MyStory in Art

2009-03-24T20:26:00.027-04:00

When I was a little girl, I recall asking my daddy what his favorite color was. He thought for a minute, then, told me he liked a lot of colors and color combinations. I had never heard that for an answer, before. Most of the people I would ask were classmates. Blue seemed to be the most popular among those kids. I should point out that my father was in the paint business. He had a reputation for being able to match a paint to any sample color. I saw him match a paint with a chip a customer brought in no bigger than a pencil eraser.

I have grown up around paint - house paint and art paint. As a little girl, paint mesmerized me. It was so pretty with all its colors. It was nice and creamy-looking. Yummm... Yes, I did! I drank paint. I had my stomach pumped for it, too.

So, for me, all this makes me wonder if, perhaps, artistic interest is hereditary. It's entirely possible that daddy instilled this interest in me, too. Either way, I come out a winner! I have spent my life, so far, enjoying the world around me through art.

Now, I am an image junkie. I can get totally absorbed into perusing the internet for images of any kind and the hours just fly by. You might say that I collect images. My favorites are anything floral. That's because of the colors. I am in my element when doing anything with colorful images. That's why I am so in to Photoshop. The program has enabled me to run amuck in my element any time I want. Clean-up is minimal. LOL With a click of the mouse, my art can be put away until the next time I want to work on it.

Before I got a computer, I painted, drew, crocheted, made mosaics, did batik and macrame, found weaving, needlepoint, embroidery, um, I can go on and on. I still have all the stuff to do these crafts with and still piddle around with creating things. For the past year, though, I have been hooked on computer images.

When I first began on the computer, my first infatuation was with the smiley.

Along with those funny, and sometimes emotional, yellow orbs, came gifs, avatars and the emoticon.

Like many folks, I went the MySpace route for a while. It was there on MySpace, plus a forum I belonged to, that I gained my limited experience in web design. Obviously, I had to have something to put on my website, or, to blog about, so, images developed.

I'm a granny, thus, I have a ton of photos of my family. But, I am a lousy photographer. This is where I met Photoshop. I acquired the program to tweek my photos and to work on scrapbooking them. Once I discovered the scrapbooking community, I was hopelessly addicted. The first scrap site I found that made me feel at home was Cottage Scrapbooks. Miss Stella is a sweetheart and very encouraging.

It was while scrappin', I met the good peolpe at Magickal Scraps, who, create what they want to create. They are real and don't mind putting their art out there for others to see. They're good, too! Every single person I have encountered there has uber-talent! Through many of their monthly challenges, I have explored my own style and have learned so much more about Photoshop, which I have upgraded to CS3.

Below, I've put up sort of a sampler of my fascinations with color and images. These images are good examples of what I love in an image.

This one speaks for itself. Actually, it shouts. COLOR! COLOR!
I love the aged effect on this next image. These colors are straight from nature. At the time it was made, dyes were made from elements in nature. The overall tone is so mellow.

A fan of "logical" thinking and abstract concepts, my collection wouldn't be complete without some M.C. Escher.

This guy deserves two spots in my list.

I grew up in Florida where motels were very common. This image is one of the stylish motels from the 1940's. Not many of these old structures remain. There was some huge hotel you could see crossing the Intercoastal Waterway into Daytona beach. It was built entirely of wood and it rambled for a city block. Presidents were among their guests, as it was a 'high-dollar' resort-like establishment in its hey day. I wish I could find an image of it. The building was torn down back in the 1960's or '70's. But, this image is a good representation of a motel during the time when middle America was expanding to the suburbs and the economy was great. Travel, much less an automobile, were made easily accessible to the average folk.

Little children are such good image subjects. They don't put up a front, or even pose when wanted, for the camera. LOL The innocence and natural beauty, much like the flowers they hold, are what makes images of children so sweet.

I could do this for hours, but, alas, I have art to make. LOL I have linked most of the images to the sites from which they came. Click on images to go to the sources. I can't find the sources for the colorful feathers and the silk cloth. I use these with all due respect to the artists of each. I take no credit, nor money, for using these here.

Until next time....

Namaste

free spirit

MyStory in Art