Using Vintage Photography in Mobile Art

Larceny

I have an obsession with looking through old mug shots. It's weird, I know, but over at Flickr Commons you can browse through vintage mug shots that were taken over in Europe and I have wasted plenty of time doing just that. Many of the mug shots come along with the story behind the person's arrest. I love reading the circumstances behind these mugshots. I noticed that many of the crimes had to do with larceny, theft of personal property. Many of the stories indicated that the perpetrator was either trying to steal to feed their family or themselves. I found myself feeling sorry for them. Many were orphans with no source of income. They just ran the streets and tried to get food when they could. So tragic and sad.

Anyway, I was inspired to create this digital collage art piece after browsing those images. I took 4 mugshots of 4 boys who were accused of larceny (thus, the title of this piece) and used various parts of the 4 faces to create a collaged face of a young man in Photoshop CC. 

Then, I imported the above image into my iPhone 6S Plus and used 4 different apps including Snapseed, Distressed FX, Trigraphy, and Fragment to create the vision I had in my head for this piece. I ended up with the piece below.

I still wanted to add some moths to the background and add a triangle connecting the eyes and while I could have done this on my phone, I chose to import it back onto my computer and use Photoshop CC to do this. I added the vintage moth texture and then drew in the triangle, finishing the piece.

I hope you liked this glimpse into artistic process! Have a wonderful day.

xo

The Patriot- Digital Art Using Vintage Pictures

About this image:  There was something about her sad eyes and slumped shoulders that called out to me and connected with my soul. I've had those eyes. My shoulders have slumped in similar fashion. I am her and she is me. That is why I picked the original vintage image to start working with. She caught my attention.

As I began working with her, I did not have a direction in which to go. I tried a couple of things and felt it just wasn't right. I let her sit for a few days and came back to her. That is when I decided to take her heaviness and sadness and make a political statement about the state of our country right now. Her seriousness, I felt, resonated with how the country is feeling...weary and tired from all the fighting. I wanted there to be a juxtaposition of feelings in this image, pride in our country with the flag and the red, white, and blue, but a kind of sarcastic punch with The Patriot as the title. Kinda of like, "Yeah, I'm a patriot, but I'm not happy about it." The media (in my opinion, who does nothing but promote and profit from causing divide and hate in the country with their twists of truth) is slowly killing us...can you feel the weight of it in her soul? I can.

"The media's the most powerful entity on earth. They have the power to make the innocent guilty and the guilty innocent, and that's power. Because they control the mind of the masses." -Malcolm X

Have a wonderful Thursday. Don't forget to come out and join me tomorrow night for the opening of the Winter Blitz show at Arts By the Bay Gallery!

The Lucky Sisters

Diligence is the mother of good luck.

Benjamin Franklin

I don't believe in luck. I believe in hard work, diligence, opportunity, preparedness, and God's plan. I know many cultures have superstitions surrounding luck, both good and bad, and while I respect these beliefs, I don't subscribe to them.

One thing I do remember regarding luck in my own family is my maternal grandmother constantly looking for and finding 4 leaf clovers in the grass. She was amazing at spotting these anomalies from a full standing position. I remember trying and trying to find one on my own as a child, crouched low over the clover patch, hand brushing through the greenness, eyes darting around searching for the telltale extra leaf and never once finding one. When I would walk away from a patch of clover, my grandmother would step up to it right behind me and within seconds locate one. She was something else. I miss her dearly.

As a child I also owned a rabbit's foot. Despite my 4 leaf clover hunting and rabbits-foot owning, I don't ever remember believing either brought me luck. I never believed that the wish I murmured as I saw a falling star would come true. I was never jealous of the u-shaped horseshoe that hung over my brother's bedroom door. I guess I was a boring, non-imaginative child that carried too much logic in her head. Perhaps, then, that is why I think one makes his/her own luck and there is not some mystical force of magic out there that rewards the ones with cut-off rabbits' feet, four-leaf clovers, and that see falling stars. I didn't believe God would let wrath be brought to someone for simply walking under a ladder or accidentally breaking a mirror. I found it all very strange to believe, indeed.

Do you have any traditions surrounding the idea of luck? I'd love to hear them.

Have a wonderful week, y'all.

xo

Adornment

Femininity is the divine adornment of humanity.

~James E. Faust

As the year draws to a close, I am glad I was able to carve out some time to create this one last piece in 2015. This week promises to be a busy one with wrapping up some real estate shoots, submitting a whole new set of pieces to go to the printer, wrapping up Nine Acres Designs, LLC end of year number crunching, and spending some family time. 

I had a nice break from homeschooling and loved spending time with my mother while she was in town for Christmas, but I am a creature of habit and crave the daily routine that keeps me sane. To be perfectly honest, Christmas is not one of my favorite holidays...the stress is overwhelming to me and the month plus of preparation that is over in a half day is disappointing and frustrating. On top of that, I desperately miss my grandparents, uncle, and father at this time of year. So, I am happy to be flipping the calendar to a new year and getting a fresh start.

Each January I come up with a word for the year instead of declaring a New Year's resolution. I don't believe in resolutions, so I will be thinking this week to determine a word for 2016. Productivity keeps popping into my brain, but I am not sold on that, so I will have to do more thinking. 

I hope everyone had a great holiday and I am wishing you all a wonderful and safe New Year. Keep your eyes out for information on limited prints coming soon of Adornment and other pieces.  Once I decided what will go to the printer, I will put out an inventory.  Hugs!

Nature's Prayer

Everybody needs beauty as well as bread, places to play in and pray in, where nature may heal and give strength to body and soul.

~John Muir

Finally found time to complete this digital collage painting. I love John Muir quotes and felt this nicely fit with my praying girl. Hope you enjoy her. xo

Heading out on a real estate shoot and a check up with the surgeon who did my jaw surgery. I am hoping he releases me today so I can be finished with that. I feel much better and am not having pain anymore...just mild numbness that is improving week by week.

Construction continues on my office/studio space. The drywall has been hung and now I am waiting for the finisher to begin. Baby steps forward make me want the space more and more. It will not only be an amazing space for my photography/art studio and business office, it will also serve as a great place to homeschool away from the main living area. Hoping by fall we are all settled in!

Have a wonderful day. Hope you find beauty in today and find a place to pray and play in. Love to all. 

Finding Some Separation

Compartmentalizing my life into definable sections has always been difficult for me. My work affects my family and and my family affects my work. My illness affects every aspect of my life. So that is why I've blogged about art, my family, homeschooling, and chronic Lyme here on this blog even though each topic is very different. I've decided, though, that many of you who visit are interested in art, not necessarily homeschooling, although some of you are interested in both. So, I've started a new blog (good grief, what am I thinking?) specifically about homeschooling. I will be writing about my adventures with my twin second graders as we figure out homeschooling together on a blog called Nine Acres Academy: A Homeschool MisAdventure (under construction). That way if you are here to read about art and/or Lyme, you won't have to filter through all of my homeschooling talk. If you are not interested in those things but are curious about the kids and what we are doing here at home, you can check out the other blog. Of course, if both interest you, then you can read along with both. ;) I will link this blog with the other and vice versa so that you can toggle back and forth between the two. Check back in a few days and I hope to have everything up and running.

With that said, a lot is going on professionally right now. As you know, This Side of Forever (this blog) will be featured in Stampington and Company's Artful Blogging magazine fall issue. Several of my digital art pieces and a written article by me will be featured. In addition, I will be having a solo show at The Gallery at 122 Main in beautiful Elkton during the month of October. I hope, for that show, to be partnering with Harford Lyme Advocates, a chapter of the National Capital Lyme and Tick Born Diseases Association that serves Harford and surrounding counties to support those affected by Lyme and to help bring awareness to this growing epidemic. Part of the proceeds from this show will be going back to the local Lyme community! Discussions are still underway as far as the details but I am thrilled at being able to give back and raise awareness about this terrible disease. You all know I suffer from chronic Lyme as well as two co-infections so this is a cause very close to my heart. I will be showing some photography as well as some digital artwork (final decisions about pieces have not been made at this point) in that show. I am very much looking forward to both opportunities!

Because I have been homeschooling, I haven't had as much time for digital art, but I am still working behind the scenes!  I am currently working on a concept using this beautiful vintage photo (that I have colorized here). It has been a pleasure working on this next piece and I am looking forward to completing her. She will end up being a digital collage painting, so I still have a long way to go! The concept is still in development, but I feel a connection to her already.

Hope everyone had a wonderful weekend!  I will be working on this piece this evening, so maybe in the next few days she will be ready for her big reveal!  I am also working on the first post to my homeschooling blog, so be sure to check that out too if you are interested. Hugs to all.  xo

When Music and Art Dance

I was driving the other day when the song Stereo Hearts by Gym Class Heroes (featuring Adam Levine) came on.  I started singing along with the tune, of course. I hadn't heard this song in quite a long time so I had to refocus my attention on the lyrics, trying to remember all the words.  When I came to this section of the lyrics a new art idea clicked-

If I could only find a note to make you understand

I'd sing it softly in your ear and grab you by the hand

Keep it stuck your head, like your favorite tune

And know my heart's a stereo that only plays for you.

My heart's a stereo

It beats for you, so listen close

Hear my thoughts in every note.

Make me your radio

Turn me up when you feel low

This melody was meant for you

Just sing along to my stereo.

I had been holding on to a vintage photo of these dancers for a long time.  I loved it but wasn't sure what to do with it. I kept waiting to be inspired but nothing ever felt quite right. Finally, when I heard the above lyrics, I knew I wanted to turn the dancers into something that represented art and music since, for me, they dance and intermingle in my mind.  I knew I had it...I knew I wanted to use an image of a vintage camera and a vintage radio to collage with the dancers that had been in my mind for so long.  Finally!

So, when I got home that day, I immediately pulled up the image of the dancers and started colorizing it. I've been in to pinks, browns, and greens lately, so I chose that color scheme for the floor, background, and dress. After colorizing the photo, I then layered, resized, transformed, and masked the images of the camera and radio for the heads.  Next, I added a texture layer and masked out the dancers by 50% and then added the music overlay.  I erased out the words and other details I didn't want in the music layer and then flattened the piece.  Last, I made some mid-tone adjustments, added a contrast pop, and then burned a vignette around the edges to focus more attention to the dancers.

And I fell in love with it.  I think I would like this one LARGE in my home somewhere...perhaps my office.  It just speaks to me since music and art are so delicately connected in my heart and soul.

I wanted to thank everyone for their private messages, texts, and phone calls yesterday comforting me on the one year anniversary of my father's passing.  It was much appreciated.  If you don't mind, please say a small prayer for me and the surgeon today as I go in to get my jaw repaired with a bone graft at 3:00 PM.  Thank you in advance.  Depending on how I am recovering, you may or may not hear from me the rest of the week.  Hope to be here tomorrow, but if not, I will begin posting again Friday or Monday.  Love to all.  xo

My Significant Other Right Now is Myself

My significant other right now is myself, 

which is what happens when you suffer from multiple personality disorder and self-obsession.  

Joaquin Phoenix

Self-obsession...In this piece I wanted to visually explore that concept.  What if you were your own biggest fan?  What if you wrote love letters to yourself?  What if you thought you had amazing gifts to offer the world and confidently put forth those gifts to serve others?  Sounds lovely and good, doesn't it?  

Yes, but what if that is all you thought about...yourself? What if your needs always took priority over other's needs?  What if you were unable to think with an open mind because you were in love with your own ideas? The dark side of loving one's self is just one step away, one toe across a thin, obscure line. How much is too much?  

Hope you had a wonderful weekend and a great start to the week.  I had a lovely weekend seeing my son off to Senior Week (biting my nails to the nibs in worry), celebrating my daughter's Sweet 16 birthday, and watching my youngest son play in last baseball game of the season.  This week promises to be difficult as I am scheduled for surgery Wednesday afternoon to repair an infection in my jaw and replace the missing bone with a bone graft.  I am a bit nervous, to say the least.  I am placing my worries in God's hands and trying to remain calm on all fronts.  Easier said than done, but I am trying. I'd appreciate any and all prayers, meditations, and good vibrations you can offer. Thank you in advance.  

Love to all.

xo