Cay Denise

I took an all-day photography class yesterday. Each of the 17 students received a critique of their work based on a portfolio of up to 30 images everyone had been invited to bring. The instructor has suggested that I do an exhibition of my photographs . Wow...how validating! My photos are non-traditional (just like my 'quilt' work) as well as dramatic. The question would be whether the photography and quilt work could be mixed in a show, or if it would be better to keep the two art forms separate. (The instructor does not know I do quilt work.) Since there are different markets for the two types of art work, it may make more sense to keep them separate. I should mention that my husband's work was also critiqued in yesterday's class, and he was told he is also ready for a show, and that we could do a joint one if we wanted. We were the only students in the class that the suggestion of a show was made to. Now I have a new door to think about stepping through with a willi

The street artist having done the artwork of now President Obama, for his campaign, has filed a lawsuit asking the judge to declare the artist protected under the fair-use exceptions to copyright law which provide for limited use of copyrighted materials for purposes like criticism or comment. This is a pre-emptive suit that you can read more about at the link provided (click on this blog post's header).

I just learned how to use a cool new-to-me tool in Photoshop . Its the 'move' tool followed by working with layers. This image is based on a photo I took earlier today. First, in Photohsop , I intensified the original photo's color, and then did a 'filter-distort' and 'twirl' function on the image. Following that, I created a new page in Photoshop . Next, I moved one image to the new page, and then flipped the image on the original page and once done...moved that one to the new page as well. This was done until a total of 4 images had been moved to the new page. Then I worked with layers to arrange/center them. This is so cool (and pretty easy to do once you get the hang of it...and I thank my dear husband for the tutoring on that score)!!!

I just heard a radio show host talk about business being the conversations. Blogs (e.g. Blogger, Wordpress) and social networking sites (e.g. Twitter, Facebook) are important to this activity, he says. Marketing your products (whatever they may be) involves sharing with people who you really are. I've tried to limit my blog posts to the purpose of this blog which is sharing my art and musings about artsy things. So, on the occasions when I've had difficult days at work, or been concerned about things going on in my life...I haven't posted those things. The question is whether I'm missing connecting with more of you by not blogging more about life in general. What are your thoughts? Please consider leaving a post about what you'd like to see more/less of.

Over the weekend, I helped assemble goody bags for visiting Chinese artists. One of my contributions were buttons made of painted/dyed Model Magic (MM). MM is a great product...it is lightweight and air dries! I made about 150 buttons by painting the MM disks with acrylics, Adirondack dyes, glitter and glitter glue. I sealed them with a light varnish so that the glitter would remain. Are these fun or what?