Abstracts

Recently I returned to working with acrylic paints rather than figuring out ways to finish some fabric pieces. I seem to box myself in and wonder if I should plan how to hang a piece before I begin creating it. But  that would curtail the spontaneity that I depend on. The size of these three pieces are 5x7 inches.

They're more brown black, and ivory white than black and white and nearly impossible to color correct for posting.

The substrate is 4-ply mat board that was heavily textured before washes of paint were done. The first two work well as a diptych.   (pay it forward 4x6 size prints available on etsy.)

Perhaps all the dragons of our lives are princesses who are only

 waiting to see us act, just once, with beauty and courage.

Rainer Rilke             

Gull with two beaks?

When I matched up the eyes of two seagull photos this emerged.  I was working on Project #10 in the Digital Expressions book by Susan Tuttle. The first one I created can be seen on my photo blog. The piers are in the San Francisco bay and if I hadn't taken the early morning walk I would have missed photographing them.

San Francisco Morning

A week ago today I was in San Francisco enjoying the cool morning air and marveling that the expected fog was hanging over the Golden Gate Bridge rather than enshrouding the city. I'm not an early riser but I knew that if I didn't get up early and venture out to photograph I'd end up checking out of the Radisson and not be able to find decent parking. The trees sparkled in the early morning light and while others were busy looking down in their rush to get to work I was looking up.

  

I walked for about seven miles which is six miles past my limit and I felt the burn from the climb up and down hills for days afterward. But the glory of standing on Lombard Street looking down the steep incline I had slowly walked up remains with me. From Lombard I walked straight down to the bay where I joined the march around the bay; bikers, joggers, and strollers like me all seemed to have eyes on the bay as we bumped into each other. (more photos on my other blog)

Rather than share a inspiring quote by Sally Huss I'll direct you here, scroll down and enjoy!

Manipulated Photos

Back in the dark ages, the 80's, when I had a darkroom, it could hours or often days to manipulate a photograph. This one is a window with torn curtains with a second image of clouds over it.

In order to get the blue effect split developing was called for. My notes on the back say, Selenium and blue, and I have no idea how it was done beyond that other than it took hours and hours to get a few prints. Fast forward to 2010 and in a short time one can manipulate images without breathing in nasty chemicals. Project #4 in Susan Tuttle's book, "Digital Expressions" is marvelous and in just three hours I had four new images from my photo collection.

Quote: To have peace and confidence within our souls--these are the beliefs that make for happiness. Maurice Maeterlinck

                   

Happy July 4th!

You have to love a nation that celebrates its independence every July 4, not with a parade of guns, tanks, and soldiers who file by the White House in a show of strength and muscle, but with family picnics where kids throw Frisbees, the potato salad gets iffy, and the flies die from happiness. You may think you have overeaten, but it is patriotism. ~Erma Bombeck

                          

And More Mail Art

Why the sudden obsession? For one thing they're the perfect size for small studies; that sounds plausible, doesn't it? How about, I need the distraction from the daily craziness. This one says, "Semi precious. Undeliverable as is."

      

Photograph image, Fleur-de-lis motif, taken in Florence last summer when life was a little more normal, or at least I thought there was a chance of some normalcy.

"Delivery failed." Photograph taken on our first night in Italy, June 5th, 2009, Hotel Villa Stanley, Florence.

Quote:  "For us to go to Italy and to penetrate into Italy is like a most fascinating act of self-discovery -- back, back down the old ways of time. Strange and wonderful chords awake in us, and vibrate again after many hundreds of years of complete forgetfulness." --D.H. Lawrence