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Sometimes when a photograph has been accepted for publication, the editor has asked me for the “story behind the picture.”  Similarly, when my  little four-year old friend sees some of my work with colored papers, she often asks, “Why did you do that?”  And since she is looking at me intently waiting for an answer, I take a deep breath and try to share with her the story of why I made a sky green and a blade of grass blue.  Well, on this quiet afternoon, I decided to share with you some of the stories behind my most recent works on paper.  😉  Mostly they were done at night, to help me settle my brain before bed, by doing something different with my hands.

The story:  In reading “The Snowy Day and the Art of Ezra Jack Keats,” I was reminded of that striking scene in the picture book…

A very dear friend of mine, who happens to be Godmother to my youngest has an amazing well tended garden behind her historic townhome. I sang with her today for Easter and spent a little time strolling the grounds enjoying the company, the smells, and sights. It was a therapeutic end to a very hectic few months. I hope you enjoy!

Mike awoke, and as was often the case did not immediately know where he was. In that space between light and shadow he dreamed. Mike called these awake dreams and often began speaking aloud to characters that were not present, even before he was unconscious and by all accounts, still awake.

This morning his dream framed images of his uncle shot at close range by his cousin and then a victim list on a television news broadcast. The confusion of time shifting always makes perfect sense in a dream and when Mike would become cognizant of an absurd shift is usually when he would wake or on other occasions fall deeper into the dream.

Once again we have come to the end of another nature challenge! It has been a very interesting seven days of exploration and learning, as we went through the animation process to explore some aspect of the natural world.

For today’s challenge, I finalized my animation, putting together all of the still images taken yesterday, which ended up coming to about 150 frames. While the standard fps (frames per second) rate for all hand-drawn animations and motion pictures is 24fps, many web animations are shot at 12-15 fps (which is the standard rate for quality television animation). If you’d like to read more about timing and pacing in animations, check out this great article!

And now, onto my animation! Due to time constraints of this challenge, my finished animation moves at a rate of approximately 4-5 fps (which accounts for the jerkier movements). Check it out:

Given more time, I…

Lights, Camera, ACTION! Today’s challenge was to finally shoot the animation, after 5 days of planning and set preparation. All told, I ended up shooting a little over 100 still images for my animation. Here is one sequence that I shot:

For tomorrow’s challenge, it’s time to put everything together to create your animation! Since I use a Mac, I will be putting my images together using iMovie. There are, however, other programs that will work just as well. MS Powerpoint would work–it’ll just take you a little longer, since you’ll have to insert your images individually onto slides. I don’t know about you, but I’m excited to see how it all comes together!

‘Til tomorrow…happy explorations!

Sometimes life is about the simple pleasures. Sometimes it’s just your perspective that separates the good and the bad days. When your simple pleasures come along, relish them before moving on. This morning I encountered a few of them and thought I’d share some of my favorite simple pleasures.

Flowers and plants. I love my plants. I try to take good care of them but if they die or I have to move and leave them behind, I tend to get emotional.

The perfect song at the right moment. When your iPod is on shuffle and all of a sudden the perfect song comes on at just the right moment.

Mornings. I love mornings. Whether it’s the birds singing and the sunshine or the smell of early morning when it’s still a bit chilly and everything is covered with dew or frost.

My leather jacket. It’s perfectly worn and fits…