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I was out the other day looking for butterflies to photograph.  Along the way, I saw this single sunflower.  The sun setting behind it.  The lighting beautiful, yet sad.  The end of the summer is near.

This little digital painting is based on the photo below.

I like the photo, but I thought it might make a good base for some digital play.

I did this all in Photoshop, not going into Painter.  I first painted brighter colors over the flowers and played with various filters.

I then blended the painting into the background.  While I like the look, it’s a bit flat for what I was looking for.

I then punched up the color.

I added more color to the central area.

And added a bit more color to the flower area.

At times I’m asked how I get from idea to a finished work.  This is it.  That is, I start with one idea, in this case a photograph, and I start experimenting.  In the above case, I have other variations.  I then print out some of the versions, dating them and noting the file name.  The prints go into a sketchbook with additional notes. The digital format is put within a folder on my computer, within another folder for designs for that particular month/year.

When I’m looking for ideas for a new project, I tend to flip through my sketchbooks with fresh eyes.  I sometimes add tracing paper and play around with more ideas.  Or, I’ll print out a version larger, add more color, and photograph it to push it farther.  At times some of the file sizes become huge.  I’m working on a design now that was over 4 gigs in size.  When it gets that large, Photoshop or whatever program chokes and gives a message saying it cannot save the file.  Ugh.  Then I need to figure out how I’m going to break it up int a couple files.  Eventually when it comes together, I work out the final size and create a new document with flattened artwork in the size I want to print.  And, that’s how I do it.

I’m thinking about doing some online classes on digital-related stuff.  I’m wondering about if there would be any interest.  It’s one of those things peculating.

I was only able to get a few pictures this evening.  The two I saw flew to an area that I couldn’t climb to.  I was tired anyway and so was happy that this handful was in focus.  I find the black swallowtails particular difficult to photograph as their wings tend to flutter very quickly.

Soon I’m going to be posting some books that will be given away.  Watch for it.

Tonight Rich and I decided to take a little break and head over to Asbury Park for a couple hours.  It’s not a long drive from here, and it’s a wonder we don’t get over more.  I suspect it’s because we went there so much years ago.  Oh the stories I have!

The Stone Pony which was made famous by Bruce, among others.  More stories.

It’s after 10 p.m., but there are still many people on the boardwalk.

The famed Madam Marie.  The original has since retired. My Madam Marie story: in short, when I was a teenager I went to get a reading.  She puzzled over what my occupation would be and then said she didn’t believe it was invented yet.  What?  I told her I was going to be a photographer.  She said, you like it, but no.  No?  She pronounced it wasn’t yet invented.  That was her story and she was sticking to it.  Every time we went down the shore, I remembered and it bugged me.  What the heck could she be talking about. But, funny enough, many years I did get involved with the Web and that certainly wasn’t around when I was a teenager.  Spooky.

The Convention Center and some serious moonlight.  I’ve seen concerts here when pieces of the roof started falling into the audience.  Now it’s all renovated.

Archways … must photograph archways.

Another angle of … archways.

I was so taken by this man sitting in solitude looking off into the horizon.  The photo doesn’t begin to capture how peaceful it was .  It was a good couple hours.

Yesterday I managed to get out for a short while to one of my favorite nearby parks in search of butterflies to photograph.

In only minutes I spotted a swallowtail, and Immediately I photographed it.

After taking just a few photos, it flew off.  I waited around as swallowtails tend to return to the same general area several times before taking off entirely.  But it did not return. As I looked at the butterfly bush, I saw something fuzzy.

When I got closer, I realized it was a frightened looking baby bird!

After taking a couple photos, I left it alone hoping that its mama would find him.  I was glad to see the little guy fly off.  I walked around a bit more, but I couldn’t find any more butterflies to photograph.

Instead I photographed some flowers.

I like the lighting in this one.

This afternoon I went out for an hour to another place in the area that has some large gardens.  I had a bit more luck for a short while.While there were no swallowtails, there were some monarchs.

Yes, I know some of them are same old, same old, but it was fun and I am glad to get a few more photos today than yesterday.  I’ll probably go out again during the week as I’m determined to get more swallowtails in good lighting.

Anyway … I have a some good, new books that I want to talk about in the coming days, and I’m going to have some give-aways. But, more importantly, I need to return to making art.  I’ve been sidetracked with huge clean-outs, dyeing watercolor paper and digitally printing some for journals, and too much playing with my ipad.  While I was beating myself up for not bothering to enter anything into the Schweinfurth show and not having anything ready to enter into Quilt National, I decided to stop stressing over it.  I’ve had some good accomplishments over the years, and I can enjoy knowing that I finally have something in this year’s Visions show.  Plus I’ll be visiting San Jose to see the International Techstyle Art Biennial at the San Jose Museum of Quilts & Textiles and the Zer01  Festival.  Here’s where you can find more info on the ITAB show, where I have a piece being exhibited, and Zer01.  Otherwise, I’m going to finish my tech column for The Prof Quilter and finish an article that I’m writing for The Quilt Life.  Then I’m going to *try to relax and enjoy my “wet” work area where I now have a new sink and my “dry” work area which is now newly cleaned-out and better organized than it ever has been.  Now to finish that column!

Lately it seems I cannot get myself focused on doing any of my work personal artwork. I’m getting the business work done, but not my own work.  I always get crabby and punchy when that happens, and I am currently quite a bit of both.  It seems I can’t even get a blog post up.  The deadline for Quilt National is looming, and it’s becoming very clear that I will not have anything finished to enter.  I’m trying not to beat myself up over it, yet I find myself beating myself up over it.  Dumb, I know.  Focus, focus.  What happened to my focus?

The only personal thing I’ve managed to do in the past 10 days was take some butterfly pictures.  Generally by this time of year I have hundreds that I like.  Not this year.  I’ve just a hand full.  Here is the most recent handful:

This was one of those rare times that while focusing on one butterfly another came fluttering along and for a brief moment landed.  Amazing I actually got this shot in focus before it quickly took off.

Yes, I know, after a while they all start to look the same.  Sometimes I find myself more intrigued with how the backgrounds look.

Over the weekend, Rich saw a little blurb in the newspaper that the “Environmental Education Center at the NJ Audubon Society” was presenting a talk on butterflies. Huh? He kept reading and announced that it was in Plainsboro. We’ve lived in this area for a long time, and neither of us had any idea that place existed.  And, it’s not even 7 miles from where we live!  We didn’t get there until about 4:45, and the talk concluded at 5, so we missed it.  Even so, I was hungry to photograph some butterflies. Initially I saw one that was fluttering about a plant on the path to the Center, and I immediately started taking pictures.

After only snapping off some 6 shots, the butterfly flew away.  We then went into the Center.  Nice place.  A person working there told me they had “zillions” of swallowtails and monarchs in the back area of the Center.  She also explained that the Reserve was made up of over 1,000 acres and had  over five miles of trails. She told us to stay on the trails and not venture through the trees to get to what we learned was one of the largest lakes in the area. Apparently many people were hurt doing so. Rather, she told us the trail that would eventually get there. We also learned about all of the wildflowers, the rare, and even endangered species of plants.  I was eager to get outside to look for butterflies.  The first thing we did was go behind the Center.  We admired some of the wildflowers, but, darn, there were no butterflies to be found.

After a lot of walking, it was becoming apparent that the few butterfly photos I took earlier would be it.

When we eventually got to  the lake, the lighting was very pretty and produced mirror reflections.

It was extremely peaceful.  We sat at a bench on the lakes edge for some time just admiring it and enjoying the peace (and resting from the walk).  We only passed one other person walking with two children during our entire walk.  I suspect we’ll return again, and hopefully the next time we’ll see more of the “zillion” butterflies.

Every year I tend to look for and photograph a lot of butterflies.  I feel a sense of peace while watching them, observing their flight patterns, and ultimately photographing them.  This year I’m behind and only got out recently.  There were only a couple butterflies, but they were perched on a some flowers long enough for me to take several photos.  I’m happy to start getting into the butterfly groove.

I can’t resist playing in Photoshop.  I like this one.

There are a couple small tweaks that I’m making to it, then I plan on
printing the image  both on fabric and paper.  Watch for it.  :)

An update:  I did even more playing in Photoshop with the above design and came up with several variations, including something larger and hopefully more visually interesting.  Stay tuned.  You may see it in the future.

I am so far behind with my blog posts!  My best intentions were to add more images from my trip to the Four Corners, as I’ve some nice images; images from the 4th of July (that’s now long enough over with to nix); add images from a new quilt that I’m now blocking for an exhibit that will be in Botswana; do a short video on a project I hope to have online — that is, some free digital video lessons; and post some butterfly pictures.  Instead, I’m adding a post about the recent surprise party we gave my mom for her 75th birthday.

So, last weekend was mom’s 75th surprise birthday party given by her family.  It was a perfect surprise.  She had absolutely no idea! So, how did I keep the surprise?  By putting the party in plain sight!  The party was Saturday night, but one day over pizza I suggested we have a party for her on Sunday, the 18th, the day of her actual birthday.  At first she seemed disappointed in that I suspect she wanted a surprise party.  Once she warmed to the idea, she took out a piece of paper and started making a list of what we needed to buy!  I had to stop her from buying food for the party, causally saying that my sister and I would take care of it (all while my heart was racing).

She asked if I ordered the cake, and I told her I did.  When she offered to come over to help get her birthday cake on Saturday, I jumped on it.  She actually came with me to pick it up along with other stuff. Little did she know that the party was that day. Rich and I could hardly look at each other for fear that we’d start laughing.

I practically wrote a script for everyone to follow.  When we got home from getting the cake, Rich was to moan he was hungry.  I was to suggest pizza.  He was to moan he didn’t want pizza.  I was to say I wasn’t that hungry.  We were to look at each other, somewhat exasperated.  And, just as I thought, mom took the bait.  She suggested we go to the restaurant in downtown Hightstown where we could split a burger and Rich could get what he wanted.  Bingo.  The party was at that restaurant!  I said, “Okay.  We can go there.”

Everyone knew to park in the back.  As Rich kept mom’s attention, I sent a text to my sister alerting her that we were in the parking lot.   We generally sit outside.  However, Rich knew what to say.  “It’s too hot to sit outside, let’s sit inside.”  Next, when inside we generally sit on the side of the bar so that we can watch the Giants or Yankees.  However, the waitresses were ready.  As we started to walk in that direction, our waitress stopped us.  “We’re cleaning that side, so let me sit you on the other side.”  Everyone was hiding behind a menu.  As we walked over, I somewhat blocked mom.  Then I stepped to her side, the menus dropped, and everyone shouted “Surprise.”

One surprised mama!

Mom’s eyes widened, her mouth dropped open, and nearly fell backwards.  It took her a couple minutes to realize what was going on.  My brother and sister-in-law from California, mom’s last surviving brother and his wife, and two of mom’s nieces and my cousin’s husband were there.  It was great!

Mom and my Uncle Bill, mom's brother.

Mom, her four children, three grandchildren, and four great-grandchildren. Dad was there in spirit.

Mom said to me that all she wanted for her birthday was a picture of her family.  With tripod ready, my sister and I took plenty of photos. Between both of us, mom has a lot of photos from the party at the restaurant and the cake party at mom’s house.  I printed one of the group pictures, framed it, and took it over on Sunday, her actual birthday.

Mom’s present was an iPad.  Unfortunately, all of the Apple stores in this area were out of stock.  Although I pleaded with the Apple rep when ordered it on the 5th, it wasn’t shipped until the 20th (yes, she has it now and is in love with it).  I got her a book which was signed with everyone’s name.  I wrapped it with a puzzle book on top.  After she looked at the puzzle book, she assumed the next book was another puzzle book.  We all watched and waited for her to realize what her present was.  She looked at me.  “A ipod?”  No.  “It doesn’t say ipod.”  She looked at it again, then looked up.  “An iPad?  You got me an iPad?”  Yes!  A great gift, if I do say so myself!!  It was a very happy birthday for mom!

Back to some photos from our early June vacation.  These are from Monument Valley, Utah.

We finally made it!

We stayed at “The View Hotel,” which is the only hotel actually in Monument Valley.

Each room has a balcony that overlooks the Valley, hence the name “The View.”

Immediately Rich was on that balcony!

This is part of the view.

And from another direction.

This is a look down on the front lobby of the hotel.

There’s an excellent gift shop within the hotel.  When I saw the Hopi Kachina dolls in the window, I immediately photographed them in silhouette.

Another view of the Valley from the hotel.

This one is sort of funny in that we asked someone to take our picture.  The point was to get some background in, too!

There were many western movies shot in Monument Valley.  Each evening the hotel played a movie, projecting it onto the outside wall where people gathered outside, under the stars, to watch.  We could see and hear it (just at the right volume) from our balcony.  That evening it was Fort Apache.

The next morning, many people with camera and equipment gathered to take pictures of the sunrise.  I was right there with them!  These are some of my favorites from a couple mornings.

The road snaking through the Valley is what we traveled the next day.

Several of these images I quite like, and I’m hoping to incorporate some into future artwork.

Next up we stopped at Navaho National Monument which is also on route to Monument Valley.  We stopped at the visitor center, walked the trails, and admired the canyons.

Wow, our guide Marie wasn’t kidding when her stories included info about the three-toed Jurassic reptiles!

The walk along the trails was lovely, albeit hot.

This is a sweathouse which serves as an “ancient solution to the problem of keeping clean in a land where water is scarce.”

We climbed in and looked around.  It wasn’t until we left that we saw a sign that had fallen face down saying not to enter.  There was no one around to apologize to, as we certainly meant no disrespect.  It was, however, interesting to see the inside.

We enjoyed the park.  Once we got on the road, the landscape began changing and we were finally heading into Monument Valley territory!

I’m finally starting to go through the several thousand pictures (yes, thousands — I cannot believe I went that snap happy) that I took while on vacation.  I’m hoping that each day I’ll  post some of my favorites.  So, here it goes:

We left NJ

and flew to Phoenix, Arizona.  From there we picked up our rental Jeep and started our drive to Flagstaff.

I expected to continue seeing cactus, and I was surprised when the landscape became more green with various evergreens.  Once in Flagstaff, we stopped for food, drove around a bit on Route 66, then headed to our hotel for sleep.  We woke very early, checked out, and started our drive to Monument Valley. Knowing we could not check into the hotel until 4 p.m., we stopped off at various places along the way.

We stopped at Wupatki National Monument.

Then we continued driving and driving, not seeing a traffic light in sight.

Outside of  Tuba City on Route 160N, we saw a weather battered sign for dinosaur  tracks and couldn’t resist checking it out (fear not, the McDonald’s was in Tuba City rather than at the dinosaur tracks area).

Our guide, Marie, took us around.  She squirted water from a bottle to define the outline of various tracks that she claims were from the Jurassic period.  Initially I was a bit skeptical, but it didn’t take long for her sincerity and pride of the area to shine through.  I found her and her stories extremely endearing.

Some of the fabric that I recently discharged has such a similar coloring to this area.  It’s almost like I created fabric to match a trip I didn’t yet have.

We walked on and on, with Marie telling one story after the next.

Although I was having a great time, we were wandering about for what felt like an hour in very hot weather.  We were told 110 degrees hot.  At one point I politely suggested that we head back to the area from where we came.  We were all set to give her money for the time she spent giving us the tour, but before we did so she very politely said she made jewelry.  I was very happy to buy some pieces from her.  We thanked her for the tour and then drove on.

I haven’t posted because I’ve been away on vacation, visiting the Four Corners area — Arizona, Utah, Colorado, and New Mexico.  I’ve taken an obscene amount of photos, and haven’t been able to (okay, haven’t wanted to) access the Internet other than using my iphone to upload images to friends and family.  In other words, I’ve been totally avoiding work (which I hope doesn’t come back to bite me!).

We’ve a few more days here as we head from New Mexico back to Arizona.  Here are a few images …

Me at Monument Valley at sunset

Monument Valley at Sunrise. I took this from our hotel room balcony.

Driving up the Moki Dugway. I took this from the car window as Rich was driving.

I’ve done a variety of work for The Parkinson Alliance since early 2001.  In fact, it was the catalyst to GloDerWorks being born, although that’s another story.  Back in March I was asked to create the artwork for a fundraising campaign in recognition of April being national Parkinson’s month.  The campaign was held at a small chain of high-end local supermarkets, McCaffrey’s.

This is the poster I came up with, which was created in a couple different sizes, with this size being on the front door of the supermarket.   On the poster are the two circles representing a $1 or $5 donation that shoppers could make to the Alliance.

The smaller posters were at each check out area with stacks of circles.  When someone donated, their name was added to the circle and the circle displayed at the store.  I finally got over to McCaffery’s to see what it looked like, and I was extremely suprised at how cool everything looked and how popular it was.

The circles was hanging all around the store.  At the customer service area, where flowers were sold …

They went around the meat counter …

Around the frozen foods, the front windows, the deli area.

They even hung from the lights in the store.  It was fantastic!  While the successful campaign has now concluded from the store, The Parkinson Alliance always takes donations.  The unique thing about the organization is the 100% of donations from individuals are match by The Tuchman Foundation.  This means that 100% of your donation goes directly to Parkinson’s research. Not many organizations can make this claim.   Additionally, they are the umbrella organization for several other Parkinson’s organizations.   If you’re looking for an incredibly dedicated non-profit to donate to, please check out The Parkinson Alliance.

Next post … back to artwork and quilt-related news.

Last Saturday marked the 16th annual Parkinson’s Unity Walk held in NYC’s Central Park.  Organized by Kingston, NJ’s The Parkinson Alliance, it is the largest single-day grassroots awareness and fund raising event for the Parkinson’s disease community.  It’s been my pleasure to be involved with the Walk since early 2001.

The  program began at the Bandshell.This year’s speakers included Carol Walton, (Executive Director of PUW), Congresswoman Carolyn Maloney (representing NY 14th district), Martin Tuckman (CEO), May May Ali (daughter of famed boxer), and Davis Phinney (a former professional road bicycle racer and Olympic medalist who founded the David Phinney Foundation), and speakers from Solvay Pharmaceuticals, the premier Sponsor.  The event was MC’d once again by the beautiful Michelle Charlesworth (she looks like a beauty queen), TV news reporter and anchorwoman at ABC’s Eyewitness News.  While the program was uplifting, it was also sad in that this past year the Walk’s founder, Margot Zobel, passed away.

Me with Michelle

Carol Walton

The Honorable Carolyn Maloney, Martin Tuchman, and Davis Phinney

Davis leading the crowd

My sister took this picture showing me at work backstage as the speakers gather.

The “Find a Cure Blvd” was filled with a variety of booths with representatives from sponsors, seven major Parkinson’s organizations, a kid’s area, area for team pictures (taken by my business partner, Derry), refreshment, and more.  Many sponsors generously give away a variety of informative literature and goodies such as bags, t-shirts, pens, treats, and one sponsor even gave away yoga mats!

After the program concluded, the gentle 2-mile circular Walk began.  The weather was absolutely perfect, and there were thousands of walkers.

My sister, one of the volunteer photographers, took the picture of me below.

My 8th year as official photographer of the Walk

The evening prior to the Walk, Derry and I also photographed the “kick-off” party held at the Boat House in Central Park.

A gorgeous venue

What a great way to kick off the Walk!

The event is incredibly inspiring.  Important is that 100% of all of the donations raised by walkers and contributors continues to be designated for Parkinson’s research.  For more information, visit the Parkinson’s Unity Walk.