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I took these photos at the Grounds for Sculpture in central, NJ.

These are the individual blocks that make up my beautiful butterfly quilt. There are several blocks that I cannot identify the maker, and they are SO pretty.  Nancy Billings, Vivien Zepf, Ginny Greaves, Susan Klang, and Nita Markos, please let me know which block is yours. I again thank all of you for this incredible gift!

“A gift of love from our heart to yours.”

In today’s mail I received a large Priority Mail box.  It came from Lyric Kinard, who sent me an email a few days ago confirming my mailing address and that I’d be home to receive a “surprise.”  While I knew a surprise was coming, I had no idea what it was.  Thus, when I saw that box, I felt a wave of excitement.

I opened the box to find a card written by Lyric. It was a “gift of love from our heart to yours.”  She wrote about my earlier cancer diagnosis, relief that all went very well (I was extremely fortunate), and how she and others wanted to offer support in the form of a quilt — “a gift of love from our heart to yours.”  She further wrote, “You are one of those people who quietly goes about making the world a better place with your generosity.  This is just a small token of our love and appreciation for you.” Yes, I had tears in my eyes!  Then I slowly unwrapped the gift, and  there it was — a large quilt filled with butterflies!  I have such a thing for butterflies and immediately thought, wow, how perfect!” At 65″ x 47″, it’s a comfy snuggle-on-the-sofa size!

Although I feel totally undeserving of such a generous gift, I am very, very grateful for it.  The quilt has blocks made by Nancy Billings, Sue Bleiweiss, Traci Bunkers, Lisa Engelbrecht, Jamie Fingal, Ginny Greaves, Mary Kerr, Susan Kiang, Kristin La Flamme, Nita Markos, Barb McKie, Virginia Spiegel, and Vivien Zeph.  The beautiful fabric filled with butterflies and connecting all of the blocks was screen printed by Lyric!  Plus it includes her “Fly” motif, which I always liked in her work and am happy to now have one of my own!

I will thank each of you individually, but wanted to share this beautiful gift and thank you all here, too.  The overall view of the quilt doesn’t do the quilt justice.  I have photos of each block, which I’ll add here soon.

It’s that time of year when I’m out at least every weekend in search for butterflies and other interesting things to photograph. The weather has been very hot, so I only stay out for an hour or two before I stop.  I took this photo in a field of cone flowers in central New Jersey.  In the coming days/weeks I’ll be posting more.

Soon I’ll be offering for sale my Nikon D80 body.  Watch for it, if you’re interested.

This is the original image.

I posted these images on another site about a month ago. Since I haven’t posted in a while, thought I’d share them here.  I took the images in May in central NJ.  For the past couple years, there were plenty of poppies because of the construction of a new hospital. That construction tore up some fields, and the poppies blossomed. Since the construction has been completed and the earth is now settled, not many are coming up.  Even so, I was able to take some shots.  This is how I played with the above image.

First I darkened the edge a bit to keep the focus on the poppy.

I added a frame effect and like this as is. It’s already printed and in my journal.

In this I kept the first frame, added black, and changed the tonality. However, I still like the softness in the above image.

For the remaining images, I played around with what I call step and repeats — that is I play around with sections of the image in Photoshop.

Another version

And another

and another

And another

And another

I do have some of these images printed and in my sketchbook with some notes.  I was also experimenting with some small prints on fabric.  However, I haven’t yet stitched a thing.

Libby began a spiral into severe medical issues on April 30th that included a ruptured aneurysm, a 7 hour surgery to clip the aneurysm, and a stroke that required additional surgery.  Libby is a true superstar in the art quilt world, and she needs our love and support.  While I’ve been following her updates on Caring Bridge, my own medical issues prevented me from posting here sooner.

If you are able, please visit Caring Bridge to read her story and updates, and please consider sending a small monetary donation to help with her medical expenses.  On June 8th, Libby’s sister wrote the following, which I am sharing here:

“Contributions – Angels Needed
Written Jun 8, 2013 4:28pm by Cathy Arnold (Libby’s sister)

As Libby’s recovery plan is beginning to take shape, it has become clear that this will be a long and unpredictable process. Medicare will only pay for a portion of the cost of the rehab. She does not have an auxiliary policy. The burden of paying for the long term rehab and care will fall to Lester and the family.

Thank you to all who have donated to CaringBridge in tribute to Libby.  Although those contributions do not go towards any medical expenses, they have helped to make possible this website communication.

If you would like to make a much needed contribution towards Libby’s rehab and other extensive medical expenses, it would help ensure that Libby is provided with the best medical care possible.

A bank account has been set up at JPMorgan Chase Bank. The name of the account is the “Libby Lehman Medical Fund”. Checks, Money Orders, or Cashier’s Checks should be made out to “Libby Lehman Medical Fund” and mailed to her sister, Cathy Arnold at 2220 Stanmore, Houston, TX 77019. Please include your name and address if it is not on the check. If you wish to use an online secure transfer method from any bank called Chase Quick Pay, please email Cathy’s husband, Bill Arnold at bill.arnold@rice.edu, and he will provide you with proper instructions.

Bill Arnold and Bill Askey, Libby’s brother-in-laws, are the Trustees of the Fund and the only signors on the bank account. To the extent possible by the amount of funds in the account, they will be responsible for issuing checks to pay for any medical bills that are presented by Lester. The Family is very appreciative of all cards, letters, quilt pieces, and contributions received on behalf of our beloved Sister, Libby. She is a real treasure to all of us, and we all want her to be able to recover to the best of her abilities.

Thank you so much.” Cathy Arnold, on behalf of Libby & Lester Lehman

I continue to feel very fortunate by the amount of love that I have received (and continue to receive) during my recent medical crisis, and my hope is that I can help pay that love forward to Libby.

Artist Leo Villareal created “The Bay Lights,” a public art light sculpture across the San Francisco Bay Bridge, which will shine for two years starting March 5, 2013. The artwork is made up of some 25,000 energy-efficient LEDs, mounted on vertical cables 30 feet apart. The LEDs are controlled individually by computer, with the light turning on or off some 60 times a second via a 1.8 mile fiber-optic cable, to create a variety of patterns that flow into one another. He states, “I’m interpreting all the kinetic activity around the bridge: the traffic, the motion of water, the sky — it’s such a rich environment to draw upon.” The artist told a reporter at Mashable that the computers controlling this are a “bunch of $500 Mac minis mounted inside the bridge” and that those Macs are running Windows via Apple’s Bootcamp. Wow!

I took this shot one afternoon, on route to the train station. From it, I created a bunch of variations using several different iPad/iPhone apps. (Yes, I know I’m missing a “w” from my signature brush!)

Here is the cutie, the 95 lb Bud-Z that can knock me on my butt in a single move (and he’s done it several times).  We got him after after our beloved Buddy died.  Buddy was a Rottie, Chow, Shepard, German Short Hair Pointer mix with a beautiful disposition.  After he died (two years ago, March 3rd, I wrote a post about him then), Rich tried to find a similar looking dog.  He did, in West Virginia (found him on PetFinder.com). Well, he may look the same, but his temperament is truly different. To say the least, the first year he was very difficult to the point we hired a trainer to help us with him.  Here’s the post I wrote after Buddy died. You can see how similar they looked, oh but how different they are!

As a present for Rich, I had Bud-Z’s DNA analyzed, and the results are in.  We thought he was Chow, Rottie, and Shepard, and then guessed other things.  Our vet though Ridgeback and Shepard, another vet thought Golden Lab.  Rich was sure Bullmastiff, and I feared Pit Bull.  But, nope!

I’ll also add that it took a good year, but Bud-Z temperament is now excellent.  He’s extremely loving, loyal, and listens. He still does not like, nor will tolerate, any rabbits or squirrels in our yard.

The results are in … Bud-Z is a Chow-Chow mix and a Whippet Mix!!  Whippet????  We thought, no way!  However, Bud-z is incredibly fast off the line.  The other breeds in the mix, which all add up to the special dog that is Bud-Z are:
Catahoula Leopard Dog at 45.54%
Plott Hound at 21.07%
Cardigan Welsh Corgi at 10.16%
Newfoundland at 7.72%
Shih Tzu at 3.51%

The first is a sketch I did using an app called Pen & Ink (which is a basic drawing program, no layers — if you need recommendations on other programs with layers, I can give them) on an iPad along with a “Jot” stylus. I drew it from a fashion magazine ad photo. After it was finished, I took it into other apps to try some different effects on the image. I use Photosync to go from my iPad to the computer, as I can’t help but to also use Photoshop, and then use Photosync to take the image back to my iPad.  The one with the black background looks like it would translate well on black fabric with white perle cotton thread and heavy stitches.  I also like the bottom image and am thinking of making it in fabric. At the very least, it’s fun experimenting!

While at Macworld, I took some ipad/iphone sessions relating to artwork and photography, and I met some people doing very cool work.  That was fun.  Plus I came away feeling better about my own work, and that’s always a plus.   The buzz-phrase was “app-stacking,” which is just a catchy way to describe using multiple apps to get a final look.  The process of using more than one application (an app is simply a program) toward your final work is nothing new.  Some of us even giggled at the term as we noted anyone working in digital media has been doing it for years.

I did like some of the new pressure sensitive styluses.  Jot makes a new one that sells for $89.  It requires blue tooth and a charge (which they say will last up to a month).  I suspect if it was available at the show, I would have been swept up in the moment and bought it.  But now that I’m home and giving it more thought, I’m on the fence.  I like that you can rest your hand on the iPad and it doesn’t pick up any lines from it; the only lines are made from the stylus.  However, I like using a combination of fingers and stylus, so I’m vacillating on whether to get it (yes, you can toggle it on and off).   Another is called Hex3 from JaJa, which I tried during some sketching demonstrations.  That felt very good.  I’m on the fence about treating myself to one as I’ve gotten use to working in lower a lower opacity to build up color, but I suspect one is in my future.

I’ve been in San Francisco, primarily for Macworld, and I’m very behind on writing posts. To get moving, I’m posting a photograph I took while on the Land’s End trail. It was a treat seeing a raven swoop down in the area, especially a day prior to the Superbowl.  The first is the original photo, and I then processed it through various iPhone/iPad apps. The 5th down is my favorite.