Have you experienced Adobe’s Slate app? It’s free and simple to use. I created a ‘story’ called ‘Self-ish: A Journey of Self Portraiture’ with it. Lots of possibilities for creating illustrative stories effortlessly!
Give it a try!
https://slate.adobe.com/a/G8y5k
The other day I received what I consider to be my first ‘negative’ comment on my Instagram feed. It wasn’t necessarily a bad comment but one I felt definitely had negative intentions.
I can honestly say, though, the comment was eye opening – in more ways than one.
The comment came after I’d received several complimentary comments about a particular (abstract) image I had posted.
This commenter wanted to know: ‘What is abstract art?’, ‘Where is the talent??’ and ‘Would someone please explain this to me!!’
For some reason I felt compelled to give an explanation even though I had doubts as to the sincerity of the question. Wouldn’t an ‘artist’ know what ‘abstract art’ was? Especially an artist with such ‘confidence’?
And when I said the comment was eye-opening I did mean it in a good way!
First of all it caused me to stop and think what ‘having talent’ actually means.
How is talent defined? Who gets to decide who is talented and who is not? And, more importantly, why did this person even care? Did my ‘lack of talent’ offend him? Did it take away from his ability to make art? It may sound as if his comment really bothered me but I assure you it did not.
It made me think.
Why do I create the art I create?
Why in this style, in this way? With these subjects and these colors?
Why?
I realized his comments made me want to defend my art but not in a defensive way at all. (And no one could have been any more surprised by this fact than me!)
‘Abstract art’, I informed him, ‘is a visual language that does not attempt to represent an accurate reality but instead uses shapes, colors, forms and gestural marks to achieve its effect. If it engages the viewer it is considered successful. All art is ultimately valuable for its effect on the viewer and (in most cases involving true artists) for the effect is has on the artist who creates it. Whether or not the artist is viewed as ‘having talent’ is a non-issue for it is far more important for the artist to be able to tell their story through their art. Thanks for asking!”
And here it was.
The answer to the question I did not know I needed an answer to.
I do what I do because this is my story to tell. And this is how I choose to tell it. I hope you enjoy it but its ok if you don’t. I share it because I can only hope you might benefit from it in some small way (or even in a large way) that it might change your day for the better or simply serve as inspiration. I create this art because I can’t NOT create it. If it helps you too then it’s a good day – whether talent is involved or not!
You can see my stories unfold at: http://www.instagram.com/AKALIGHTBLUE
Did you know…
That in only two places in the entire world there is a phenomenon called ‘simultaneous bioluminescence’ where fireflies in the area sync up their flashes so they all light up at the same time repeatedly all night long. This happens (apparently) in Southeast Asia and Smoky Mountain National Park.
I had no idea!
Found on ‘The Magic & Folklore of Fireflies’
This image is another one of my iPad creations.
Do you enjoy taking tests that tell you a little something about why you do the things you do?
I do!
I ran across a cool site completely by accident called psychologies.co.uk and took a test called ‘What’s Your Creative Style’. It was short and sweet and quickly got to the good stuff.
For me, I soon discovered (but wasn’t too surprised to learn), creativity is a ‘release’. Not that it isn’t a release for most people,,,but it goes into a bit more detail than that.
It explained how important it is for me to, not only get a grasp of my emotions but the importance of releasing these emotions as well and that I need to be able to touch them or look at them in concrete form to make sense of them in order to be able to sort them out.
I said something to this effect on my ‘about me’ page when I first created this blog. I think I mentioned something about how my art helped me to sort out thoughts and ideas…I wasn’t exactly sure ‘why’ though.
Now I know!
You might find out something interesting about yourself too…
The above image is something completely different from what I’ve been doing lately. I like the hands-on approach and the spontaneity, power and movement I feel when I’m creating these ‘selfies’.
Which, btw, is because ‘I’m usually attracted to art that demands physicality, that allows me to express what’s inside’. –According to the test results!
These two images are the same image from yesterday’s post (interference art) they were just tweaked in different ways using no more than two (maybe three) apps. On the second one I did some selective hand coloring (I’m in a pink phase).
One thing I like to do is photograph paintings I’ve made (the old fashioned way and the new fashioned way) and use them as jumping off points. I open them up in my favorite apps and just run them through the many options, filters, etc until I find a pleasing composition.
Finding a pleasing composition doesn’t happen every time but when I discover something that ‘might’ work, I save it to use as the beginning of another painting.
It helps having a large stash of possibilities to pull from – just like the stash we keep in our real studios.
The options and combinations really are endless!
Art.
Interfered with.
Interference Art.
(Aka more fun with apps)
I completed this painting mere minutes before beginning the one in yesterday’s post…(yep, the pink one) – wonder what Carl Jung would have to say about that?!
I get inspiration from all sorts of places; beautiful scenery, songs on the radio, inspiring art, magazines, catalogs, etc, etc…and today it was a sticker.
One of my stickers ended up on this painting.
But when I moved the painting aside to let it dry – I noticed the blotter sheet had some interesting marks and paint strokes on it.
Unfortunately the interesting compositions were in the middle of some not-so-great compositions. I wanted to explore it further but was distracted by all the surrounding marks. But I had an idea…
I made a frame with an opening the size of a 4×4 cradled panel.
It became a viewfinder and made it much easier to find the compositions I wanted amid all the distractions.
Mounting these small “paintings” onto cradled panels will elevate them to star status instantly!
Just remember to use light pencil marks when framing your compositions and add about an eighth of an inch extra around the perimeter of your painting when cutting them out – to allow for trimming and positioning ease when mounting them onto the panels. Of course you’re not limited to 4×4 size – you may have a much larger sheet that you’re finding interesting arrangements on – this is just a starting suggestion.
The point is to keep our eyes open for the unexpected – sometimes it’s right there in front of us!
First, let me tell you about the new hard drive I got this weekend. It’s a Seagate Wireless Plus. It’s about the size of a smart phone – just a little thicker – and its for mobile device storage. It also works as a hot spot which is really a nice plus (probably where the name came from) when you like sitting in your car or at a restaurant whiling away the hours learning new iPhoneography tricks like I do.
Which reminds me…found a great new resource for that as well…www.thetheatreprofessor.com (definitely worth a visit!).
The hard drive is 1TB. And so far I’ve uploaded 19,438 images.
I didn’t have that many images on my cell phone or iPad – it also lets you upload from your computer too – which is great if you’re like me and have a few images stashed here and there.
I have no idea how many images a terabyte will hold (it’s one level up from a gigabyte, if that helps at all) but I have several more places to pull images from yet- so I guess I’ll find out sooner or later – hopefully much later.
One slight problem though – it doesn’t seem to like Raw images – so either I will have to revert the Raw images and re-upload or try and figure out a way around it.
So anyway….while I was at the restaurant whiling away the hours tonight, I stumbled on some of my Lensbaby images. I’d forgotten how much I love looking at them. This image is straight out of the camera – no post production work here at all.
Is this not the most delicious looking light OR WHAT?!?
I made this photograph in Colorado – the birthplace of delicious light.
Yum.
It’s been really hot lately. The kind of hot that keeps you comfortably indoors at all times (if at all possible).
I have a favorite chair in front of a window that I like to sit and watch the birds at the feeders. They don’t seem to mind the heat at all.
This evening there was a young rabbit nibbling at the ground underneath the feeders —and I let my mind wander…
Here are the steps that led to this creation:
A photograph of a magazine model was imported into iColorama.
I painted over the image (preserving the eyes) with random paint tools
I saved the image and imported it into Procreate
I selected an ink tool and drew shapes
I then painted around the shapes with another color
And then touched up with more ink lines.
Pure fun!