Pinstripe Ode to Pinterest

Pinterest.... it has transformed my collection habits and fuels the creative spirit like nothing else I've discovered.

Amazing.

Thus... a pinstripe ode to the new site.

Now....Friends let me tell you about this cat that I once met.

Smooth talker...with an export cigarette.

I don't believe I ever saw him without a cocktail in his hand,

And no one swings as hard to the big bad voodoo band.

Now he strolls through the city like a big ol' alley cat

With his pinstripe suit and a big bad voodoo hat.

I don't believe I ever saw him without a kitten on his hand,

And no one swings as hard to the big bad voodoo band.

Hey Mr. Pinstripe Suit.

Hey Mr. Hi De Hi De Ho.

Well I know you got the answers that we all wanna know.

~Scotty Morris

Labor Unrest Day

Charles C Ebbets-

was the famed photographer that captured this famous image: "Lunchtime Atop A Skyscraper" in 1932 of several not-so-average-joes. According to wikipedia he didn't even receive credit for his work until 2003.

The photographer as a working stiff.

While most folks don't think of it as a strenuous or athletic form of employment- think about it. Those images you see in National Geographic were taken by folks willing to: leave the comfort of their homeland; brave extremes in weather and temperatures, many times climbing up precarious heights or down caves (or walking miles of extreme terrain) all the while lugging heavy equipment; dodging carnivorous beasts and braving infectious diseases. Once they finally reached the potential location of the targeted subject then their work begins. And it's not just shoot and snap and that's it. Oh no. They took gazillions of rolls of film along (that's another topic of how they protected that precious investment and makes me really appreciate digital) all the while measuring light and focusing, focusing, focusing. THEN.... get it all back to the darkroom and process it. Theirs is a lotta work. Style shoots for wedding or fashion photographers aren't quite as dangerous- but still represent a lot of work.

The working man is honored today on National Labor Day. In typical fun-sense I honor my favorite Lego-loving Marine with this.

Byron and I celebrated by preserving some homemade muscadine/scuppernong jelly. Yum.

Popping pins is addictive~

or... am I just

having Pinterest Repining.?.

uh.... yeah. I wrote yesterday about discovering Pinterest.

And... now... I'm addicted.

Ohmimercifulheavens. I may never get anything done again. Evah.

But the more I keep pinning the more I feel like some kind of dirty-sleazy pill-popping pin pusher.

I invited a couple of friends (non-pinners) to join in the fun. Now, I'm posting, they're pinning, I'm tagging, they're commenting, we're all sharing the love and then out-of-the-blue some person I never even heard of is re-pinning off my posts. Who ARE these people anyway? How did they ever find MY pins?

Is it contagious? Is it viral? Is this treatable? Where will it all end?

ohnooooo.... feeling like Alice down the hole... pushing pins into a voodoo dolly.

Yup. That's Saturday. Join me? Wontcha? Follow me on Pinterest.

$avings $avvy?

ok. so I got smart. well, or so I thought...

Realized I didn't have the wherewithal to afford purchasing all my art-glam mags (Somerset series) and began to collect the images as I perused the blogs and put them in my "idea gallery" file here on the iMac.

Now... I'm gonna have to purchase a new external hard-drive to store them. Think it would have been cheaper to have just bought the mags. All 196 of them. Then I wouldn't have to store them and print them.

Thank goodness for pinterest. It's like having an iCloud for an inspiration bank and now I need to purchase more hours in the day just so I can peruse everyone else's boards. ARGH.

in the meantime.... I've found this site for C/F vintage printables.

ahhh..... must quit saving money, saving images and start saving my time by not surfing so successfully.

B is for Bogart

B is for Bogart.

And b is for black. A fun color to work with. So many shades.

.... and I like the quote!

oh, Audrey.

I believe that happy girls

are the prettiest girls.

I believe in manicures.

I believe in overdressing.

I believe in primping

at leisure and wearing lipstick.

I believe in pink.

I believe that laughing

is the best calorie burner.

I believe in kissing--

kissing a lot.

I believe in being strong when

everything seems to be going wrong.

I believe that tomorrow is

another day and

I believe in miracles.

Audrey Hepburn

Seeking beauty....

Though we travel

the world over

to find the beautiful,

we must carry it with us

or we find it not.

~Ralph Waldo Emerson

Celebrate Salmagundi!

salmagundi |ˌsalməˈgəndē|

noun ( pl. -dis )

• a general mixture; a miscellaneous collection.

ORIGIN from French salmigondis, of unknown origin.

oh NO! What have I done????

So distressed....

I cleaned my desktop. My virtual (computer) desktop since it needed it and now.... I can't find ANY of my artwork! I have a very clever filing system and the stuff is just NOT THERE! I must have had a morning of Alzheimer's when I was doing that.

So... do you think I should even consider cleaning the real top of my desk?

Probably not.

In the meantime.... here is hope. I found a 12x12 base page that I've been using this month for several of my collages. I just love it and am so anxious to carve it in linoleum and make some real prints of it.... or maybe not. I might loose that, too. Maybe it's emotionally easier to loose digital imagery than real. I dunno.

Ponder.

Ivy Mae and Margo

digital illustration of two sweet little girls.

Sunflower Sensation layout!

Busy birds... and bees.

The Summer Dragons...

Fascinating.

Somewhat charming.

Always busy.

According to Wikipedia:

Dragonflies in cultures

In Europe, dragonflies have often been seen as sinister. Some English vernacular names, such as "devil's darning needle" and "ear cutter", link them with evil or injury.^[5] A Romanian folk tale says that the dragonfly was once a horse possessed by the devil. Swedish folklore holds that the devil uses dragonflies to weigh people's souls.^[6]:25–27 The Norwegian name for dragonflies is "Øyenstikker", which literally means Eye Poker and in Portugal they are sometimes called "Tira-olhos" (Eye snatcher). They are often associated with snakes, as in the Welsh name gwas-y-neidr, "adder's servant".^[5] The Southern United States term "snake doctor" refers to a folk belief that dragonflies follow snakes around and stitch them back together if they are injured.^[7]

Dragonfly symbol on a Hopi bowl fromSikyatki archaeological site.

For some Native American tribes they represent swiftness and activity, and for the Navajo they symbolize pure water. Dragonflies are a common motif in Zuni pottery; stylized as a double-barred cross, they appear in Hopi rock art and on Pueblo necklaces.^[6]:20–26

They also have traditional uses as medicine in Japan and China. In some parts of the world they are a food source, eaten either as adults or larvae; in Indonesia, for example, they are caught on poles made sticky with birdlime, then fried in oil as a delicacy.^[5]

In the United States dragonflies and damselflies are sought out as a hobby similar to birding and butterflying, known as oding, from the dragonfly's Latin species name, odonata. Oding is especially popular in Texas, where 225 different species of odonates have been observed. With care, and with dry fingers, dragonflies can be handled and released by oders, as can be done with butterflies, though it is not encouraged.^[8]

Good Day... Better Design!

In prepping for the debut of my expedition into teaching art- I discover (once again like all the great masters) that an artist will never completely finish a design or lay-out.

There's ALWAYS something that can be

• tweaked,
• enhanced
• or omitted

to the Nth degree.

While the differences are subtle- they ARE what makes for

GOOD DESIGN!

In any piece of art (be it digital or traditional mediums) judicious use of

• space,
• color,
• imagery
• and text

can make all the difference and ultimately make or break the composition.

Thus... here's one of the early versions of the flyer and I plan on using this as a visual illustration for class participants.

Notice the word "Today". While I've mimicked the font-typeface of the word "Learn" it's not sending a commanding tone to the word and giving it the emphasis it needs to be a directive. I still have a slight misgiving about the choice of capitalizing only the first letter of the word and using lower case for the rest but since the word "Photoshop" needs to be all caps as a nod to the actual packaging of the software- it gets sort of lost when I do that. So- I increased the orange tones on the brushwork color underneath the word to make it stand out a little more.

In both versions I kept my name and the name of my Design Studio in the same font but altered the lines that they appear on and the spacing of the layer shadow to "unmuddy" the appearance and changed the inner glow to a favorite reddish-magenta color on my name only. The word "Instructor" is changed from the Chopin typeface to the more formal Georgia font because use of the more scroll"y" font is saved for just the more idealistic portion of the message. In other words the terms "Learn" and my name(s) are therefore showy but not the main emphasis.

Too the layer shadow-work on the text containing the WWHW info is spread wider and the inner glow of the letter work is increased to make it pop from the green paint spills underneath (in the lower right hand corner).

All this critique and dissecting of design is part and parcel of what I'll be touching on in the 6 week workshop. Spaces are limited- sign up now by calling Stephanie Smith at the SmithZonian Art Center, 612 Maine Street; 870.403.6936. Classes are on Wednesdays 11A-12:30P, March 30th-May4th, 2011.

Embracing Poliosis

Poliosis.

Sounds like a bad disease; but I'm referring to a benign part of maturation.

po·li·o·sis (pl-ss)

n.

An absence or lessening of melanin in hair of the scalp, brows, or lashes.

Looking straight into the mirror and being brutally honest- I see an almost 49 year-old woman with gray roots. I've colored that hair because of vanity and because my Grandmother, Mae, was very opinionated on that topic when it came to my hair. She did not want me to go gray since she had grayed so early (probably due to an illness). I agreed at first and was horrified to imagine my grade-school child with an old Mom. But, as the years roll by, he has grown to adulthood and I approach the big 5-0 I'm more than willing to stop the gray charade.

Going Gray

I did some research and found that lots of baby boomers are coming to the same conclusion.

I discovered blogs devoted to hair styles and this article about the dilemma women ponder when trying to figure out just HOW to go about going gray after having colored it for so long. Obviously- I'm going to have to go to a colorist to achieve the most gradual transition. I've asked two hair-stylists their opinions on the best method of how to go about this process and they both had to ponder it. I'm not sure if the are slow to opine on account of they've not yet faced this question with any of their clients or simply because they are carefully considering the "root" of my problem. Pun intended.

Surprisingly- there are even books published about this topic which makes it obvious to me: write and you CAN get it published (but, that's another topic). Did you know? There are about 7,160,000 results on google alone for "going gray". That figure alone should tell me it's an upward trend and encourage all women to welcome the natural turn of events and quit grasping at the unrealistic idealism of non-aging.

Besides... technically- I could be a Grandmother at this point in my life. I want to look like one- rather than one of the youngest of the baby-boomers that grew up in the 70's, achieved adult-hood in the 80's and survived the 20-year class reunion in the '00's.

Looking forward to wearing my gray badge of courage... my badge of honor for having lived a little.

Old Images... New Art

First... the digital collage.

This photograph of us is from 1984.

The horse image is a newer digital composition and the quote is a very haunting one.

We were young, we were merry, we were very, very wise, And the door stood open at our feast, When there passed us a woman with the West in her eyes, And a man with his back to the East.

Mary Elizabeth Coleridge

And.. now for the rest... for Lesson #3 • Mixed Media Melange

Neutral Palette challenge: using found ephemera, digital elements printed out separately and adhered to canvas, stamped & painted using Golden's fluid acrylics, distressed with charcoal & Ranger alcohol inks, painted some more and stitched.

Rome Ants & Roman Ticks

February. Cold. Snow still on the ground.

winter blahs... waiting for Spring blooms.

And, most people are thinking....

Romance! Roses! and sweet treats!

as in Valentines!

Me? I'm thinking... FRENCH! Eiffel Tower images and song!

Voila!

Des yeux qui font baiser les miens,
Un rire qui se perd sur sa bouche,
Voila le portrait sans retouche
De l'homme auquel j'appartiens
Quand il me prend dans ses bras
Il me parle tout bas,
Je vois la vie en rose.
Il me dit des mots d'amour,
Des mots de tous les jours,
Et ca me fait quelque chose.

Il est entre dans mon coeur
Une part de bonheur
Dont je connais la cause.
C'est lui pour moi. Moi pour lui
Dans la vie,
Il me l'a dit, l'a jure pour la vie.
Et des que je l'apercois
Alors je sens en moi
Mon coeur qui bat
Des nuits d'amour a ne plus en finir
Un grand bonheur qui prend sa place
Des enuis des chagrins, des phases
Heureux, heureux a en mourir.
Quand il me prend dans ses bras
Il me parle tout bas,
Je vois la vie en rose.
Il me dit des mots d'amour,
Des mots de tous les jours,
Et ca me fait quelque chose.
Il est entre dans mon coeur
Une part de bonheur
Dont je connais la cause.
C'est toi pour moi. Moi pour toi
Dans la vie,
Il me l'a dit, l'a jure pour la vie.
Et des que je l'apercois
Alors je sens en moi
Mon coeur qui bat

{Insert Warm Fuzzy Gift Here}

I'm also thinking... a little art would be nice!

My gift to you today (not necessarily romantic)...

images!! perfectly sized for ATC cards!

Snowflake inspiration

Yes... it's winter precipitating again here in the foothills of the snOzark mountains. We're not accustomed to seeing quite this much snowfall but it does the creative juices good!

I revived an old illustrator piece I'd done for Mae a year or so ago... and it just makes me so happy to look at! Especially since Katrina-cat, our long-lost Siamese, has come home after nearly ten months. She's been sitting here happily in my lap as I work and we are cozy while watching another six inches pile up on the banks of Lake Barto.

The only thing could make this more purrfect? If our boys were home and we were drinking hot chocolate...

Caring for the Little Things

Been taking a lot of photos of our birds as of late. I have a far better view of them here at the farm than I did in town and there are more of them.

Though we have more cats than we ever did- I find fewer incidents of terroristic attacks here, too.

Every time I glance at the feeders and the crape myrtle full of cardinals I think of the scripture in Luke (chapter 12) where Jesus is telling His followers not to worry. In that God the Father has already made provision for even the smallest details of the lives of birds- it only follows that He has my petty concerns already covered.

²² Then Jesus said to his disciples: “Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat; or about your body, what you will wear. ²³ For life is more than food, and the body more than clothes. ²⁴ Consider the ravens: They do not sow or reap, they have no storeroom or barn; yet God feeds them. And how much more valuable you are than birds! ²⁵ Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to your life? ²⁶ Since you cannot do this very little thing, why do you worry about the rest?

Reflect. The Few, The Proud, The Marines.

Digital Collage

Rosecrans National Cemetery

San Diego CA

January 7, 2011

So many emotions.

So many hopes.

So many dreams.

Godspeed Men.

New Marines Jess & Peter

Graduation Day