Maddie with Flower

At the moment I am battling with photoshop. No idea why I have so much trouble with it! I am just not good with the tech aspect of things. All I really want to do is just play and create without thinking about how to actually put it together.

Today I did manage to give Maddie a flower in her hair!

September, Sadness and Mystery

There is something about September that always makes me sad. Even now when I no longer have little ones to let go as they head back to school, I still feel a loss. In spite of the fact that this was a very hot summer and there were times I wished for fall, I still feel sad today. Life just changes in September. More routine, coolness that leads to winter.

My life has changed in that I am no longer working outside the home. My husband will be retired within 2 months. Huge life changes! Kind of scary and it just feels way too soon.

On a positive note I will have time! Yes precious time to do what I wish to do. I can remember a number of years ago when I was working 4 days a week in a busy medical office, mothering two kids and all that goes with that, I was thinking one day about what would I like most in my life and it was time! So at that point I did cut my work hours back to give myself some time... to just be me and that was the best thing to do.

So here I am with that precious time.

 Even though I am not a huge fan of TO Do lists I have some musts and for the most part that is ART! Any kind of art. painting, photography, collage, printmaking etc. My love at the moment is digital collage. I just get lost in that. I spent some time yesterday developing an Etsy site, soon to be launched to offer some of my cards for sale. Not sure what will happen with that! Fun to try something new.

This is an image I worked on last night and soon to be offered in a card. 

Happy Canada Day!

I actually took this photo a few weeks ago during a rally protesting the Omnibus Bill. About 95 concerned people joined in with signs and smiles. In spite of the state of  the politics I am still a happy Canadian!

Becoming more creative

Finally the creativity urge has returned, thankfully! For some reason I was again stuck. Yes stuck in the routine drudge aspect of life. If you have never been stuck in that place, I am happy for you! If you have been in that sticky place you will know exactly what I mean.

I have been playing with digital collage and what what fun! I am in love with it and have many plans. One of which is  a line of cards. There is a new printer in my house that will print on art papers of all kinds, the inks are archival, lots of cool options. This afternoon I printed a test postcard and voila! It worked. The colours were gorgeous. Now I am hunting for a paper stock supplier etc.

Also I spent a little time today editing a few photos with the freebie Picasa. I liked that as well. I had been using Photoshop Elements but in a very limited way. My brain just can't seem to grasp the whole time consuming layers thing. So I am on a search for a program that will have cool effects with less effort. Simplicity is something I crave!

 This is my youngest granddaughter, Maddie,  a budding photographer. Here she is shooting beautiful Japanese cherry blossoms in April. The pic was taken with my small Nikon Coolpix camera. I did a crop and a holga effect edit in Picasa. Easy and fun.

it has been a long time

I know it has been forever since I have actually posted anything.

Recently I have discovered Polyvore, the result being the image in the previous post. Polyvore is a collage site mostly geared to fashion, but there are some cool art expression links as well. I found out about Polyvore after purchasing a Somerset Digital Studio publication. My goal is to learn how to make digital collages to print into cards etc. I am not sure yet as to the printing capability of this site but am certainly having fun exploring.

Last week was my first week not working. I have taken a leave of absence and one of the promises to myself was to create something beautiful every week. Now I don't want this to be a to do list or to be stressful so play is ok, for now. Hopefully this will lead to some drawing, painting, printmaking etc....

Then link to polyvore is below in case you feel like playing!

www.polyvore.com

a word on Bukowski

After reading this:

http://susanzettell.blogspot.com/2012/01/new-year-2012.html


Just for fun I decided to post this:



Where are the Alden Nowlans


Enough Bukowski to create a love hate

with his bar fly music's two fisted songs.

A feigned ego and mental self flogging;

I think he should have married Ginsberg.



Whiny, self loathing men crying out

for their mothers and their lost childhoods

or the loves they only thought they had;

players in a lottery without tickets.



Nothing wrong with their mechanics,

but there's no fish guts or slippery decks here,

just tired words down dusty old roads,

a never ending pain in the ass.



A little tenderness might be nice

but I 'm too pissed

to scrape it off the floor.

If I could only talk to Alden Nowlan

Tom Hemeon