Legal Notice

Legal Notice to all visitors: Google hosts this site and uses certain Blogger and Google cookies, including, but not limited to, Google Analytics and AdSense cookies. By remaining on this site, you are consenting to the use of Google cookies and other data collection by Google.

"Beware that, when fighting monsters, you yourself do not become a monster..." ― Friedrich W. Nietzsche

Definition of Bigot: a person who is intolerantly devoted to his or her own opinions and prejudices; especially : one who regards or treats the members of a group with hatred and intolerance.

"When the whole world is running towards a cliff, he who is running in the opposite direction appears to have lost his mind." ― C. S. Lewis

See Disclaimer of Endorsement at the bottom of this page.

Translate

Monday, May 30, 2011

"Black Duck Cafe" - Postcard

© All Rights Reserved
This week’s Sunday Postcard Art challenge was “Happy Hour.” I made an ad for this popular watering hole on the Saugatuck River in Westport, CT. The building is actually an old sea going barge that was named after the rumrunner ship "Black Duck." I took this picture of it one early morning in September of 2009. All of the words are from their website.

Sunday, May 22, 2011

"Steampunk"


© All Rights Reserved

This week’s Soartful challenge was “Steampunk.” The template was provided by the challenge site. I added a few images and experimented with the background colors and design. I still have a difficult time coming up with a good design for the steampunk theme.

"End of Days" - ATC

© All Rights Reserved
This week’s Theme Thursday challenge was “Numbers.” I wanted to complete this before the "world ending" deadline, which was supposed to happen yesterday at 6pm Eastern Time, but this took me longer than I expected. I haven't yet heard what explanation those who predicted the "End of Days" gave for the Global Earthquake failing to happen. But their hubris influenced the quotes I used.

I created this piece by getting a world map outline, coloring it, and making it into a sphere in GIMP. I then blew it up based on an exploding planet tutorial I found. (Don't ask how long it took me to get the end result you see here. I almost gave up on this twice, and spent too much time on it.)

The quotes are from the Bible. The fonts are Firenze SF Bold and Calligraph421 BT. The world map outline is from outline world map images.

Saturday, May 21, 2011

"This Place About To Blow" - Postcard

© All Rights Reserved
This is my second entry for this week’s Sunday Postcard Art challenge “Dada.” My first entry is here. This time I wanted to create a Dada destruction Art Deco/Cubism poster to commemorate the end of the world, which is happening today at 6pm Eastern Time. If you haven't heard this news, do an internet search and you'll find out there is going to be a Global Earthquake that destroys the world today. I can't wait to hear what they say tomorrow, when the world is still here. ;-)

I created this piece by getting a world map outline, coloring it, and making it into a sphere in GIMP. I then blew it up using a cubism filter from G'MIC. Then I added exploding pieces of the earth using another G'MIC filter.

The quote is from Keysha's song Blow. The font is Broadway BT. The world map outline is from outline world map images.

Monday, May 16, 2011

"Flower Fairy" – 4x4

© All Rights Reserved
This week’s 4x4 Friday challenge was “Flower Fairy.” Most of the images are illustrations by Walter Crane, from an old book that I found on the Internet Archive. The woman is by Mucha.

Saturday, May 14, 2011

"Dada - Surreal" - Postcard

© All Rights Reserved
This week’s Sunday Postcard Art challenge was “Dada” which I had never heard of. The images are from various public domain sources listed in the links on the right hand side of my blog. Some of them have been altered. There are several themes I have problems coming up with an artistic piece for: surreal, steampunk, zetti. While I understand what those themes are supposed to look like, I draw a blank on how to create one myself.

I decided to make something surreal and offensive, but my end result seems more strange than anything else. I enjoyed creating this, though, because it forced me to go outside of my box, which is always a good thing.

"Gravestone Couple" - photograph

© All Rights Reserved
I took this picture in Greenfield Hill Cemetery in Fairfield CT. The gravestones leaning together made me think of a couple.

"Skull and Cross Bones" - photograph

© All Rights Reserved
I took this picture in Greenfield Hill Cemetery in Fairfield CT. This is the first time I've seen a gravestone with cross bones on it. I was thrilled to find it.

"Bleeding Hearts" - Altered Photograph

© All Rights Reserved
This week’s Theme Thursday challenge was “Garden.” I applied some filters to a picture I took of the bleeding hearts in my flower gardens. The original photograph can be seen here.

"Lichen Gravestone" – #9 Ancient– Photograph

© All Rights Reserved
This is my entry for Digital Whisper theme #61 Ancient. I took this picture in Greenfield Hill Cemetery in Fairfield CT.

I have a master list for all of my Digital Whisper 100 theme entries here.

"Graveyard" – #61 Cemetery – Photograph

© All Rights Reserved
This is my entry for Digital Whisper theme #61 Cemetery. I took this picture in Greenfield Hill Cemetery in Fairfield CT.

I have a master list for all of my Digital Whisper 100 theme entries here.

Bleeding Hearts

© All Rights Reserved

© All Rights Reserved

© All Rights Reserved
I took these pictures of my bleeding hearts, which get bigger and more beautiful each year.

Friday, May 13, 2011

Cat in the Window


© All Rights Reserved


© All Rights Reserved
Someone has developed a bad new habit. Last year, my cat was a small kitten during the summer months when the windows were open, and grew toward adult size during the winter, when all of them were closed. Today I opened a few windows to let in the refreshing warm air. When I came into this room, my cat was in the window like this, but I had no idea how he got up there. With a little patience, I finally observed what he was doing. He's climbing/clawing his way up the lower window to perch on the upper part. He has already done this in all of the open windows he had access to.

There are several problems with him learning this new "trick." For a cat, he's not very nimble. I can foresee him falling forward, into the screen, and out of the window to the outside. He is a strictly indoor cat, and wouldn't know what to do if he found himself outside. He isn't declawed (I think that's barbaric to do to a cat), so he has his defenses, but there are coyotes around here. He doesn't have a collar, because I keep him inside all of the time, so if he got lost, anyone finding him wouldn't know who his owner was.

So now I find myself considering my solutions to this problem. I need to guarantee he can't get outside. At a minimum, I might need to get him a collar with a name tag.

"Brumal Chocolates" – Postcard

© All Rights Reserved
This week’s Take A Word challenge #28 was “Chocolate.” I searched for vintage chocolate ads and was inspired by the Frigor ad with the polar bear. I created this chocolate ad for the "Cornelius Limited Edition Series" of my invented name "Brumal Chocolates."

Sunday, May 8, 2011

"Art Nouveau Showers" - Postcard

© All Rights Reserved
This week’s Sunday Postcard Art challenge was “April Showers Bring May Flowers.” Most of the images in this are from the New York Public Library.

Saturday, May 7, 2011

"Fragrance" - ATC

© All Rights Reserved
This week’s Think Monday – Think ATC challenge was “Fragrance.”

"Justice" - Postcard

© All Rights Reserved
I made this postcard due to events this week.

Sunday, May 1, 2011

"Cosmos" – 4x4

© All Rights Reserved
This week’s 4x4 Friday challenge was “Cosmos.” This week’s Soartful challenge was “Maude Fealy.” I used her face in the sun. Most of the images are from old books I found on the Internet Archive. I created the sun using a GIMP script that I wrote.