Documenting My Week--Open to Correction

I am drawn to sky views.  Often on my way to school I have to resist the temptation to pull over into a parking lot or field for a better view of the sky so I can take a photograph.  If I don't have my camera, I can pull out the trusty cell phone.  Sometimes I even try to snap as I drive.

I am fortunate to live in a home with a large arched window that offers almost daily a breathtaking sunset view overlooking Lake Hickory (two blocks away) with Grandfather Mountain and Table Rock in the distance. Anyone looking through my photo archives would find not dozens but hundreds of pictures I've taken from the same spot on my back porch.

Once I took the Saturday photography class with Mike Hessell, I began to take not one but many shots of the same view, changing the lighting to produce different varieties of the same view.  Sometimes I come inside and look out and see the sky has changed so markedly I have to run back out.  Think Etch-a-Sketch on acid.

One principle I learned when I took the Design I art class was that putting several small pictures of the same thing enhances the overall impression.  I have framed sets of sunset pictures. I could cover a wall in hundreds and hundreds of shots, mainly from the same viewpoint (as evidenced below). I decided to try using layers

 even though we aren't getting into them in details until next week. I had taken a picture of our Japanese maple tree, producing more of a silhouette, so I used one sunset shot as background and layered the branches on top, as you see above. 

(Imagine time lapse)  I'm back, and I've managed to do make some adjustments to color on the last (large) photo below. In addition, Alabama Crimson Tide defeated the Virginia Tech Hokies, so all is well.

Adventures in Photoshop and Commerce

Not one to go into anything halfheartedly, I have started this semester not only as a teacher but as a student, so while I'm working on my own lesson plans and grading, I'm also trying to master all the new things I am learning in Computer Art class as well.  More than anything, I don't want to be "that student"--the only who's always holding up everyone else while she tries to figure out the simplest, most obvious tasks.

I overcome this best by practicing what I learn.  I do have a copy of Photoshop Elements on my home computer, but I know already it lacks a lot of the features of the program we use at school.  I want the real thing. Problem number two is that my home laptop is old and decrepit. It's so full it's constipated, and it's so slow I could scream.

This weekend, I took home the laptop assigned to me by the school last year and decided to see if it was more agreeable.  I first decided to explore the Creative Cloud option mentioned in class, access to Photoshop and other Adobe products for the low, low price of $19.99 a month.  While looking, I discovered an option of a trial subscription to Photoshop, so that's what I chose--for now.

I decided to tackle a couple of family pictures for which I have big plans this semester. I particularly wanted to use a photograph taken of my great grandparents at the Athens State Fair when they were just courting.  I wanted to use layers and add an overlay of a letter my Mama Cheatham--a young Vernice Yancey--had written to her beau James Hamilton, whom she addressed as Dear Jacobus. . . .

The letter was evidently written in pencil on lined paper, so the words have faded as the page has darkened.  I'm hoping to discover some miraculous process that let's me preserve it as long as possible. I discovered, though, that I haven't quite mastered the layers process.  I know that when I get to class my usual fifteen minutes late Tuesday, I'll have resources with which to work, but I'll have questions too. Lots of questions.

Computer Arts Assignment 8/20--a blog post in progress

We were asked to explore the gallery on the Computer Arts web site to get a feel for the type of work that attacts us.  I selected a few of my favorites, saved them to a file, and then choose one for this first blog post.
The one I chose is "Let's Go Get Lost" by Istvan Daniel Vasil, Hungarian artist, which was posted on the Computer Arts site in Dec. 2012. As he points out in the brief bio on this site, he likes "clean shape, typography, strange colours (sic), [and]various textures."
 
I know something about what draws me to visual images because of my own observations and those of my sister Amy. She sells a line of women's clothes and sees a pattern to my preferences.

  Without sounding cliche, instead  perhaps a little metaphorical, I know I am drawn to type, to words.   I also like bold color and  the suggestion of texture. 

The imag by Vasile I selected (at the top) "Let's Go Get Lost" incorporates a balance of color and black and white, images (photographic, it appears) and type. In fact, the text is the only color in this picture, providing a sharp contrast.

 I also like his use of perspective, the lane growing small and narrow toward what is actually the center of a circle.  The image at first seems symmetrical, but the variation in the trees, and the edge of a dark figure to the right add to the mystery and asymmetry of the picture.  According to the online post, this was one of a series of 12 posters produced for a New York retailer.

When I look for other examples of his work, I found art unlike this particular picture.  Many of the images I found, especially a group labeled as Moszvka, used what appears to be paper cutting, sometimes even three dimensional.  He seems to use a completely different technique in these works. The pictures seem to play visual tricks, such as the words falling off the page or the musical notes piling up below. On the other site where I found his work, he noted that he was influenced by magical realism and by travel. These images certainly reflect the magical realism.

Late on day one

It's the first day of school and I feel like a new kindergartener. Today, though, after teaching my first three classes, I am a student in Art 171: Computer Art.  Thomas Thielemann, the instructor and my friend, knew in advance that I was having to come to class fifteen minutes late after a class of my own, so I have promised to be as unobtrusive as possible, and to arrive quickly.

So here I am today, creating a blog to use for the class.  I have had a typical student experiences already. Coming in late, I had to ask for a copy of the syllabus.  I also couldn't get into Moodle (and found I had been entered as a student, not a faculty member, so I have a different log-in for this class from my Moodle classes (and the Blackboard class I am team teaching.) When we were completing our first assignment, setting up a blog (this one), I was unable to add text.  Fortunately, I wasn't the only one, so I knew it wasn't just my incompetence. After all, I've been blogging for years. (If you're a reader, check out discriminatingreader.com) 

Despite the minor glitches and technical difficulty, I left campus today feeling great. I love the classes I'm teaching and I'm finally able to take this Computer Art class, one I've had in my sights for years now.  Stay tuned. I'm expected some great things this semester.