Single Flower

For Soartful's single flower with minimalist design challenge

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Thank you for taking a look.

Autumn

For Take a Word's autumn challenge - Watching leaves and seeds swirling gently around a fountain near my home makes time float away.

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Thanks very much for stopping by.

Celestial

A moon for Collage Obsession's celestial challenge.

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Thank you for taking a look.

I'm just an artist

For Three Muses' artist affirmation challenge - Something Mos Def once said that most definitely resonated with me, plus some color wheels that aren't quite right.  Do they even look to you like they're turning into handcuffs?

In Wonderland

For Think Monday - Think ATC & more's Im Wunderland challenge:

'I should see the garden far better,' said Alice to herself, 'if I could get to the top of that hill: and here's a path that leads straight to it ... But how curiously it twists! It's more like a corkscrew than a path!'

- Through the Looking Glass, Chapter 2: The Garden of Live Flowers

This corkscrew garden path started with painted paper and a punch, but I digitized the shapes and played with them on the computer before sending them back to paper sized for an ATC.

Thanks very much for having a look.

Purple

For Collage Obsession's purple challenge.  I've backtracked to working with really simple shapes from templates or punches + lots of color.

Once I get some good shapes going, I scan them and start using them in clusters and many sizes, trying for some sense of distance and motion.

What hangs together gets printed out on textured paper - 8x8 inches.

Clicking the image will get you a somewhat bigger version.  

Celebrating Women

For Sunday Postcard Art's "celebrating women" theme - Aung San Suu Kyi

This started with an image of Zeno Frudakis's remarkable sculpture.

The hand in the foreground is that of U Win Tin, who posed for James Mackay with Aung San Suu Kyi's name written on his palm as a gesture of solidarity with his fellow political prisoner.  Her name appears in Burmese script at the bottom.

The symbols of her National League for Democracy party, the peacock and the star, are worked in as well.

Behind her is a combination of backgrounds by two of my favorite DeviantArt artists, the lotus by Susan Dubrofsky (Tackon) and the basket weave by Kimberly Crick (Enchantedgal). 

Mail Art

For Take a Word's mail art challenge - Stamps made with photographs I took at an abandoned silk mill up in a mountain town not far from my home.

Credits: Judy at Touch of Class (postmarks and ribbon), Holly at Three Potato Four (pressed flowers), Picstopin (blank stamp outline), j_myspace (envelope paper), Darleen Araujo (background paper).

St. Patrick's Day

For Sunday Postcard Art's St. Patrick's Day challenge

The underlying text is the version copied into a 10th century Lives of the Saints now held by the national library of France of Patrick's 5th century letter to his church superiors in his native Britain.  It both presents his background and his defense against those who have objected to his demands that Britons stop their violent raids on his Irish converts.  The white text at bottom is the opening lines in modern English.

Clicking the image will get you a larger version.

Thanks for having a look.

Sláinte!

Vögel

For Think Monday - Think ATCs & More's birds challenge - Bosch Vögel. Yes, the robbery of dead artists continues. They don't put up much of a fight.

If you click the image, you'll get a larger version.

Credits:  Hieronymus Bosch, Andrew Smith

I severely altered Smith's stock tarot design to make mats for 2.5x3.5" ATCs, but his design got me to thinking that Bosch major arcana cards would be fun.  Now hunting through his incredibly intense and imaginative images for tarot-ish details.  When I first saw his work, I must have been 14 or 15 and I felt like I had to hide the book.  It was like I wasn't supposed to know that adults were as crazy as kids, even adults in the 1400s.

I should be altering things more, shouldn't I?  All right, then.  Next week I will.

Show and Tell

For Inspiration Avenue's show and tell challenge - Something old.

I stitched together this panorama of New York Harbor from eight images shot in rapid succession from the deck of a Staten Island ferry in October 2011.  It captures roughly a five-mile span.  The hazy day made everything silvery except the orange ferry churning in the opposite direction.  The shadows of clouds darken areas of the water between the ships and barges and their wakes.  A seagull looks kind of like a UFO at this small size.

On the left is Port Jersey, then Paulus Hook, Ellis Island, Jersey City, the Statue of Liberty, the Hudson River, lower Manhattan Island, the East River, and Governors Island at the right along Brooklyn's shore.

Clicking the image will open a slightly more detailed version, but I'm afraid panos aren't meant for Blogspot.

Thanks for stopping by.

Da Vinci

For Think Monday - Think ATCs & More's Da Vinci challenge - I played with one of his horse sketches.  Couldn't bring myself to embellish them, though.  Nothing I tried to add improved them.

An image of the original sketch is here (once on that page, click the sketch to get a much larger version to play with).

Thanks for stopping by.  I can't be online much right now, so please don't feel ignored.  I appreciate your comments and peek at your work every chance I get.

Rustle of Spring

For Three Muses' rustle of spring challenge - spring time (and how it flies)

As always, click the image if you'd like to see a larger version.

Credits: Judy Meibusch (butterflies, clock), Tristan Benedict-Hall (leafy stencil), and Pam Tremble (vignetted background)

I'm behind in visiting and commenting - will catch up a.s.a.p.

Thanks for stopping by!

Berühmte Persönlichkeiten

For Think Monday - Think ATCs & More's famous people challenge - Mohandas Gandhi - "First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win."

This began with an Indian postage stamp found online commemorating Gandhi's centenary.

Clicking the image will bring up a more detailed version.

Wings

For Take a Word's wings challenge - The original "It Girl" - Clara Bow, who starred in the 1927 silent film "Wings,"a World War I story that thrilled everybody with its flying scenes and that was one of the first films to show nudity. It's been restored and last year was released on DVD and Blu-ray. Some scenes are on YouTube if you're curious.

As for Clara Bow, she survived the transition to talkies,  but at 28, after making more than 50 films and having also survived scandals, studios, and her own vulnerability, she retired from Hollywood to become a rancher in Nevada. In 1965, she died at 60 of a heart attack.

Click the image if you'd like a larger version.

Credits: John Chuckman (photo of Clara Bow); Kyoto Costume Institute (corset); Paradise via Fotki (wings); Darleen Araujo (butterfly and silver bows); HotLookz (lace-gloved hand to replace her awkwardly positioned left hand); BG Payne Crafts (pearly branches); Arlene's Costumes (antennae); Plof (quail feather); Encore Editions (plumbago); Deadlady (frame); Judy at a Touch of Class (background within the frame). 

Silhouettes

For Sunday Postcard Art's silhouette challenge

The challenge made me remember how prehistoric artists loved working with silhouettes, too, and in the dancing light of flames from a torch or a fire or one of the little spoon-shaped fat lamps, the pictures moved wonderfully.  Not so much with a flashlight, though, eh?

Clicking the image will bring up a somewhat larger version.

Credits:  Fun With Pictures (silhouettes), SolStock  and Cloaks (two backgrounds blended together), Open Clipart (flashlight)

Which Road?

For Inspiration Avenue's "Which Road?" challenge - A postcard about my unwillingness to discard any option in life.  Makes it difficult to make progress, yes, but.... I love a detour.

Clicking the image will bring up a larger version.

Asian

For Collage Obsession's Asian challenge

Several layers of art papers from three nations:  A Chinese sampan with a Thai sail crossing a Japanese sea under a Japanese sky, heading into a Thai dawn.

Raar

For Crazy Amigo's raar (weird) challenge

Was hard trying to be deliberately raar for a change instead of just naturally raar.

Credits:  Metropolitan Museum of Art (sharp-dressed, not-there man), Art Wallpaper (Taittinger Champagne ad featuring Grace Kelly),  Vintage Printable ("Fairchild's Pictured Chart of Formal Evening Dress Prepared From an Analysis of the Apparel Worn by Well-Dressed New York Men"), EK Duncan (paper doll arm and leg), Judy at a Touch of Class (roses), Maladie Stock via Demilked (cardboard background).

Time

For Three Muses' time challenge

Clicking the image will give you a larger version.

Resuming Work

For Think Monday - Think ATC & More's book challenge

The last challenge image on my tumblr site is, I think, a good start for this blogger site.

I've set up shop over here because people whose work is inspiring to me were finding tumblr's non-approach to leaving comments frustrating and because I was finding tumblr's latest upgrade pretty much a downgrade.

As on tumblr, I don't expect to have much to say for myself.  I want this to be about images, not words.

Thank you for stopping by.