Searching, Always Searching.....

They can take this trendy house and put it where the sun don't shine..lol. I just can't give up
on my little series, not yet. I am expanding on my Carolina Blue series which all sold out except for my large, 24 x 48 piece (which is available to see at Swank Hand Made Market in Southern Pines, NC) I don't think they have a website but if you are ever in the area, be sure to stop by the Belvedere Plaza and have a look around at this shop as well as the handful of other super cool locally owned shops there!


Anyway, here are two more 4 x 6 pieces now available in my Etsy shop.
"Serenity" and "Peace"
I think that those are two things I constantly am seeking. On the outside, I'm a very calm, cool, and collected person. But, on the inside...my mind is constantly racing, worrying, jumping from one thing to the next, thinking ahead, thinking 'behind', good things, bad things, anyway....I constantly need to find that place that gives me a sense of peace and a place of calmness.

My day job does attribute to my highs and lows. I've spent many years as a manager and the stress of that position can be overwhelming at times. Especially this year. Especially working in the financial industry. Being needed by so many people every day can drain one. I'm ready to move on, but at the same time not ready if that makes sense. I'm ready to manage myself, and move in a direction that will give me peace and serenity. I suppose the grass is always greener. If I did move on, my worries and anxieties would be transcended in a new direction. However, life is too short not to chase after your dreams, and so to that, I say if this is my dream, then I need to find a way to make it happen.

On to my photo experiments......now, I've been playing around with photo shop these last two weeks, but don't underestimate the power of the easy to use and FREE program, Picasa (3). I used that to change the look, crop and edit a few self taken portraits. This first one I took yesterday after going out in the snow...yes we had snow yesterday in NC!!!! I just simply cropped it, and tuned it up a bit by softening the color, not quite bw but moving towards a soft contrast with a yellowish hue.

When I first uploaded this pic, I said...'crap' it's all blurry. I won't be able to do anything with this picture. Ha. Well, gotta love black and white with tint.

Looky here, I made this more charcoally looking and warmified it. Cool, huh.

On to just a regular bw, I look younger in BW..lol..going forward I demand all photos of me be in BW. Kinda timeless in a way.

Lastly, I did do this one in photoshop. I took a color picture of some lovely brown eyed susans and turned it black and white, sharpened it. Then added a layer of soft yellow. Next, I added a cool course grain onto it, merged the layers, then finished with another layer of charcoal gray to add a bit of shadow.

So much you can do with one picture. You could literally take a few photos and turn them into a body of work that is in the hundreds, all fascinating in and of themselves.

You can see more of my pics on flickr.
Go ahead and play with your photo program, even if you don't have photoshop--you can download Picasa and do NUMEROUS things...they even added the ability to put text on the picture (that's how I did my blog banner the last couple of months). I double dog dare ya!

**Anyone on face book? Join my art business page HERE and become a fan! I hope to offer specials in the future to my followers, so definitely join in!