FF - Friday Fotos

Lately, I've needed to go to My Happy Place, the one that resides in my mind, and create

what I call Mind Art. I sit on this hotel balcony in Positano, Italy and breathe in the memory

of complete peace that I had there. 

The view from the hotel balcony. 

How come I'm living in the desert when it's the ocean that makes me feel so alive? 

It seemed like a good idea 8 years ago when the damp foggy days seemed to

be adding to the list of ailments. 

About half-a-mile down the winding road was

the restaurant we ate at the night before I took

this photo. If you look carefully you'll 

see where I wrote, "our table."

When I'm creating Mind Art I often think of how 

things were displayed on the streets in Positano.

There is an artful display of garments hanging

from the walls in the image above.

When one can't travel to Italy then Las Vegas will do.

Using a few photo apps I was able to get a

fairly decent effect of the Venetian exterior.

And below of the Canal, which did have

a Disneyland look to it. 

Positano. Five years ago this month. 

Memories!

And one for Caterina who posted an image of

Skeleton leaves on her blog that nearly

had me swooning. I adore decay.

Instant gratification through PSE

and Voila. a digital version

of a skeleton leaf.

Be sure to visit Caterina's blog where

I find beauty and peace. 

Wonderfulicious Wednesday

A few ideas I'm kicking around for maybe a fabric piece with 

images of feathers. 

 Feather scanned on illustration setting merged with photo of rust fabric.

Another version below.

Scan of photo on rust fabric scan.

Feather scan set on illustration setting on black and white acrylic painting.

Sun print scanned on illustration setting.

Wonderfulicious Wednesday - Agave study

From a distance this bloom seems to be anything but complex in structure.

  Once a year the blooms on a rather

boring Agave decorate the garden

with their glory of which is presently fading.

 As each petal starts to decay and fall off, the lacy stalk forms. 

Last year I missed the most of the stages of the glory the agave produces.

 This year I seem to be more in tune to the garden and what it presents to

me and with the gift of time I've made some photographic studies of a few of the cacti.

This particular image will most likely find its way into something manipulated.

I've just rediscovered working with negative prints again. 

Almost a little too manipulated, but the dance 

is joyous. 

Sunday Sun Prints

Yesterday, I played around with printing more than one print on fabric. Lots of bleeding

 happening,  which could be creatively used.

On the print above there is room in the middle for an addition. 

 This is what the panel looks like.

The tree is coffee dyed. The other two

prints are the result of Dye-na-flow paint.

 I'm not usually a fan of purchased things like stencils, 

but I'm liking this one right now.

Panel top. I love the pattern of these leaves from a plant that is prolific

here in the desert. Mexican Bird of Paradise is the popular name of it.

Saturday Sun Printing

A dear friend got me started researching sun printing which is dangerous; I can spend hours

looking at blogs etc. Anyway, I finally tried one, which didn't quite work.
 Printing on yellow might not be a good idea. Plus, I don't think that the leaves had made
 good enough contact with the fabric. Round two was much better. I painted Cerulean Blue
 over the yellow. There is a ghost print, the turquoise,

from the first printing. No stem though.

 I assumed that if I squished the leaves with a small pane of glass the print would be crisp and maybe 

stems would print. The flattened leaves resulted in both of these prints. Lots of interesting

paint texture, blotchy and some leaf imprints. I might do this again. The previously dyed fabric 

is from a batch that could benefit from over-dyeing, or this case, sun printed on.

Two imprints on a scrap of fabric that was previously dyed.

This image doesn't do the fabric justice. I have a few yards of pastel dyed fabric 

that had been set aside to over-dye. Light blue, yellow, and a red. The light blue
 shows through where

the leave imprint is and some of the other colors gave the coffee dyed sun print
 more of an organic look.

There is something satisfying about a stack of prints on a work table.  

Friday Fotos - End of the Calla Lily and Sea Urchin Season

 Just as expected, the Calla Lily isn't faring well in the heat, but then neither am I. Hopefully, it

will return next year so that I can create more images of its sculptural magnificence. 

In the meantime, I will continues to play with the few images I was able to capture. 

 It's also the end of the Sea Urchin Cactus season. 

 The bee kept buzzing my hand while I was taking this photo; he wanted

the bloom all to himself.  All I wanted was one great

shot of the bee and I ended up with three. 

We both were blessed.

 Zoom lens photo of the Sea Urchins in the garden.

This image fascinates me. Roger and I often visited Hakone Japanese Garden in Saratoga, CA.

 Unhappily, I never got a decent photo of the Koi ponds or the bamboo gardens.

 I recently ran across an image of bark on a Eucalyptus tree that I blended with

a bamboo image; both images were taken at Hakone

And now I finally have a photo that feels like Hakone always felt to me, if that makes sense.
While watching this video of Hakone I was able to once enjoy the small garden
and remember areas that I had forgotten.
Gotta love armchair traveling. 

Wonderfulicious Wednesday

 Wonderfulicious is when something is deliciously wonderful like dried pods 

from a Mesquite tree 

and a root still intact.

 Wonderfulicious is tossing cloth onto the work table at 3am and waking up to 

the magical placement of the cloth.

The cloth on the right - tea dyed, hand embroidery, and paint 

that was finished at 3am; sleepless night. 

If art is to nourish the roots of our culture, society must set the artist

 free to follow his vision wherever it takes him.

John F. Kennedy

Expression Cloth

Digital Cloth - created in PSE, so far. Eventually it will be printed out. 

 Purple Onion imprint on rust and tea dyed fabric.

 (the camera picked up green instead of purple. hmm)

 Rust and tea dyed fabric ready for? Love the patterning

and lines created by folds. 

Image of weeds layered with an image of a decaying pot.

Might have taken this photo too far into manipulated-land.

Wonderfulicious Wednesday Digital Play

 Memorial Day weekend in Vegas provided photo opps galore. 

Photo of Faux Venice blended with an image of a decayed pot. 

When I moved into a newly built house everything was too perfect; seven years later the desert summer heat has aged some things to perfection. I've recorded the decaying process from a highly glazed pot

to one that is nearly unglazed. Yes, I do prefer decay.

I found some dried stalks from Palm Trees in the yard this morning that begged to be photographed. Hours later after exploring numerous ways to use the images I came across a technique that has already become a favorite. Loving PSE again! Dried stalks against dyed fabric. 

Rose photo from last year layered a couple of times with textures.