Mythology a Modern Take

Our monthly challenge is a sort of mashup based on any mythological story. Sort of a modern-day interpretation. Decided on the story of Perseus and Madusa. My mashup, interpretation, is based on the fact that Perseus had to use a magic shield in order not to look at Medusa's face. Wonder Woman is my hero in the fight against domestic violence! I used domestic violence as an example of any social issue, it could be violence against animals, environmental, racial etc. On the shield, I placed some images over the face of Medusa. Well, the moral of the story is that we shouldn't hide issues in a mirror but face them head-on. A little far-fetched!

For this project, I made a digital composite in Photoshop and really enjoyed the process!

Don't hide behind a Mirror

Digital Composite

11 5/8 x 16 5/8 "

A3

Collage Time February 30in30 2018

Decided this time to try to make my own collage in Photoshop! Didn't really realize that putting 30 layers and controlling their placement would be so challenging but once started there was no return. I am stubborn that way! I remembered the little box in PS when in moving tool, auto-select, that helped me immensely. Hey, I even added text! 

This challenge was almost stress-free because I worked in series. Gelli printing makes that possible because you don't get the whole setup for printing just one, do you? My main time consumer was the extra photographing, editing, posting, titles etc. Hope to keep up the momentum, actually have 2 pieces left over, my workshop pieces to post, and 6 new at some stage of process.

Learned so much this month, Color combinations, composition, surprises, things not to do, paper qualities, probably lots more! Met some great new artists. A real treat, thank you, Leslie, for hosting and letting us publish on your site.

See What One Month Can Do
Final Digital Collage
Click to Enlarge


Don't forget to check out Leslie's challenge page!

Which Road to Take

"Side roads" was the topic I chose for this month's art concept challenge.
What is a road?   A path,  a direction, a destination,? How do we choose which road to take? Where will it lead me, what will I find? Will it be easy or difficult? Will I succeed or fail?
Lots of questions and not too many answers? I recall on some of the road trips that I took in the US sitting on the bed and mapping out the next days trip. Most often we chose the scenic route.

My art journey is also like a road. Should I take the highway, faster and more secure, or take the challenge of the scenic route with all its surprises?

I choose the scenic route!

I Choose the Scenic Route

Transfer prints on paper

Crayons

Liquid Pen

19.5" x 13"

I started out with sketching with a new app on my tablet. Transferred these using gel medium on my substrate. Finished with crayons and liquid pen.

Quotes:

"If you don't know where you are going, any road will take you there."
Lewis Carroll, Alice in Wonderland

Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.

Robert Frost

Goosey Goosey Gander where shall I wander
Nursery Rhymes

So many roads. So many detours. So many choices. So many mistakes.
 Sarah Jessica Parker

Take the back roads instead of the highways
Minnie Pearl

One always wonders about roads not taken
Christopher

Sometimes it's the journey that teaches you about your destination
Drake

Its Almost Here

The new January 30 x 30 run by Leslie Seata is HERE. I like to post as early as possible, usually the eve before. or the next morning.  Her site goes live at 10: AM so that when I like to link up. It's my habit. Maybe I should change my habit

This challenge will be completely new for me because I will be trying to draw/paint from within without using an outside influence and I find myself in a "frozen " state.  I have chosen my format; paper either white or brown, small sizes, chosen mediums; mostly dry pencils, crayons pastels, with maybe paint and collage. Hey, what's the problem? I have done some preliminary "scribbles" and tried to see, feel where they were taking me, but to me they were meaningless scribbles, not telling me anything.

I don't mind, usually, to post not perfect work but there is some sort of line there.. or is there? Hoping that this ranting will help me over the hump and continue a few that I drew over with my favorite black eraser.

Recently Dotty Seiter's latest post brought back nostalgia.  She and her friend discuss books together across 1000 miles, how cool is that. That reminded me that I took part in a similar project maybe 10 years ago when I was on My Janee's forum and a group of us decided to read through 2 of Katrin Eismann books on Photoshop; Photoshop Restoration and Retouching, and Photoshop Masking and Compositing, two fabulous books. We went through chapter by chapter, showing our work and helping each other in the process. We were a diverse group from Finland, Israel, US etc.  I really miss the "forum" as a way of connecting and not the current FB, Instagram, Pinterest etc, which I find a bit cold.

Well, these thoughts brought me back to the general forum as well and all the tutorials that Janee had on the site. It was here I first learned PS using Elements II. I was first introduced to Elements by my late brother that used it to make fantastic composites. Janee would have Monthly challenges and we would post our entries anonymously and vote. Janee would give trophies to the winners. That was so much fun, I was so proud to get one. My Username was caroled so see some of mine. These were my first steps back into my creative activities, so thank you Janee, with all my heart.

So here is one I found on an old CD, that luckily still opens of Jan 2005 challenge. The award page is down, but I think the challenge was about pets. I think I posted a digital drawing of my late dog Johnny.

Digital Painting\

Johnny

2005

We had to post our acceptance image which includes the trophy.

Johnny Won a Trophy

Acceptance statement

WOW!!!!! Look!!!! Johnny found a trophy!!!!

Thanks all who chose my Johnny....

Thanks to Janee for making this all possible.

Johnny was a stray that my husband brought home 6-7 yrs ago from the hospital grounds. He was about 6-7 months old and probably was mistreated because he wouldn't come into the house under any condition.  He has a huge yard to run and chase cats and crows[my other entry].

I don't know how many times I tried to "paint" him from lots of photos taken, without much success.  Last semester I took my first LVS course in digital art, thanks again to Janee, and it helped me get off to a better start.

Congratulations to All.... we are all WINNERS...

It was a GREAT CHALLENGE

Carol

Ending this with my digital crow painting.from the same challenge.

Black Hooded Crow

Digital painting

2005

Now back to my current challenge... enough procrastination!!!

Required Assignment 3: Work of Art Redux (Track A) Coursera

Required Assignment 3: Work of Art Redux (Track A)

Live!: A History of Art for Artists, Animators and Gamers

We’ve done a bit of research and have identified at least thirty artists who created work based on Velazquez’s Las Meninas. See here for a short list. Now it’s your turn. Make a work or series of works, in whatever media you choose, that takes its inspiration from Las Meninas. You can: 

• take apart and put back together selected elements of the painting (as Picasso did). 
• riff on a theme of the painting (looking and being seen, reality and reflection, a moment in time, stillness, the painter’s process, etc. Note that many of these themes have actually been modules for this course). 

Both of the above are possibilities, but there are certainly more. At any rate your approach needs to be deliberate. Consider the difference between making a “copy” of the original, “appropriating” the original (as a creative strategy) and working “off” the original. Along with your images, post a short (2-3 sentence) explanation of why you did what you did.

After much thought   I felt that Las Meminas  reminded me of the pageants for young girls that sort of exploit their femininity and sexuality.  At my weekly workshop I noticed two Barbie dolls that my friend Riva was working on and photographed them to use on my assignment.  It is a riff on the some of the themes, exploitation,reflections, looking in and being seen and in this case the "photographers" process. A photo montage plus some digital sketching. 

Live!: A History of Art for Artists, Animators and Gamers Coursera

Live!: A History of Art for Artists, Animators and Gamers

For the past 9 weeks I took my first course or MOOC  at Cousera, an online site for learning from well known universities. This was run from Calarts  and was of a very high standard.  Last evening they had a closing hang out using google+ to sort of sum up the course.

At art school, RISD, I took several Art History classes but none really compared to this experience. The lectures were wonderful showing Art through various concepts rather than in the chronological fashion.  These lectures and exposure to a wide amount of art, some of which I was familiar and some quite new , seemed to trigger a wider view to research, like a seed growing new shoots. If this ever goes online again I would strongly recommend.  

I would like to share some three of the required assignments from the course. 

Required Assignment 1: World-in-a-Box (Track A)

This assignment is taken from an excellent book entitled Draw it with your eyes closed: the art of the assignment (New York: Paper Monument, 2012). It’s also listed in the course bibliography. I credit it to sculptor Rachel Foullon, who credits it to sculptor and teacher Jack Risley.
Instructions:
Using any means, materials and style you like, create a collection of objects and design a means of displaying them. Some things to think about:
Your objects can be in two (flat) and/or three dimensions.
You could make the objects or collect them from elsewhere.
They might belong together chronologically, or not.
Think about how the objects can be combined to make something that adds up to more than just themselves (or alternatively, how the collection “is what it is”).
Think about how the objects relate to each other spatially and how the means of display reinforces or complicates that sense of space and objects within it.

This is a photo montage using as a background on of my own fragmented oil  paintings and then pasting various sculptures from photos of Storybook land, a group of theme parks in Holon. The statues represent well known characters from Israeli  children's books. I put in the easel to sort of represent myself in this fantasy world. Also painted in the fashion of children's paintings,,,, example the sun etc.  Although these books are not known internationally I thought they represented a child's fantasy. It was not fully understood... in my peer evaluation they thought the rat with a suitcase was "unemployed" or "homeless"... homeless he was cause he wanted to rent a flat in the famous  Flat for rent by Lea Goldberg.