Photo Art Friday 29 March 2013 Graffiti

I need to really limit my computer time. Still dealing with last week’s fall and head-banger whilst walking with Gracie. I’ve been to my neurologist and I’m getting an MRI of my brain tomorrow. [Friday, GOOD Friday, which encourages me greatly]

I am cutting short my digital fiddling time and just sharing several of a series of graffiti photos I took in San Jose, California, Easter weekend 2009.

Seems the best way round this, and I have played with them just a bit either in Picasa or Pixlr. Nothing too fancy shmancy other than this first one where I merged two photos, a wall and a piece of graffiti from a dumpster.

I played a bit with the graffiti and layered it in twice. Then I decided that forcing myself [or anyone else for that matter] to see double images wasn’t the best plan for brain rest!

Next up are a couple from elevators and sides of buildings which I have cropped and fiddled with only a wee bit.

I am recalling my walk that day and how very much of a photo walk it was. It was a hard day for me, that one, and I remember Now how much I helped myself navigate it more gently walking with my camera.

These next ones are cropped bits of walls and such which were quite intricate and actually lovely.

I’d love to share more, and fiddle further, but that will BE another day…

Artist's Play Room #50 ~ Flight

A little over 3 years ago, when I was first BEcoming reacquainted with making art, I took a workshop at the Delray Beach Center for the Arts in collage and mixed-media. It was a great workshop and I learned so much and enJOYed exploring with gentle guidance what was possible for me in this next chapter.

I share this BEcause I was really at a crossroads in my Life then, and I thought mayBE it was a way to find my place here as I started Life over again, single, back on the East Coast, just Gracie and me... 

I honestly never imagined I'd run with it as I have. It was a wonderful happenstance that continues to pay dividends of wonder and amazement each and every day.

I continued in that workshop throughout 2009-2011, and then I just kind of "launched" myself as an artist. Of course, I had hoped that would mean an artist who sells her art, but so far that piece has eluded me. [Frankly, I'd rather gift it, and the best thing is how healing making art is for me, so...]

Today I teach at Delray Beach Center for the Arts, which is where I was supposed to BE this week for Kickin' Arts Spring Break Camp. 

However, Gracie and I had a little run-in last Wednesday with 2 dogs, and I am, instead of helping kids 6-12 make suns and beach umbrellas for their musical play based on Fun in the Sun, making my way with a concussion and one very sore body that clearly was NOT made for BEing upended onto cobblestones by big dogs...

I teach a program, actually two programs, Kickin' Arts with 4th and 5th graders, and Art FUNdamentals with 2nd and 3rd graders. It's a sort of field trip adventure and it's mostly only busy in the fall and during May, but I love it. I am sorry to BE missing out on the camp adventure but glad I can lay low and tend to healing.

When I read this week's Artist's Play Room theme, I knew immediately what I wanted to DO. During the summer of 2010 I was making loads of tiny collages on 3-inch by 3-inch squares. 

One of them I turned into my card with the words from the Tennyson quote: The shell must break before the bird can fly. I quite loved that as it spoke of my own shell breaking and those first tentative movements I was making toward flight.

I've sort of updated that using a bit of digital fiddling rather than paper painting for my APR #50. 

It was just the thing for me this morning as I was feeling like a big toad since I had to back out of teaching. 

And by Now, midway through the afternoon, I'm glad I had this to DO. Makes me feel productive even though I am just keeping quiet.

That's it. That's all. EnJOY.

Self Portrait ~ Photo Art Friday 22 March 2013

I'd really hoped to get a bit more wild with my self-portrait for this week's Photo Art Friday, but circumstances somewhat BEyond my grasp* have taken over so I am going to just share this one photo of me, taken at Timmy's wedding, in the church unBEknownst to me until later... 

I played with it in Picasa and then in Pixlr. I came back to Picasa and went back to Pixlr. I was seeing what happened and I sort of like the oddness of what I turned up.

First the last:

Next the third go:

And what came BEfore that:

And finally, the original photograph:

How rarely does one see this sort of photo?! I know it is a first for me. I enJOYed turning it first to a pencil sketch, fiddling along in Picasa, then into Pixlr... I liked what I came out with after Pixlr, but there was just something else I was looking for. 

I found it in a dreamboard I made. It spoke to me of the thoughts in my head, mayBE at the moment the photo was taken, and mayBE over the arc of Timmy's Life.

I know I was proud and happy and, okay, a little bit scared, too. It was humbling.

There was a jumble of memories, hopes, and dreams that if I could open up my thoughts would look like the first of these, a little bit.

*[side note: Gracie and I got "attacked" by 2 dogs yesterday afternoon. we know the dogs and the whole incident was more just bad luck all round, but I got upended and landed hard on the cobblestone road and got a good knock on the bean, so I am feeling a little like gremlins are driving the brain bus today... it has taken me a really long time to write this and I can't tell if it makes sense "out loud" but I am going to fly with it anyway. any and all good thoughts or prayers for all involved will BE welcome. I feel really bad for the lady whose dogs got out; sad, too, for Gracie who is Now very timid and tender though NOT too badly hurt physically. it is mostly her crying that I can't seem to get out of my head and then there is my head... thanks for understanding if this doesn't make too much sense. xoxo]

Artist's Play Room #49 ~ What DO I Overlook?!

It isn't easy to BE me sometimes. I can BE a bit harsh. Scoldy. Inconsiderate. 

I overlook this BEcause I say it's just ME. But over time this has BEcome something I've worked on diligently to change.

As I got to thinking about this week's Artist's Play Room theme, I noticed myself BEcoming aware of things. 

Perhaps this was the point?!

Anyway...

What I am noticing myself overlooking is something I DO each and every morning, usually BEfore the sun has come up.

And yet I take it fully for granted... It's just my habit. Just what I DO...

It shouldn't take a prompt or a challenge to look at myself with more compassion.

It shouldn't BE an ah-HAH sort of realisation that hits me upside the head, but there you go. It's taken what it has taken and I'm stopping it, oh, little bit by slow bit.

Here's a thought: MayBE the way to stop OVERLOOKING this is to ask a favour. 

To make a request. 

MayBE I am hiding BEhind this and trying to stay invisible again...

So, here goes: every morning I send out my Gratitude to an email list of folks. I have been DOing this since 2007, and my list of folks has grown and shrunk. 

The others on my list, well, a handful of them, mayBE a couple more than a handful somedays, also write and share Gratitude with me. [and others on their lists]

BUT...

There does NOT seem to BE a crossover, an intersection, and I feel like that is less about people NOT wanting to and more about me NOT asking.

So, here I go: 

I have another blog where I share my Gratitude for all to see and read. It is called I Love You, Currie and every morning I make a wee piece of art and DO a little poeming and write about something.

I would LOVE LOVE LOVE to have more people read it but asking people to follow my blog just is NOT my cup of tea...

Y'know?!

I started last June to post it as a blog as well as the email I send. I've noticed, too, that I sometimes wish those on my email list would come and see what I am up to on BE Currie, but then I think I shouldn't ask.

So, while it may well BE weird and perhaps pushy, I'd like to put it out there that I'd love people who read me here to read me there as well. In the 9 months I've had that blog only one person has chosen to follow me. [and I also added her to my email list]

To BE fair, I am going to make an effort to contact my email list of folks and invite them to visit BE Currie, mayBE even follow me.

I don't feel so weird Now that I have written this out. I feel like I'm mayBE making a necessary change.

Anyhoozle, that's what I've got today and here's a little sampling of some recent Gratitude art and poeming...

Portrait ~ Photo Art Friday 15 March 2013

My first thought, I imagine this fairly similar to others’ thoughts, about Portrait is something very formal, and I was nearly clueless considering what I had that would serve this purpose.

And then I started to clear out some more of my little Wee Cottage hideaway places…

Let me say I really REALLY wanted to DO a portrait like a school photo with this wonderful seal Gracie and I met in Monterey in 2009. It just made me feel so silly to consider it.

Anyway, I had a short night’s sleep last night; I mean, I got enough sleep, I was just awake very VERY early this morning. And so I have played a bit more with some actual photos of me. It has been a funny little adventure.

What I have done is a wee series of me smiling, grinning, laughing, 1954-ish, early sixties, and 1986. No fancy footwork, just a little digitalous fiddle-dee-dee…

Then I decided to try a little this-and-that with a couple of pdpa textures but I think it was only Vintage Vellum that lasted. 

What really strikes me, having come to The End for Now, is how much fun it was/is to see ME BEing Me, one of those rare and remarkable things I’ve NOT much experience with.

It surprised me how much the same I was at 33, 8, 7, 6, and nearing 2.

And even Now, nearing 60…

Good fun, Bonnie, thanks for the inspiration!!

Artist's Play Room #48 ~ Celebration of Women

I wasn't entirely sure where I was going to go with this week's theme. Last Friday, 8 March, was International Women's Day, and ever since I have been thinking what that means to me, Now... 

I know it has meant many things over my 60 years on this planet, and probably a LOT of that was very reactive on my part. 

I grew into my womanhood at an ideal time, at least I think so, BEcause a lot of the "heavy lifting" had been well-BEgun by women a decade or so BEfore me.

Although I was less interested in college than in Clown School when that was on my horizon, I find it hard to imagine BEing alive in a time when going to college was NOT a given!! 

Upon reflection, I can see that the World I grew up in and the one I pretty much take for granted today are vastly different. However, I have been in it Present Tense throughout, so it requires a LOT of pause and reflect to SEE the arc of change.

I've returned to the medium of words to express my thoughtsandfeelings this week...

Who Is This Woman I Call Me?!

Is she the sadness that sometimes swallows her whole

Or the silly that makes her heart sing

MayBE she is a little of both

Yet I suspect there is more to her.

She is first herself

Her own constant companion

Encouraging, listening, and available

So that BEing herself is enough.

I BElieve she is adventurous

Yet wholly content where she is

She loves the Journey

And deLIGHTs in BEing home.

Somedays she is a bit of a whirler

Brain firing on so many cylinders at once

Ideas dancing like butterflies in the sun

And this is simply magical.

Other times she is quiet

Even a little intense

[though she does NOT like to BE called intense]

And her mind is diving deep, deeper.

She enJOYs laughter and creates her own fun

Which is a bit strange to consider

Having spent so much of her Life

Following others’ lead in that regard.

She is a daughter and a sister

She’s a mother and she has been a wife

She hopes she has been a friend

And she knows she has loved all of the above.

Her Life isn’t a tidy little package

Doesn’t fit into any sort of box or drawer

Yet it is enough all she’s been and done

Indeed, enough and so much more.

Abstracts with Textures for Photo Art Friday 8 March 2013

I’ve enJOYed this theme [or shall I say Bonnie’s “encouraging directions”] BEcause it is something I have been DOing, sort of as a challenge for myself each day, in my daily Gratitude on my I Love You, Currie blog.

[And while I’ve NOT been using PDPA textures but Kim Klassen textures, I love the idea of starting with something and building over it and within it.]

I have discovered through this, at o’dark-thirty each morning when I choose to get up and write for 2-3 hours, that digital fiddling is remarkably forgiving and simply good fun.

I take one texture and one of my photos or scans, and I fiddle away until I have a little something-something to share with my Gratitude.

It’s like the deliciousness a warm from the oven scone with my tea…

This has taught me that practise makes things more intuitive.

It has illustrated how tiny and simple steps can make HUGE and BEautimous possibilities happen.

And it has given me a much braver approach than how I used to navigate.

BEcause I DO this in Picasa and the Pixlr, generally Pixlr Express, sometimes Pixlr Editor, I am no longer banging my head up against PSE8 and all that I DON’T understand there.

Now that is what is true for me, and I am sure were I to get down to business and learn PSE8, I would find out how to ring its bells and blow its whistles. I’m just saying…

Without further ado, here is what I’ve stirred-up for Photo Art Friday 8 March 2013.

 Something You Have Never EVER Seen BEfore Now

[PDPA Texture Never Seen Before] 

Riding Rainbows Under the Sea  

[PDPA Texture Blue Depths]

Colour Commotion

[PDPA Scratched Lens Texture tweaked & inverted]

Remembering Seeing the Northern Lights 

[PDPA Texture Sweet Thoughts]

What I Treasure… Artist’s Play Room #47

Like others, I am quite certain, thinking of what I treasure is glorious. 

It is sweet. It is wonderful.

Gracie, Sedona, 2005

Trying to illustrate it, on the other hand, somewhat like 

eating dinosaur bones…

Goggle Girl Gracie, Sedona, 2005

I’ve “tried” to settle on one thing, then another, then remembered 

something yet BEyond both of those.

Braveheart Gracie, Sedona, 2008

So BEcause making art and sharing are, for me, meant to BE 

the highlights in my days, I am making a choice. 

I am resolved.

Gracie, Dog Beach, Jupiter, 2010

It’s that simple…