Wednesday, October 3, 2012

Botanical Retrospective ~ Artist's Play Room #29

In March of 2009, during the last of my days living in Arizona, a friend invited me to join her for an afternoon at the Desert Botanical Gardens. After 12 years in Arizona, I was FINALLY going. I don't think I was ever all that thrilled, turned-on, or excited by the whole desert thing... until that day.

What made this such an intriguing adventure was experiencing it with the Chihuly exhibit. The mix of these two, during the height of desert blooming, was as magical as Alice's Adventures through the Looking Glass.

I took many pictures. SO MANY. My friend wondered that I couldn't actually enJOY the adventure with my camera so busy, yet there was NOTHING I missed. 

Oftentimes I think that my camera highlights experiences. It captures something unnameable yet essential. 

And the best part?! Here I am, 3 and a half years later digging into them once more. Seeing things I did NOT see then. If only BEcause Now I know how to digitally fiddle with my photographs...



For Artist's Play Room #29, Jenn has given us the theme BOTANICAL to interpret any way our little hearts desire. So... I went through my photos and chose around 18 I wanted to play with, brought them into Picasa and cropped them and turned them into a collage, also made in Picasa. I see this is as a work-in-progress, and I am very excitedly looking forward to playing individually with these photos.

Thanks, Jenn!! I'd all but forgotten about this stash!!!



just add water silly's blog hop link

13 comments:

Leovi said...

Really lovely colors, great compositions, I really like. Nice pictures.

Jennifer McLean said...

a lovely conglomeration of photos. I love Chihuli too, his artwork glass is stunning.

Hwee said...

Desert has such a different landscape and plants. Quite an amazing place, really! I like your collage and the vibrant colours you've picked to put it together. They're certainly not the usual colours that most of us would associate with a desert. Happy PPF!

Elissa said...

Love your Desert Collage, such beautiful vibrant colours. Thank you for visiting my blog and commenting, I left a reply for you there.

TwinkleToes2day said...

This is such a gorgeous collage! The colours are just BEautiful, they remind me to see and not just look :0)

Darla said...

Great collage. The pictures are great and I am sure there are many possibilities for experimenting with them. Good you rediscovered them.

Darla

Catharina Engberg said...

Such beautyful photos! Wonderful colours! Must have been a special place to visit. Tace care Currie!

Gloria j Zucaro said...

These are amazing photos. Thanks for sharing them. I am amazed that Dale Chihuly was able to get his pieces of glass into those areas without damaging the plants and without breaking his glass pieces!

Terrie said...

Stunning and inspiring photos - I just love the juxtaposition of the sparkle and shine of that artistic glass against the rough and spiny desert landscape. This is truly a fab stash - just waiting for more play time from you.

Serena Lewis said...

Beautiful collage, Currie! I've seen other images of Chuhuly's art glass over the years too. Absolutely amazing!!!

Arnoldo L. Romero, MLA said...

What a great way to use your collection of photographs of your visit to the desert garden, Currie. Blessings!

Victoria said...

Wow..what a gorgeous array of beauty and nature and garden magic! Blissful!!
Victoria

Tracey FK said...

So sorry I am so late for APR this week... but glad I got here in the end because this is quite lovely... desert flowers are stunning and I remember seeing a huge swath of them when visiting my sister when she lied in the outback and the stunning colours against the red of the earth is an image I think I will always remember! thanks for sharing and the reminder... I should try to hunt out the photos I took xx