give me a handful of stuff re a person and I sort through it, make archival copies, and put together a collage using them. This one's of my dad. I did it a year ago, in Ann Baldwin's class at Art and Soul-Asilomar. I worked on it more after I got home, and I've had it hanging in a prominent place ever since. The big photo is from a snapshot taken of him when he was in his early twenties; the picture of the car is a shot of him at the family farm in Northern Michigan the summer he was twelve (with the shotgun he got as his only Christmas present); the Western Union telegram is a copy of one he sent home asking for more money when he was sixteen and on a trip across the country playing with his American Legion baseball team. If I'd done this while I was at home, I'd also have included some of his gorgeous handwriting and maybe one of his favorite quotes in the background.

Not really a good shot of it, because it's way too big to scan, but this is one of my favorite pieces.

Hmmm...

Today was a hard day. A not-good, bad-news, oh-no, why did I think I could be a mother/school board member/teacher kind of day. And maybe down the road, I'll be able to look back and say it was an important turning-point kind of day. But right now I'm just sad and overwhelmed.

Love's Return Home

Finished (maybe) something today. I love these little houses. They remind of the collaged houses I did this summer. Love the bright colors, too.

New Ideas

The last few days I feel as though I've had so many ideas rolling around in my head! Not so much 'new' things to make, just new directions I can take with what I'm already doing...It's exciting and scary at the same time. Some of my ideas have been inspired indirectly by Clarissa Pinkola Estes' book Women Who Run with the Wolves. I've been thinking that there's something there, nudging at me and my art, tho not exactly sure what. I need to do some experimenting, but honestly, I think I'm afraid to start! Haven't been able to be out in the studio for the last three days (family stuff) and now here I sit, typing away at the computer--hiding.

I've started doing my morning pages again in preparation for working my way through Julia Cameron's new book, Finding Water with a group of fellow creators. They've set up a lovely blog here in preparation for the journey, which officially starts on February 17th. I've already discovered something--if I do my morning pages the very first thing while I'm not quite awake, I get a very different tone. Yes, sleepier, but also much more raw and ME. Most days I can probably get my writing done before anyone's up, but I could tell I won't take kindly to interruption, as my husband was questioning me this morning while I sat and wrote...

I have some projects I've been putting off recently--I want to make a header for the blog and post some new art. The studio needs to be cleaned, as does the house, and of course there's the ever-present pile of laundry that a family of five generates...I could hide from my art indefinitely...

Illustration Friday: Sprout

I've been doing all these trees that are odd things--flowers, sea urchins, shells, etc. This certainly is quite a sprout! I experimented for a long time with adding some words and finally got it to look the way I wanted. I love the colors.