This weekend I immersed myself in all things book! My studio is a wreck from the experience, but I have to say it is a thrill-and relief-to have my creative juices flowing!  I also took a lovely hike with my friend Marjorie on Saturday and we "dipsy-doodled" all through the woods at the Sunlight Ski resort. Nature was calling my spirit and it is not an accident that inspiration from natural elements and the creative process go hand it hand for many artists.
Marjandme

At the same time, I was playing around with some pieces for the book. What I am noticing is that many start out the traditional way using traditional mixed-media materials, and some are ending up in Photoshop for a digital tweak or enhancement. I then heard the critic’s voices at headquarters saying…"Is that really art?" Oh…my!  And as if in answer to the very question itself, Stacey Apeitos posted about blogging on the AJ Marketing discussion forum. I went to her cool blog.  and meandered on to this site Happiness-Studio.com  and a "post on real vs. digital doodling."

So here is a sampling of my work for the book this weekend. I can’t show you the entire piece, but here is a snippet. I wanted to show that I think it is actually wonderful that we have all sorts of tools to use now as artist’s. Artist’s like Jerry Uelsmann were the forerunners to Photoshop. With my base training as a photographer, in the early 80’s,  I can tell you that Photoshop makes what we tried to do in the darkroom, a heck of a lot simpler and a lot less toxic! So why not use all the tools we have? By embracing technology, we can have it all and still keep our "hand in it."  What do you think?

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3 Responses

  1. Hmmm – wow, are you saying the left one was done by hand and the right was composed in Photoshop? Pretty neat. I’ll have to tell Felicity from Happiness Studio to come have a look! Hey, art is art (and Felicity would say it is all illusion anyway) so why get hung up on which materials we use. Cool-oh, Sheri!

  2. I agree Stacey…ART IS ART and . We get to create from our souls and the tools we use are all part of the process.
    The early photographers went through these types of debates when painters told them photography was not Everything new is old again.
    I am going to add your blog to the inspiration list today. It is wonderful!

  3. Amen sister. I was a production manager for a magazine back when all the type came out on strips, had to be waxed and lined up and pasted up. I love all the new tools and shortcuts. But I still need to put my hands on real materials.