Happy New Year!!!

Wrap it Up Journals in my Etsy Shop

I recently added some of the Wrap it Up Journals to my Etsy Shop. I created these journals when I wrote my ebook "Wrap it Up:journals with style.  Four of them are depicted here.  There are many inside secrets to these and are a mix of surfaces, all are described in my Etsy Shop.

iPhoneography

This is a subject that is fascinating to me.  Right now I have been playing with Pano apps and these images were taken yesterday with Pano on my iPhone.  I haven't printed any of these yet, but will in the next couple weeks. My iPhone is the new 4s, so it's the 8 mega pixel camera.  We will see how this progresses, but for today here are some shots from the deck on the second level of our house and my studio.

Working Through Monday

Hard to believe I haven't posted in a month.  Been really busy.  One major event was the jurying of the Texas Federation of Fiber Arts Show- Fiberwerkes 2012.  The show will be at the Hill Country Arts Foundation from February 4-25, 2012. A the conference, I will be teaching a digital printing workshop February 24-26 and will be giving the keynote at the conference dinner.  The workshop is full with a waiting list, but there are spaces in some of the one day workshops with other instructors.  If you will be in Ingram Texas at the end of February, you may want to check out what is happening at Fiberwerkes 2012 Conference.

Now as I work on my workshop of the month for KathyAnne Art members for my December news, I have 3 ideas I am considering for the workshops.  This December I will be posting 2 workshops free to members.  One of those will also be free to everyone on my enews list for the month of December whether they are members or not.  This way anyone who want to try one of my mini workshops will get a chance for free.  I will put a coupon code in my news for everyone who is on my email list to download the workshop for free.  Still not sure what it will entail, but my enews will be out in a couple weeks.  Be sure you are on my email list to be able to receive the coupon for the free workshop.

So the rest of my time has been taken up in developing some new work, learning to draw, learning Corel Painter 12 and other fun stuff.  And the biggest thing-working on my keynote.  It is pretty much laid out, but now it is down to research and writing.  Also I promised myself I would take a month off between my workshops do my website stuff and play with art so that's what I am about at the present time.

A couple of ongoing pics.  We'll see what happens with all of this-first the metal prints have to be varnished.

Two Guns

Route 66 ran through Northern Arizona and when Highway 40 was constructed and Route 66 was bypassed by the new freeway, many places along 66 ended up dying.  Two Guns is one of those places.  If you take the exit from 40 for Two Guns now, it only goes to an old camp that was used by people traveling on Route 66.  There is a town area, but can’t be reached by the current road.  Today Two Guns is an historical ghost town. 

Last week my husband and I drove up there to photograph the grafitti on what is left of the campgrounds. I have always been fascinated by graffiti and love to see how tag artists express themselves, but don’t embrace the destruction part of the process.  I had seen photographs of the pool and parts of the grounds, but I was astonished by what I have never seen in photographs of Two Guns.  The main building of the campground has been totally destroyed on the inside by the taggers and not just with the graffiti, but they have literally torn the place apart.  

It’s quietly spooky up there in the middle of no where and includes a zoo that was created with brick buildings that are pretty much just ruins currently.  We didn’t walk far enough to get into the ruins of animal cages, just the entrance. 

In the next few days, some of my pictures will be available on KathyAnne Art.  When the images are up, I will be posting on my Inside KathyAnne Art blog with information on how to access the images.  A complete visual list of images will appear on Inside KathyAnne Art.

Steve Jobs One of my Heroes

Steve Jobs was just one of those amazing creative beings who did amazing things on this planet.  Jobs life works had touched people in ways they may never know.  Recently I was drawn to watch his 2005 commencement speech at Stanford (again) and was reminded of where he came from and where he was still heading.  His advice to the graduating class "Stay Hungry, Stay Foolish." words he had seen in the last issue of The Whole Earth Catalog.  It was wonderful advice, especially the foolish part.

The innovation and technological achievements of Steve Jobs changed our world for ever.  More than that, he made a difference in zillions of lives in zillions of ways that will live on in eternity. What a dynamic, incredible legacy he leaves behind.

The world will miss you Steve Jobs.  My heartfelt condolences to your family and friends.

Crochet with Bottle Caps

Since my post last week I have been working on the piece shown here and another one that also uses ice resin.  You can see my other ice resin piece with digitally printed papers on kathyannewhite.blogspot.com.  Both pieces have one thing in common in that I haven't worked this way before.  For the piece here I am still working out the layers in my mind and will be working other layers above and below as I work the solutions out.  For now I am appreciating some interesting textures and a path of creation that has tons of possibilities for future pieces.

Something Old Something New

After catching up on most of my deadlines - new ones approach.  Working on some ideas with digital prints and ice resin today.  This one entails recycled bottle caps that I filled with the resin and floated waxed linen, digital prints on beverage cans, beads, wire and some pieces of digitally printed printers plates.  At the present moment I am crocheting one of the layer bases with 22 gauge bronze wire (from Art Mechanique).  I have no real idea of where this is going, but I have been thinking about it all week and just need to dive in.  This represents what might be 2 layers of a multi textural piece in the works!

For the something old, I have the completed journal quilts as samples for a workshop I will be teaching at the Fuller Craft Museum September 2012.  Contact me for the date  a description.

Ways to Use Corel Painter

Some of the email I receive asks about the different photo software programs on the market.  Now that I am using Corel Painter, I have been working to get up to speed.  Of course Painter is just that, a Painter Program, but with the Clone tool, their amazing brushes and many other features Corel makes it easy for users to work with their own photographs and turn them into beautiful paintings. You give the computer as little or as much control as you want using the clone source.  If you stay with the software for awhile you will develop your own style within the tools of Corel Painter.

Recently I had some conversations with Karen Sperling who has an amazing command of Corel Painter and combines it with Photoshop. There is a whole slew of information on Karen's website Artistry online.  Karen wrote the first Painter manual, so she has been working with painter for sometime.  She has lots of information on her website and has put together a new package "Painterrific " that she will give a 10% discount on, to my readers.  This means from now until September 30th,  you could get an extra 10% off on Karen' Painterrific.  It is already 10% off on her site, so you all would get an extra discount off the price reduction already listed on her site.  To get this special offer you need to contact Karen by September 30, and you would have to mention that Kathyanne told you about the offer.

If you go to this link - click here - then you scroll down to the end of the page, it tells what Karens Painterrific Debut is all about.  On this page you can also watch some of her videos as samples.  Her ebook, "Painting for Photographers" and several DVD's are included in Painterrific.  On the sidebar at the left top of the page you can look through information on Karen's expertise by going to the various links.

Email Karen Sperling for questions.

Changing Plans

So here's one for you.  What do you do when your pup accompanies you on your wonderings all the time.  You sit down to make a little drawing of a tiny limb growing from the earth.  Since I have been working on my drawing skills, I like to draw something several times and go back to try it again.  Here is an illustration of having to change your plans because your pup decides to run over and eat your subject.
When she is focused, she's hard to distract:)

iPhoneograpy

In researching items to write about in my news, I remembered a link I received in an email.  The link was from the iPhone Diva blog and she is about iPhoneography.  From there I got into other links and discovered a whole lot about using my iPhone for photographing  and a wide selection of apps that will alter photographs in various ways.  With a little research I found another site based on iPhoneography called iphoneography central.  Now I want to warn any of you iPhone people, searching apps is a dangerous thing, for .99 or 1.99 up to 4.99 you can easily buy apps with one click.  In my foray this afternoon I ended up with an assortment of 9 new apps and a list of many more.  Since I travel it thrills me to use my iPhone and iPad to alter photographs in interesting ways without having to use Photoshop and my laptop.

From my iPhone in front of my studio no apps used 

 these 2 are from ProHDR

Auto Painting

I know nothing about these apps yet, but just ran the pic a couple of ways.

Here is a list of the apps that some of these photographers are using.  This is a small list, but thought it would help any of you find some new ideas for photo manipulation on your iPhones.  These apps may be available for other devices or other devices may have similar apps.  I am always looking for a way to experiment and to get images for my alternative surfaces.  I just don't always know what apps I should use and have never done more then grandkids, kids and pets photos or videos on my phone.  Oh and I shot my sunglass picture on the sidebar of the blog with my iPhone at a wedding my husband and I enjoyed this spring.  I just cropped him out:)

Some of these are available for iPads and iPhones you can search them on the web or on your devices in the app category to see exactly what each of these does:

Auto Stitch
Classic Pan
Pano
Auto Painter
Iris Photo Suite
Slow Shutter Cam
PhotoForge 2
Crop'n'Frame
Dynamic Light
PhotoArtista Oil, Haiku and Sketch
Crop'N'Frame
Pic Grunge
Grungetastic
Filterstorm
Hipstamatic
ProHDR
Rays
Perfectly Clear

This is a small list, check them out and see what may work for you.

Now a couple pics updating my last blog post on Journal Quilts that are still in process, but getting closer.

Journal Quilts

On September 15 and 16, 2012 I will be teaching a pair of one day workshops at the Fuller Craft Museum.  (More details will be coming later).   One of the workshops is Journal Quilts and since I have been working on my journal wall here and here in my studio, I have been putting together a couple of journals quilts while I work on other things. It helps me through my pondering time as I develop work.

These pieces are around 16" x 20" and the base is canvas with dyes and/or paints for coloring.  They are of course in the works and I will post some more in a bit as they grow.  I will be expanding my journal wall, but until I do, these are sitting on one of my tables to be accessible when the mood hits.