The heat moved across the morning like an invisible truck, heavy and crushing, and with a hotter engine than the day before.
― Joe R. Lansdale, Honky Tonk Samurai
Below is the original photo used to create this image. A lovely summer sky, taken in a parking lot after shopping. No special lighting or retouching, just a snap from my smart phone.
The days seemed to float, merge in the heat of summer. Perhaps.
― Katherine Brabon, The Memory Artist
Below is the original photo used to create this image. I found these lovely and unusual flowers in a small garden near my parking deck in downtown Richmond, VA. No special lighting or retouching, just a snap from my smart phone.
Why fit in when you were born to stand out?
–Dr. Seuss
To see the inspiration behind this original digital art, please see the story here.
August is that last flicker of fun and heat before everything fades and dies. The final moments of fun before the freeze. In the winter, everything changes.
― Rasmenia Massoud, You Don’t See Any of This
Below is the original photo used to create this image. While taking a walk around Floyd, VA, my parents and I came across a farmers’ market and this fantastic flower box. It was Mom’s favorite, so Mom, these flower-box kaleidoscopes are for you! No special lighting or retouching, just a snap from my smart phone.
I can speak to my soul only when the two of us are off exploring deserts or cities or mountains or roads.
― Paulo Coelho, Aleph
Below is the original photo used to create this image. This was taken on my last night in Arizona, just outside of Mesa during a recent vacation. The skies had been almost crystal clear, and I was grateful to have a vibrant sunset, I kept excusing myself from dinner to run out to the parking lot to take more pictures. I especially love how the cloud formation looks like a bird in flight, a Phoenix perhaps…? No special lighting or retouching, just a snap from my smart phone.
“I’ve crossed these sands many times,” said one of the camel drivers one night. “But the desert is so huge, and the horizons so distant, that they make a person feel small, and as if he should remain silent.”
The boy understood intuitively what he meant, even without ever having set foot in the desert before. Whenever he saw the sea, or a fire, he fell silent, impressed by their elemental force.
― Paulo Coelho, The Alchemist
Below is the original photo used to create this image. This was taken at the Grand Canyon during a morning hike along the southern rim on the Greenway Trail. I’m still fascinated by the stark beauty of this dead tree, juxtaposed against the vibrant green of the pine and the watercolor sky. No special lighting or retouching, just a snap from my smart phone.
At that moment, it seemed to him that time stood still, and the Soul of the World surged within him. When he looked into her dark eyes, and saw that her lips were poised between a laugh and silence, he learned the most important part of the language that all the world spoke—the language that everyone on earth was capable of understanding in their heart. It was love. Something older than humanity, more ancient than the desert. Something that exerted the same force whenever two pairs of eyes met, as had theirs here at the well.
― Paulo Coelho
Below is the original photo used to create this image. This gathering of saguaro and funky gourd-like cacti were part of the landscaping in front of my Gramma’s house in Mesa, AZ. No special lighting or retouching, just a snap from my smart phone.
The camel has a big dumb ugly hump. But in the desert, where prettier, more streamlined beasts die quickly of thirst, the camel survives quite nicely. As legend has it, the camel carries its own water, stores it in its stupid hump. If individuals, like camels, perfect their inner resources, if we have the power within us, then we can cross any wasteland in relative comfort and survive in arid surroundings without relying on the external. Often, moreover, it is our “hump” – that aspect of our being that society finds eccentric, ridiculous, or disagreeable – that holds our sweet waters, our secret well of happiness, the key to our equanimity in malevolent climes.
― Tom Robbins, Still Life with Woodpecker
Below is the original photo used to create this image. This was taken at the Grand Canyon during the tail end of the sunset golden hour. The colors were glorious and I’m so pleased with the watercolor intensity. No special lighting or retouching, just a snap from my smart phone.
Before a dream is realized, the Soul of the World tests everything that was learned along the way. It does this not because it is evil, but so that we can, in addition to realizing our dreams, master the lessons we’ve learned as we’ve moved toward that dream. That’s the point at which most people give up. It’s the point at which, as we say in the language of the desert, one ‘dies of thirst just when the palm trees have appeared on the horizon.”
― Paulo Coelho, The Alchemist
Below is the original photo used to create this image. This was taken at a scenic view and hiking trail outside of Sedona, AZ during a recent vacation. I was surprised and delighted to find this patch of royal-purple irises. No special lighting or retouching, just a snap from my smart phone.
In the desert
I saw a creature, naked, bestial,
Who, squatting upon the ground,
Held his heart in his hands,
And ate of it.
I said, “Is it good, friend?”
“It is bitter—bitter,” he answered;
“But I like it
“Because it is bitter,
“And because it is my heart.”
― Stephen Crane, The Black Riders and Other Lines
Below is the original photo used to create this image. This is a close-up of a vibrant flowering bush taken outside our hotel in Mesa, AZ while on a recent vacation visiting family in the area. April was truly a lovely time to visit, everything was in bloom! No special lighting or retouching, just a snap from my smart phone.
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