Original Art Studio

"...use any consequence..."

2012-01-26T22:51:00.001-05:00

"Since no relationship can be made entirely safe and secure...

this has to mean trust in one's own ability to use any consequence,

including betrayal,

as a means for waking up."

~Stephen T. Butterfield

... the marriage of well-being and Photoshop ...

2012-01-24T10:18:00.005-05:00

I have been busy marrying my new-found (and still neophyte) skills in Adobe Photoshop with the knowledge and experience gained in over twenty years as a practicing psychotherapist. The result is a series of posters that can be purchased and shipped to you from my store at Zazzle.

The posters can also be yours as a digital file. This allows you to print the poster yourself - choosing the quality of paper, size and number of copies you want. You can get more details about digital file downloads at my other blog, Pixel Dust Photo Art.

I'll share the other posters in the series as each is completed. These posters are designed as educational tools (one of my degrees is in adult education), and could be great tools in adult/adolescent learning and health care environments.

I'm excited about these posters, but it is easy to become so enamoured with your own creative work that you become blind to glaring flaws or oversights. So I would be grateful to receive your feedback!

Two of my new posters (one on defeating depression and one on conquering cancer) are available to you as FREE digital downloads. Just check my sidebar and click on the image.

Winter 2012

2012-01-16T10:35:00.000-05:00

We had a couple of days of snow last week and the branches of the evergreens are still laden in white. Today the sun shines and one almost needs sunglasses to protect the eyes from light reflecting on all the white. Glorious white. I love it.

Not loving the bitter cold that accompanies today's rays, however. Wish I could stay home by the fire all day, read and make some winter-time comfort food, but the dentist and some hum-drum errands are demanding my presence. Hope you are safe and warm wherever you find yourself this Winter of 2012.

If you would like to try using textures with your photographs, I have many that you can download for free on my "Free For You" page on my other blog, Pixel Dust Photo Art. Please hop on over, take a peek, and help yourself to the ones you like.

I am sharing the image in this post with Lisa Gordon's "The Creative Exchange".

Clean!

2012-01-11T17:01:00.004-05:00

Have you heard about Alejandro Junger, M.D. and his "Clean Program"? I read his book, "Clean" a few months ago and it was both a great read and an amazing eye opener. For instance, did you know that depression and intestinal health are 'intimately' connected? Junger explains how our intestines (when healthy) make much of the serotonin required for mental/emotional stability. Why had I never run across that information elsewhere in all my studies?!!

One of my daughters is following Junger's detox program right now. The actress Gwyneth Paltrow talked about Dr. Junger and his Clean Program last week in her wonderfully information-rich blog, GOOP. You can check out her January 5/12 blog/newsletter with the topic, "The Goop Cleanse", HERE.

Here's a three minute video from Dr. Junger's Clean Program Facebook site that you can watch to learn a little more about him and his approach. If you are interested in eliminating the toxins in your diet and boosting your immune system for optimum health ... Clean is a good place to start.

As Dr. Junger likes to say when signing off, "Here's to your health!".

"... this is the time to love ..."

2012-01-02T18:47:00.001-05:00

This is a great quotation to keep in mind/heart/spirit when times are dark on a personal, local and global level. While resourses can dwindle, the love in our hearts can ever expand and be demonstrated by simple acts of kindness. We always have it in our power to 'tip the balance'.

A New Year Blessing

2012-01-01T14:01:00.001-05:00

A Blessing For The New Year

On the day when

The weight deadens

On your shoulders

And you stumble,

May the clay dance

To balance you.

And when your eyes

Freeze behind

The gray window

And the ghost of loss

Gets into you,

May a flock of colors,

Indigo, red, green

And azure blue,

Come to awaken in you

A meadow of delight.

When the canvas frays

In the curragh of thought

And a stain of ocean

Blackens beneath you,

May there come across the waters

A path of yellow moonlight

To bring you safely home.

May the nourishment of the earth be yours,

May the clarity of light be yours,

May the fluency of the ocean be yours,

May the protection of the ancestors be yours.

And so may a slow

Wind work these words

Of love around you,

An invisible cloak

To mind your life.

~John O'Donohue

To Bless the Space Between Us

... one more wish for you ...

2011-12-25T10:09:00.002-05:00

May your holidays be filled with joy, peace, connection and delight....and may the new year bring you a wealth of health and happiness.

'Tis The Season

2011-12-15T09:39:00.004-05:00

It's a grey, blustering, unseasonably warm day in Montreal today. I've set aside a good portion of today for gift wrapping.

While I love shopping downtown at night to enjoy all the glitter and glam of Christmas decorations, have to admit that this year I did a lot of my shopping online. It's so easy to click that little "Add To Cart" button and wait for the goods to be delivered. Is it just me or are the shipping fees becoming astronomical?!!! One purchase I made online was for about $60, and then I learn that the shipping charges are $70!!! Hmmm - don't think so ...   From New York to Montreal is not that far even if you do cross a border!

The above image was created in Photoshop from a street photograph taken in late summer, in daylight. With the addition of one of my textures and some digital processing I tried to make it look like a nighttime Christmas shopping scene ...   Hope you like it.

How do you acquire the gifts you want to give at Christmas? Do you make your own? Do you brave the traffic and crowds to shop in stores? Do you let your fingers do the shopping on your keyboard? A combination of all of the above?   However you proceed, may your holiday gift preparations be as stress-free and joyful as is possible. :)

If you find yourself feeling a little blue or melancholy during the holiday season, please download my free digital poster file "Strategies To Defeat Depression". Just click on the image on my sidebar and you will link up with the post offering the download.

A Free Poster On Depression

2011-12-12T21:24:00.002-05:00

During this hectic time of year, it is easy to forget that for some of us Christmas is full of memories of things that are gone and can never be again. Depression is a frequent and unwelcome visitor during the holiday season.

If that is the case for you, or for someone you love, you might enjoy the free download of my new poster, Strategies To Defeat Depression. This download and its terms of use can be found at my other blog Pixel Dust Photo Art.

...clutching my map...

2011-12-05T09:18:00.001-05:00

I ask myself:

... time, the construct ...

2011-12-01T10:10:00.000-05:00

Today we enter the last month of 2011. I have the sense of time speeding by and observe myself experiencing sadness at its passing. Must be my ego sensing its demise - yet somewhere inside I know that time is but a construct of the fragile, insecure mind - that if I stop and pause I can reconnect with the eternal present moment.

Why does my hard-fought-for inner knowing elude the grasp of my everyday mind? I think I would have to live as a monk - contemplative - no hurry - no worry - present - aware - in order to dwell in the knowing of the eternal moment. I can always find my way back to that moment, but I cannot claim I abide there ... yet.

When I create art whether with pencil, brush or digital editing I often enjoy a fleeting sense of the eternal. Here are two variations of a collage of digital edits of a public domain painting by Degas:

Time and space are but ... colors which the eye makes, but the soul is light. ~Emerson

Man is a synthesis of the infinite and the finite, the temporal and the eternal, freedom and necessity.

~Soren Kierkegaard

After a lifelong struggle, I know that what matters is not to learn a new description

but to arrive at the totality of oneself.

~Carlos Castaneda

As I rest in the pure and simple witness, I am no longer moved to follow the bliss and the torture of experiential displays. Experiences float across my original face like clouds floating across the clear autumn sky, and there is room in me for all.

~Ken Wilber

...return to wholeness...

2011-11-29T10:06:00.000-05:00

...called to walk in beauty...

2011-11-18T10:37:00.002-05:00

"To behold beauty dignifies your life;

it heals you and calls you out

beyond the smallness of your own self-limitation

to experience new horizons.

To experience beauty is to have your life enlarged."

~John O'Donohue

"There is a light in beauty

which no frontier can limit or contain;

it has a distinctive dignity.

Like consciousness,

beauty shines with a light

from beyond itself."

~John O'Donohue

"The earth is full of thresholds where

beauty awaits the wonder of our gaze."

~John O'Donohue

"In Greek the word for 'the beautiful' is to kalon. It is related to the world kalein which includes the notion of 'call'. When we experience beauty, we feel called. The Beautiful stirs passion and urgency in us and calls us forth from aloneness into the warmth and wonder of an eternal embrace. It unites us again with the neglected and forgotten grandeur of life."

~John O'Donohue

All the quotations in this post by John O'Donohue are from his book Beauty: The Invisible Embrace.

...all that it does...

2011-11-14T09:51:00.003-05:00

Quiet

and unnoticed

the flower

of your whole life

has opened

its perfect petals.

~William Carlos Williams

The chestnut tree is all that it does.

~W.B. Yeats

Sharing with Lisa Gordon's The Creative Exchange.

Autumn Photo-Art

2011-11-07T07:44:00.000-05:00

We have still not have any snow here in the Montreal area - unlike many other parts of Canada and the U.S. So, I feel I can still post some photographs (digitally manipulated) taken of Autumn leaves and Autumn Chrysanthemums. :) I hope viewing them brings a little pleasure to your day.

I am sharing these pieces of photo-art with Lisa Gordon's "The Creative Exchange". To join us there simply click on her button:

The Orton Effect

2011-10-30T11:07:00.002-04:00

The "Orton Effect" gives photographs a soft, dreamy, slightly blurred, yet more intense look. I applied it (using Photoshop Elements) to the following photos taken right outside my door, during the past week. See what you think.

The key to spiritual maturation is transforming all of life,

adversity included, into spiritual practice.

~Alan Wallace

Life affirms itself by consenting to its end.

~Thomas Merton

The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious.

It is the source of all art and science.

~Albert Einstein

Man, like the gen'rous vine, supported lives;

The strength he gains is from the embrace he gives.

~Alexander Pope

... glorious ...

2011-10-24T10:21:00.000-04:00

As drops that dream and gleam

and falling catch the sun,

Evanescent mirrors

every ... one.

~Ezra Pound

We comprehend

Flowering and fading simultaneously.

And somewhere lions still roam,

Magnificent and all unaware

Of any weakness.

~Rainer Maria Rilke

Life demands for its fulfillment and completion

a balance of joy and sorrow.

~Carl Jung

I sing the endless finales of things,

I say Nature continues, glory continues,

I praise with electric voice,

For I do not see one imperfection in the universe.

O setting sun! though the time has come,

I still warble under you, if none else does,

unmitigated adoration.

~Walt Whitman

... when the crutches are broken ...

2011-10-17T14:37:00.007-04:00

A couple of pieces of digital art, and some quotations written in my agenda in the last week. Words to remind me, words to guide me, words to inspire me to right thought and right action. I hope these quotations prove helpful for you too.

The voice of the divine in us

is counterpoised not by the voice of the devil,

but by the voice of fear.

~Abraham Maslow

There is no enlightened being,

only fully enlightened actions

~Shunryu Suzuk

Only when all the crutches and props are broken ...

and there is no hope for security,

does it become possible to experience ...

meaning.

~Carl Jung

When you argue with reality,

you lose;

but only 100% of the time.

~Byron Katie

... and the winner is ...

2011-10-13T19:45:00.001-04:00

In the giveaway of John O'Donohue's new book, Four Elements: Reflections on Nature, the lucky winner is Catherine in Carolina. Catherine was the last person to enter. Congratulations Catherine!

Thank you to all who participated in the giveaway. Keep your eye out - more giveaways to come in the near future.

A big thank you going out as well to the sponsor of this giveaway, Harmony Books, the publisher of Four Elements: Reflections On Nature.

To determine the winner, I attached a number to each name in order of their appearance in the comment section. Those who live outside of the USA or Canada were not included, as were those who specified they did not want to be included. That left 14 entrants. I used Random.org's sequence generator to randomly choose the number and it came up 14 - Catherine's number.

Congratulations Catherine. You have until Saturday, October 15th at 6:00 p.m. EST to contact me by e-mail giving me your co-ordinates. If I do not hear from you by that time, I will move on to Random.org's next number.

Are you ready for a great giveaway?

2011-10-10T23:10:00.010-04:00

Autumn is here in Eastern Canada in all its colourful glory. These are a few photographs of the showy display on our property. The yellow leaves are taking centre stage right now, but it won't be long before the red leaves will demand top billing.

The beauty, truth, hope and consolation offered by nature in every season always puts me in the mood to read some of the works of the late John O'Donohue. His book Beauty: The Invisible Embrace has been a loyal companion of mine for several years now.

When John O'Donohue was lost to us with his untimely death a couple of years ago, I went out and bought several copies of Beauty: The Invisible Embrace. Some to give away as gifts to honour O'Donhue's memory and a couple to keep as insurance that I would never find myself without access to the wisdom and comfort of this exceptional man. It boggled my little mind that there would be no more books of his to anticipate and savor.

THIS GIVEAWAY IS NOW CLOSED. THE WINNER WILL BE ANNOUNCED IN A POST WHICH SHOULD APPEAR ON YOUR BLOG ROLLS AROUND 8:00 P.M. THIS EVENING.

You can imagine my surprise when the publishing house, Harmony Books, a division of Random House contacted me wanting to send me O'Donohue's about-to-be released book to review. Since I have published a few different posts on this remarkable man and his wisdom they new I would be an eager recipient and reviewer of this new collection of John's writings. John's older brother Pat has compiled some of the unpublished writings left behind by John into a new book entitled, Four Elements: Reflections on Nature. In it John O'Donohue writes in praise of fire, water, air and earth with both prose and poetry.

O'Donohue uses his intimate relationship with nature to explore the difficult questions of life, to seek meaning, to offer inspiration and always, always ... to re-awaken hope in those of us who have succumbed to despair when viewing the sorry state of much of the world.

As a visitor of this blog, you must surely be a lover of nature and someone for whom this book would be of interest. Harmony Books has given me one new hardcover book to offer here as a giveaway! (This hardcover version sells for $24.00 in the USA, and $27.00 in Canada.)

If you are interested in receiving this new, hardcover release, Four Elements: Reflection on Nature, all you need do is leave a comment here so indicating. Make sure that I can access your e-mail address to let you know you are the lucky recipient!

The winner of John O'Donohue's new book will be announced here Thursday, October 13th at 8:00 p.m. EST. I will get your co-ordinates and Harmony Books will mail you the copy hot off the press.

(This giveaway has unfortunately been limited to Canada and the United States. Regrets to those of you who live outside of these two countries.)

"...magical extents..."

2011-09-26T08:29:00.002-04:00

"Strange is our situation here on earth. Each of us comes for a short visit, not knowing why, yet sometimes seeming to discover a purpose." ~Albert Einstein

"Every country walk is an act of adoration." ~Simone de Beauvoir

Contained in this short Life

Are magical extents ...

~Emily Dickinson

Nature, my immortal mother,

You give me a brief lifetime

Yet you put immense designs in my heart ...

Look at me, still unripe

Yet full of hidden powers,

Still becoming.

~Gabriel D'Annunzio

"The universe is in us in such a way ... that everyone in the universe is the universe."

~Nicholas of Cusa

Sharing this post with Lisa Gordon's "The Creative Exchange".

... creating a composite ...

2011-09-20T10:09:00.002-04:00

This piece of photo art is a composite of three photographs taken while browsing in a bookstore.

The base piece was of two copies of one book (Vintage Fashion) placed face out on the shelf, with a third copy of the same book placed as books are usually placed on a bookshelf - spine facing out.

I loved the vintage Audrey Hepburn-esque look of the pictures. I have photographs of my mother in a similar dress, jacket and hairstyle and the image stirs up fond memories.

The next piece of the composite is of gorgeous long legs shod in black and red heels, stretching out horizontally, resting on a wrought-iron railing, with the caption "New York" above.

The third piece of the composite is a title from a type of journal, with a quote from that old favorite, "Anonymous", saying: "Life isn't about finding yourself. Life is about creating yourself." Not sure I subscribe totally to the idea, but I suppose there are elements of truth in it.

Is it just me, or has Blogger developed a mind of its own about spacing? I find it just respaces itself however it wants, in spite of my choices on the keypad! Very frustrating. Anyone else experiencing the same thing?

... partial views ...

2011-09-19T09:34:00.002-04:00

We live near this little Catholic church, founded over a hundred years ago in this small mountain-side community. I have become quite familiar with its ringing bells which have a different sound for various occasions. The ringing for the call to church, for the announcement of a marriage, or a baptism, or a death are all very different. Not being affiliated with any religion, and, therefore not a church goer, I have never heeded any of its stirring calls, but I do find the church steeple a compelling subject for my photographs and photo editing.

"We are in grave danger of losing a spiritual heritage that has been painfully accumulated by thousands of generations of saints and contemplatives ... Above all, it is important that this element of depth and integrity - this element of inner transcendent freedom - be kept intact as we grow toward full maturity ... We are witnessing the growth of a truly universal consciousness in the modern world ... To cling to one partial view ... and to treat this as the ultimate answer to all questions is simply to ... make oneself obdurate in error."

~Thomas Merton

(Bolding mine.)

I am sharing one of these images with Lisa Gordon's wonderful photo challenge called "The Creative Exchange". Do join us there by clicking on her button below.

"...only a small revolution..."

2011-09-15T11:03:00.000-04:00

"It is consoling to think, if I am not always looking for God, that God is nevertheless looking for me. It is my suspicion, so deep that I forget its existence, that I am as profound as I am willing to be, that only a small revolution or turn toward the light would make all the difference."

~Phyllis Theroux

The Journal Keeper, p. 102

... "simple in its presence" ...

2011-09-12T15:00:00.002-04:00

How one walks through the world,

the endless small adjustments of balance,

is affected by the shifting weights

of beautiful things.

~Elaine Scarry

A beautiful thing,

though simple in its immediate presence,

always gives us a sense of

depth below depth,

almost an innocent wild vertigo

as one falls through its levels.

~Frederick Turner

... remembering ...

2011-09-07T14:55:00.000-04:00

... a virtual vernissage ...

2011-09-02T14:15:00.007-04:00

I'm not sure how many of you who visit Original Art Studio know about the new photo challenge I will be hosting over at my other blog, Pixel Dust Photo Art. I'm all hooked up with inLinkz and ready to get started on Friday, September 9th.

This post contains a few of my thoughts about this new artistic showcase I am calling Photo Art Friday.

Have you ever attended a vernissage - a reception hosted by an art gallery to launch a new body of work by one of the artists it sponsors? The word 'vernissage' comes from the French 'to varnish'. Originally interested patrons were invited to the gallery while the artist put the finishing touch of varnish on their latest group of paintings.

Generally one or more rooms in the art gallery are devoted solely to the artist's work, and wine and h'ors d'oeuvres are served. Friends, patrons, clients gather to examine the new paintings and whispered critiques are muffled by soft background music. The artist is available to answer questions and is usually quite nervous about how their work will be received. After the vernissage, only one or two of their works will be on display in the gallery, but the whole collection can be viewed on-line or in a catalogue produced by the gallery for those who want to purchase.

I've begun to imagine the upcoming Photo Art Friday as being something of a virtual vernissage - a group vernissage where we can display our 'wares', answer questions about how we created the piece, and receive the feedback of interested visitors. Are you ready for our first Photo Art Friday 'virtual vernissage'?

It's only a few days before the launch and, I for one, cannot wait. Perhaps some of you will consider spreading the word by displaying the button "Photo Art Friday" (that you can copy from the Pixel Dust Photo Art sidebar) on your blog. While I know it takes a little time for these photo challenges to become known and grow, I can't help but hope for a good number to participate in the first one on Friday, September 9th.

For those of you who like to get your submission in early, the Photo Art Friday post on Pixel Dust Photo Art, with the inLinkz tool will go up a few hours early, on Thursday, September 8th at 7:00 p.m. EST. It will remain open until the following Monday, September 12th at 7:00 p.m. EST. So for those of you who don't care about being early, or who are just learning about this new photography challenge, you will have the whole weekend to prepare, post and submit a piece of photo art. If you want to remind yourself about the guidelines for participation you can click here.

I'm so looking forward to seeing YOU at this virtual vernissage at Pixel Dust Photo Art. Unfortunately the wine will be virtual too - but I'm sure we will find a way to toast each other anyway! ;)

(Photograph of a gallery window in Old Montreal, 2010)

... imprisoned splendor ...

2011-08-31T20:02:00.000-04:00

Everything transitory is a metaphor.

~Goethe

... the boundless resolve,

no longer limitable in any direction,

to achieve one's purest inner possibility.

~Rainer Maria Rilke

The one who wants to understand the mystery

must turn toward the eternal light

in the depths of his own spirit,

where the hidden truth reveals itself

without intermediary.

~Jan Ruysbroeck

Truth is within ourselves;

it takes no rise from outward things,

Whatever you may believe

There is an inmost center in us all,

Where truth abides in fullness ... and to know

Rather consists in opening out a way

Whence the imprisoned splendor may escape,

Than in effecting entry for a light

Supposed to be without.

~Robert Browning

I say no man has ever yet been half devout enough,

None has ever yet adored or worshipped half enough,

None has begun to think how divine he himself is ...

~Walt Whitman

Fall Beauties

2011-08-29T20:21:00.000-04:00

... help ...

2011-08-29T11:02:00.000-04:00

I'm hoping one of you savvy computer aficionados out there can help me.

After Irene caused our electricity to go down for 12 hours, I suddenly cannot save my work from Photoshop Elements 8 into Picasa (where I usually store all my edited images). Have never encountered this problem before.

If I save to my desktop then I can move images into the proper folders but that is an couple of extra unnecessary steps I would prefer to avoid. I closed down everything on the computer and re-booted it, but the problem persists.

Any ideas? Anyone? Please .... :)

... la vie en rose ...

2011-08-26T10:06:00.008-04:00

Looks like it will be anything but 'la vie en rose' for all of you living along

the eastern seaboard of North America.

Hope you follow all the commonsense precautions

for 'weathering' such a major storm

and do not experience too much loss, damage or discomfort.

Stay safe dear friends.

I have linked one of the images in this post to Lisa's "The Creative Exchange".

...one scene, four ways...

2011-08-23T08:53:00.004-04:00

The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious.

It is the source of all art and science.

~Albert Einstein

A painting has a life of its own.

I try to let it come through.

~Jackson Pollack

Characteristics should take off their hats to one another

not judge one another.

~Bertold Brecht

(Texture designed par moi.)

artificial island countries for libertarians?

2011-08-21T07:49:00.000-04:00

I know this post may be controversial, but I could not believe this little news article when I read it, and my knickers are now in a knot.

Here is what the wealthy, who are being exempted from paying appropriate rates of taxes due to partisan intransigence, are thinking of doing with some of the saved money - instead of investing it in America. Time for those who are unwittingly doing the bidding of these crafty, wealthy capitalists to wake up, me thinks.

~~~~~~~~~

Silicon Valley billionaire funding creation of artificial libertarian islands

By Liz Goodwin | The Lookout – Tue, 16 Aug, 2011

Seasteading Institute city design (Anthony Ling)

"Pay Pal founder and early Facebook investor Peter Thiel has given $1.25 million to an initiative to create floating libertarian countries in international waters, according to a profile of the billionaire in Details magazine.

"Thiel has been a big backer of the Seasteading Institute, which seeks to build sovereign nations on oil rig-like platforms to occupy waters beyond the reach of law-of-the-sea treaties. The idea is for these countries to start from scratch--free from the laws, regulations, and moral codes of any existing place. Details says the experiment would be "a kind of floating petri dish for implementing policies that libertarians, stymied by indifference at the voting booths, have been unable to advance: no welfare, looser building codes, no minimum wage, and few restrictions on weapons."

"There are quite a lot of people who think it's not possible," Thiel said at a Seasteading Institute Conference in 2009, according to Details. (His first donation was in 2008, for $500,000.) "That's a good thing. We don't need to really worry about those people very much, because since they don't think it's possible they won't take us very seriously. And they will not actually try to stop us until it's too late."

"The Seasteading Institute's Patri Friedman says the group plans to launch an office park off the San Francisco coast next year, with the first full-time settlements following seven years later...."

~~~~~~~~~

Political zealots are allowing the wealthy to not pay their fair share of taxes thinking that with the money the wealthy save, they will surely create jobs for middle and lower classes of Americans. Looks like a few of them have other plans for the millions and billions they are saving. Of course these people want less government interference in their plans. Heads up, peeps.

(Bolding in news article added by me.)

... all in an afternoon ...

2011-08-20T11:16:00.005-04:00

Hi Everyone - hope you are enjoying your weekend. The weather is simply gorgeous up here in the Montreal area and I want to finish this post so that I can get outside and enjoy it!

DH is already on the golf course and apart from his golf buddy coming back to regale me with a hole by hole lament, we have no guests for supper tonight - SO with no entertaining prep to do, I can indulge myself in doing whatever I want. Ah - what luxury!

Last weekend while en route to my daughter's condo in The Plateau area of Montreal, we stopped in Old Montreal so that I could get a few photographs. As I went through the lot of photos, I noticed that I had several of different modes of transportation that I saw that afternoon. Let me share them with you.

The quintessential 'caleche' taking tourists down the cobblestone streets in the old section of the city.

And, of course, just to prove they can travel in both directions AND also on paved streets ...

Giant, bright buses bringing more tourists in to enjoy our cosmopolitan city.

Another giant, bright bus. Can you guess what is the claim to fame for this monstrosity? After a little tour around Old Montreal streets, this bus drives straight into the St. Lawrence River for a little boat tour. Yes, it is an amphibious vehicle. Frankly, I prefer to keep my wheels on the pavement.

This mode of transport seems to be getting this fellow nowhere fast!

Perhaps he is happy to sit and imagine himself being chauffered around in the Rolls Royce parked in front of this exclusive boutique hotel.

What is that red reflection in the grill of the Rolls Royce?

A little red Ferrari, of course. Oh, oh - did I spell it correctly? Forgive my ignorance, but what is a mustang doing on the back of a Ferrari?

Then there are those of us who are a little less into an ostentatious display of our means and a little more green when it comes to our mode of transportation. Is the man in the doorway, blushing because of something he said to the pretty biker, or something she said to him?

I think this is another Ferrari, of the white variety, but you can correct me in your comments if I am wrong.

And, of course, somebody has to maintain order and safety on the streets with all these vehicles!

Last, but not least, this looks like a sports car but is actually a motorbike. See how it has only one wheel in the back? Don't quote me, but I think I overheard my DH say they are made here in Montreal. But we Montrealers do like to claim that everything great is made, done or seen here. ;) Don't you do that with your town, city, country too?

Have a fabulous rest of the weekend, no matter how you travel.

And travel safely!

... tread lightly ...

2011-08-17T09:20:00.001-04:00

"St. Francis tended to see the world as a place as light as a flower.

Resting within his own boundaries,

he did not want to weigh more

than a nectar-seeking bee."

~Gabriela Mistral

what a little digital processing can do ...

2011-08-10T15:29:00.007-04:00

This piece of digital art began with the photograph of a white cleome in my garden. It was processed it in Photoshop with a texture of mine made from 'brushes'.

If you would like to try experimenting with using textures on your photographs, you need not look far to find some free fine art textures. I offer many for free downloads on my other blog, Pixel Dust Photo Art. Just click on my Free For You here or when you visit there. :)

Hope you are all finding a way to enjoy summer and the many simple pleasures available to you, in spite of the distressing news coming at us from around the globe. Be well.

P.S. I am sharing this image with dear Lisa Gordon's "The Creative Exchange". Everyone is welcome to share - click on her button and check it out. Oh, btw, Lisa's photograph in her Monday post of The Creative Exchange uses one of my textures.

...more digital art...

2011-08-07T19:22:00.000-04:00

This is a piece of digital art created from copyright free images and textures on the Web. Jerry Jones and Nick Fortune provided some of the textures. Other edits of this image are now posted on my other blog, Pixel Dust Photo Art if you would like to check them out.

If you use textures to enhance your photographs, do check out my Free For You page on Pixel Dust Photo Art. There are lots of free downloads waiting for you there.

... digital art from paintings, photographs and collage ...

2011-08-02T23:21:00.001-04:00

...see you in September...

2011-07-30T17:14:00.002-04:00

I've decided to join the bloggers who close "shop" in August for a little R&R. Another photo/image or two will surely appear during the month, but there will be no reflections from me as such. At least that is my current intent. We'll see if I am able to restrain my impulses to babble on about this or that, or visit and comment on your wonderful blogs! Delaying gratification has never been one of my strong points. :)

Have a great August, and I'll see you in September.

P.S. I will still post now and then on my other blog, Pixel Dust Photo Art.

P.P.S. No, I don't have a strange form of measles in the image above - I am supposed to be basking in cool waters and a shimmering sunset. And, no, I don't have skimpy, straight bangs - those lines on my forehead are reflections of tree trunks. Guess an image really doesn't work when you feel you have to explain it!

Oh well...... :)

...the day the music died...

2011-07-29T12:15:00.009-04:00

Don McLean's 1971 song "American Pie" seemed to define and give a voice to a generation. For years there has been debate on the meaning of McLean's cryptic lyrics - and I suppose we have all come to our own conclusions after having listened to it for 40 years.

After watching talking heads debating the sad state of affairs in Washington (that could create a sad state of economic crisis throughout the world), I found myself spontaneously humming Don McLean's iconic tune. As the lyrics floated through my head I couldn't help wonder if they not only defined and had meaning for one generation, but were now somehow prophetically describing another.

I have taken the liberty of only sharing parts of the song that I feel apply to the current crisis ... See what you think.

I realize some of you may legitimately counter that as a Canadian, I should mind my own business and not make pronouncements about the situation south of our border. Would that it were none of my business! For as the economy goes in the U.S. so go the economies (national and personal) of the rest of the world. The world is watching in dismay and consternation because we all have a stake in the resolution of this political and economic crisis.

(Four dots at the end of a stanza indicates there are stanza(s) that are about to be omitted. Bolding was added by me.)

A long, long time ago...

I can still remember

How that music used to make me smile.

And I knew if I had my chance

That I could make those people dance

And, maybe, they’d be happy for a while.

But february made me shiver

With every paper I’d deliver.

Bad news on the doorstep;

I couldn’t take one more step....

So bye-bye, miss american pie.

Drove my chevy to the levee,

But the levee was dry.

And them good old boys were drinkin’ whiskey and rye

Singin’, "this’ll be the day that I die.

"this’ll be the day that I die."....

Now for ten years we’ve been on our own

And moss grows fat on a rollin’ stone,

But that’s not how it used to be.

When the jester sang for the king and queen,

In a coat he borrowed from james dean

And a voice that came from you and me,

Oh, and while the king was looking down,

The jester stole his thorny crown.

The courtroom was adjourned;

No verdict was returned.

And while lennon read a book of marx,

The quartet practiced in the park,

And we sang dirges in the dark

The day the music died.

We were singing,

"bye-bye, miss american pie."

Drove my chevy to the levee,

But the levee was dry.

Them good old boys were drinkin’ whiskey and rye

And singin’, "this’ll be the day that I die.

"this’ll be the day that I die.".....

Now the half-time air was sweet perfume

While the sergeants played a marching tune.

We all got up to dance,

Oh, but we never got the chance!

`cause the players tried to take the field;

The marching band refused to yield.

Do you recall what was revealed

The day the music died?

We started singing,

"bye-bye, miss american pie."

Drove my chevy to the levee,

But the levee was dry.

Them good old boys were drinkin’ whiskey and rye

And singin’, "this’ll be the day that I die.

"this’ll be the day that I die."....

....I went down to the sacred store

Where I’d heard the music years before,

But the man there said the music wouldn’t play.

And in the streets: the children screamed,

The lovers cried, and the poets dreamed.

But not a word was spoken;

The church bells all were broken...

And they were singing,

"bye-bye, miss american pie."

Drove my chevy to the levee,

But the levee was dry.

And them good old boys were drinkin’ whiskey and rye

Singin’, "this’ll be the day that I die.

"this’ll be the day that I die."

They were singing,

"bye-bye, miss american pie."

Drove my chevy to the levee,

But the levee was dry.

Them good old boys were drinkin’ whiskey and rye

Singin’, "this’ll be the day that I die."

...even though...

2011-07-24T21:14:00.004-04:00

I am participating in Mosaic Monday hosted by Mary of the Little Red House.

P.S. I guess my previous post (just scroll down to see it) "...and crown thy good..." was too cryptic to decipher. I was referring to the impasse in American politics with both the title from the 'anthem' "America! America!" and by asking if you could hear the fiddling as an era collapses - referencing the oft-used quote about Nero fiddling as Rome burned. I'll try to be less mysterious in future posts!

...and crown thy good...

2011-07-23T10:55:00.000-04:00

Can you hear the fiddling?

... parallel worlds ...

2011-07-20T21:47:00.002-04:00

Sojourns in the Parallel World

We live our lives of human passions,

cruelties, dreams, concepts,

crimes and the exercise of virtue

in and beside a world devoid

of our preoccupations, free

from apprehension--though affected,

certainly, by our actions. a world

parallel to our own though overlapping.

We call it "nature"; only reluctantly

admitting ourselves to be "nature" too.

Whenever we lose track of our own obsessions,

our self-concerns, because we drift for a minute,

an hour even, of pure (almost pure)

response to that insouciant life:

cloud, bird, fox, the flow of light, the dancing

pilgrimage of water, vast stillness

of spellbound ephemerae on a lit windowpane,

animal voices, mineral hum, wind

conversing with rain, ocean with rock, stuttering

of fire to coal - then something tethered

in us, hobbled like a donkey on its patch

of gnawed grass and thistles, breaks free.

No one discovers

just where we've been, when we're caught up again

into our own sphere (where we must

return, indeed, to evolve our destinies)

--but we have changed, a little.

~Denise Levertov

I am entering the first photograph in this post in Lisa Gordon's "The Creative Exchange". If you have a photograph you would like to showcase, simply click on her button below.

...tips for staying cool...

2011-07-19T09:20:00.002-04:00

Is it hot enough for you? What an unbelievable heat wave in the central and southern States! We've had a beautiful July in the northeast - while hot and sunny, still falling within the range of what one would expect for summer. The weather channels say the heat wave is moving this way. Seems we will all get our turn frying eggs on the pavement.

Do you have any tips for staying cool? We are blessed with air conditionning, but when I was a kid growing up with a single mom in a tiny apartment we had to improvise ways to stay cool during extraordinary heat.

One way my mother improvised was to use cold wet (well wrung-out) tea towels and wrap them around our arms and legs while lying in bed. She would make sure the cold towels covered as many pulse points as possible. She claimed it would cool the blood as it travelled through our body. If we were willing, she would also cover our bare belly, thighs and groin area with cold tea towels. When they first hit your body it is a bit of a shock, but it was heaven once the shock was over.

Another way was while watching television, we would each have our own bucket/bowl of cold water in which we would immerse our feet. I can still recall the full body relief that provided.

And what about you? What do you do to keep yourself and your family comfortable in such intense heat? Wouldn't it be great if your tip affords some relief for even one of our blogging buddies?

...powerful emotions...

2011-07-18T06:55:00.002-04:00

We must let go of pain. Ideally, by entering into it we become able to breathe so much freedom from within the pain that the deepest letting go can truly occur. For this to happen, the naming of the pain, the letting it be pain for a while, is essential.

~Matthew Fox

Let yourself be in the emotion. Go through it, give into it, experience it ... Then the most powerful energies become absolutely workable rather than taking you over, because there is nothing to take over if you are putting up no resistance.

~Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche

I am linking these collages with "Mosaic Monday"
hosted by Mary of The Little Red House.

...not another pretty flower...

2011-07-16T12:38:00.001-04:00

Sometimes you just have to post something other than pretty flowers! I created this image from brushes, textures and images in my archives. I have purposely not tried to decipher what this might represent for me, if anything. I just play with what is available to me and shake my head and giggle at what emerges.

What, if anything, do you take from this piece? (Click on the image to enlarge it.)

...a little sparkle...

2011-07-14T16:35:00.001-04:00

These are some exotic impatiens in my garden. To achieve the vivid color of the petals and sparkle of the water droplets I added one of my new textures. You can download the texture for free on my other blog, Pixel Dust Photo Art.

This is the SOOC photograph.

Have a cool, safe weekend everyone!

:-)

a piece of digital photo art

2011-07-12T09:38:00.000-04:00

"The function of the imagination is not to make strange things settled

but to make settled things strange."

~G.K. Chesterton

This is a photograph of the grand entrance to The Montreal Museum of Fine Arts (La Musee de Beaux Arts) on Sherbrooke Street in Montreal. I have edited the photograph, applied one of my textures and ended up with a rather surreal-looking image.

...just hanging out...

2011-07-09T20:00:00.003-04:00

So how is everyone making out with the new Blogger in Draft Interface? I've finally found many things I thought were missing in it, but have to say I do not enjoy how many of the functions are hidden in drop-down menus. Plus, if you have more than one blog it is really awkward to find and post your comments. Things seem to take longer to load and I have encountered "Service Unavailable - Error 503" several times. What about you? Are there features you really like? Are there things you haven't figured out yet? I'd be very interested to hear what you think about it! Do tell ...

Hope you are enjoying this beautiful summer weekend. Well, it is beautiful, perfect in fact, here in the Northeast, but I did notice that there are some scorching temps in the central and southern States. Hope you all manage to stay cool and find an inviting spot where you can just relax.

What is better for pure relaxation than a hammock?

This hammock is strung between two large shade trees and is just a couple of yards from a babbling brook.

Same hammock with a couple of textures and processed in PSE to achieve a vintage look.

I'll be checking for your comments on the new Blogger in Draft Interface - when I'm not in the hammock! ;-)

'Artspiration'

2011-07-08T11:07:00.003-04:00

My friend, the kind and incredibly talented Brian Miller of WaystationOne has included three of my digital images in his "Friday Poetically with Brian Miller" at One Stop Poetry. Thank you Brian - for thinking of me.

Participants in Friday Poetically with Brian Miller are asked to use one of the images as inspiration (Brian calls it 'artspiration') for a poem. It's been very interesting to read all the diverse interpretations that can come from one piece of work. If you want to enjoy some great poetry or include your own poem in the link-up, hop right on over to One Stop Poetry.

If you have not yet been enjoying the daily poetry of Brian Miller at WaystationOne, you must click on the link and check it out. You will not be disappointed. His poems and prose are exquisitely crafted, topical, relevant and always cut to the heart of any matter. I cannot go without my daily dose of Brian!

...open...

2011-07-05T07:00:00.004-04:00

"If your everyday practice is to open

to all your emotions,

to all the people you meet,

to all the situations you encounter,

without closing down...

then you will understand all the teachings

that anyone has ever taught."

~Pema Chodron

This post has been linked to A Rural Journal's:

Happy Fourth!

2011-07-02T16:31:00.000-04:00

...my day in the hospital...

2011-06-30T16:39:00.006-04:00

It feels as if I have been MIA here for a while, when, in fact it has just been a couple of days. What I thought was a simple case of sun stroke seemed to drag on with symptoms of dizziness, nausea, weakness, chills and sweats for a couple of weeks. Finally I gave in, realizing I had misdiagnosed myself, and visited a doctor. When he saw very high blood pressure readings as well as my other presenting symptoms, he insisted I go to the hospital.

I was admitted to the hospital for observation and had many tests done - CAT-scan, ultra-sound, electrocardiogram, blood tests - the works - and am happy to report that all is well. I was relieved to learn that the symptoms are not signs of any underlying serious illness.

During the day of tests, they re-hydrated me, added some potassium to compensate for surprisingly low levels, and I left at the end of the day with some good advice and a couple of prescriptions from a thorough Doctor. Phew ... I am already feeling much better.

For my dear American friends who live in a country where illness requires a very large bank account or fund drives by concerned neighbors to raise money to pay for tests and treatments, I would like to use this experience to give you a glimpse of what it is like to benefit from universal health care. The main thing is that not once did I ever have to think about money or insurance when visiting the doctor or having tests in the hospital. I walked into both places and presented my government issued health card. That's it. That's all.

- no one inquires about my insurance carrier and what my insurance policy will cover

- no one verifies my ability to pay if I have no insurance

- no one asks if I think I can afford an expensive test

- no one has to deny themselves adequate health care because they cannot afford it

Yes, with the aging baby-boomer generation hospitals here are overcrowded. And yet, the biggest wait I had, was when I first arrived. I waited three hours after triage, to see the doctor. When everything is covered, I am never going to complain about a three hour wait. Of course, if I had been in need of immediate attention, I would have been triaged higher on the list and received the attention I needed.

After seeing the doctor, I was assigned a bed in an observation ward and from there I had orderlies buzzing me around to all the different departments in the hospital for various tests. My husband had to leave for a while to attend to business and I asked how he would ever find me when he returned - being moved to so many different departments. I was informed that he just has to ask at the desk because all the movements throughout the hospital of each patient are tracked by computer.

I could not have anything to eat until the tests were completed. Five minutes after arriving back in the observation ward after the tests, a small lunch arrived designed for an irritated nauseous stomach. I could not believe the timing. I was informed that using the computer to track the location and immediate needs of the patient accounts for the good attention.

Once while having chills, an orderly walking by asked if I would like a blanket and came back in seconds not only with a blanket, but one that must have come out of a warming drawer. It was so warm and comforting. It felt like I was in a luxury hotel - well, sort of ...

I never had to wait on my gurney for more than ten minutes when wheeled to the various departments for tests. Both periods of more lengthy waiting that I experienced, were waiting for the doctor. Other than that, I couldn't believe how well organized everything was. Perhaps other people have horror stories about their hospital experiences. Both this time and when I had a little operation for my broken arm last October, I was amazed by the efficiency, speed, attention to detail and kindness with which I was treated. Not once did I ever have to think about cost - it does not even enter one's mind and eliminates much unneeded stress. Yes, we do pay for this care in our taxes - and, to my mind, it is worth every extra penny.

I hope one day those in your country opposed to free, universal health care for all will soften their hearts, and begin to think first of the citizens rather than the corporations for which so many of them lobby. I feel so sad when I hear politicians try to convince many of the very people who so desperately need government with a social conscience, that they should vote for no government involvement in their lives, no increase in taxes and always insist on lower government spending. (These ideals seem to apply to the population and not to wars - which, of course, boost the economy.)

A moral and social conscience requires that we care about the well-being of our neighbors and that we be willing to extend ourselves on their behalf. I'm so glad to live in a country with such universal, social sensibilities.

...a little magic...

2011-06-28T07:54:00.002-04:00

"Contained in this short Life

Are magical extents..."

~Emily Dickinson

(The above image was digitally created with three copyright-free images from the Web.)

~~~~~~~

If you use textures in your digital photo editing,

check out Your Sunday Best, a photo challenge

hosted by my friend, the talented Nancy at A Rural Journal.

I have it on good authority that she is hosting a giveaway of

a great collection of thirty-six textures!

...sometimes I need to remind myself...

2011-06-25T18:33:00.006-04:00

"Of all the liars in the world, sometimes the worst are your own fears."

~Rudyard Kipling

(Do you see the word "liar" in the image?)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

If you use textures in your digital photo editing,

check out Your Sunday Best, a photo challenge

hosted by my friend, the talented Nancy at A Rural Journal.

I have it on good authority that she is hosting a giveaway of

a great collection of thirty-six textures!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

... waterworks ...

2011-06-22T10:32:00.000-04:00

Three photos and a painting of mine that are digitally processed adding textures and photographs of water.

Hope you are enjoying sweet summer days with your loved ones.

Artists do not emerge from a formless world

but from their struggles against the forms imposed by others.

~Andre Malraux

I want to describe myself

As a painting that I saw

A few feet off, and close up,

As a word I finally understood,

As a pitcher I use every day.

As the face of my mother,

As a ship that took me safely

Through the wildest storm of all.

~Rainer Maria Rilke

a profusion of peonies

2011-06-18T11:38:00.008-04:00

Right now this is the most fragrant part of our property. As you approach this flower bed you are hit by a wall of fragrance wafting from the white and pink peonies. They are so lush and heavy it is impossible for them to remain upright, inspite of our efforts to support them.

I have a couple of shots of this area of our garden (poor shots - because it was very hot and as my forehead perspired my glasses fogged up and I was too lazy to find kleenex to wipe my brow and glasses so I could make the required adjustments - blah, blah, blah - but you get the idea of the setting from which I gather my peonies) and then a few creative manipulations where I apply some of my home-made textures to these gorgeous specimens. Talk about gilding the lily!

Below are some of my 'artistic' edits of these peonies. Since I have noticed that people sometimes like to identify their favorites, I will number them to make it easier for you. :) You can click on the images for a larger view.

1. Sharpened and a Filter adjustment - no texture.

2. Some adjustment for light and the addition of a texture with French script describing a love affair.

3. A different texture and adjustments to give a bit of a painterly feel.

4. Cut peonies lying in my studio. A texture (presently offered as a free download HERE) blended in Screen mode in PS.

5. Now here I am really gilding the peony! This is a texture of mine made with a copyright-free image from The Graphics Fairy.

6. The addition of a dark, rich texture (par moi) where I chose to leave quite a bit of it on the flowers.

7. A different texture of mine with French script. (You can download this one for free on my other blog.)

8. Here are 'spent' peonies. I have discovered that faded, old flowers make fabulous subjects for photo art. This is a dark texture, but blending alters away much of the darkness, leaving only textured interest.

9. Another of my textures made with my own photographs and material downloaded for free from The Graphics Fairy.

Happy Father's Day

to all the dear Dads out there!

...burning...

2011-06-16T09:38:00.003-04:00

"Joy is the inevitable result of a heart burning with love."

~Mother Theresa

"Vomiting is the inevitable result of a body burning with sun stroke."

~bmz

After a couple of hours of foolish sun worship on Tuesday, I was felled that night by the retching that comes from a touch of sun stroke.

My face is burned from getting too close to the sun during the day, and veins have burst all around my eyes from relentless heavings in the night. I am a scary, swollen, glowing vision to behold. Don't worry - no pictures will be posted to frighten or disgust you!

It is disconcerting to enter a room to see people politely trying to stifle curiousity and/or laughter at the sight of me. When I pass a mirror - I have to join them! Feeling almost as bad as I look, I am trying to atone for such wanton abuse of my body by giving it lots of liquids and lots of rest.

Any time in front of the computer screen seems to bring on more nausea and dizziness, so I will sign off and re-enter the blogging conversation soon.

Hope every one of you is well and looking forward to a lovely summer weekend.

***If you love textures, a new one is posted for free download on my other blog

Pixel Dust Photo Art.

Do hop over there and pick up Your Friday Freebie!

...obligation...

2011-06-14T09:33:00.000-04:00

"Obligation is the weight of your own unacknowledged desire to please."

~ Ken Wilber

...but...what then?

2011-06-10T11:05:00.002-04:00

"The acceptance of oneself is the essence of the moral problem and the epitome of a whole outlook on life. That I feed the hungry, that I forgive an insult, that I love my enemy in the name of Christ, all these are undoubtedly great virtues. What I do unto the least of my brethren, I do to Christ.

But what if I should discover that the least among them all, the poorest of all the beggars, the most impudent of all offenders, the very enemy himself are all within me and that I am the one most in need of the alms of my own kindness, that I am the enemy who must be loved -- what then?"

~ Carl Jung

(You can left click on the images to get an enlarged view.)

... sparkle and shimmer ...

2011-06-08T20:45:00.007-04:00

(left click on image to enlarge)

The two larger images above were digitally crafted from

this photograph of glass stones.

If you use textures in your photo-editing, I am giving away two new ones HERE.

...images and Emerson...

2011-06-07T09:37:00.002-04:00

"The universe is the externalization of the soul."

~Ralph Waldo Emerson

"Time and space are but...colors which the eye makes, but the soul is light."

~Ralph Waldo Emerson

... letting be before letting go ...

2011-06-06T09:55:00.003-04:00

~ Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche

~ Matthew Fox
American Priest and Theologian

This is gov't BY and FOR the people?

2011-06-03T20:20:00.002-04:00

I don't usually post about anything political, but my DH showed me an article he read in the June 5, 2011 edition of "Bloomberg Businessweek" written by Drake Bennett that just boggles my little mind.

I will quote some excerpts of the most salient portions of the two-page article to see if you are as astounded by this as I:

"A 'campaign promise' is not exactly an oxymoron, but of all the pledges a person can make -- wedding vow, blood oath, playground pinkie swear -- it's the least dependable...Recent American politics has had one remarkable exception to the rule: the Taxpayer Protection Pledge. Administered by the Washington-based Americans for Tax Reform and created by the organization's found, Grover Norquist, the pledge binds its takers to oppose 'any and all efforts' to increase marginal income tax rates and to protect tax deductions and credits. Two hundred thirty-three of the 240 House Republicans have signed it, as have 40 of the 47 Republican senators. Two House Democrats and one Senate Democrat...are signatories... All of which would be meaningless without the omerta-like fidelity with which pledge takers stick to their vows once in office...

"As the federal government brushes against the debt ceiling, putting at risk everything from the nation's ability to provide prescription drugs for its seniors to a robust national defense, politicians on all sides agree that failure to reach a compromise could be catastrophic. Yet congressional Republicans have remained nearly monolithic in opposing tax increases as part of the solution ... It's a triumph for Norquist's pledge and the world view it represents ...

"Grover Norquist has no real precedent in American politics. A single unelected actor with a single issue, he holds immense power over the Republican Party's fiscal platform, and, through it, the national policy debate. 'I don't know of anyone outside of government who has had this kind of influence on politics before,' writes Columbia University historian Alan Brinkley ... 'He's sui generis, I think, not a politician, not visible very often in the media, but remarkably powerful'...

"Over the years, Norquist has taken it upon himself to punish pledge breakers by organizing and fundraising for their opponents in Republican primaries. When reelection isn't looming, he hectors them...."

(bolding added)

Grover Norquist (on the right) whispering in the ear of Senator Orin Hatch, in above image.

Norquist has not been elected to any governmental position and yet he wields enough influence to make a majority of Republican congressmen, congresswomen and senators sign and keep his 'pledge' to not cast any votes to raise taxes (which according to Obama's promises would be taxes only upon the wealthiest Americans). It matters not where the debates go between branches of government, or what is said by either party on the floor of the House, a majority of members have already pledged to the unappointed, unelected Norquist how they will vote.

I'm still shaking my head in disbelief.

... embrace a poem this weekend ...

2011-06-03T11:12:00.002-04:00

In poetry is a solution to everything.

~Pier Paolo Pasolini

How does the ordinary person come to the transcendent?

Study poetry.

~Joseph Campbell

No place, not even a wild place, is a place until
it has had that human attention

that at its highest reach

we call poetry.

~Wallace Stegner

P.S. If you are interested in a new free "fabulous" texture for your digital photography projects check out my other blog, Pixel Dust Photo Art.

A Comment Solution Worth Giving A Try

2011-06-02T11:07:00.004-04:00

I know I have been whining about Blogger's ongoing "Comment" problems. But please bear with me for one more post - one that may have a solution to the problem. I just stumbled upon what appears to be a solution. If you have been struggling commenting or noticing that you are not getting as many comments as usual, you may want to use and share this solution.
(If the steps below don't help, you can follow the suggestion Lorenzo of The Alchemist's Pillow gave me in a private e-mail: "When blogger asks you to "Select Profile" before you can publish a comment, select "Anonymous" and your comment will publish." You just have to remember to sign your name if that is not your habit!)

Lori at Family Trees May Contain Nuts put up the post today about how to solve the commenting problem. She learned about it from the blog Living In France who learned about it from .... Well, I can't give credit and link ad infinitum - the main thing is to solve the problem.

I followed the simple directions found at Living In France's current post (link above) where, after news about her son's eighth birthday, she shares the steps that will allow you to comment again. Hallelujah!

Here are the steps from "Living In France" as I took them:

* Tools>Internet Options>Delete temporary files, cookies etc.

* Go to your Blogger Home Page to sign in BUT before you sign/log in click the F5 key on your keyboard. THEN sign in, BUT do not click the "Stay Signed In"/"Remember Me" box.

***** After deleting the cookies, and clicking F5..... in order to "sign in", I first had to "sign out", then I signed in and had to unclick the "Stay signed in" box.*****

It seems to be working - so far so good. Let me know with a comment if it works for you! Good luck.

Isn't it wonderful how we help each other out in this blogging community?!! Thanks everyone! :)

... vertigo ...

2011-06-01T11:20:00.008-04:00

(Created par moi from copyright-free images on Web)

"Anyone whose goal is 'something higher' must expect someday to suffer vertigo. What is vertigo? Fear of falling? No, Vertigo is something other than fear of falling. It is the voice of the emptiness below us which tempts and lures us, it is the desire to fall, against which, terrified, we defend ourselves."

— Milan Kundera (The Unbearable Lightness of Being)

"The Greek word for "return" is nostos. Algos means "suffering." So nostalgia is the suffering caused by an unappeased yearning to return."

— Milan Kundera (Ignorance)

"And therein lies the whole of man's plight. Human time does not turn in a circle; it runs ahead in a straight line. That is why man cannot be happy: happiness is the longing for repetition."

— Milan Kundera (The Unbearable Lightness of Being)

"...for there is nothing heavier than compassion. Not even one's own pain weighs so heavy as the pain one feels with someone, for someone, a pain intensified by the imagination and prolonged by a hundred echoes."

— Milan Kundera (The Unbearable Lightness of Being)

... a freebie just because ...

2011-05-30T07:29:00.001-04:00

I've unwillingly been absent from the comment section in many of your blogs. Apparently Blogger is aware of the problem and is working on it. What I find strange is that my comments get published on some blogs (approx. 5%). Whereas when a blog asks me to "select a profile", I can jump through all the hoops and still my comment will not publish.

There have been so many lovely, interesting, thought-provoking posts where I wish I could leave some feedback!

Since my efforts to acknowledge your efforts have been stymied at every turn, I thought I would let you know I'm thinking of you with a little gift. If the following image with a few words-to-live-by interests you, you can download it for free for your personal use only, as I retain copyright. Please do not sell it or present it as your own work. Also, it would be nice if downloaders were also followers.

There are two different versions with the same 'text' (just different fonts and arrangements) so that you can download the one that tickles your fancy or suits your decor if you want to print and hang it. You are welcome to download them both! These images were created with one of my photographs, one of my textures made from a photograph, and a word-cloud made at http://www.wordle.net/create.

Don't worry if you cannot leave a comment because of these Blogger commenting issues. I understand!! Just download the image and enjoy!

Free Download

***If you like using textures in your digital editing check out my other blog Pixel Dust Photo Art for a new fine art texture called "Goldust Wonder". You can download it for free by clicking HERE.

... seeing through every question ...

2011-05-28T10:10:00.000-04:00

This is the face of a Buddha in my home, digitally edited with a 'kaleidoscoped' image of another Buddha.

"The silence of the extraordinary faces, the great smiles, huge and yet subtle, filled with every possibility, questioning nothing, rejecting nothing ... The great smiles ... of a peace that has seen through every question without trying to discredit anyone or anything, without refutation ..."

~ Thomas Merton

(Articulated by Merton after seeing the statues of Buddha
carved in a marble cliff at Polonnaruwa Monastery, Sri Lanka)

Abstract Digital Images

2011-05-27T10:29:00.005-04:00

“There is no abstract art. You must always start with something.

Afterward you can remove all traces of reality.”

Pablo Picasso (1881-1973)

These abstract digital images began with primitive strokes and primary shapes of squares, rectangles and triangles. For a tutorial on how I "removed all traces of reality" to create this type of abstract image in Photoshop, visit my other blog, Pixel Dust Photo Art. It is SO easy! Believe me. It begins with the most rudimentary strokes with your mouse and is completed with a few tools in the editing program. (The third image above had one of my textures added to it.)

for easy installation, just click (tap) here

2011-05-26T12:21:00.007-04:00

The following 'conversation' between a computer technician and a client seems to be circulating on the Web. I received it recently from a few different sources - twice with smiley faces. (There are a few different versions out there.) It seems, according to my Google research, to have originated with http://www.weboflove.org/, however, as with any of these things, I am not exactly sure of the source. Whoever created it, it is amusing and instructive. See what you think:

Install Love on the HUMAN Computer

Customer: I really need some help. After much consideration, I've decided to install LOVE. Can you guide me through the process?

Tech Support: Yes, I can help you. Are you ready to proceed?

Customer: Well, I'm not very technical, but I think I'm ready to install it now. What do I do?

Tech Support: The first step is to open your HEART. Have you located your HEART?

Customer: Yes, I have, but there are several other programs running right now. Is it okay to install while they are running?

Tech Support: What programs are running?

Customer: Let's see... I have PAST-HURT.EXE, LOW-ESTEEM.EXE, GRUDGE.EXE, and RESENTMENT.EXE running now.

Tech Support: No problem. LOVE will gradually erase PAST-HURT.EXE from your current operating system. It may remain in your permanent memory, but it will no longer disrupt other programs. LOVE will eventually overwrite LOW-ESTEEM.EXE with a module of its own called HIGH-ESTEEM.EXE. However, you have to completely turn off GRUDGE.EXE and RESENTMENT.EXE. Those programs prevent LOVE from being properly installed. Can you turn those off?

Customer: I don't know how to turn them off. Can you tell me how?

Tech Support: My pleasure. Go to your Start menu and invoke FORGIVENESS.EXE. Do this as many times as necessary until it's erased the programs you don't want.

Customer: Okay, now LOVE has started installing itself automatically. Is that normal?

Tech Support: Yes. You should receive a message that says it will stay installed for the life of your HEART. Do you see that message?

Customer: Yes, I do. Is it completely installed?

Tech Support: Yes, but remember that you have only the base program. You need to begin connecting to other HEARTs in order to get the upgrades.

Customer: Oops. I have an error message already. What should I do?

Tech Support: What does the message say?

Customer: It says, "ERROR 412-PROGRAM NOT RUN ON INTERNAL COMPONENTS." What does that mean?

Tech Support: Don't worry, that's a common problem. It means that the LOVE program is set up to run on external HEARTs but has not yet been run on your HEART. It is one of those complicated programming things, but in non-technical terms it means you have to "LOVE" your own machine before it can "LOVE" others.

Customer: So what should I do?

Tech Support: Can you pull down the directory called "SELF-ACCEPTANCE"?

Customer: Yes, I have it.

Tech Support: Excellent. You're getting good at this. Now, click on the following files and then copy them to the "MYHEART" directory: FORGIVE-SELF.DOC, REALIZE-WORTH.TXT, and ACKNOWLEDGE-LIMITATIONS.DOC. The system will overwrite any conflicting files and begin patching any faulty programming. Also, you need to delete SELF-CRITICISM.EXE from all directories, and then empty your recycle bin afterwards to make sure it is completely gone and never comes back.

Customer: Got it. Hey! My HEART is filling up with new files. SMILE.MP3 is playing on my monitor right now and it shows that PEACE.EXE, and CONTENTMENT.EXE are copying themselves all over my HEART. Is this normal?

Tech Support: Sometimes. For others it takes a while, but eventually everything gets downloaded at the proper time. So, LOVE is installed and running. You should be able to handle it from here. Ah, one more thing.

Customer: Yes?

Tech Support: LOVE is freeware. Be sure to give it and its various modules to everybody you meet. They will in turn share it with other people and they will return some similarly cool modules back to you.

Customer: I will! Thanks for your help!

( www.weboflove.org/inspiringresources)

... life in darkness ...

2011-05-24T19:54:00.004-04:00

"The seed of life in the darkness is stronger than the entire darkness."

~ Marie-Louise Von Franz

(If you would like to get the instructions for how to achieve this effect AND download a new free texture, visit my other blog, Pixel Dust Photo Art by clicking HERE.)

... watching you ...

2011-05-24T14:40:00.006-04:00

Thank you for your thoughts with regard to my "commenting" problems. I did log off and on as suggested, AND took Margaret's advice to click my heels together and twirl around several times ... however the issue continues.

So I will give it a bit of time and see what develops. In the meantime, I am still able to read your many delicious posts and want you to know that I am keeping an eye (or two) out for you ... on my blog scroll. While I may not be commenting, trust that I am reading and enjoying your postings. Retrieved some images out of my archives that will illustrate my point in a silly sort of way. :)

"Every breath you take

Every move you make

Every bond you break

Every step you take

(Ill be watching you)"

But only in the nicest, most non-threatening of ways, of course ... :)

(No, it is not my eye. It's the eye of that person, "Anonymous". I simply borrowed it.)

...googled out...

2011-05-24T10:34:00.000-04:00

Just wondering if anyone else is having problems with Google and Blogger today?

Any time I try to leave a comment I am asked to "Select a Profile" (Google) and then I have to type in my email address and password. When I get back to the comment section I type in the verification word, hit 'publish' and get sent back to "Select a Profile" AGAIN!!

I can't even seem to move from icon to icon in my Google toolbar without having to "Sign In" each time I click to change sites!

AND I just tried to add an image to this post and when I clicked on "Browse" I was asked to "Sign In" again and after waiting forever the upload failed. Yuk! Such a tiresome waste of time and SO frustrating! Is it just me? I'm probably being optimistic imagining I will even be able to publish this post.

... alone ...

2011-05-20T07:18:00.005-04:00

Language has created the word loneliness

to express the pain of being alone

and the word solitude

to express

the glory of being alone.

~ Paul Tillich

(The above image was created using three copyright-free images from the Web

and one of my Pixel Dust Textures. Free textures are waiting for you at my

other blog, Pixel Dust Photo Art.)

where healing happens

2011-05-19T10:17:00.000-04:00

The forest is the place where things begin to turn and grow again ...

If there is a point where life is reduced to nothing,

go completely into nature ...

In the supreme moment of loneliness and sadness

activity begins in the unconscious.

That is when healing happens,

always by nature,

not by doing something special.

~Marie-Louise Von Franz

(To download the texture used to make the above photograph 'pop'

visit my other blog Pixel Dust Photo Art. The texture is free.)

who says it has to be either/or?

2011-05-18T09:04:00.000-04:00

raw, untransformed and full of passion

"I think one of the problems in marriage is that people don't realize what it is. They think it's a long love affair and it isn't. Marriage has nothing to do with being happy. It has to do with being transformed, and when the transformation is realized it is a magnificent experience. But you have to submit. You have to yield. You have to give. You can't just dictate." ~Joseph Campbell

And I ask: Why does it have to be either/or? Passion or transformation? While the passion and intensity of a love affair are hard to sustain year after year in a long marriage, why can the transformative experience of a long term relationship not include the natural ebb and flow of a love affair? While one may move with some resistance toward the idea of transformation as preferable to passion, why can one not yield, give and submit to passion while being transformed? I'll take both/and, rather than one over the other. But then again, I can be greedy. I do love to have my cake and eat it too, or should I say my kiss and transformation too!

I would love to kiss you.

The price of kissing is your life.

Now my loving is running toward my life shouting,

What a bargain, let's buy it.

~ Rumi

'transformed' and still emoting passion

(If you are interested in transforming not only your life but also your photographs, check out the free textures you can download on my other blog Pixel Dust Photo Art by clicking HERE.)

'best kept secret' blogs

2011-05-16T22:06:00.001-04:00

Have you noticed that there are some fabulous blogs out there that seem to be 'the best kept secret'? I've noticed several that are deserving of a greater readership, and it seems a shame that so many of us miss out on their informative, funny, beautiful offerings. So today I am going to mention two blogs that I want to recommend to you, AND I am asking that in your comments you share the name and url if possible of a blog that you think is one of those 'best kept secrets'.

I am not going to go on and on about these two blogs. Rather I will just let you go and discover them for yourself. I'm sure you will be captivated. I am a little wary of doing this, as I have not asked these bloggers for permission to highlight their blog. I considered it, but it just seemed too conspiratorial and I want this to be something we all do as the spirit moves us. However, if either of these bloggers ask me to remove my references to them, I will do so.

The first 'best kept secret' I want to tell you about is:

"Neighbor" is the author of this thinking person's blog. Check out Temporary Reality and see if you feel as stimulated, nourished and inspired by her postings as I do.

~~~~~~~~~

The next 'best kept secret' I want to share here, is:

When I began to prepare this post I had not read the most recent post by this blogger where she reveals herself as "Mila". I love the authenticity and humor that she brings to every post. The timing of this recommendation and her post today are quite serendipitous as she writes a fresh introduction to herself. Do yourself a big favor and check out Here Under the Rainbow.

Now it is YOUR turn. Please share a 'best kept secret' blog that you are aware of - in the comment section of this post. Feel free to leave a quick comment re this post, and come back later with your best kept secret's URL. Can't wait to make some great discoveries!

P.S. There is a new free texture waiting for you to download on my other blog Pixel Dust Photo Art!

hardy, loyal hostas

2011-05-15T17:17:00.003-04:00

I love hostas! There are so many varieties. Their leaves are big, vibrant and lush. They are the perfect plant for a shady, woodland garden (like ours). They push themselves up through the hardest, meanest, driest clay. They do not mind being hacked in two, three or four and being transplanted at any time during the growing season. They withstand dry spells. What a dependable plant. OH! And they also adapt well to having their photographs tinkered with in Photoshop!

(Don't forget to check out my other blog Pixel Dust Photo Art for free textures!)