Birthday Memories

I can't believe it's been almost a month and a half since I've posted to my blog. I have definately not had enough time to just sit, relax and write.

Today is my 44th year of life. And just a day after the talented actress Natasha Richardson died in a tragic accident at the age of 45, I am again reminded that no one knows how long a lifetime really is. For her, it was just 45 short years. It makes me want to continue to live each day that I am on this earth to the fullest, in the best possible light and with the most love that I can give.

I'm going to honor my birthday today with a walk down memory lane...a lane scattered with cake, balloons, family and friends, song, travel and in some cases, too much booze! :)

My childhood birthdays were always a celebration of friends and family. Parties at my house or my grandmother's house. There were always great grandparents, aunts and uncles, siblings and lots of little friends around. The cakes were always unique and baked by my mother with love. Presents most of the time were Barbie related...and, I still get those occasionally 40yrs later! :)

5th Birthday party...known as "The Big Dance".

My 7th Birthday party with my friends

My 7th Birthday party at my Grandma's house

My 8th Birthday Party at my Grandma's house

Playing games at my 9th birthday party

16th Birthday Party

18th Birthday

The birthday's in my early twenties consisted of being at a bar or club somewhere. These were always with lots of friends, lots of dancing and way too many shots. Thus, I don't have many memories of those or even pictures! The best birthdays have been those I have spent delving into someone elses culture. The first of these, one of the most memorable and by far the craziest was with my friend Jackie in the South of France for my 29th birthday. We stayed at a Club Med near Grasse. That night was filled with champagne, laughter, dancing and a wierd-ass cake made of who knows what! I never laughed so hard as I have on that trip!

The most romantic birthday was my 34th, spent in Venice, Italy on my honeymoon. Since I was thirteen I had always wanted to partake in the Italian legend: "It is said that if two lovers kiss in a gondola, under the Bridge of Sighs, at sunset when the bells of Le Campanile toll...they will love each other forever." Charlie made it happen..it was everything I imagined and more. So romantic, so sweet and perfect. Afterwards we had dinner at a cozy restaurant overlooking the Grand Canal. A very special birthday that stands alone for the true happiness and joy it brought me.

The next birthday was such a wonderful one, filled with adventure and spent with my lovely mother in Dublin, Ireland. It was my 36th birthday and we had to alter our plans to visit Blarney castle due to a breakout of Hoof and Mouth disease. The Irish countryside was now off limits so we had to make do in Dublin. Now, that's not a bad place to be stuck...expensive, yes but full of fabulous sights, shopping and the greatest restaurants ever! We spent a rainy day shopping before heading to Jacques on Dame street. A cozy French restaurant that had the inside decorated so that you felt like you were at a sidewalk cafe OUTSIDE in Paris. It was quite amazing. The food was amazing but the best part was the complimentary shots of Flaming Sambuca they bestowed upon us as a birthday treat. The smell alone flipped my stomach so for my birthday, I watched my mom do double shots...hilarious! Needless to say, she was giddy all the way back to the hotel.

My 39th birthday was a rockin' girls trip to London. We started the evening with a pub crawl and ending at the Bull and Staff pub in Leicester square where a pub full of gay French football (soccer) fans bought us champagne and led the entire pub in singing Happy Birthday to me! It was quite the sight. Afterwards, we grabbed a bite to eat and I had the biggest Fish and Chips I had ever laid eyes on! We finished up the night by taking a red London bus back to the Oxford...laughing and just enjoying the atmosphere and good times. One of the reasons I love traveling with my friend Loran so much on my birthday is we end up celebrating for three days. The first day is my birthday, the second day we celebrate "Tween Day" (also known as "The one day Laura is older") and on the third day we celebrate Loran's birthday. For our 39th's, we celebrated TWEEN DAY at a pub where we indulged in Chocolate Pudding Pie and then her birthday was drinking champagne at sunrise in the middle of Stonehenge.

Tween Day! Loran's Birthday

My 41st birthday was spent with Loran and Kelly in Tuscany. We were staying in Florence and for my birthday we took the train to Siena. We had a fab lunch which included, this time, the biggest Calzone I had ever laid eyes on. We then climbed the bell tower to the top to take in the the amazing Tuscan views and the "Siena" colored rooftops of Siena. My birthday dinner was at this amazing restaurant in Florence where I had a Medici meal of Roasted Boar in a Chocolate Raisin sauce. This Italy trip we had my birthday in Siena, TWEEN DAY was spent roaming around Rome and Loran's birthday was spent touring the Colosseum, drinking wine next to the Pantheon and being serenaded by a wonderful Italian guitar player! This year, we will be celebrating a bit late but will be in the UK together and I'm sure we'll toast a few glasses to each other!

The view of Siena from the bell tower Tween Day in Rome!

Loran's Birthday dinner in Rome

Finally, my 42nd birthday was indeed the most adventurous. Two months spent in the UK with my mother! On my birthday we were in Somerset, England in the famous village of Glastonbury. It was the Spring Equinox and the TOR had the most magnetic lay lines running through it at any other time of the year. I took advantage of the energy levels by climbing to the top of it and sitting in the TOR for about half an hour, soaking in the views and recharging my body with the healing powers. My mom said I came "bounding" down the tor almost as if I were flying,lol. Afterwards, we had a wonderful afternoon tea spread at the Abbey Tea Room, across from the ruins of the Glastonbury Abbey.

As I fondly recall all the wonderful birthdays I have had, I must thank my mother for choosing to bring me into this world and for all my loyal and dedicated friends who make these birthdays ones I will never forget.

The Betrayal

"The Betrayal"

Across the moorland ye rode far from me,

for a journey of war upon the distant sea.

I kept watch from a castle way upon high,

with each lonely breath a longing sigh.

Parchment delivered to my quivering hand,

love and devotion ye declared your stand.

Whispered words of love caressed my ear

and sang it was only I who ye held dear.

News of the arrival swept though town,

I ran to greet thee in my finest gown.

Without a warning my eyes betrayed

and in that moment heart was slayed.

Biking in the 'Glades

I had so much fun today with my friend Lisa, riding bikes 15 miles through Shark Valley in the Everglades. It was mid-morning so there were tons of gators sunning themselves everywhere including on the road.

The wind was crazy hard and I had a tough time pedaling the last 8 miles on my beach cruiser, while carrying my backpack full of lenses and with a basket full of stuff on the front of the bike. But, I made it and am feeling the burn tonight as I type this.

The wildlife was plentiful...Egrets and Herons, including Great and Little Blue's, Woodstorks and Ibis including the Glossy variety which I wanted to get a shot of but they were too far away.

There were Black Vultures and Turkey Buzzards and one very large Peregrin Falcon that swooped along side of us with such beauty and grace.

Although it was fairly dry, the signs of the forthcoming season of Spring were popping up. Green leaves peering out from otherwise dead branches and blooming Thistles showing off their perfectly rounded flowers in proud glory.

It was a day focused more on riding and conversation than photography but I did manage to come home with a few prized shots. And, I found a new place to retreat to when I am in need of nature.

The Meeting

"The Meeting"

A quick composite I did for my little cousin Reagan who wanted to be turned into a faerie.

I used my "Lotus upon the Water" shot and combined it with stock photos of a cute froggy which I changed the perspective on so he was looking more upward and of a 3-D rendered Hummingbird. Added some wings, glitter and sparkles with a brush and viola...a lovely faerie scene! :)

Here is the before pic:

The 7th Sign

"The 7th Sign"

This is the second art piece in my Zodiac series. The final image was a bit different from my original sketch. Sometimes, when I'm working on an image I find the creative flow floats me in a completely different direction! That's one of the things that I love most about creating digital art. Since Libra is ruled by Venus, I knew I wanted the planet to be in the image. Of course I don't have any photos of planets so I used a stock photo of one. It was originally against a black background so I found a starfield stock image. There were lots of "universe" and "starfield" stock photos but I wanted to make sure I got Blue and Green in there which are two of the colors of Libra. I used the starfield, along with the image of Venus to create a photographic universe. The final texture was music which is also associated with Libra. I combined those three things together to create my background: Once the background was done I worked on the main image which is a portrait of myself wearing a wonky old paint-splattered sheet that I use on the floor when I'm painting. It was the only white sheet I had which reminded me I really need to invest in some fabric for photo shoots! Luckily most of the paint spaltters where beige or white so they didn't show up too much.This shoot was done blindfolded (as you know, Justice is blind), I was so grateful I had Lita to make sure the sheet was draped properly, I was positioned correctly and my hair wasn't all wacked out. I needed to turn the sheet into a gown which I did by using using a Gradient Overlay and then blending the colors together by following the natural folds of the sheet. I did this with the smudge tool at 51% Opacity. This took the most hours and I felt like a nit-picker..getting each fold to reflect the correct shadow and light. The brooch was a brush which I laid onto the image in three separate colors and adding white diamonds, also a brush, to the top of it. The scales were shot in an antique store in Kinsley, Kansas:

The most frustrating part of this piece was the exposure of the scales. Because I shot them at a different location than the image of myself, the lighting did not match. Trying to get them to fit into the image seamlessly was exhausting to say the least. After much trial and error, I finally got the exposure corrected but now the color was another issue. Copper is the metal associated with Libra so I needed them to be copper in color. I did this by using my "Copper Kettles" image strictly for the color. I overlayed the image onto the scales and then used Gaussian Blur to turn it to just a blob of color. I masked out what I didn't need. I did the same thing to add color to my cheeks and lips using my "Summer Fruit" image of watermelon. I learned this technique from a Gale Franey Tutorial. I am constantly in AWE of her work and am so grateful she is one of those artists who loves to share her knowledge. Here is the link to the tutorial: http://galefraney.wordpress.com/2008/02/17/digital-art-tutorial/

For the pedestal I used this image that I took in the Roman Forum during one of my trips to Italy: I cut out just the pedestal using the Pen tool (Thanks to Lita for showing me how easy it was to use!) and scaled it into the image. I matched color to the rest of the image, upped the contrast a bit and added some music texture over it. I then laid in the Lithros Pro text.

The final touches were to add the Zodiac wheel which was done with a photoshop brush, dodging some of the background, my hair and skin and to up the brightness and saturation to make it pop. Everytime I create a new piece I learn something new. On this piece I learned how to use images strictly for their color and how to use the Pen tool. I also learned when a piece is done, for me anyhow. If I stare at it for a long period of time without wanting to fix anything then it's good to go! :)

Hunter's Magic

"Hunter's Magic"

Just a quick posting of a digital art piece I did for my cousin Hunter. I used my new Wacom tablet and Corel X painter, both of which I received from my handsome hubby for Christmas.

This piece only took a few hours. I used a texture and created the crystal ball and his cloak from scratch. I wanted it to look gritty and painterly but still have the main focus be Hunter's eyes which are very intense in this portrait. I haven't sent him a copy yet but I imagine he'll be very please to see himself as a wizard!

Here is the before pic:

Creative process of "Longing for Spring"

"Longing for Spring"

The inspiration for this faerie creation was Lita and her beautiful forest faerie:

I so fell in love with this work of art that Lita created and was more than thrilled that I had a friend who was officially a faerie! I wanted to join her in that magical realm so I set off with a task of turning myself into a faerie. I started with this image (Thanks to Lita for placing my hair just perfectly during the shoot): I wasn't sure yet of the scene I would place myself into so I just started with the basics: cutting the image out from the background and saving it into a new layer to be worked on. Staying nearly buck naked was not going to be an option so I had to create a dress. Using a hard brush in White, I outlined a dress with the bottom being a bit jagged. That's when the image of icicles came into my minds eye and the idea of a Winter faerie longing for Spring was born. Using white and an icy blue color I painted large areas of the dress...white for the highlighted areas and icy blue for where the shadows would be. I used photoshop brushes to create the top lacy part and icicles along the edge of the lace and the bottom. Using various sized brushes of varied strength, I created the texture in the dress.

Once I finished the dress, I turned my hair blue using the hue/saturation tool and created an elvish ear using the smudge too. Wings, a headpiece, anklet, glitter and snow were all done using brushes.

Now that the faerie was done, I needed a scene to place her in and I knew I wanted to do an icy, cold waterfall. Searching my archives I chose this one, taken at Disney's Animal Kingdom:

More challenging than the dress was turning this into a cold, wintery scene. I started with the Noise filter and covering everything with snow but it didn't fit the landscape at all. Scratching that idea, I decided to make it more "icy" than "snowy". I started by cutting out the river and moving it to a layer where I could work on it independent of the rest of the landscape. I wanted it to appear like a layer of ice was over it. This was done using the colorize tool to choose a color and dodging and burning at a different opacity each time. I then worked on colorizing the rest of the landscape which I made darker than the water thus adding to the feel of a frozen river. I "froze" the waterfall using the surface blur tool and then added icicles on top of it with brushes. Final steps where to add snow to the bottom ledge and the bush behind the faerie, both done with brushes. I then added the faerie to the scene, place right over the pair of ducks so I didn't even have to remove them from the image!

The full, final landscaped shot is this one and here you can see the dodging that was used on top of the leaves to make them look icy:

So I have finally inducted myself into faerie land and it's quite a magical place to be! :)