Be who you are and say what you feel
because people who mind don’t matter,
and people who matter don’t mind.
–Dr. Seuss
Below is the original photo used to create this image. It’s the big blue sky pic I took on a recent trip to Illinois. No special lighting or retouching, simply a snap from my smart phone. Yes, the sky really was that blue…
Opinions mean nothing; they may be beautiful or ugly, clever or foolish, anyone can embrace or reject them.
–Hermann Hesse, Siddhartha
As promised, below is the original photo used to create this image. It’s a maple sapling growing between stone pavers in my backyard. Taken on an overcast day with no special lighting or retouching, just a snap from my smart phone.
Some parts of life have to be messy before they can become beautiful.
–Natasha Bedignfield
To see the inspiration behind this original digital art, please see the story here.
Moments of beauty sustain us through hours of ugliness.
–Brent Weeks, The Black Prism
Below is the original photo used to create this image. It’s water flowing along the sidewalk into a storm drain. This was taken last year on a bright fall afternoon, no special lighting or retouching, just a snap from my Kodak Share digital camera.
Beautiful. And ugly. The world is always both.
–Ann Aguirre, Horde
As promised, below is the original photo used to create this image. It’s a lichen and moss covered tree trunk and exposed roots from my backyard. Taken on an overcast day with no special lighting or retouching, just a snap from my smart phone. In Photoshop, I also added a flower-shaped layer mask and a gradient fill for the background.
Week Seven (Day 20) Buy or make some clay and then use it like you never have before.
At first, I wasn’t sure what I wanted with this one. I had mental images of a gooey clay blob-berfly, or a bulbous bisque statue like the kind you find ready for paint at the craft store. But, when I searched for clay images on Pixabay, many images of dry, cracked clay fields came up and I knew that was where I wanted to go. So, I have a dried out butterfly finding an oasis and transforming from dry/dead to restored to life and color.
**note**
(Day 20) is the prompt designation in Noah Scalin’s book, 365: A Daily Creativity Journal: Make Something Every Day and Change Your Life! I am using this book as the catalyst and inspiration for these weekly posts.
There is no perfection, only beautiful versions of brokenness.
–Shannon L. Alder
Yes… my very first digital kaleidoscope! Still so very exciting. especially with the “happy accident” of the butterfly shapes emerging in the corners. As promised, below is the original photo used to create this image. It’s my car’s engine, no special lighting or retouching, just a snap from my smart phone.
What I’m obsessed with this week: Creating Kaleidoscopes with Photoshop. And man, have I been hogging the mac this week generating loads of digital kaleidoscopic images. I’m using average (and often below average) photos I’ve taken that are far from interesting enough to show anyone on their own. But, when you crop them and set them at angles, they become magical! It’s been all I could do this week not to stop strangers on the street and show them off like a proud mama. They’re inspiring me to possibly start a daily post that will show the original boring and ugly photo and how it transforms into something beautiful. I’m thinking I could do a series of seven kaleidoscopes every week. Here are a few of my favorites as examples. I don’t want to give away any spoilers yet on the original images, so have fun guessing!
Etsy shop: With my recent foray into butterfly quotes and now these digital kaleidoscope images, my thoughts turn to my neglected Etsy store. And so, I’m researching how to offer these images as digital downloads and possibly as prints on gallery wraps, metal and wood. Again, these kaleidoscopes opened a well-spring of inspiration for me. My goal, should I choose to accept the inspirational challenge, is to have items ready on my Etsy shop by mid-October for the upcoming holiday gifting season. I’ll keep you posted!
My favorite dream interpretation this week:
School or University:
1. A very common dream is returning to school and finding oneself late for an exam. This usually signifies unresolved psycho-emotional issues from school that the dreamer should try to work through.
2. If the dreamer is starting a new course of study, new opportunities will open up for her.
3. If the dreamer is teaching, then her Higher Self will soon bring new revelations her way.
My favorite Abraham quote this week:
“The achievement of anything that you desire must be considered success, whether it is a trophy or money or relationships or things. But if you will let your standard of success be your achievement of joy—everything else will fall easily into place. For in the finding of joy, you are finding vibrational alignment with the resources of the Universe.” —Abraham
To learn more about Abraham (channeled by Esther Hicks), the Law of Attraction, or to sign up for Abraham’s daily quote visit: http://www.abraham-hicks.com/lawofattractionsource/index.php
My favorite writing prompt this week:
“Your friend tells you, “Pinch me, I’m dreaming.” You do as he asks. He vanishes.”
My favorite writing quote this week:
“And by the way, everything in life is writable about if you have the outgoing guts to do it, and the imagination to improvise. The worst enemy to creativity is self-doubt.” –Sylvia Plath
My favorite from the inter-webs: I follow many author blogs and this is one of my favorites. Anne R. Allen’s Blog…with Ruth Davis covers topics from the craft of writing to the business of writing and everything in between. Posts occur weekly and I’m often forwarding them to someone I know because they are so very informative. I hope you find it equally valuable.
Find it at: annerallen.com/
We are all butterflies. Earth is our chrysalis.
–LeeAnn Taylor
To see the inspiration behind this original digital art, please see the story here. Please note that I swapped out a photo I’ve taken for the image I downloaded from Pixabay.
Week Six (Day 18) Work with the things you find in your car (or a friend’s car if you don’t have one).
The engine’s in the car, right? My Mazda6 never looked so cute!
This prompt had me spiraling down the vortex of my detail-oriented, down-in-the-weeds self. I had all kinds of mental images of a “metal” effect on a gathering of flowers and adding a bit of “rust” for depth, not to mention using hubcaps for the center of the flowers and the headlights the petals. After hours of puttering around on Photoshop, spinning my wheels, I finally took a step back. I realized continuing down this road would cost me more hours and miles of research on technique. So, I took a brain detour and tried to think of where a car butterfly would go for “flowers.” My first thought was a junkyard, but that seemed kind of cannibalistic, especially if there were a lot of junked cars. In a flash of inspiration, I thought of using a shot of the engine block. A quick snap and color adjustment later and I was pulling into the garage…
Thanks for tolerating all my car puns!
**note**
(Day 18) is the prompt designation in Noah Scalin’s book, 365: A Daily Creativity Journal: Make Something Every Day and Change Your Life! I am using this book as the catalyst and inspiration for these weekly posts.
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