Climb a Tree

This week's theme for Photo Art Friday is "Connected, Connecting, Connections".

This set of photos illustrates a number of sweet connections in my life.

My 2nd granddaughter is the little girl in the photos, so of course I have a strong emotional connection to her.  We are both 2nd born daughters and I loved to climb trees as a kid as well.

I also feel a deep connection to our Creator in the great outdoors and feel energized, inspired, renewed and rebalanced after even a short nature break.

"Climb a tree  . . . it gets you closer to heaven."

~Author Unkown

I am still learning a lot about my photo editing software and enjoy exploring all the possibilities. The photo above also makes use of Bonnie's "DreamWonder Texture".

 I sure miss the days when I could do this myself but I am known to unashamedly hug a tree and listen to its silent song.

"The trees are whispering to me, reminding me of my roots, and my reach . . . sshhhh . . . can you hear them?  Selflessly sharing their subtle song."

~ Jeb Dickerson

Linking with Bonnie & friends @

"Bamboo Dreams"

Happy Valentine's Day, dear readers.  I hope you have all shared some love today with the special people in your life.  I also must thank you all for such encouraging comments on my last post . . . I appreciate your prayers and comforting words. 

One of the pluses of not working is more time to play with photo art and the joy of discovering all that my new software can do.  This week's challenge from Bonnie at Pixel Dust Photo Art was to use the free texture "Bamboo Dreams" as one of the elements in our creation.  I came up with three different pieces which I am very pleased with. 

This little collage shows the texture and images I have used for this challenge.

First off is this piece featuring magnolia blossoms which I felt were a perfect match for an Oriental mood.  I used a Comic Book Filter on the image before applying the texture at Multiply 100%.

 This next one I forgot to write down the steps I used for the different layers but I love everything about it and feel a strong continuity of the "dream" theme.  

 Oh, how I love dragonflies!  Such vibrant colours and wings like stained glass masterpieces.  

The texture is not so obvious in this piece but is there none the less and contributes to the final product.  I applied the texture in Burn blend mode at 72% then used a lens vignette filter and made a slight curves adjustment.

Come check out the gallery for this weeks creations . . .

Tears Like Rain

This last month has been an emotional roller coaster for me what with having to quit my job due to severe anxiety and finding out two weeks after the fact that the major panic attack I had was really a heart attack.  Waves of fear and emotion have tumbled me over and over and tears have fallen like rain at the drop of a hat.  Facing one's own mortality is so very difficult even when you know that "the Lord is my Shepherd" and "my times are in His hands". 

My submission for Photo Art Friday depicts the waves of emotion that swept over me and the boy at the edge of the ocean represents me at times of deep distress.  This is where I go . . . to the ocean where I am reminded of how small I am and how big God is.  The placement of the chimes with the raindrops are like the eyes of God who sees me and has compassion on me.

Our challenge this week was to use Bonnie's "Dropped Petals" texture (below) as a background for an abstract creation to which we would add another texture and 1or 2 other elements.  I was not able to stop at 2 and wound up adding 4.

This blue-green swirl that became the waves started out as one of the maple leaf logos from the 2010 Winter Olympics which I put a twirl distort filter on. I duplicated the image about 6 or 7 times and moved them about the background. I set the opacity at Hard Light 77%.

Next came the second texture "Ephemeral".

          

I seem to have misplaced the original image that I made the "weeping eyes" from but it was from these same wind chimes.  In the Cutout Studio of my software I trimmed away all but the rings and marble and then duplicated the cutout and spaced them on the next layer.

 The boy at water's edge also went into the Cutout Studio where I trimmed away most of the water and some of the shore on the left.

Last of all I added this of image of a banana tree through a rainy window at Normal blend mode, 74%.

I found this project very challenging but am grateful that it provided an outlet for expressing some of the stuff going on in my life.  And I think that is what art is all about, don't you?

Linking with Bonnie @