West Texas

Just returned from a trip to the Davis Mountains near Big Bend where my band played for a 50th high school reunion. The music was fun, but the landscape was harsh. Places have their own beauty - the light here was very different and made photography difficult because there seemed to be no mid-tones. If a landscape can be bi-polar, this was it! Here are some photos from the Davis Mountains near Ft. Davis State Park. The last two show two shops in the town of Ft. Davis. I really liked the shop called Possibilities, and found some interesting essential oils there, as well as a very interesting shop owner.

It's a scan!

I needed some batik print accents for a journal cover I created recently, so I turned to my trusty scanner and laid my 35-year-old Indonesian batik sarong on the flatbed of my scanner.

After the image was scanned, I opened it in Photoshop Elements, my graphic design studio's best friend.

I kept the original version, but also made a version in blue by adjusting the hue settings. I saved them as separate files, but combined them into one sheet to print. I printed them out on a strong but semi-transparent rice paper meant for InkJet printers. The result is amazing- it even has the satin gloss and soft feel of the original fabric. I can't wait to use it on my next project. As they say, the possibilities are endless.

Wow.

The India ink caper

Aargh! My little cat, Pharaoh, was looking out the window in the studio while I was working. When he jumped down, his front paw landed in a bowl of India Ink and he ran across my work table, the dhurrie rug, the tile floor and on and on. I finally caught him and gave him a footbath in the sink, which he did not care for one bit. Unfortunately, since India ink is permanent, I may have a new pattern on the studio rug.
Pharaoh, the art cat -