A Couple of Layouts

Rain Or Mist...

...or does it matter? It's all so beautiful...

For the 4th typography challenge @ Pixel Canvas, using the negative space of letters.

Credits: Everything by Heather T. @ Pixel Canvas. Background paper blended with photo is from Summer Blues, as are the butterfly and the little flower; froggie is from EcoFabulous. Fonts: Keyboard Light Alt, and SF Scribbled Sans.



and the opposite of the weather spectrum, Sunset and Water:



Everything from Pixel Canvas. Background paper, flower, and whale from my Summer Blues kit (slightly recolored). Moon from my Urbanhood kit; stitching from my Softer Side kit. Brown paper by Vinnie Pearce from her Grunged Plaid Papers Pack. Font: 1942 Report.

approaching twilight
and the swells in the
distance seem so gentle
until they rampage against
the dark volcanic walls
and shatter
filling the sky with
a salty grasping
that wind-mists
into small mirrors
of evening green


my heart
burns with beauty

The Greatest Gift

Everything by Vinnie Pearce @ Pixel Canvas. Background is a blend of papers from The Rose Garden, Woodlands Park - Boys, and the photo at a larger size. Heart on a ribbon is from Pieces of Me II, and the branch is from the recent NSD Chat Freebie. Heart is from Drama Queen, and button from Timeout. Fonts are Butterbrotpapier, VT Remington, and Soul Misson. Journaling reads:

"today, on mother's day,
i think of you
and how i always rediscover
discovery itself
the brightness of the mind
fired by imagination
where a few rocks
on the beach
become an island surrounded
by dangerous waters
and there's no way to get off
when it's time to go
you were late in my life
i never conceived of how a child
would launch me into the unknown
all those years i fought
to establish stability
and along you came to prove to me
that orderliness and rules
are not comfort for everyone
and that perhaps i should rethink
what i have been calling freedom
you, the laughter of my soul, are in fact
my greatest gift of all"

A little poem for you this weekend...

Oh, I guess it's not quite the weekend yet! But with DH having a new 4-10's workweek, feels like the weekend... plus, it's my little boy's sixth birthday, can you imagine??

But this was from a beach walk this past week:



Credits: All mine. Photo blended with the music sheet paper from A Little Spring, and a paper from Rain. Font: Linenstroke. Poem reads:

"perhaps I was a bird
at some time
in a dream maybe
but I do know how to fly
how to channel the slippery
blueness of wind, how to
scream down gravity’s well
how to make myself lighter
by filling my hollows
with joy"

Pearls Of Light

Credits: All Vinnie Pearce, Pixel Canvas. Background is just a solid color fill, distressed with Distress Brushes Set 01 and Old Text Brushes, along with a splat from Page Masks Set 01, and some Decorative Grunge Swirls (the "Joy" wordart was made with the same brushes, as well as with Brock Script Font). Font for poem: butterbrotpapier. Text reads:

"what is it
in my chest
that strings out
along pearls of light
into the thick of distance?

why do I feel the need
to be absolved
by dissolution
the desire to become
some mist of sentience
floating above lonely shores
or brushing the waves
where otters sleep?

I do not know. Perhaps
it is only the pain
of exquisite joy."

You Are My Sunshine, Take 2

Credits: Template by Ali Edwards (Designer Digitals, Inspiration Challenge 1-04-09). Wordart by Heather T. (Get Digi With It, You Are My... Wordart Pack). All other elements by Vinnie Pearce (Catscrap, Bucket Full of Sunshine). Font: Garamond. Journaling reads:


"Especially
When, like today,
The skies roar with rain and sleet
And crazy hail chattering off the leaves
Especially then
I carry your smile in my heart
To pierce through the gloom
That can so easily
Blanket us into gray stillness


In a few minutes, probably,
You will walk into this room
Head down, hair all which-way from sleep
Eyes mostly closed
And you will climb into my lap--
Which seems to have become smaller these days--
And your soft "hi mommy"
Will sing to me as I hold you
My not-so-little boy


But still, my first rejoicing
Of the day"

Getting There

For a challenge by Black Dog Designs, at her new Out Of The Box challenge blog. I did, and did labor over this one, and there's a lot I'm not pleased with, but I certainly went well out of my box (and fell into the drink, I think)!



Credits: Love card by Katie Pertiet (Designer Digitals, Simple Spots). Metal heart by Creashens (Catscrap, Bye Bye Birdie). Letter paper by Jesse Edwards, Journaling Challenge 12-21-08. Composition book by 3 Pixel Chicks (3 Pixel Chicks, Chick Your Grade). Shelf by Jofia Devoe (Digichick, In My Mommy's Dream). Chalk by M. Paige (Oscraps, To The Blackboard). Hanging frame, bolts, and rope frame by Natali Designs (StudioGirls, Countryside Kit). Dried roses by Monica Larsen (DSPB, Floralis). Other elements mine, aided by stock photography from StockExchange or Morgue Files, or my own. Fonts: Tahoma and 1942 Report. Journaling reads:


Getting there


I'm not sure where there is.


It used to be that all I wanted
Was to get married
And have kids.
And it didn't happen.
And it didn't happen.
And it didn't happen.
And after the third time,
I said to myself that perhaps
It wasn't supposed to happen
And threw all of me into other things
My Ph.D., my teaching, my deviant self.
And then, of course, it happened.
And really, once you get there, it's
Almost the end of everything, because
The child is a black hole of love and attention.
Inside of me, inside an older, more temperate
More attentive me, there are other aspects
Waiting to be birthed:
The artist, the poet, the lonely
Watcher, overwhelmed with beauty.


I love where I am now
But I still see a path
Running ahead like moon on the water
And I pray for clear skies.

Illustration Friday: Opinion

Word of the week: "opinion" -- I hope writing can be part of the illustration... (Click for larger, (mostly) legible version)



opinion

once
i saw a little scene
a father screaming at his son
hitting him on the shoulders
right where he knew the child
had a terrible sunburn

my opinion of this man
was not the most flattering

another time
i spoke with a man and his wife
about churches (this was in the South)
and listened to their reasons
for attending at least every two weeks
which was the minimum a man
of his standing
could afford to go they told me

my opinion of these reasons
greatly informs my skepticism

i have heard white people
scoff at the possibility of parity
between themselves and a black person
i have heard black people
scream hatred at 200 year old oppressors
who happened to be born 20 years ago
i have felt the spit of apoplexy
from women burned by men
and i've shrivelled under the scorn
of men whose mindscape includes no females

opinions

the grip of emotion
the shadowscreen of our lives

opinion is not often
reason

Life flies

We brought Jamesie home tonight, and he's actually totally cuddly and really a lot more responsive--and a lot less in pain, seemingly--than we expected. Not that I think that it'll change his prognosis, but I've really enjoyed snuggling with him tonight.

But here's a layout I made earlier today, with him in mind (and, by the way, you're going to have a tough time seeing much of anything if your monitor isn't calibrated properly ;):



Credits: All Designer Digitals. The base is from Kellie Mize's Tortuga Template No. 58, for the frame, staples, flower; also her stitching in the upper right from the TT No. 100. Anna Aspnes for the stitching holes and mask in upper right (Mama Page Set and Floral Art No. 4). Katie Pertiet for the lovely little butterfly (From My Porch Brushes). Font: butterbrotpapier. Journaling reads: "life flies / on little wings / of hope, and love"

More and more, I find that this medium is really suited to how I visualize my poetry, which is in short bursts but nonetheless with a lot of resonance. I also like how I can lay out the lines to my liking, instead of being bound by more conventional paragraph/line spacing.

And here, for a complete change, is a layout with all 3 Pixel Chicks goodies:



Credits: Most everything from the sweet new template from 3 Pixel Chicks, Party Time Edition, except for the "2" (Font: Franklin Gothic), which is overlaid by a "Stripey" paper also by 3 Pixel Chicks (Seasonal Canvas Papers, Chickita Designs), and the journaling, which is overlaid by a Chick Your Grade paper. Font for journaling: Pooh. Journaling reads: "Still a touch confused by this whole birthday thing, Allen required yoghurt, presents, and Grandmama to FINALLY produce a smile!"

Life From Stone

Just felt like playing around with layers--layers of meaning, layers of paper, meaning and paper all jumbled together. As for the photo, sometimes these small things just stop me in my tracks...

Credits: All Designer Digitals. Papers by Kellie Mize (Winter Surf Kit) and Lynn Grieveson (Nanyang Kit) (and one by me too). Clipping mask by Anna Aspnes (Mama Page Set). Frame for photo by Katie Pertiet (Simply Framed), other frame from her Krafty Frames No. 1. All tags and papers by Katie Pertiet as well (Curled Journal Spots 2 and 3, and Little Round Tabs). Font: Helena's Hand. Journalling reads:

"Can you imagine
a greater contrast:
green against gray,
soft against hard,
breeze-blown and still,
life from stone?
There is much to be said
about persistence,
and forgiveness,
and the strength that blooms
between them."

Photo Papers Freebie

Found a fun challenge over at ASDSdesigners.com: make papers using public domain images (I used the 6 they suggested from publicdomainimages.net). It was a fun and challenging couple of hours, and here are the results [no longer available, sorry]:



It's not as easy as you might think, especially as the initial photos are quite small (about 3x5 @ 300 dpi). Here are some close-ups:



I don't like all my solutions equally, but I'm pretty pleased overall... =)

In other news, my Ooh la la, Artsy! Shop! is going to be changing from an immediate download link to a simple paypal link, and I'll e-mail customers when I get notification of payment (or within 24 hrs). I know immediate gratification is expected nowadays, but since nobody's really shopping, I can't afford the fees for the service that generates those (e-junkies). I guess I don't have to worry about it too much, since nobody's shopping! =)

In other other news, I'm just now getting over a major bronchitis--courtesy of little Allen, who got sick from playing with little Andrew, who picked it up who knows where. Isn't sharing nice?

In the third other news, here's a recent layout that's full of peace, which I sorely needed this weekend (everything's mine, except for the button from Vinnie Pearce's Freebie Thank You Kit; fonts Distro Light & Father Nelson):



Journaling reads:

sometimes this is life


the shore we are crossing to
is shrouded in fog
and the goal is yet up another
steep cliff
and even the path there
is slippery and wet
and mostly just cobbled together
and you’ll really have to
pay attention


if you don’t want the icy shock
of reality to soak through your shoes


but also


don’t forget to stop
and let the mist bless your hair
with its tiny moist sparkles
and marvel at how the beauty
flows together so well
and realize that you’re standing
right in the middle of it all

Interesting that I feel able to complement my poetry through this medium; in general I dislike movies made from books, for example, as I always feel my imagination is capable of generating far more intense visuals than film. In the case of poetry, however--as wide open as it can be to different interpretations--the photographs, as well as the specific choice of elements to accompany them, contribute towards a guided reading that more intimately suits my needs; the need to be understood, the need for empathy, the need for resonance.

Ok, ok, I'll stop with the high-falutin' analysis already. ;) Hope everybody's having a great weekend!

Quickie

I'm hoping to spend a lot of time with Allen today. What with going to bed way late last night, and getting up early (though losing an hour because of daylight savings! Grrrr.), I didn't have time to do much this morning...

For the 2Peas challenge using burn & dodge tools -- the inset picture was really washed out from the backlight of the sun, so I used the burn tool there to get it crisper. And the dodge tool over Allen's front, to make it more visible... By the way, I found out that if I used a fairly large, grungy brush, it looks a lot better than with a smooth one! Font: Architecture. Journaling reads:


"fingers
rake
dust
sand
pebbles
lift
pour
lift
pour
contemplate"

(yellow bus still in hand)

This layout actually took me 2 days! I'm amazed I was able to go to sleep... *lol* I really loved the work of Matte Stephens that I found via drawn.ca, an illustration blog. The challenge this week @ 2Peas is "Art Inspiration", so I chose a cute little birdie of Matte's and closely copied him. =) I learned a lot doing it, too--made all kinds of different brushes to allow me to grunge up the flat digital drawing. Turned out pretty well, I think! Then I adapted the doodles to make a real tree, and I used broad shapes of flat color for the background.

Then, I had no clue what to do.

Eventually I found this cute photo of Allen's from 2005, I think--he was about 2 years old, and we were visiting San Francisco. I extracted him, repainted a shoe that was full of grass (even back then he had big feet, though!), and placed him in the birdie's line of sight.

Then, I had no clue what to do.

So I wrote a poem. *laugh*



your once small steps have led you
(yellow bus still in hand)
through countries of idea and color
and still, with curiosity, you
explore the land of words
chunga floudle marinkajay, you said
--in grand exclamatory style

I hope that the other side of reality
will never be less important
that you will pass through
like Alice,
a citizen of both worlds