Playing with Painter 12

Today I played around with Painter 12, which has been hanging out on my computer for a while. I made this piece by cloning two different versions of a photo I took today of some ferns. One version is color while the other was a b&w version of the same shot. I used a variety of cloning brushes to get different effects including a fibrous brush texture and a smeary oil effect. Painter is a really spectacular program for getting painterly effects with a mind numbing number of possible brushes and surfaces. I doubt I'll ever be worthy of its power.

A vision of crows

Asbury Park ruins

As a child I spent a lot of time at Asbury Park. My parents took us there to walk the boardwalk and ride the rides and play games. We went there on Christmas Day to visit a bit of my past. The place I remember is gone. There is one building on the boardwalk that is somewhat intact - during the holidays it had a Christmas tree and lights inside it but there didn't seem to be anything going on. Occasionally, I imagine they still have concerts there (I saw Elvis Costello there in the '80s).

This is what remains of the Casino:

Casino - Asbury Park, NJ

Not sure how much of the dereliction comes from hard times (which Asbury Park has had a lot of) and how much comes from Hurricane Sandy. Through the entry you can see a condemned building and a gap where a building once was. 

It's a beat place.

Ephemera from my great-grandmother

From May 1896 to January 1897, my great grandmother, Eleanor Van der Beek traveled to Europe by boat. She kept a scrapbook of her trip that is now in my possession. It's a yellowed and fragile book that smells of dust. The spine has crumbled away, but the pages are still intact. I plan on gradually reading through the letters and notes she kept of her voyage. I'm sure I'll post more materials here as time goes on.

For the moment, here are a couple illustrations from a tourist map she had.

My piece from Quotes Illustrated

I got the go-ahead to show my artwork that is published in Quotes Illustrated by Lesley Riley. This is a digital collage that has scans of painted surfaces and black and white negatives that I further manipulated in Photoshop. I was happy that I was given the Diane Arbus quotation since she's one of my photo heroes.

Published art!

I'm really excited to share that I have had one of my digital collages included in a book on quotations. The book is by Lesley Riley and is called "Quotes Illustrated." The book is now available through CreateSpace and Amazon. I'm awaiting my copy, which should arrive on Wednesday. I'll report on the book when it arrives.

Nothing like having some of your art included in a collection to make you feel like it's worthwhile. I'd work even without the recognition, but it's still nice.

My first quilting adventure

A couple weekends ago I took a workshop with an artist named Bergen Rose. The workshop was called "Transforming Fabric with Digital Image Transfer Techniques." Such a great workshop with a lot of different techniques covered. Bergen's work is beautiful - combining paintings, photographs, transfers and fabric - a perfect combination for her pieces. You should check out her artwork at the Fountainhead gallery in Queen Anne, Seattle or her online shop at mochimochifiberart.com.

Anyhow, I tried a number of the transfer techniques with varying degrees of success. My goal this week was to actually finish one of the pieces. Whether it was good or bad, I just wanted a finished piece from the workshop to hang on my wall. This piece is pretty simple...I printed a 6 image grid of dahlia pinholes I took recently onto silk organza. I then applied free-motion stitching to a quilt "sandwich" (backing, batting, top fabric). I attached the organza to the quilted part using 2-sided tape. I then attached a sleeve to the back so I can run a dowel or a piece of bamboo through it and hang the piece.

I think any self-respecting quilter would have a minor heart attack to see my quilting technique but I don't care. I like the way it looks with the silk over it...almost like the flowers are on the quilted part.

I'm very excited to try out more daring things with the transfer techniques I learned and my trusty Brother sewing machine (thanks to my pal, Darcy).

The whole piece, front side.

Detail of a few of the squares.

The reverse.