Photo Art Friday - The Child Who Survived

So happy to have Bonnie's Photo Art Friday back after a 2 month hiatus.  She was very busy in her studio as you can see if your pop over to her Pixel Dust Photo Art site.

 I came across a couple of quotes this week that really tie together the images I am submitting . . . hope you all enjoy them.

"Every child is an artist . . . 

the problem is staying an artist when you grow up."

~ Pablo Picasso

When I was a child I was very artistic and often received special mention on report cards regarding my art work.  Then I hit grade eight and my art teacher, who was also my math teacher, shut me down big time.  At the very start of the semester, we were to design a folder that would serve as a portfolio for the terms work.  We were given free rein to do whatever we liked. 

 At the time, my family life was in great turmoil as my parents had split up less than a year ago and there was much sadness and fear and acting out among myself and 4 siblings.  Consequently, my folder design was quite dark and moody and very abstract.  Mr. P. decided that the work did not fit who he felt I was (pretty flowers, ribbons and lace, etc.) and refused to accept it.  I was always very submissive to authority figures and dutifully redid the folder to his liking but my creativity was definitely squelched for some time to come.  

I doodled a little and many years later a Jenny-girl, daughter of a friend would always ask me  . . . 'Can you draw me a girl?' She would colour my creations and always thought they were just beautiful.  The creative juices inside of me had always found a way to come out whether in sewing, crocheting, gardening but I still longed to produce artwork with pencil and paper, pastels and paint.  And then I discovered photography . . .

"The creative adult is the child who survived."

~ Unknown

Working with the prompts "Dreamy" or "Ethereal", here is what I came up with.

 My grand-niece Pippa (again) looking very ethereal as she poses on the deck.
Converted to black and white, some desaturation and a blur filter.

 Here I have combined an image of columbines with a paisley texture I made myself and Bonnie's texture "pdpa Heartache by the Number".  I also ran the image through a cut out filter in Serif PhotoPlus X4 before adding the textures.  I consider this quite "Dreamy" as my dreams often consist of concrete and abstract elements and symbols.

This last image has more of a dreamy quality than the others . . . I love the way this turned out.  The original photo is a bee gathering pollen from a giant allium.  No textures used just various adjustments to brightness, contrast, hue and saturation.

I recall that just a few months ago, I said to my sister and brother-in-law,
 "I am an artist."

I meant it.
 I finally believe it.

I am the child who survived.

Linking with Bonnie and the other children who survived @

SHS 9 June 2013

"Develop an interest in life as you see it;

the people, things, literature, music - 

the world is so rich, simply throbbing with rich treasures,

beautiful souls and interesting people.

Forget yourself."

~ Henry Miller

This quote reminds me of the Scavenger Hunt that this post links to.  So many snippets of sweet, funny, crazy, inspiring moments in other peoples lives captured and shared within this community of cyber-friends.

It also reminds me to not focus on how many comments I get but to see how many people I can encourage with kind words.  Looking forward to seeing what rich treasures have been gathered here this week.

1. Dishes

I have a small collection of decorative plates (dishes) which I have tried to whittle down and not add to.  However, this beauty I just could not leave behind.  Love everything about it.

2.  Favourite Colour

No guesswork involved on this one.

3. Sunflare

One from the archives . . . last summer.

4.  Expression

My grand-niece Pippa at a baby shower for her new cousin, Jaeden Anne.  The expression on her face has prompted many of my relatives to note how much she looks like my own daughter at the same age.

5. Sticky

Winged critters with sticky feet collecting sweet and sticky nectar from this lovage flowering seed head.

Linking with Ashley @

.

SHS After a Long Break

 So after laying low for a couple of months I have resurfaced.  I had another episode with my heart that put me in the hospital early April and finally got my echo and angiogram done.  They both came back clear which was a major relief and I am so grateful.  My cardiologist is saying that the original ECG and MIBI stress tests which showed a heart attack with significant tissue damage were false positives but I am going with divine intervention.  So many people were praying for me  . . . family,  friends, church family and prayer teams at the Healing Rooms.  As well, the symptoms that troubled me on a daily basis have disappeared with no medical intervention.  

Now it's time to move on with life . . . looking for a job again (overwhelming), and jumping back into things that have been on the shelf a while.  Hopefully I will be posting more regularly going forward . . . the desire is there but I've been coming up blank for ideas lately.  

The prompts for Scavenger Hunt Sunday this week were all Photographer's Choice so I figured that was easy to do on short notice.  I am sharing some of my favourite shots from the month of May.

Dandelion seed head saturated with rain.

Joey, my dad's rescue dog.

 They came for a visit in early May and I was delighted to meet this sweet boy.

 My Mother's Day flowers.

 Lacy fern against the rusting garden shed.

Fat robin found the bird bath and had a splashing good time.

Made my day!

Joining Ashley and the gang @

April In Its Infancy

Now infant April joins the spring,

and views the water sky . . . 

Till blossoms open one by one,

And sunny hours beguile.

~ John Clare

Awake, thou wintry earth - 

Fling off thy sadness!

Fair vernal flowers, laugh forth

Your ancient gladness!

~ Thomas Blackburn, "An Easter Hymn"

I so enjoyed flinging off my jacket and hoodie these last few days.

This glorious Easter week has been sunny and warm and coaxed multitudes of blossoms out of their tight winter wraps.  A short walk down the lane this morning had me snapping away and sighing over all this beauty.

Hurray for spring . . . my favourite time of year!

Bonnie's Challenge: A Self-Portrait

"Every man's work, whether it be music or literature or pictures or architecture

or anything else, is always a portrait of himself."

~ Samuel Butler

"Every job is a self-portrait of the person who did it.

 Autograph your work with excellence."

~ Unknown

"The countenance is the portrait of the soul

and the eyes mark its intentions."

~ Marcus Tullious Cicero

"A man walks through life painting a portrait,
not of what he would have done, could have done or should have done,
but of what he did."
~ Unknown

I had a great time taking and playing with these shots this week.  It can be difficult to take photos of yourself but I have learned not to be too quick to delete what might at first glance seem unusable.  These all came from shots I would NEVER use for anything but photo art play.

Now I must get over to Bonnie's before the linky closes.
Come, enjoy the gallery with me. 
Be inspired.

Art of the Prophets

"Beautiful music is the art of the prophets that can calm the agitations of the soul; it is one of the most magnificent and delightful presents God has given us."

~ Martin Luther

". . .  David took the lyre and strummed a tune.  Saul got relief and felt better . . ." 1 Samuel 16:23

The optional theme for Photo Art Friday this week is "Portrait".

Last summer I was delighted to attend a concert in the park featuring Willis Taylor, the subject in my submission this week. Beautiful music in the great outdoors is truly a wondrous gift that brings people together and lets you step away from the cares and concerns of the day and just "be". Willis and his band did a set of golden oldies that got this 60-ish couple movin' and a-groovin' with total abandonment that warmed everyone's heart and lit up faces with ear to ear smiles. It was a toe tapping, finger snapping, hands clapping, sing along, spirit refreshing time that I will not soon forget.

Joining Bonnie and friends at . . .

Creativity is Spiritual

Here I am a little late to the party again but I sure did enjoy Bonnie's challenge this week for Photo Art Friday. Working primarily with textures and perhaps a single other image of our choice, we were to produce an abstract piece to hang in the gallery this week. I started out early in the week and came up with the image below fairly quickly.  It consists of a background layer of pdpa "Blank Page", a layer of pdpa "Splashes of Gold" and 2 layers of pdpa "Leafy Landscape" with one of them flipped vertically.  I do not remember the blend modes but I did make some adjustments to the brightness and contrast.  The piece sat in that state for five days before I got back to it and added the quote.  

The next two images are built upon the first with the addition of another texture layer, pdpa "Golden Bokeh". Using the "difference" blend mode the colours just popped in a delightful palette of blues and greens that I am totally smitten with.

This final image was flipped both vertically and horizontally and has an additional image layer  . . . a single tulip.  A different opacity percentage shifted the colour range in some parts of the piece but it still is clearly related to the one above .

I am very pleased with the way these all turned out.  I feel like the intensity of the colours matches the range of emotions I have experienced over these last weeks dealing with some difficult health issues and that is why the quote I chose resonates so deeply with me.  Some things are just too hard to articulate any other way and engaging in the creative process allows me to express what I don't have words for.

Hoping you all have a wonderful weekend.

Take some rest and have some fun.

Blessings, dear friends,

Andrea Dawn.