Happy Winter Solstice - Longer Days Ahead

This is a photo from my cellphone. That was two cellphones ago, the grandmother of my current model. I did manipulate the photo in PhotoShop. Now it looks like an impressionistic painting. I took this photo in the fall of 2001. I don't remember exactly when in the fall it was taken, but it seems to me it was fairly late, but probably not as late as December.

Today was the last day of printmaking class for the fall semester. And appropriately it's the first day of winter. However, I didn't make it to class. I woke up feeling as though I might be getting sick, and I thought it would be better to stay home in bed, so I did.

However, I did go out briefly to get a newspaper. My special friend told me about an article in the local paper about fractals. He noticed them because the examples in the paper look rather like etchings, like some of my etchings. I've been interested in them for years, and perhaps they're one of the things that has influenced my work over the years. Now it seems you can buy software to create them yourself. You don't have to be a mathematican or computer programmer. If you're interested, go to www.fractalus.com. You can also check out some very nice examples at www.parkenet.org/jp/galleries.html.

It makes me want to look into creating some myself. When I worked in the compter industry, I had a goal of creating a fractal screensaver, one that would continue to change and evolve. I never got far enough into programming in those days to accomplish that task. Now, if you choose the higher end version of the software, the program will automatically automate it for you.

I recently discovered there's a feature in PhotoShop that allows you to create patterns from a photo, by selecting a portion of it. I've played with it a little, but not very extensively. Jon uses it to manipulate the photos he takes of his glass. He gets some wonderful kalideoscope prints that are intriguing and very creative. Are you ready for a little competition, Jon? Just kidding. No artist ever really copies another and remains true to themselves.