Lovin’ On Lana
Smoke ‘n Mirrors
Right now Sophie and Studio Quat are facing off becoming reacquainted. Studio Quat is becoming House Quat, she’s moving in with us. Along with all sorts of crap treasures from Mama’s house, the old studio grande.
Notice how I don’t capitalize that one. It has been … decommissioned. Like a battle ship. Or a church. Or something.
I’d planned on moving SQ to the new, improved! Studio Grande but that is not to be. At least not now. The studio, like my house, is a victim of moving Mama’s stuff. There is not a single clear surface. And when I do get them cleared I’ll be faced with concrete. Remember the concrete countertops? Well, at the tender age of 17, I figure Studio Quat deserves upholstered furniture and puppy playmates.
I’m sure she’ll eventually agree.
Meanwhile, it’s hard to paint…so I’m not. But you can’t keep a creative girl down. That’s where the ipad and iphone come in handy. I can sit at the sofa at the end of the day, feet up on the coffee table and make fun stuff.
This is one of the pony pics. A snapshot taken with the iphone. Unedited. What you see is what the camera saw.
This is it arted up in in the ipad using Paint FX: Photo Effects Editor. There’s a free version and a premium one. I bought the premium, cost me a whole 99 cents. For under a buck this thing has a lot of creative potential. All sorts of filters. And you can layer them.
I can’t tell you which ones I used in this because I didn’t set out to write a blog post when I played with it. I know I used a lightening brush to bring out my hair.
Here’s another version of the same photo. I used three apps here. The first was Captions HD. It’s a fun little app, amazingly versatile. And once again, cheap. I can’t find the receipt but I’m sure it wasn’t anything more than a buck or two. Good thing for making cards and such. Then I added some layers in Paint FX. And then I softened everything in Glazes, an oil painting app. At $2.99 Glazes was a splurge… but cheaper than a latte so I have no complaints.
And the last one for today, a totally different feel. This is a combination of two apps. The first is a new app I bought tonight, another splurge at $2.99, ArtMasterpiece FX HD. The original effect is a sketch with the feel of an old master, the kind of thing I had to draw over and over back when I was in school. It was quite nice but I can never leave a good thing alone so I threw it in Vintage by Jixipix, which changed it up even more.
So there you have it…one photo, and not a very good one at that, transformed into three totally different looks. Easy-Peasy. Addicting. And fun. OMG, So. Much. Fun.
So that’s it for now, my sweetums. Which one of these do you like the best? Would love to hear what you have to say in the comments below. And if you know anyone with iphone or ipad be sure to share this with them.
Like An Old Married Couple
And dat’s da truth!
Nearly Nekked
Disclaimer: Yeah, I KNOW this is an art blog. That means there should be pictures, right? Well, I didn’t have any appropriate photos for this post. You’ll have to use your imagination.
I’m all about self-improvement. Really. I would love to live in a clean house, wear a crisp white apron (with little lacy hearts) while baking golden cookies and downing copious amounts of good-for-me greens. Smiling the whole damn time like the Beav’s mom.
I would sincerely…no, make that dearly, like to maintain a daily yoga/qi gong/meditation practice while listening to spiritual masters and communing with the universe beyond my current level of understanding. Way beyond. Like to the point of the ever-knowing imperturbable smile even when the voices in my head are being stupid dicks unkind.
And when I get to that point, words like damn and dicks would NEVER enter into my head, much less exit out of my mouth.
In a perfect world I would write (fill in your favorite adjective here) blog posts DAILY. You would tell your friends and they would tell theirs. On and on and on until I was more famous than Oprah.
Although I would settle for being half as rich as her. Just half. Really, is that too much to ask?
Yo, Universe, I’m talkin’ to YOU.
There would be a book deal. Oh, many of them. And Oprah, when she interviews me, because she would have to interview me, wouldn’t she… Oprah would notice I’m a size 2. Just a plain 2. No numbers or letters before or after it. USA Macy’s size 2.
And Oprah would be envious and offer me half of her wealth to be her life coach. If my math is right, that would make me twice as rich as her. Of course I would give most of it away to charity. Because I only have two feet and a girl can only have so many shoes. Unless they’re red. In that case maybe I’d keep the money.
But I’d think about giving it away.
I’m baring my soul to you (and what a lovely size 2 soul it is) because I’m doing this personal branding thing. Taking a class with Michele Bergh. I’ve taken classes with Michele before. She knows her stuff so I was reasonably sure her definition of personal branding would not involve hot metal and the smell of burning flesh.
Oh noooo, it’s MUCH more painful than that. Try standing out on the freeway naked (that’s nekked in cowboy speak) waving as the trucks whizz by. Yoo-hoo, fellas, what’dya think of this? Well, that’s what I had to do today.
Or at least it felt like that. Holy crap, did it ever. Crap, another word I won’t say once I’ve evolved. Maybe. Or maybe not. Depends on how pissed off I am. Oh crap, I suppose I’ll have to ditch piss as well. This being evolved shit isn’t all it’s cut out to be.
But back to personal branding sans cowboys. The first assignment Michele had us do, the one that made me feel naked, but not in a good way naked, was to ask friends, family and coworkers for feedback about me. Like, yo, hey, would you please fill out this questionnaire, this ANONYMOUS questionnaire. Say what you think about me. Let ‘er rip. I’ll never know who said what because it’s anonymous.
And then I’ll take those answers, size ’em up against my answers…what I think people think about me (because I had to answer the damn questionnaire too). After dismissing anything I don’t like as being nothing more than passive agressive retaliation because I forgot to pay back that 20 bucks I must owe someone, well then I’m gonna take that 20, put it as a downpayment on a pizza and beer. And find me a cowboy. With chaps. And just enough of a five o’clock shadow to make me forget about the pain.
And you, my best beloved sweetums, you can cheer me up by leaving sincere, happy face comments in one of those boxes down below. I will share the pizza with you. And the beer.
But not the cowboy. WOOT! I’m keeping him for myself.
Bird Being Born.
Spring. The time of birth. Rebirth. Renewal.
You know what that means, don’t you? I mean, besides OD-ing on leftover Easter Peeps and getting your hands dirty in the garden. It means…ta-da… it’s time for Bird Being Born!
Alert! Alert! Crappy photo alert!!! Sorry about that, the good photo is on the computer at work. This is a bit blurry but you can get the idea.
‘Bird Being Born’
Helen Powell
©2012 Neighborhood Center of the Arts
Acrylic on canvas $200
This gem was created by Helen Powell, one of the artists from the Neighborhood Center of the Arts. I’ve been teaching there since forever, although I use the term ‘teaching’ loosely. I provide materials, music and help the artists find what it is they do best.
With artists like Helen, who are totally self-directed, we just step out of the way and let their muse guide them. Helen is a true outsider artist. If you’re not familiar with outsider art or art brut you can read about it here.
I love my job.