Advent Calendar of Cards Day 17 (2011)

I remember that this was an unusually warm autumn. I felt unsettled by the shifting seasons. Thinking about the tradition of bringing in evergreens made me feel worse. I turned to flowers for comfort. I used a part of an image created from a photograph of a peony for my series of manipulated flower photos with lines from poems by Emily Dickinson. Nine of the thirty images are in my new book.

Advent Calendar of Cards Day 15 (2008)

This card was created in photoshop. The lettering was screened over a photograph of holly. And on the inside:

Lammas-first day of Celtic autumn

As the wheel of the year turns to autumn, let us honor the earth and be thankful for her gifts.

Lammas is the first day of autumn on the Celtic calendar. Lettering of the word LAMMAS was done with a 3.8 mm Parallel pen. The word-image was created in photoshop and then screened with a photo of black-eyed Susans.

Vernal Equinox

May we embrace the soft spirit of the day's sharing of the light and the dark

Lettering with Pentel brush pen on natural baking parchment combined with an image of a magnolia blossom in photoshop

2016 Solstice Card Construction

This will be the third year in a row that I have used a quote for my card. For each of those years I have felt that the world situation has been such that a completely celebratory message wasn't quite right. And the same is true this year. This quote from Susan Cooper from the fifth book of The Dark Is Rising series (wonderful children's books that I encourage you to read if you have not) spoke to me and seemed to have a good message for these times.

I started by lettering the quote with a Speedball C-3 nib and Higgins Eternal Ink and scanned it into the computer. I had to scan it in two parts and then did some fiddling in Photoshop to straighten out some of the lines. I prefer to write without lines as it gives me greater freedom and appreciate the ability to tinker later in digital work.

I knew I wanted the lettering to look like fire. Since I didn't have any pictures myself, I found a small one online. Unfortunately I don't remember where it came from to give credit.  I made an image in photoshop the size of the card by repeating the fire image. 

I placed the calligraphy on top in another layer. In the layer palette I changed normal to screen which made the fire replace the black in the lettering. 

I liked it but felt that it looked a little flat. I remembered a book about flowers that I liked that had a textured white background on the pages and thought that might be just what was needed. I scanned in a piece of very textured Shizen handmade watercolor paper from India.

I flattened the layers on the lettering image (after saving it as a new image—I find it helpful while working to save things separately so that I can go back if I need to). I then placed that image as a layer on top of the scanned paper. This time I changed from normal to multiply in the layers palette to create the finished image.

I set up the card for printing in indesign which is where I added the attribution to Susan Cooper. 

Summer Solstice Greetings

Celebrating the longest day with roses, mock orange, and painted ferns. It’s raining without but it’s glowing within. Wishing you a summer season of warmth and light within as well as without.

To Welcome in the May

New Year Wishes

As I go into the new year with the ongoing intention of not planning ahead in my work, I let the tools, the materials, and what I was feeling guide me in my lettering as I wrote this greeting with a Speedball C-4 nib and Higgins Eternal Ink on everyday paper. After several variations on a numerical 2015, I decided to go with the year written out in words. I usually write things out from 5 to twenty times (5 here) and choose the one I like best to scan into Photoshop. I may have known it once but couldn't remember how to turn black lettering on white into the reverse. My visting son gave me the simple key command: command I (or image-adjustments-invert). Magic!

Studio Sunday-Creating Yesterday's Image for Samhain

For the first Studio Sunday after my little blog vacation, I thought I'd share the steps for creating yesterday's image for Samhain.

1. Go out into the garden and take photos.

2. Choose one of a hosta leaf and open it in Photoshop CS 6.

3. Write Samhain multiple times with my Pentel brush pen and scan into computer (600 dpi, black & white).

4. Choose one and open it as a new image.

5. Convert image to rbg color.

6. Add a second layer, select a dark brown from the leaf image with eyedropper tool, and fill the new layer with the color (paint can).

7. Change layer from Normal to Screen. The word is now dark brown instead of black. Flatten image.

8. Duplicate layer and place it on the leaf image.

9. Change layer from Normal to Multiply. Adjust size and placement.

10. Done.

May I add that my knowledge of Photoshop, such as it is, has been acquired in a haphazard manner. I make no claims to work efficiently.

To bring some cheer on a snowy March day

Last week I spent two glorious days with my garden photos from Paris getting ready for a talk for the Newburyport Horticultural Society which I will be repeating at the Newburyport Public Library on April 22 (7 PM, free, and open to all). After assembling the 200 slides for the presentation (chosen from a much bigger collection), I couldn't resist playing with some of the images. This one is from the Jardin de l'Hotel de Sens. I look forward to spending more time with them, but in the meantime I have printed out a copy to cheer me as I assemble tax information for the accountant. Besides the general malaise that I feel when I spend time with numbers, there is the added discouragement of tallying up a year's worth of expenses and income and seeing the results. Here's to gardens and the coming warm!

There are other photos from that garden here. And a complete list of all the gardens in the talk here. And a flyer for the upcoming talk here. And a photo from Tuesday's talk. Thank you Rebecca!

Valentine Count Up-Sweetness

To me, there is a Valentine quality to this image which is one of my series The Wondrous Nearer Drew: Artwork Inpired by the Poetry of Emily Dickinson and the Flowers of Massachusetts. The image was created from a photograph of sedum (taken at the Whittier Home in Amesbury, MA so poetry connections abound) that has been duplicated and manipulated in Photoshop with a hand-lettered line from Poem 1717.

I haven't done much publicizing of it but I have created a book the 30 images. It would make a perfect Valentine gift for an Emily Dickinson fan or garden lover. There are copies available through my etsy shop. If you purchase the print copy, I'll also email you a pdf for viewing on a computer, tablet, or phone. And I will ship promptly for delivery in time for Valentine's Day.

The Wondrous Nearer Drew on etsy

Tenth Day of Christmas-Frost

New patterns and new ideas for the new year. Design in Photoshop made using same technique as with The Wondrous Nearer Drew squares of flower imagery and lines from Emily Dickinson. This time I started with a photograph of frost on the garage window. Am thinking of making more and creating a digital quilt.

Third Day of Christmas

Photo of angel on our mantle overlaid with photo of ice crystals on the garage door window (55% opacity) with quote from Chekhov that was originally part of a snowflake ornament.

Studio Sunday-Flowers

A vase of flowers on my desk inspired me to play around with lettering the names of all the flowers in the bouquet, then scanning them and screening them over a photo of them. I put the same words on both sides for a symmetrical image. Like so much I do, I have no idea where this might go but I am thinking I might write the flower names on one side and their meaning in the language of flowers on the other. I'd have to select flowers that I can find a meaning for. And beyond that, I'm not quite sure what I'd do with the final images but play is too much fun to worry about where it's going or why.

Poetry Month-In Praise of Wild Things

In celebration of Earth Day, I took a few minutes to write out this poem by Wendell Berry which I have always loved. Thinking of it this morning led me to the bookshelves and this 1970 paperback, The Voice That Is Great Within Us: American Poetry of the Twentieth Century, where I first read it. Lots more poetry to explore.

Here's how I arrived at this particular image: I wrote out the poem with a Japanese marker, scanned it into the computer, and made it a layer over a piece of scanned Mexican bark paper. I changed the setting from Normal to Multiply and reduced the opacity of the background paper.

Autumn

May you enjoy the golden days of autumn.

A Lammas Greeting

Lammas, loaf-mass, the feast of first fruits
a day to glory in the richness of summer and enjoy its abundance
as the fall season begins

This is part of my Emily Dickinson Series. This image was created from a photograph of chive blossoms. I was picking herbs earlier this morning. The buds are full and round and just ready to come into flower. Here is the complete poem (number 338):

I know that He exists.
Somewhere -- in Silence --
He has hid his rare life
From our gross eyes.

'Tis an instant's play.
'Tis a fond Ambush --
Just to make Bliss
Earn her own surprise!

But -- should the play
Prove piercing earnest --
Should the glee -- glaze --
In Death's -- stiff -- stare --

Would not the fun
Look too expensive!
Would not the jest --
Have crawled too far!

Poetry Month-Magnolia

An image for Easter and a poem by Rodger Kamenetz from the North of Eden website:

Magnolia

Glossy leaves this dawn.
You do not move.
You have taken your stand.
Not stubborn not stolid not faithful because not human,
Your will is cellular.
Not to mention red hair on quilted fruit
Implacable red beads, plastic a pterodactyl swallowed
In cretaceous times.
Limbs thrown back- for balance—
Trunk sore with lipped craters of lopped branches
Mouths or eyes sing one defiant note:
You survived hurricanes.
The salt of Lake Pontchartrain did not kill you.
Soft gummy petals.
Big clumsy labia
Big fragrance-- magnolia.
One a flame. One an infant face.
One a bloated butterfly dying,
A spill of linen
The sun stains brown.
Monster flower,
An altarpiece of golden virgin & rapturous spikes
And an oval head raised on its ruby shaft
A monstrance:
No church, no priest,
No tongue will taste
Street and sidewalk shy communion.
Passerby
Look with the eye of love.

Seventh Day of Christmas-New Year!

Wishing you light, joy, and creativity in 2012.

This image was created from a photo I took during our December trip to Montreal of lights on a tree in front of our hotel with an easy name to remember—L'Hotel. I originally planned on just placing the writing over the photograph but it didn't work as planned. Hence the manipulation and this result.

Coming on Tuesday on Book Arts Tuesday—a New Year gift of a little book to download, print, and share.