Paintscape

This is my entry for The Three Muses challenge this week which is "Surreal". This was a wonderful challenge for me as I'm always trying to make "sense" of things and by the definition of surreal - things are dreamlike or non-sensical. In this digital collage I tried to import elements that would represent an underwater dream world that is controlled and "painted" by a presence outside of that world. The woman appears a bit captive yet in awe of her strange but colorful world. When creating this piece it was hard to distinguish fantasy from surrealism and I really want to try to explore and work on this form of art expression some more . Totally fun!

Let Freedom Ring

This is my entry for Sunday Postcard Art -the theme " 4th of July". Aside from all of the barbeques, fireworks and summer fun , Independence Day here in the U.S. reminds us all of how precious our freedoms are to us. We try to honor our ability to speak freely, express ourselves and be heard. We honor the right of every citizen to have the same possibilities in life, and we honor the freedom to follow our own beliefs in our own way and to allow our neighbor to do so as well. Happy 4th to all!

Altered Ancestors

This is a collage made from a black and white photo from the late 1920's of my Grandmother Doris when she was dancing with a modern dance group the "Denishawn Dancers". I scanned the photo into Photoshop and added a solarized and soft light effect to add color and highlights. I also imported images of middle eastern towers to carry the theme of the dance and costume she is wearing. She was quite the bohemian and always inspired me with her exotic tastes and love of ethnic dance. This is for Inspire Me Thursday's theme "Altered Ancestors"

Strength

The theme for this weeks Inspire me Thursday is "warrior". For most of my life when I envisioned a warrior I ususally saw a man engaged in some sort of warfare or challenge, but in fact a warrior to me now is someone of strength whether that be physical , emotional or moral. A champion who knows herself or himself well enough to not engage in battle but has the inner strength to achieve their goal through modest means and calm determination. This is a digital collage that I made for my Tarot series- this being the number 8 card "Strength". I found images that for me depicts a warrior that walks in strength and is empowered. I stayed a bit traditional with the use of a female image and a lion.