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Sunday, February 03, 2008

THE JOY OF PLAY: AN INVITATION

I remember the first discussion I heard back in the mid 90's about digital collaboration with other artists. I was involved in a collage group back then and one of the women in the group was just beginning to explore working with her art digitally. I think her husband worked for one of the first local companies that offered computer assistance to other local companies using PC's for the first timein their offices. "So you'd scan your collage and then email it to another artist who could play with it too, but it takes forever to send that email." It sounded wonderfully exciting to me, except who had a computer and would I ever want one?

Well, things have sure changed since then. Fast forward thirteen years where there is really nothing to stop anyone on line to capture whatever they want. Hopefully, most who do or might have good manners and remain respectful with integrity of other artists' intellectual property. Most of you who read my blog on a regular basis already know the good fun I've been having with John Mora who Im feeling good considering an online friend and colleague. I think we compliment each other's styles well. Great Grannie Bobbie suggested a round robin challenge, and so I am offering up these images for others to use as a creative exercise. My only request is that they not be used for financial gain without speaking to either John or myself, lest you be plagued with years and years of bad karma bugging your computer.

John's original image can be viewed here. His image was created from a sampling of Babaloo's which can be viewed here. I took his image into Photoshop, put it on a dark purple background, reduced the opacity, blended it with overlay and oversaturated the colors using hue/saturation using an adjustment layer

stay mora

This mandala emerged, and I thought it was ok enough, but a little too busy with too much detail. When I create my mandalas, the source images and resulting mandalas are high resolution (240 ppi) which I later reduce to 72 ppi for use on the web. The excessive detail is created from reduced pixel content.

emerald isle 1
A year ago another online friend gave me permission to use his photographs of crystals, which I played with but was never satisfied with the results. The image on the left below is an amethyst captured in slow motion (I think the light trail was a flashlight beam). The image on the right is a photo I took of a cactus growing not to far from where I work. I created mandalas from both of these images and layered them, used different blending modes, adjusted with hue/saturation and curves, to create the final image seen below.

amethyst lightoutburst mandala



















emerald isle mandala
Emerald Isle Mandala - (Circles of Fun) - collaborative energies 2/2008

I hope you will consider playing with us and letting us see what you do next. No awards, no fanfare, just good fun. Isn't that what art is really about, anyway?



13 comments:

Babaloo said...

Absolutely beautiful, Sue! Amazing colours.

Bobbie said...

Of course I want to play! Please count me in. What an exciting thought of all the artists adding more beauty to the work. Like you John and Babaloo have done in producing these these mandalas. I love the colors, the design they make, well just every darned thing about them. Beauty within beauty, art turned into more art.

Rima said...

I love the "bizziness" of the design! up close and in a thumbnail. It's very Mayan I think. Love the colours too. Nicely done.

(BTW, sorry I haven't been leaving comments lately - I've been catching up through google reader though!)

dianeclancy said...

Hi Sue,

I love Emerald Isle! Amazing to see the progression! Would some of my bubbles be fun too?

Great post and discussion. When I first read your post in my reader ... the quartz crystal and cactus were reversed .. then on the blog the left/right was as you were discussing ... weird!

Wonderful reading!

~ Diane Clancy
www.DianeClancy.com/blog
www.YourArtMarketing.com

Babaloo said...

I had to come back and look at the mandalas again. You know what, they would make stunning mosaic windows!

Cate Rose said...

Fantastic, Sue! The purple-green image before "mandalizing" looks like it could be a gorgeous quilt, to me. Purple and green are one of my very favorite color combos, so kudos to you, Sue!

John M. Mora said...

Beautiful, Sue. They glow - I once called your work to have a transparent quality but I meant transluscent. Your work has an energy and it is calming at the same time. Right left side of the brain thing, maybe?

Thank you - working with you is fun and I do hope others join the daisy chain.

My best....

Irene said...

What else can I say, but that it is beautiful, as all of your mandalas are. They always have that mystical glow and that inspirational shine. It must be wonderful to create pieces like this and to feel a bit like a creator in the heavenly sense.

John M. Mora said...

It is just lovely. Simply glorious.

My best.

The Artful Eye said...

oh my! what great fun. Sue- I love the first green Mandala and all it's detail. Thanks for the invite.

Ann Christine Dennison said...

Wow, I really love your Emerald Isle Mandala! The colours and detail are wonderful!

The Artful Eye said...

Sue- Here's my contribution to joy of play

http://www.artfuleye.com/2008/02/joy-of-playinvitation-response.html

Artists With Artitude said...

This is great! I announced on my blog :) Hope that's okay!