What is Autrey Art?

Random artworks by Lucy Autrey Wilson

Wednesday, December 23, 2015

I Think I Look A Lot Like My Mother


Based on this portrait of me (top) by 6-yr-old Wilson Taylor, painted this December, as compared to the portrait he did of my mother (bottom) done on Thanksgiving last year.

Tuesday, December 22, 2015

Holiday Snaps





Rather than put up a Christmas tree, I spent the day taking photos of some of my vintage ornaments.
Top to bottom:
1.  My replica Tucker car, given out in 1988, on release of the Lucas/Coppola movie "Tucker: The Man and His Dream."  Great movie, great Joe Jackson soundtrack album.  I shot this holiday vignette on top of my dusty piano.
2.  Antique, chipping off paint, ornaments, I probably bought at a garage sale.  The backdrop is an unfinished painting.
3.  Nearly every year of my career at Lucasfilm, I was gifted unique ornaments at Christmas.  This wooden angel is one of them.  For some reason, he is carrying a watering can.
4.  I've been a major Mad Magazine fan since I could first read and have always loved this Alfred E. Newman ornament.  It wasn't until after I took the photo, I remembered Alfred somehow lost one of his hands a few years ago.  If you look closely, the ornament looks strangely like ex President Reagan.
5.  More antique ornaments against a fabric backdrop.  The piles of fabric I have oozing out of every corner of the house are crying out to be made into something.

Friday, December 18, 2015

Star Wars - I Feel Lucky


Sadly, I'm going to miss my invitational screening tonight to see Star Wars: The Force Awakens due to a bad cold.  But I feel lucky I was around when the original Star Wars movie was released in May, 1977, and even luckier that I got to work on it.  In fact, I feel really lucky to have been born when I was in a period of time in history which experienced an explosion of heightened creativity in cinema, music, and the arts in general.  I'm glad the little movie I typed the script for has continued to impact generation after generation in a good way.  That impact has certainly been more profound than that of any of the scientific papers I typed for an old boss at Scripps Institute of Oceanography, a job I had before joining Lucasfilm in 1974.  I actually wish scientific papers did have some of the same importance as movies and social media personalities do today.  We would be a better nation for it. I admired George Lucas for being able to take serious topics and distill them in a way that made them understandable.  So, watching a George Lucas Star Wars movie meant you weren't just being entertained, you were actually learning something, even if you were unaware of it.  That made working in the Star Wars universe constantly interesting for me over the course of my 35 1/2 year career at Lucasfilm.  Knowing that I was doing something that wasn't just entertainment, or money making, but was actually educational was a plus.  I'm not too sad I'm missing the new movie, since I can't help but feel how really lucky I was to have been there at the beginning!

Monday, December 7, 2015

Funky Shoe Font Put to Good Use!


Recently, Zsuzsi Mcdonald, an elementary teacher in Livonia, Michigan who works at a Leader in Me school with students who do community service projects, contacted me to see if her students could use my Funky Shoe Font (posted on my blog last year http://autreyart.blogspot.com/2014/12/new-funky-shoes-font-alphabets.html#links)  for one of their projects.  Of course, I said yes.  I love it when my art is used for educational purposes. 

Here are the details of Zsuzsi's request:  "A group of 30 students collected gently used shoes during the months of October and November. The shoes were sent to Funds2Orgs, they ship the shoes to developing countries, where they repair and sell the shoes.  Monies from Funds2Orgs are donated to the local Kiwanis of Livonia, who will donate 50% of what they raise to Child Life Services at four Michigan children’s hospitals and 50% to the Eliminate Project, a joint project between Kiwanis International and UNICEF to eliminate maternal and neonatal tetanus worldwide."

Once I sent my font to her, Zsuzsi sent me the above photo showing a picture of the students with one load of shoes ready to go.  She said their leaders will be using my font for their title for their Youth Making A Difference board.  I'm thrilled!

Sunday, December 6, 2015

Fireplace Selfie

Added Photoshop CC to my laptop, so now I can play with it nearly everywhere.  This might not be a good thing if I want to get anything else done.

Thursday, November 26, 2015

So Many Photo Options. Which Would You Choose?



Photography used to be a lot simpler.  You had to worry about what ASA film to buy, whether B&W or color, slide or print, and a few other things when shooting the picture.  Usually a lab took it from there.  Now there are an explosion of options from what you select on your DSL camera, when taking the picture, to a thousand things you can do in post production.  Above is one picture as shot (top), slightly manipulated in Lightroom (middle photo) and more manipulated in Photoshop (bottom).   But which one is best?