Leopard Moth | Frenzied

This work started as an experiment is texture and was created from the leopard moth image included below. The texture experiment was an attempt to create something that was unique that could be applied, when appropriate, to some of my works in order to give them a bit of a twist from other digital work out there. You will see in the detail below what I am referring to. This texture is criss-crossed and intertwined and provides interest even close up. I would love to hear what you think of it, so never hesitate to critique. I know that art is subjective, so I won’t take offense, but I am curious how it resonates with people as the texture is unusual.

Leopard Moth | Frenzied

Leopard Moth | Frenzied Detail

Leopard Moth | Original Photo

Hybrid - Ulia Series

Ulia was created from about four or five different photos of people and two photos of floral wallpaper. The images were Frankensteined together to create a new “hybrid” creature, neither male, nor female, but with parts of both. Ulia is sassy and has attitude and you don’t want to mess with her, but she is a softie inside, you can’t judge a book by it’s cover now, can you? I’ve also included details of each to show that the textures are fairly complex close up.

Ulia | Indigo

Ulia | Indigo Detail

Hybrid | Ulia Bronzed

Hybrid | Ulia Bronzed Detail

Hybrid | Ulia Charming Leaves

Hybrid | Ulia Charming Leaves Detail

Hybrid | Ulia Royalty

Hybrid | Ulia Royalty Detail

Ulia | Headdress

Ulia | Headdress Detail

Ulia | Golden Goddess

Ulia | Golden Goddess Detail

Ulia | Swamp Witch

Ulia | Swamp Witch Detail

Mini Banana Leaf | Timewarp

This piece was created from a photo of a miniature banana leaf that had been burned by frost and had fallen on the concrete. I manipulated layers of this same image, shifted colors and applied filters to arrive at the final work below. My intent was to create something unique in form, texture and color and bring new life to an organic form whose season had passed.

Banana Leaf | Frankenstein

This is one of many variations that I created from a photo of a stand of bananas in our back garden at Tanglewild. The curves and textures were really pretty cool and I had to use this as the base of a series of works that you can see under my Variations tab. This particular piece seemed the most tropical despite the original photo being very withered and brown. I tried to give it life again and this is the result of my Frankenstein attempt.

Fountain Grass Plume | Shimmer & Shine

This piece was created from a photo of a plume of fountain grass in our moon garden. The delicate texture of the plume is what drew me in and I had to use it for the base of a work or two, or three. I do get carried away sometimes for sure. In any case, I thought that the shadows and delicate lines were really beautiful and they seemed to lend themselves to some unique and interesting pareidolia too.

Grasshopper Pegasus | Worn Blues

This is another piece using the three images used in my last post: a grasshopper, the Mobil Gas Pegasus and banana leaves. The resulting image is so completely different in color, tone, texture, etc. I am having fun experimenting with various layered works previously created to give birth to something even more usual and unique.

Grasshopper Pegasus | Lotus System

This work is a combination of several images that I’ve used in previous works. A photo of a grasshopper, the Mobil Gas Pegasus as well as banana leaves. I was experimenting with blending images further and this was the result. The resulting image reminded me of solar systems, lotus blossoms and much more, but I decided to use Lotus System as the final title.

Mini Banana Leaf | 1980s Intensity

I was in a bit of a dark mood today after the loss of a friend, so it likely impacted this piece. It started as a photo of a banana leaf taken during the golden hour. I kept layering and filtering and layering and filtering and none of the results seemed to work for me. I finally started all over, used the same image and things looked quite different coming out of the second go-round. Even though this piece stems from darkness, it has a glow of hope that is integral to its nature. I guess there needs to be darkness or we wouldn’t know what light was, so I decided to push these darker results a little further and before I knew it, I’d saved a dozen or so different variations. This one below seemed to speak to me though. It seemed angelic in a way and reminded me of the 1980s… laser shows, blacklight posters, dance clubs with pulsing music. Those nights in the 80s were intense and amazing and even in my time of sorrow, some lighthearted memories came out of the darkness.

Waterbug | Reverent Species

While I was walking around the garden yesterday morning, I came across this waterbug on the stucco wall that was just frozen there. Usually they scatter as soon as you get near them, but this one seemed as though it wanted to be noticed, wanted me to take a photo of it. So of course I had to oblige and I swear the dang thing was posing like a model… one leg slightly bent, then the other, back end down, moved it’s antennae different ways, etc. So I took a number of photos and the work below stems from the experiments that I did with that image.

Butterfly Ginger | Ruby Lips

This was one of the last flowers blooming this year in our moon garden. All of the flowers in the moon garden are primarily white or cream to be enjoyed by the glow of moonlight. This particular ginger, however, occasionally sports a reddish tint in the center of the petals and I really pushed the red color in this piece. I used multiple filters for this work, including a pass through Dreamscope to give it a more painterly feel.

Formosa Lily & Web | Intricate Findings

This particular piece is actually a merger between two different works that never seemed quite finished. Combined they give off a whole different feeling and a complexity that seemed to work well, especially in this color scheme. One of the original images is of a garden spider egg sac that was suspended it the web and the other image was of dried formosa lily seed pods with the seeds falling out onto the marble surface where I was collecting seeds for next year. This work lent itself to a lot of pareidolia as well, so it seemed ready to share.

Butterfly Ginger | Peony Mimic

This work was created when I continued to repeat a group of ginger blooms over and over again. The resulting image looks more like a peony blossom than a ginger blossom. I worked on a series created from this same group of blossoms and will be adding that to my variations page if you’d like to see more of these works. The series itself is very colorful compared to this piece as layering them further and with the addition of filters created more bright colors. For my blog post, however, I decided to choose this more peaceful image as I think that is what the world needs right now.

Grasshopper Pegasus Skulls | Papillon Skulls

This piece is a bit of a departure from my typical work, but it is representative of some of my more gothic roots and where my mind happens to be wandering right now. I’ve lost some close friends this year, I’ve gone through my own year of health “stuff” that reminds me that life is short and this life is finite, and I’m also frustrated with where this world is right now with so many countries veering to the right and the fact that if we continue of this trajectory, armageddon is not far behind. That said, there is always a factor of rebirth, of moving forward onto the next adventure, of transformation and that is what I am exploring with this piece.

Fungus on Door | Angel Magic

We had these cool swinging saloon-style doors going into our pool courtyard and we were led to believe that they were wood, however, they were compressed wood and promptly started to rot after a few seasons. The elaborate “wood” grillwork promptly fell apart and what we were left with was the frame of the doors. After a few weeks of rain, I noticed that along the edges of where the grillwork rotted, there was a series of fungi growing all along the frame, so I decided to take a photo and use it in this piece.

Spider Egg Sac | Dark Forces

Our Garden Spider, Charlotte, has been hanging out in our greenhouse and decided to leave us with a sac full of spider eggs that will ultimately hatch in the Spring. The egg sac is very cool looking and about an inch in diameter and I thought that the way it hung inside the intricate webbing would make for a cool base for some of my digital works. Below is one of them from the series of variations that I’ll be posting later this week on my site.