Making Sense of the World

Photography isn't my only creative love, of course. I also do all forms of drawing, painting, collaging and computer-created art. None of it's ever likely to end up at the Louvre, but I like some of it quite a bit, so what the heck, I'll share it with the world. Look for more updates here as I get non-photographic works photographed and digitized.

Peace Lily

This is my favorite watercolor ever. I find watercolor mind-boggling and frustrating to work with, even though I love it just about better than any of the forms of painted art. There's a looseness and a life in watercolor that no other medium can touch.

But it's easy to kill. That's why I love this piece: I didn't manage to overwork it, so it retains some of that wonderful loose feeling that makes watercolor so awesome. Maybe someday I'll have another watercolor turn out as well as this one.

The original is about 10" x 13", done with kids' Crayola watercolors on sketch book paper. This image is skewed somewhat toward the yellow end of the spectrum. The original is more green.

Hidden Queen

I love this piece because it's so darned fun.

I was playing around with a photo I'd taken of a hibiscus blossom - playing around in Photoshop, I mean - when I did something that I'm still not sure what it was. But suddenly this little one-eyed green cat face jumped out of the center of the hibiscus, wearing a crooked crown. I started laughing and went to work with cloning tools and other stuff to get her another eye and move her crown over a bit and voila! The Green Green Hibiscus Queen!

Thing is, I still don't know what I did to make the photo go all funky like that, and make a green cat suddenly show up where a coral flower was only a moment before. But isn't it the cutest thing?

You tell me.

Autumn mugs

Pottery is one of my great loves, and I suppose the love is enhanced by the difficulty I have in indulging this love. Since I don't have a kiln, I'm dependent on the kindness of relative strangers for firing time - if I can find kiln-using strangers within reasonable driving distance to start with. For a short time last year I had access to a kiln only a few blocks away. The only downside was that I had to wait for my pieces to work in to a very heavy firing schedule by the owners, but I was totally understanding about that. Unfortunately, they're no longer in business, so I'm without kiln access again. Dammit.

Anyway, these are hand-formed mugs. I like the brown one best personally, but a lot of people who've seen them like the purplish one. I love making mugs and bowls, and could do it all day. There's just something infinitely satisfying about working with clay. It can be maddening - don't get me wrong. But it's always a good feeling, the damp dirt under your fingers.

My dream is to someday have a kiln of my own (and a place to put it). Heck, maybe even a wheel. Then I'd be in high cotton!

Dying to Find My Selves

A combination of photography, borrowed images and computerized enhancement, this piece is more about an idea than about the execution. If you've read my "Methodical Madness" entry called "Anima, Animus," this work makes more sense.

Spiral Dance

One medium I've barely started to play with is the completely computerized image. This is one of my earliest tries at an image done entirely in Photoshop.

Since I don't have a Wacom pad or any other drawing implement, what little "drawing" is here is strictly by mouse, which is tougher to do than it looks. Someday I'd like to get an art pad again, but I want the kiddo to have one first, so I'm down the list on that one.

This is mostly accomplished with straightforward drawing using the mouse, amped up by judicious use of filters, all of it very very basic. Maybe I'll get better with practice.