Mount Zion Lonestar Quarry As Seen From Mt. Diablo

The sky was dull and hazy when Elsa and I hiked to the top of Mt. Diablo, but with the Alien Skin Exposure X plugin to Lightroom that was easily fixed.  By adding an old color movie filter, labelled "Technicolor Process 4, Vibrant," on my photo, you might think I had swallowed some artificial chemical on the hike.  But you would be wrong.  All I had to eat was a fakin bacon sandwich from Good Earth.

Nude Grasshopper Descending a Cactus Leaf

Four long, exhausting days in, I'm finally closing in on converting everything from my old Dell to my new HP Workstation.  My 2003 Dell was still working fine, but with Windows no longer supporting XP, I was forced to upgrade.  There is something about technology that really sucks up money!  Now, however, with new software from Alien Skin and Apophysis, and a faster system,  I thought I'd have some fun!  The inspiration for the top photo composite is Marcel Duchamp's  "Nude Descending a Staircase."  The original photo is below.

Alien Invasion

Another abstract done in Chester Arnold's painting class at Indian Valley College.  If you want to spend some time reading otherworldly theories just Google "alien invasion 2012."

Connecting The Dots

My latest oil painting is another abstract.  My friend Janet Ashford recently gave me some advice on how to take better photographs - which is to focus on any one of 4 intersecting points based on a grid composed of 2 vertical and 2 horizontal lines that break up the image into 9 equal squares.  So, my abstract painting is one of connecting these 4 intersecting points.  Meanwhile, I discovered some new software I want to buy from the creative folks at Alien Skin.  It's called Exposure 3.  But since all I'm doing is playing with art and not making much money at it I'm trying to control myself.  Instead of buying more software, I thought I'd see what my Alien Skin Eye Candy software could do with my new abstract painting and created a marbleized version and a version using lizard skin (both above).  I could play all day!!