Weekly Photo Challenge: Signs

 

Although this is a work in progress that I started several years ago (I’d like all the letters to be the same size and perfectly spaced, but what an OCD nightmare that is) I am posting this for my Weekly Photo Challenge: Signs. For 2 reasons: It is un-perfect like me, and I love it. You don’t have to be perfect to enjoy life, and I am sharing this with you right now, in all it’s un-perfectness. I also will freely say, that I took the letters from various signs in images all over the internet. So not only did I not make the neon letters I didn’t take the photos either. But I did copy, paste, and crop to my hearts content. Hopefully I am not stepping on anyone’s copyright toes, forgive me if I am. I do own the butterfly which in real life is big (3′ x 2.5′ or so). I had it made for me, the artist is my friend Phil Radke, of PR SIgns and Service, sign guy, extraordinaire.

Weekly Photo Challenge: Dialogue

I love this week’s photo challenge: Dialogue. I almost feel like I am back in art school again, but without the all nighters and cigarettes. Still have the drinking and music, so I guess half isn’t too bad for an old lady. Wink wink.

I decided to create my dialogue with 3 images, kind of a triptych, yet technically more of a triad, since they are a grouping not to work as a whole.

Weekly Photo Challenge: Summer Lovin’

Summer Lovin’ is not a hard subject AT ALL! Well, it is hard in that there are so many things to love about summer, especially this one. But here are a few pretty, yet interesting, photos from our Beaver Island Trip. The abstract was a mistake. I was shooting my daughter in the sun reflection in the lake and the camera was totally out of focus. Oops. 😉 But I like it! Summer Lovin’, gosh is there anything better? I just don’t want this summer to end….

The Cheese Stands Alone

accepted: Digital photo 16×24 ©2014 Christie Thomas

This was the only piece accepted at this year’s Ohio State Fair. I am super glad that I got this in, but I was very disappointed that my butterfly print collage didn’t make it. I was joking with a friend that perhaps it wasn’t “dark” enough, and perhaps if the butterflies were bloody the judge might have liked it better. So, after I went through the stages of rejection: disbelief, sadness, confusion, & self doubt, I made it to humor. Then I took it to the frame shop and treated myself to a super kick-ass frame with non reflective glass and everything! Take that fair judge! 😉

rejected at the fair… 20×30 hand cut linoleum block printed butterflies, chine-colle, watercolor, metallic pigment, watercolor board, rice paper, origami paper, watercolor paper May 2014 ©Christie Thomas

Weekly Photo Challenge: Room (II)

Yesterday as I hit my “wall of tired” (I am the damn tired-est person I know) I saw this cool doubling of the tree reflections out my window. So instead of taking a nap (it was rather late in the day for a nap at 7:30pm) I took a couple of photos, took the kids to the pool and knitted a baby hat. Then came home and watched Orange is the New Black. That is a darn good show if I do say so myself. I digress….I used the Colorstrokes program to enhance the photo. That is a really cool photo program to “colorize” photos. What you really do is drag in your photo as a color image, it makes it black and white, then you “paint” over what you want back in color and it reveals the true color. You can also do other things. Here I blurred the black and white part. I like it. This is my view out of my room, while in my room. Part 2 of my Weekly Photo Challenge: Room. 

A Mother’s Love

I decided to crank out something made by hand in addition to my photos to submit to the fair. This ended up being a lot more than my original idea, but I guess that is how my artwork usually progresses. Somehow, my idea of wanting a minimalistic piece (kind of like a Japanese print) never stays that way, like it is too simple or I just didn’t work hard enough on it. I think the only reason it stopped here is because the deadline was a few hours away. All the butterflies are linoleum block prints. I cut 6 different plates and used them in a variety of ways. There are printed butterflies on rice paper, watercolor paintings, and chine-collé. Some of them were brushed with iridescent powdered pigments before drying. They were all hand cut and glued on top of watercolor on board. It is 20×30″. I am really happy with it. It still needs to be framed. If you are not familiar with chine-collé, it is a process in printmaking where additional thinner pieces of paper, sometimes hand cut to fit certain shapes, are added between the plate and the final piece of paper. Glue, paste, flour, or just pressure keep the papers attached.

Weekly Photo Challenge: Letters

I found this lovely wine at the grocery store and liked it because it had a beautiful painted label. It also had a plantable flower tag with seeds embedded in it around it’s neck. The wine was delicious, lucky for me. I have saved the bottle and rooted a plant in. It was just too pretty to recycle. As with most labels, my choice of buying is really in the quality of the design. It could be the greatest wine in the world, but if the label is not appealing, then I don’t buy it. I chose this photo for the Weekly Photo Challenge. This photo has quite a bit of information in it, other than the letters on the bottle. You can see me, the roots, the back of my house, the label, and the reflection of the sky. If you ever see this bottle of wine, buy it!

Weekly Photo Challenge: Reflections (I)

I hope my little water feature isn’t becoming dull or redundant. But, I really like these drop photos with their reflections from above and below. I just think they are cool. I am also working on a part 2 for reflections that is lake oriented, so hold on to your hats…

Weekly Photo Challenge: Treasure

I have a new toy. It is a microscope and camera attachment! Woo! Under the rationalization that my daughter needs it for a science experiment, I decided to go a little crazy. The kit I got came with a set of 50 pre made slides as well. From cotton to dandelions to fly wings to rabbit testis (omg, yes) it has a variety of things to see intimately. It is truly a treasure hunt! I like my new little microscope and slide set. I wish I could focus the camera a little better but I have issues with focus. 😉 In case you want one, I ordered from AmScope. They had GREAT customer service, prices, and fast shipping! Two thumbs up!

Below Zero

This was taken out my bedroom window the day before yesterday. It was probably a beautiful sunset, but it was below zero by 10 or so and with the crazy wind, it was technically assfreakinfreezing. I’ve been out in way colder (-35;-85 wind chill, this was in Minnesota, not Ohio, and it seems more normal there), and I could hack it easily by dressing well. I actually delivered 100 newspapers that day. Ahh, memories. But, I digress. So this cold spell, we stayed home, played in the house, and I took a few photos out the window. You know it’s cold when the doggies have to make 2 trips to finish their business because their feet start freezing before they can accomplish both. The house made large cracking noises. But today it was back in the above zero temperatures, and all is well. No loss of power, which would have been not fun at all. I am grateful that didn’t happen. This photo looks foggy because I was having fun breathing really hard on the window making fake fog. 😉 I hope you didn’t lose power, or live somewhere with gleeful weather.