I picked up about half a dozen black edged canvas totes at a thrift store a while back and decided to alter them with photography and mixed media. The mannaquin photo is an original, altered a bit in Elements. That is a flattened drink umbrella in the upper right corner and a sassy crow image from Kerry Carbary in the upper left. The rest is tissue paper, asian newspaper, stenciling and rub-0n letters. The other side is collaged in a similar manner. This bag is about 4 years old but I notice my style hasn’t changed all that much. These materials remain favorites, as does my love of mannaquins as photo fodder. This tote and several other altered purses will be featured in the Trashion Fashion show at ARTpool Gallery in July. The first time any of my wearables have been in a show. Yippee!
Posts Tagged ‘photography’
Altered tote bag with original photography
Posted: May 3, 2012 in New Mixed Media art, photographyTags: ARTpool Gallery, mannaquins, mixed media, photography
Graffiti wall, crop three
Posted: April 28, 2012 in graffiti, photographyTags: cropping images, graffiti, painting, photography, rule of thirds
This is not a great crop. While the chain is interesting and most of the focal points are in the rule of thirds, there is an annoying plant from the foreground surging up on the left, and the dribs from something that should have been entirely cropped out on the edge of the middle bottom. The chain is beautifully done but there isn’t enough variety to hold the interest of the viewer. In this case, a little too much repetition, so much so that we find the distracting plant and darker element almost a relief. The artist is not to blame for the lack of interest. This item was at the very bottom of the wall, it was never meant to be a focal point, but rather (in my opinion) a filler. Yes, a very well executed filler, but a filler. I do love seeing the patterning on the wall behind the chain, but again, this is background in a very small area, not meant to have our undivided attention. My point is this. Just because I am in love with something, like the look of this sprayed chain, does not mean it can carry a crop. There must still be an adherence to rules of good composition, plus a little more to look at.
Graffiti wall, crop two
Posted: April 27, 2012 in graffiti, New Mixed Media art, photographyTags: cropping images, graffiti, photography, rule of thirds
Another crop of the magnificent graffiti wall shown earlier in the week. This crop follows the rule of thirds, with the lightest toned part of the image (mountain) on a third. We have an off centered crop and the repetition of the shape of triangles three times in the focal points. When selecting elements to crop, a good rule of thumb is to use an odd numbered amount of focals. We have lost and found. Keep in mind that the eye goes to the lightest color first when viewing an image, so the lightest should be well placed. There is a hierarchy of what the mind wants to see and how it orders it. Light color, face parts (human) face parts (animal) face parts (babies). Of the facial expressions, eyes then mouth. Hands and feet are important. Light colors moving to dark, other body parts. So if you want to crop a face, always try for the eyes first placed on a third, using the mouth on a third or eliminating the mouth for a stronger crop. That way the mind doesn’t have to play the choice game of what to look at. As I view this crop I notice a lack of emotional response. I was more interested in yesterday’s reptile tail. I believe that is because of the curvilinear look of the tail as opposed to the very linear shapes of these buildings. Also, these buildings are man made, the tail is natural and belonging, we assume, to something live even tho we couldn’t see the entire animal. We can appreciate the skill needed to create these buildings ON a building, the texture mixes, the shading for the windows and door, etc. But the image does not stir me like yesterday’s crop. Perhaps it is my skill in cropping, perhaps this crop is not as good as yesterday’s. But if it wasn’t for the mountain (nature) in the background, if that had been another man made building and not a mountain, you probably wouldn’t be looking at this image today. The mountain saves this crop from being a study in architecture.
Graffiti wall, crop one
Posted: April 26, 2012 in graffiti, photographyTags: crop, cropping images, graffiti, painting, photography, rule of thirds
From yesterday’s full document style picture of graffiti in St. Pete, we have today’s first crop of crops. When I was looking at the full pix yesterday the most intriguing part for me, being a reptile lover, was the tail billowing from the back of the Viking warrior. The artist rendered the scales most beautifully, and I love the shape, which reminds me of an upended infinity symbol. I wanted most of the tail to show, but not all of it, so I sacrificed the very end. This creates the desirable effect of “lost and found”, which is also in play on the right side of the crop. It is more intriguing for the image to “wander off” the page, and return, than to see the whole thing, perhaps smaller, in the shot. Of course, this could have been even further cropped by showing only the one top curled part of the tail…there are always several good options when an image is well composed to begin with. But I liked the blue against the grey-the yellow against the blue-and the part of what might be a shield in the very bottom right, with it’s runic suggestion. Please notice that the middle of my crop is nearly empty of interest. What is there is merely moving the eye to something more interesting. All the action is in the thirds and in the very bottom corners. While the viewer has no real idea of the magnitude of the original “document”, the crop is satisfying on it’s own and that is what I think makes a successful vignette. It creates the desire to see more, but not an empty desire.
Best friends art journal page, altered
Posted: April 20, 2012 in art journal, photographyTags: art journaling, mixed media, new art work, photography
A page from yesterday in my new journal, using Christy Tomlinson’s tissue paper printed with vintage dresses. The faces are blown up from a school photo and collaged under the tissue paper. The arms, legs and shoes were drawn on with watercolor tempera sticks, as were the balloons. The background is watercolor. I did something different with this entry. Before posting it, I ran it through the Topaz plug in for Elements and altered the page digitally using the “Lomo II” filter. This filter gives the page the look of shooting with a Lomo camera. Treating a page like an image gives versatility to the page, at least for digital uses like this. There is no end to how you can alter your own journal pages using filters and combinations of filters. Just because you created it once and liked it, doesn’t mean you can’t play around with it and like it again, and again, and again.
Heart shaped world shop window
Posted: April 5, 2012 in photographyTags: ARTpool Gallery, mannaquins, new art work, photography, shop window, terry lee getz
Same mannaquin from yesterdays collage piece, only this time Marina Williams of ARTpool Gallery gave her oversized heart shaped glasses and a polka dot hoodie to wear. I gave her some “simplification” and “solarization” filters in Elements and Topaz and her persona is a tad stronger, as is the visual. “Solarization” is not by any means one of my favorite filters but in this case it highlighted her eyes which are very pretty for a mannaquin.
Stitched mixed media collage
Posted: April 4, 2012 in photographyTags: mixed media, new art work, photography, shop window, stitching
Mixed media stitched collage featuring an original photograph, vintage dish towel, handmade collage stitched heart, embroidered fabric and some kind of weird vintage trim that is pleated vinyl. Along the left side is some commercial fabric and wool embroidery yarn. AFter stitching the whole thing was dunked into leftover morning coffee. I call this mannaquin “little girl lost” because that is what I always think when I see her and I’ve used her several times already in various pieces. I found her at the fabulous ARTpool Gallery, where Moi is having a show in September 2012 as the featured artist. Just found out that news on Friday.
A digitally altered photograph of my set of pastels. I used a few Elements settings and then put it into the Topaz filter program and chose Lomo II. I love to shoot tools and materials when they are out on the worktable for use later in playing around with digital filters and techniques. It is also fun to alter a picture way beyond being a recognizable object. If you have some of these cool digital programs, why not set up some tools, materials and found object still life arrangements and instead of just using the program to change resolution, have a play day and learn the features. Could come in very handy to know a particular filter one day when you want a special effect.
Another portion of a graffiti wall, unfortunately no longer visible, in downtown St. Pete a year or so ago. I was lucky to run across two graff artists in process on a smaller wall that day who answered some questions I had and were pretty inspirational. The wall this piece is from contained images by most likely half a dozen artists in a montage; it was stunning. I think this hand is gorgeous and love the stenciling and starburst of color in red.
Bird cage shadowlet
Posted: March 28, 2012 in photographyTags: found images, photography, shadows, terry lee getz
I have an ornamental bird cage that catches the light once a day if the sun is strong enough and on this day I couldn’t resist shooting it. I like the way it came out, with a little distortion and the fine brass bars highlighted. The heavy lines are also the cage, circumference support and the door frame, a little off kilter. If you’ve followed the blog for any length of time you know no ray of sunshine or object around the house is safe from shadowlet production and my attention. If you have a camera this puts it to fun use.
Crickyn 