like pointillism

 I was going to show my photo manipulations in sequence to show some sort of progression. (as if that happens... grin)  but upon seeing Kat Sloma's circle of trees today in one her abstract photo messages I was struck once again by how often artists end up working on similar projects at similar times. We start at different places and end up with a close resemblance.

Years ago I read an account in Anne Truitt's  published journals that she always saw complete sculptures in her mind and decided if she wanted to make them.  Once she said she decided that she didn't have the energy necessary to make one she saw and a few months later she saw the sculpture that had been made by someone else.   I thought this was amazing and a little creepy but it does speak to the collective unconscious that allows ideas to simultaneously be worked on by various artists.  It does not mean that we create the same image or sculpture exactly . It means that we approach a topic or ideal and develop a work that is uniquely our own .

I've always thought that is why one should never balk at sharing ideas and processes. Everyone of us will come up with our own projects and each one adds a perspective that would otherwise not be heard or seen.

And everyone chooses the art that matches his or her ideal of " something I must buy for it is so---- "

One of my favourite  styles of painting was Pointillism. Georges Seurat is probably the best known ,and my favourite.

So this photo manipulation reminds me of this style, and was made just this past week. Kat's is of trees but had a similar viewpoint, that of looking up and at least hints at points of light. Her photo on her newsletter email  but if you are interested check out her site,   www.kateyestudio.com  to see more fascinating processed photos. 

This one of mine was a blurred clematis bloom in a bubbled vase and magically with photoshop it becomes  starry-lit trees. What is it you see?   See how easily it is to get hooked into making pictures new? 

and this is bark....

I love taking photos of textures and one of the great textures of all time is tree bark.  Often you will see me shooting a closeup of bark. I find the patterns and colours exquisite.  They are so nuanced and varied.  So is it any wonder that in my spirit trees quilt, which you can view in the fabric gallery, there is a printed photo altered and printed on Organza that is part of the  bottom of the quilt...  It is blue ocean waves and I am slightly smug that it is tree bark!   I really only used a change of colour filter to accomplish the effect.   Just goes to show you that all things are the same!   We are made of water no matter how we manifest it.  We only have to remember and see!  AND find it so fascinating that we make it!   

  

Liquefy

This is a photoshop filter that I love. I use it often and  there seems to be more option to create shapes you choose rather than  photoshop placing a preset over top the photo.  That said you can always change the intensities of other filters but the actual swirling of liquefy reminds me of  the marbling process either for fabric or paper.  And it is pure magic for me.

and what exactly do I mean?

This new place is where I want to share the photos that I turn into abstract images.  I have done this for a number of years for lots of reasons.  Computers have always given me the opportunity to play. Initially this was more appealing than actually getting messy with paint and as I have told you before I only recently gave myself permission to admit that I could draw. Before that I limited myself to my camera and small fabric creations . Small was good, it could be done quickly and didn't take much storage but , upon reflection, I also had small children that made more than enough mess and I didn't want to clean up more than I already had to.  When my children moved away, I had more space and more time and so creativity expanded but not all at once.  I still had a lot of learning to do and my camera was the first starting point.  Some of my photos were terrible and being a person who never deletes stuff without  pause  to ask... is this truly  something that can not be salvaged?  I began my journey into photo manipulation.  

 My Dad, who was in his eighties at the time, was also taking people out of photos and adding backgrounds and resizing things. So we shared techniques and results  as a matter of course. I found and decided that printing photos on fabric was really fun but of course the colours had to be intensified and  that lead me eventually to photoshop.  I'll be the first to tell you that I only use the tiniest bit of this huge and amazing software but it is time to start sharing these results.

 The photography group I frequented on Flickr under my alias "whimc" closed and the other members moved on to other groups and I have yet to find a firm alternative. At the same time I have been concentrating more on my fabric creations, mixing photos and paintings to print on fabric which I then quilt either by hand or machine.   I will begin to share those soon too  but this weekend Kat Sloma posted that she had recently been exploring  her photo processing  by making abstracts  which she was going to share on instagram.  That got me thinking!  As I don't want to learn how to use instagram just now, I thought I could share my process here.  And this will also lead me into more sharing of my fabric art, which I have also wanted to showcase for some time.  Isn't it wonderful how ideas and plans all seem to swirl together and find their voice? One has only to stay open then as the idea presents itself, to accept it and move it forward. So here I am!  

I went back through my photo archives and found some of my first photo manipulations and I will start by sharing those. Perhaps you will see a progression, perhaps you will see random application but at any rate you will see how I find and use my computer to assist my art. 

When does play become serious enough to become art?  A question I think I will return to often.

PA170232 shadow wallliqufy 2 resized-2.jpg

I used this photo  printed on sheer organza on my very first Quilt that was exhibited in France.