7.28.2011

Love Them Red High-Heeled Shoes!








I got a new Red High Heel Shoe yesterday. Besides being part of the Deevine Miss M's logo, my inner being wears red stilleto shoes always. And - I had a bad tattoo (someone's initials) I needed to get rid of. So I did - I stomped on it!

(And yes, I photoshopped around the edges to get rid of the redness and swelling! If ya got the tools, use 'em!)  :P

My love of shoes is strong, but on the Today show this morning they interviewed a woman who makes me look like an amateur. Professional poker player Beth Shak  owns 1,200 pairs of shoes. Everytime she wins, she goes shopping for a new pair! They are valued at close to $500 million. WOW!

Here's a picture of just one of her three closets - however, instead of envy, I find myself thinking about having to pack all those shoes if I decided to go back to Tulsa! Not to mention, I don't think my seester would let me store them in her shed - she's funny likie that!

So, for the time being I'm content with my one new RED SHOE!

7.18.2011

There are not enough seconds in the minutes, or minutes in the hours....



Here's a picture that's been waiting a week for me to finish it, but I've been busy learning how to Tweet! Before that, I converted a novel into an e-book, and it works all most readers! (Proud of that accomplishment)!

And it's only17 days till the next First Wednesday Artwalk. I want to have several Navy paintings since this is a Navy town.

I'm thinking of a new way to set up my booth this time so I can show more stuff. Here's my first one with my fabulous assistant! I absolutely could have not done this without him!!!

I need a larger table to display brochures, business cards, smaller prints, notecards and all that stuff. But it all has to fit in the back seat of my PT Cruiser with the top down. Last time, I spent 75% of my time looking in the rear view mirror to see if anything was flying through the air.





And then there are the frequent distractions of the various and assorted visitors who only come by to drive Stanley crazy! These two live across the street and they actually came up on my front porch. I shoo'd them away, so the stopped and chewed a few weedsout of my front walk. I'm thinking about borrowing them occasionally. (It's easier than bending over.)


 Stanley's other BFF is a gopher tortoise who lives down the hill. He likes to walk back and forth along the back fence, all the while pretending Stanley does not exist. And Stanley's begging me to let him out to play. But since they're a protected species, we can't do that!

Never a dull moment - I've still got pix in the camera of the hummingbird outside my kitchen window. He's about 3 feet away and I love to watch him when I'm supposed to be working... like now! I gotta go... TTYL!

7.02.2011

"IS IT ART?" - (Final installment on this rant!)

How 'bout a pretty picture before I get started? The original photo is at the bottom of the page.

Now for the ending to the post I began on June 24th about whether or not digital art is "art" or "whatever." I did think of another analogy - If all the tools, the supplies, the land, and a blueprint were provided, could just anyone walk out there and build a house? Probably not. It would take a person with the skills and the talent to build a house to be proud of. Same with art - the tools don't make the art, the artist does. So:


There is an art site that invited me to be one of their original members. I was also invited to be co-moderator for a yet-to-be-established group for Digital Art.

"Wow," thought I to myself! "I'm a real artist!" And I began uploading various pieces I've created and received lovely, re-affirming comments such as:
·         Comment by (name deleted) 1 day ago This is an excellent piece of digital art. I like the painterly effect you have achieved and strength of colours.
·         Comment by (name deleted) 1 day ago Pretty colors - so luscious and vibrant!
·         Comment by myself on May 24, 2011 at 8:53am Thank you. All of my digital paintings start out as a photograph I take. Then comes the fun part, where I can play with it in Photoshop and Painter.
·         Comment by (name deleted) on May 23, 2011 at 1:57pm Amazing. I thought it was a photo
·         Comment by (name deleted) on May 23, 2011 at 9:09pm This is beautiful. How did you do it?
·         (name deleted) replied to Margie Hudson's discussion 'Digital Painting Group' Thank you so much for partnering with me to do this. Your work is such an inspiration to me and i am sure it will be the same for others! I will find out how to add you as co-leader!
Now, really! I felt like an artist! And then came the hammer....
As we get ready to roll out live with The Art Colony we are making some revisons to our site and I wanted to talk with you about the changes we have made to the gudielines for Digital Art.
Our intention is to get this genre defined before we go live so we are not confusing anyone. I am so sorry that we didn't have this taken care of before you joined.
After much careful consideration we feel it is critical that we keep to our no photos policy and have called this out in the Digital Art guidelines. (name deleted) created a link to help distinguish between work that is photo editing and work that is digital art.
Look at this post for guidelines on digital art pieces for The Art Colony galleries:
http://community.art-is-fun.com/notes/Digital_Art_vs_Photo_Editing

I know this is a difficult topic and do not want to hurt your feelings. What I am hoping is that you will look at the guidelines and determine if there is any of your work that does not meet the guidelines and remove the work that is more like an editied photo than digital art.
If you feel uncomfortable removing work and feel that The Art Colony is not the right place to be, please let me know.
Guidelines excerpt:
The Art Colony accepts digital art but not photography. [...]
Our goal is to promote and discuss ideas about artistic processes created by hand, and for that reason we make this distinction between digital art and digital photo editing:

Digital art = Computer-generated art that is created by hand (i.e. using a tablet, stencil etc), either from scratch or from a reference source
.
Digital photo editing = running a photograph through Photoshop filters, making adjustments, adding and subtracting elements to enhance certain qualities of the photo.
While digital photo editing is a creative process that can result in some beautifully artistic images, the end result is still essentially an edited photograph. Edited photographs belong on a photography site, not a fine art site like The Art Colony - just as a photograph printed onto canvas and then painted over with acrylics belongs on an art site, and not a photography site.
So! If I print out my photograph and then paint over it with acrylics it's art! Well, who knew? Gee, that takes a lot of talent, doesn't it?

So, thanks for listening to me, whoever you are (if you are out there!) Most of us have to struggle with that little voice inside that says "That sucks!" So, why shouldn't we, as artists, do everything we can to uplift others rather than tear them down? I've seen art that made me shake my head, but I wouldn't dream of telling an artist "That sucks!"
The picture at the top was painted, using both Painter and Photoshop, using my original photo, taken at an air show in Virginia in 2007.