Time To Leave

TIME TO LEAVE was created for the occasion of the first year anniversary The Three Muses Challenge site.

The sailing  ship is actually the BLUENOSE, a yacht of considerable racing fame for Canada...if you've ever seen our dime, it's on it......the girl a shepherdess from a last Century British Victorian painter of pastoral scenes.

My husband commented it must be a ship of crazy seamen going full tilt from such a shallow harbor.....but I reminded him looks can be deceptive; especially if you're starting to experience a sea-change, of sorts , as I think this lass longs for!

Memories of Varanasi

Memories of Varanasi is a card I created for a Travel exchange on the Wet Canvas site, it is a digital collage of about 20 or so layers using almost all personal photos from around the holy city of Varanasi on the holy river Ganges, which my husband and I visited in the 1980"s, long ago and far away.

Most of the incredibly carved buildings built during that time of the Moghul rule still stand.

TITLE:   Memories of Varanasi

CHALLENGE:  Architecture challenge from The Three Muses weekly digital challenge site.

The flower seller was on  the very first transfer image I ever made, and only the second ATC I traded. He fronted a card I called BEAUTY-found on my sidebar, here - as I found and still find him a sublime representative of it...and Grace..

Eternity

Title:     Eternity

Swap:   Digital Art Quirks Group                             Theme:   Time

Challenge:     The Three Muses Quotation Challenge                                      

Layers:     9                                                                          

Source Imagery:     PD Images of a turn-of-the-Century "Alice by the rabbit hole "-possibly Alice Liddell,  Carroll's model for his fictional heroine;  Einstein's "clock" theoretical mock-up. and back-ground textures from the FLKR Free Textures Group,  sky and birds and waves photos in the Public Domain; Corinthian capital from Art History textbook page.

QUOTE:

Eternity is not something that begins

            After you are dead...

                        It is going on all the time....

                                                       - Charlotte Perkins Gillman

Traded with members of DAQ for their January swap.....a gold gel pen was used on the cards traded to highlight 1/2 the spokes of the wheel and the word Eternity.

Gillman's quote has a singular perspective on time that holds particular meaning for me at this point in my own personal scale of time. 

The Black Cat of Craigdarroch

 

The Black Cat of Craigdarroch

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The Challenge theme this week at the Three Muses Wednesday Challenge site is "Moonstruck" .

Title:   The Black Cat of Craigdarroch

 The How:   PSE 2 

Layers:   9 plus writing 

Source Photos:   The sky is one I took on a dark and stormy night here in Calgary, I  also took the photo shown here  of Craigdarroch Castle, a turn-of-the-last-Century coal-baron's mansion in Victoria, the capitol city of British Columbia, Canada the Summer of 2008.  The cougar/black panther is a popularized royalty free image seen frequently in different panther collection alblums on the net..

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Inspiration:   Cougars are known to frequent even the populated lower mainland of  Vancouver Island, and sightings have been reported for years. Amoung the reports, occasional sightings of one in the environs of the  Craigdarroch Castle grounds is quite common. What is not commonly seen is the Black variety of Cougar that I portray here; and which seems to me to fit in well with 

a magical  moonlit night sighting

by a meandering moonstruck young laddie !

OCHch! 

...do ye ken? 

ATOMA and FLY MAN HAVE WINGS!!

Here are Atoma and Fly-Man, folks!
Trading-type cards created about a week ago now winging their way to their recipients on an Exchange I"m doing on the Wet Canvas Artist Site!
Have Wings/Will Travel!
Submitted also to the "Wings" challenge on the 3 Muses site for your viewing pleasure!

Ah, my sweet Public Domain....whatever would I do without you?!

       

Earth

Title:     Earth

3Muses Challenge:  Use a circle in an artwork

The How/Source Imagery:

Earth was based on the idea of filling in a divided circle , much-manipulated magazine imagery was used to see how far I could go with it!

Picked broccoli and steak newspaper ads as the base and went from there...added a spruce tree in both =/- image from a backyard photo and a single PD photo ( ! ) of  ancient SW -now US SW States area  Anasazi ruins, and some texture photos I had from bark and sand close-ups..

When done, it reminded me of either a First Nations/Native American Dream-catcher or a Warriors sheild ..

In & Out/back&Forth of vacation/at home-time, this past week, this and next; so thought to submit this fitting piece I did a few months ago in when I came back and read the theme!

Dr.Mary Edwards Walker 1832-1919 / An Incredible and Inspiring Life Journey

Physician-Surgeon, Abolitionist, Women's Rights & Health Advocate, Teacher & Lecturer, Writer, Prisoner-of-War Survivor, Suspected Union spy, Suspected Confederate spy (because of crossing the lines to help civilians-so add Humanitarian),Prohibitionist,Trustee of Woman's Prison, Trustee of Children's Orphanage, Divorcee and Cross-dresser...and last, but not least, US Congressional Medal of Honor winner!

What an interesting life,eh?

Check out this short LINK on Wikepedia!

Three Muses Challenge:

An Incredible Journey this week / someone who Inspires you next!

The HOW:

PSE 2 / 24 Layers plus 3 for Writing

Source  Photos:

Public Domain Photos from the Library of Congress Archives (LOC)/The archives of the JFK Library/Public Information Network Group ( pingnews.com)/ & Wikepedia Commons

The back-ground is a Freebie from Zen Textures, and the wee mirror from AntiqueClip-art.com

The Picture:

Left of the good doctor is her pre and Civil War/Turn-of-the-last-century life...

Coming 'round her starting at the centre are groups of Women, Teens and girls her fighting spirit and advocacy surely changed the future for :

• Socialists in the  white shirts
  

• Washington, DC Area Black Women's Basketball Team & 1902 class of Smith College Basketball players
• Striking Jewish Teens from NYC Garment District
• 2 NYC Immigrant little girls playing at being "On Stage"

• Women's Team of Surveyors and Engineers/ Federal Government Employees

• 2 women frolicking in bathing suits-oh,my!-on a public beach!

Dr. Mary imagined as a child is on the left, and  in reality as an old woman near the end of her life on the right/ The small frame has a picture of her wearing her Medal of Honour, as shown also on her in her central portrait. 

Her Medal Of Honor

This was the absolutely proudest possession in Mary's life, and hard won.

Congress actually changed the laws for getting it, and tried to get it back from her and 900+ others 2 years before she died.

She absolutely refused, and sticking to her guns as usual, wore it proudly every day until the day she died.

President Jimmy Carter re-instated it to her in 1977.

Think you can figure out why she's inspiring.

My own personal " Blog Philosophy" sidebar, and it's accompanying banners you can feel free to click - way down left yonder- is now headed by a picture of the good Dr.Mary

Young Woman's Blues

No time to marry

No time to settle down

I'm a young woman

and I ain't done runnin'  round!

Bessie Smith / Young Woman's Blues  ( 1927 )

( click on image to enlarge for detail )

The 3 Muses Challenge:     Create a digital image inspired by words

The How:

PSE 2 / I created the back-ground curtain of 12 abstracted layers from photo images of Harlem , New York that I found in the NY Public Library Archives; 1 of them was a PD image of a cubist-inspired cloth design from the period by  Sonia Delaunay and 1 a  royalty-free rayed effect for back- lighting .

All the images of the women were taken in the 1920's period; and are all from the NYPL Archives/10 Layers of photos

They include performers Ethel Waters, Bessie Smith, Josephine Baker and Florence Mills.

The group on the left - Vivienne, Phyllis and Ethel are members of the Northeasterner's Women's club.  Behind Bessie is a chorus line.

The Font:     Zelda, natch! ...... as the old song goes...who could ask for anything more?

Total layers:     24

       

   

To my Great-Grandmother Immaculata Concepcion Rodriguez: A Message from Afar: He Lives!

Call me a space cadet ( it's in the stars, I"m Aquarian )!...I Love NASA, and I Love Surrealism!

The above is dedicated to my Great-Grandmother, Concepcion, who fought with Villa to bring about the Mexican Revolution!

VIVA mis abuela Concepcion!

In fact, one of her sons was still riding with Villa in his Bandito mode when he was being chased around US Territory by Pershing.....but that's another story!

The 3 Muses Challenge:     Surrealism

The How:                                  PSE 2 /7 layers

Text:                                           Tango

The Imagery:        

NASA, US Gov Archives & other royalty free images, except for the eye, conch shell and truck-on-stilts...they're mine!

Bring on the cerveza!

Here's to YOU, Pancho!

Up, Up and Away-To the Rescue!

(NOTE: To see a bigger version, either click on the above picture itself, or take a short journey over to my Picasa Alblum -tab at the left and up top )!

Here's my entry for the 3 Muses Challenge of Up, Up and Away...first uttered famously by a certain red- caped crusader....the call has since been heeded and taken up by a virtual flotilla of others of his ilk!

Pictured here for your viewing pleasure are such past ( circa 1930-40's ) heroes and heroines  that have since gone out of mere mortal syndication and into the great and ever- growing public domain in the sky ! 

They are the now Immortal :

Bulletman....( see the lil' helmet )?

Green Lama .... ( yes, you read that right )!

Cat Girl....( looks more like Woman; if you ask me )...

Lady Luck... ( she -in-green-with heels , yet )!

Mothman .....hmmm-nn..

Nelvana of the North  ( First INUIT heroine , and a half-Goddess one at that )!

and last, but not least...

WILDFIRE!.....YOU ROCK GIRL!

Number of Layers:  13  /  All photos Public Domain, albeit altered a bit!

( To find the Three Muses Challenge site , press on their name here )

I see suddenly it's July 4th...

HAPPY  FOURTH TO ALL OF YOU SOUTH OF THE 49TH!

 

WILD

Title:    WILD  

The Three Muses Wednesday Challenge:   Create a digital image to match the theme

The How:              PSE 2 / Back-ground layer is black

2d Layer - a  Tiger-in-the-grass photo of our family cat, Ringo / 75 % opacity

3rd Layer- a turn-of-the-century diffuse-glow enhanced fairy

4th layer- a brightened and contrasted - up flutter-by

Text Layers used Slasher typeface with inner glow

Doorway to Open Space

Doorway to Open Space is one of the very first
images I created in any image-editing program....

It was created three years ago in response to a 
sudden and unexpected but much needed, brief Hospital stay in the midst of a beautiful and mild Indian Summer!

It's also my first attempt at digital/ print "hybridization", as it combines both an original artwork done in another medium - an oil pastel monoprint -with a scanned -in photo overlay of an old door that reminded me of the door to our old porch from a newspaper ad.

I used a very beginner-type digital manipulation program called Corel Photo House to create it.

I didn't yet know how to create layers - amoungst hordes of other things- but the program let you "drag' in an opened picture onto the background you were working on.

The original landscape monoprint was done in more natural colours, but I think the supposedly soothing, essentially bland colour scheme within Hospital had finally "gotten"to me somehow...

...So when I was out and about again this first back-ground Image I scanned-in was transformed into a virtual Candy-land of colour!

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The  Three  Muses

Three members of the Digital Art Quirks group have created a weekly challenge Blog called The Three Muses Challenge; and their second challenge was to create imagery using the theme Doors..

You use any media -or combination thereof - to create your response, publish it on your Blog or site, then upload to theirs adding a link back so that otherswho have also met the challenge can view the entry.

The 3rd challenge - to enter starting this Wednesday - is Wild....

Hope I can start on it - utilizing some layers this time around- soon!