Photo Art Friday 9.6.13 ~ Water Theme

A Quiet-ish Currie this September...

I really enJOYed digitally fiddling some photos of waterscapes in San Jose, CA, in April of 2009. Never really understand what I am thinking when I take such photos; glad to find out I didn't NEED to know, just trust the process!!!

Added PDPA Skywater & Underwater textures and then played awhile in Pixlr.

Feeling grateful for the water thoughts...

Looking forward to seeing what others have been up to.

Photo Art Friday... August 2013

I've missed this staple of connection and sharing in my weeks, yet I have found that it has stayed around, in other guises, surprising me suddenly.

Just last August I finally got about learning to use Photoshop Elements 8. And what happened then was that I felt like elephants were playing pinball in my birdbrain. 

I couldn't see forests OR trees.

What I've discovered, happily, is that for me Digital Fiddling is NOT dependent upon my knowing How-To use PSE8 or any other elephant-like [to me] software. 

It doesn't need money thrown at it. 

Nor does it require a fancier camera.

All it takes is desire and curiosity. 

And a liberal dash of persistent consistency.

For awhile I'd noticed myself feeling breathless and apologetic about what I did NOT understand. 

That, and I BEgan to BE timid and afraid to make mistakes. 

That alone was itchy enough that I gradually stopped trying to use PSE8 and started using Picasa, then Pixlr & Picasa.

About my favourite thing to DO on Fridays [and oftentimes Saturdays as well] is meandering deLIGHTedly through Photo Art Friday posts and visiting everyone else's photo art and posts.

So Now that it is a once-monthly thing, I am happy to BE upon the first Friday in August. I'm eager to see what others have been up to. 

And, yes, overJOYed to BE able to share some of what I've been up to, too.

Nowadays I pretty much work with Pixlr exclusively. 

It's fun, easy, and always surprising. 

Somehow I'm finding the Enoughness factor that was missing for me with PSE8. 

It has BEcome second nature. 

I love how that happened.

I did a little bit with the flowery theme, perusing my photos from the past several years. One batch jumped up and kissed me on the nose, that BEing the 200+ from the Desert Botanical Garden in Phoenix where I visited during the Chihuly exhibit in late March 2009.

Into some of the BEautimous glass sculptures I blended some very bare trees I'd seen earlier that month while in Philadelphia. And then to bring it all together, a spread of desert blooms.

I went on, once I got started, finding several other ways to respond to the notion of flowers.

enJOY!!

Tiny Adventures Close To Home

It boggles the mind to realise it is already two-thirds of the way through July. I canNOT really say where the Time has gone, but I DO know it's been sweet and simple time.

In my continuing intent to keep my Life within my Present means, I have spent some pretty amazing time here in the Wee Cottage creating and just BEing.

For 2013 Year of the Giraffe, July has been all about sculpture. NOT something I've had any experience with, but remarkably that matters NOT one smidge.

And in the continuing Adventure that is Mail Me Some Art, I have found another way to combine Giraffe-ing and MMSA-ing in creating a wee "zine" for an upcoming swap.

I spent the bulk of yesterday and some of today creating this Now ready-to-BE folded and cut Collaging & Digital Fiddling Giraffes Zine. It's been fun, challenging in the best of ways, and encouraging.

I've also been discovering that sculpture is NOT that far outside the "box" of skills and capabilities I already have; truly an incentive to keep working things out, bit by slow bit.

I have explored soft sculpture...

And I have also been busy with 2 papier-mache-ish sculptures and several wire and what-have-you sculptures. [pictures TK, I promise ;~D]

It's a good summer as summers go; quiet, productive, relaxing, and spent enJOYing each and every day like juicy mangoes!!

A Glance Backward

It is hard to fathom that June is nearing its end. Once again nearly an entire month has flown past and I keep forgetting when it is in the year. [and somedays I even forget what year it is!]

I've had a curious month... my 60th birthday, some BIG decisions about what my next chapter is looking like, a goodbye to a friend [actually 3 friends, 2 of the canine variety] moving "home" after 16 years in Florida, tremendous shifts in two of my most important relationships, and the discovery that Life is always about my willingness to Let Go and BE in Right Now.

I've taken a bit of a step back this past week or so. NOT that anything was "wrong" or any of that, just taking a breather you might say. A sort of "New Year" reflective pause I like DOing round my birthday each June.

It astonishes me that I still sometimes slip into the notion that I am essential to the smooth running of the World. 

I am NOT. I am just essential to my own Life. [and probably Gracie's as well, due to her lack of well, really, NOT her lack, just her limitations BEing a dog] 

I'm enJOYing playing along with ICAD, albeit quietly this go round. 

I've kept it really simple this year, making a collage out of whatever's on hand here, spending literally about 5 minutes a day. It's kind of fun to see them all collected on a ring. It's a nice little practise I quite enJOY.

For 2013 Year of the Giraffe June has been Paint the Giraffe, and I have been painting one each day in a tiny watercolour journal. 

I'm playing with colour combos and usually only two a day, but some of them have caught me needing to DO a bit more than just the two. 

Perhaps the thing I am feeling most excited and really Very Happy about is having completed my book, I Love You, Currie ~ My 60th Year, which is a compilation of my daily Gratitude Practise from 18 June 2012 through 17 June 2013, my 60th year. 

I've been encouraged by many over the years to "write a book" and yet, for me, that feels like what I have been DOing little bit by little bit each day for the past 6 years. 

I decided to make this past year's Gratitude Practise into a book so that my mum, whose computer [my old one] no longer lets her read my Gratitude, can see it and DO so without having to navigate BEyond her lap.

I've been at it for the past 2 weeks and have just Now completed all the steps on CreateSpace to get it published. Exciting. Scary. Yet really quite a thrill, too.

So, on we go to July very soon, eh?! 

EnJOY!!

Photo Art Friday 14 June 2013 ~ AHHHHHHH!!! It's back!!!

It's always good to pause and refresh.

And it's wondrous to reconnect.

This couple of month hiatus has found me exploring and expanding my repertoire of art-making possibilities.

On my other blog, I've been gathering up the past year's posts for a book I'm calling My 60th Year. 

My 60th birthday is next Tuesday. I started my other blog, I Love You, Currie, on my last birthday. 

It's quite intriguing to see the arc of my last year and all I have learned, explored, and discovered on the Digital Fiddling Playground.

While really it's just me posting my daily Gratitude which I share with a bunch of others by email, after many encouragements and kind responses, I decided to start posting it in a blog, too. 

The book idea is a way of tipping my hat to my mum. 

Her yearly reminders that whatever age I am turning, the year BEfore and leading up to my birthday is that YEAR. 

And it's also FOR HER BEcause her computer has bitten the dust and she has missed out on receiving my Gratitude for nearly ALL of the past year.

I Love You, Currie has NOT got much of a following, but it does have one, which is really where I want to focus. 

It's been fun to send my early morning writings and digital fiddlings out into the World each day and in that process meeting so many more wonderful people I'd likely NEVER get to meet otherwise.

As I have here, in Photo Art Friday.

My "title" piece for this week's theme, Dreamy or Ethereal, is a piece made of a couple of PDPA textures that I fiddled with in Pixlr. 

I've been using many of Bonnie's extraordinary textures as my starting points in the early mornings. 

It's quite a LOT of fun to mix them with my art and words. 

The piece BElow is one I made especially for our return PAF.

I started with a bunch of Nantucket photographs I took when I was there for my son's wedding in 2010. 

I made a collage I call Nantucket Postcard, and then it sort of sat and gathered dust, like so many of my wee collages. 

Insert a momentary inspiration whilst sorting and downloading some of my photos from KodakGallery. [which is no more] 

And me remembering what I was thinking about when I made it. 

Therein lies the Dreamy & Ethereal aspect.

I layered a variety of PDPA and PARC textures, fiddled with them in Pixlr and actually am quite enJOYing what I came up with. 

I've also given myself an idea for an upcoming Mail Me Some Art swap which is always a bonus. 

So looking forward to what others have been up to.

enJOY!!

Bizarre!!! Artist's Play Room #61

I admit to BEing stumped by this theme, Bizarre, but then I had a little lightbulb moment and thought, Perhaps I should share one of the giraffes I've been sewing... [?! I DO use needle and thread]

And so without a lot of TO-DO or tra-la-la, here is one of these rather strange giraffes I've gone a little crazy making the past few weeks.

EnJOY!!

Thoughts on BEing 60

It's a week yet until my actual birthday, but I've shifted into that gear of reflecting and imagining, looking back over the year and considering, with an open hand and heart, what I might like to DO next.

This morning, after our wee Morning Adventure, Gracie was so exhausted that I just sat awhile and watched her wind down and regroup. 

I was thinking how much she has taught me, especially in this past year, as our ages BEgin their convergence. [considering dog years times 7 makes her just about the same age as me Now]

And I was thinking about how my mum always makes sure I know I am in my 60th year and come next week I'll BEgin my 61st. 

Gracie has taught me to live in each moment.

She has given me a shining example of NOT worrying and trusting everything that is REALLY necessary will BE supplied.

[sometimes magically]

Gracie "walks her talk" by always greeting Life with gladness and accepting things [okay, sometimes she needs persuading] just the way they are.

She lives simply, is visible, has great discipline, and knows what enough is.

[all of these BEing my words for the years 2010, 2011, 2012, and 2013]

Gracie gives more than she gets and she does so gladly, eagerly, and always.

She's just so HOW I want to BE, NOT when I "grow up" but Right Now.

Today.

Always.

And so I sat and wrote this little poeming to mark for myself what I am thinkingandfeeling Right Now.

In the last week of my 60th year.

Thoughts On BEing 60

I am finding such great JOY living Life

NOT BEcause of something or someone

Simply by choosing to every day.

I have loved and I have been loved

Sometimes at the very same time

Other times NOT so much or even at all.

I would trade anything at all

Nothing excluded, anything at all

For the peace I know inside me Now.

Even when no one notices or cares

I shall continue showing up

And BEing who and how I AM.

Even if I never EVER have Hope

Of perfection or success

I shall continue on DOing Life my way.

I would love to hear it said to me

And know its warmth wrapped round me

But I’ll keep saying I love you forever.

I know that I really am enough

I don’t need anyone else to agree

Knowing is more than plenty.

People still confuse me all the time

And I want to understand them

I’ve grown comfortable with that.

Letting Go is NOT my greatest strength

And yet I feel it growing

Stronger each and every day.

My days may BE simple and small

In the Grander Scheme of Life

Still, they fit me perfectly.

I don’t know how long I have left

To live and BE and love

But I know it’s already been enough.