Two Variations on a Seagull for my New Zazzle Store

I started a Zazzle store the other day. I have not put up a header or made the store look nice yet. I also don't have any illusions that it's going to take off fast, but if I post enough images over time, maybe it can help pay for my time to write books. After a learning curve I find that I can post about 100 products quickly with one image in about 20 minutes (after the image is already found and prepared, which can take some time). Of course, it's going to take additional tweaking and time to make some of the products look right. This is quite an improvement over the CaféPress store interface I used a few years ago. More on that later. Although people like one of the designs, it hasn't been that successful.

I had a lot of fun late one night tweaking a seagull photo into the pink Image at the top. I also did a version that is more square, the same shape as the yellow seagull below, but facing the other direction. I like the cropping on the top image, but a lot of the products do better with the square image. I now have products online using both of these images and a couple more which I will post later. I hope I can keep it fun long enough to make a difference :-) It was fun having an excuse to use filters.

My Web Page: Tapirback.com

Blue, Blue Birds

I've been spending some more time posting pins on the web site, and here are a couple of very blue birds from my efforts. I love looking at the scans of these beautiful pins, so the work is fun.

There has been progress with sea creatures, fish, and now birds. Thanks to Jessika, who did a lot of scanning and photoshopping a few months ago, I have plenty of images to work with.

This blog is sponsored by Tapir and Friends Animal Store.

Oct 17, Part 9 - Paris: Quai Montebello - art along the Seine

From Quai St-Michel, we continued to stroll along the Seine. You stay on the same riverbank, only the name changes. I love this view of Notre Dame!

We found a vendor with animal stamps. We both love animals and Lee is a stamp collector, so we enjoyed looking, but didn't buy. I found a vendor who had a Paris touristy pocket knife with lots of blades and tools on it. I knew Sue would like it for opening things at work. For the longest time, she was using an "art" knife I have for pulling big staples and I didn't realize it! Now she'll have a handy tool for almost any purpose - with an Eiffel Tower on it, too :)

We liked these prints, espeically the one in the center with the dancers on the beach, because this artist's work from the same series was hanging in our hotel room on the last trip, when we stayed at the Hotel Les Argonautes.

Moving along, here's another view of the quai as we approach the Pont au Double. That's Lee in the white sweatshirt.

OK, so this is the kind of hack print I don't like, but the scene is . . . scenic.

Notre Dame is beautiful from any angle. The clouds are adding some drama today.

I thought this artist was pretty good. He's working in semi-caricature; I'd rather see a real portrait, but he seems to be one of the more talented. I wondered if he was a student, but we didn't disturb him. I like how he was emphasizing the kid's spiky hair.

Another shot of the magnificent cathedral and the clouds.

There is more. I really cannot get enough photos of this building. I think I keep hoping I'll get the perfect shot. I've taken so many where the light areas are burned out. There's so much contrast with the interesting shapes.

Flying buttresses - Notre Dame was the guinea pig for so much in Gothic architecture.

More Notre Dame.

Finally I tried setting my camera on wide angle, which I used also in the next post. I don't use it much and usually forget that I have that option. I like the result!

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Oct 16, Part 12 - Paris: The Louvre, Finding Nike of Samothrace

Whatever else it is, the Louvre is 100% unique. It has something like 11 miles of corridors, but I'm sure that all of them aren't open all the time. Still, it's a daunting experience to try to "see the Louvre"! The art is world-class and magnificent - that goes without saying - in fact, the Louvre probably does as much as any museum or gallery to define what constitutes world-class art. But inevitably, I reach a point where it becomes overwhelming to look at one more piece. It was at that point on one of my visits that I realized I enjoyed the building itself almost as much as the works of art. I began to refocus from the displayed works to their setting.

I began to notice floors, ceilings, arches, lighting. No two rooms are the same, or so it seems to me. Many, if not all, were designed to complement the pieces that are in them. This in itself was an astonishing discovery. Now when I go to the Louvre, I begin to look at my surroundings from the minute I arrive. Transforming a room into a period-compatible showcase for the art on display may not be an unusual idea now, but I wonder how many museums did that when the Louvre began? I wonder how many actually do this? I love it that a manifestation of this concept exists in the world.

Coming upon Nike of Samothrace - by accident or by design - is exciting. There she is at the top of the stairs. I'm always surprised that there isn't more fanfare around the approach to her form, I'm not sure why. And so, we walk expectantly toward the stairs.

In the darkened hall en route to the famous Greek is a glimpse into one of my favorite rooms. It has sculptures and mosaics from Roman times, and perhaps Greek and Etruscan, too. I don't remember. What I remember most is the room itself - small enough to feel intimate, illuminated by skylights, and loaded with interesting art (the mosaics are always of special interest to me). It's the overall feel of the room that I like the best. And I love this view of it through the arch at the foot of Nike's stairs. But today we were unable to visit, because the room with the mosaics was being prepared to go on the road. As much as it will be incredible for people of other cities to see this work, I know it will be missed!

I think that Nike must be the second-most-photographed work in the Louvre next to the Mona Lisa, but that's only my guess. Venus de Milo, who we missed this trip, must come third.

And there she is. I can still remember the thrill I felt seeing Nike for the first time. It was totally unexpected. I simply glanced and she was there - a vision - something familiar I'd seen in books - and thus powerful in her own right and in her fame as well.

Nike stands on a platform that seems to represent a ship. Her setting is pure, uncluttered, and serene. I tried to wait until the people had cleared away so I could get a picture of Nike alone, but that didn't happen. As it turns out, I love the image of the photographer in jeans next to the bright window on the landing.

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Some cool wood animals in Mexico

Here are some painted wood animals I liked a lot. They were in the Hotel Westin, Puerto Vallarta.

August 4, Astoria: Make-up and cameras

As I'm posting this about 9 years later, I don't remember exactly what I was doing with the camera. Some days you just want to see what you look like, or see what you look like different than usual (I usually don't wear make-up, but probably should, now that I'm getting older). The first shot, of course, is horribly burned out, but it shows the rug on the wall from Salasaca, Ecuador.

Ah. Not burned out.

Here's my first digital camera - the one I got before leaving Colorado.

Me again. Writing from 2010, I've been trying to grow my hair that long again. I wasn't having to color it yet in this photo, but between then and now it started coming in gray (and not in a nice way), so it's been through coloring and styling, and I kinda prefer the old hippie look. I'm on my way back there. Oh, hmm. I remember now. I was placing a personal ad and I needed a current photo. That's one of the scariest parts, especially when I'm feeling overweight. Well, actually, the whole thing is scary.

The back yard outside my Bond Street apartment.

I took this from the deck of the apartment balcony (slash fire escape). What a wonderful place!

Sunset from my apartment.

Sunset, part 2. Who ever said the Bond Street address was a slum? I'll take this slum any day.

This blog is sponsored by Tapir and Friends Animal Store.

Tapir/Art room, Palisade

All of the rooms had incarnations. This was near the end of my time in Palisade, and I'd started trying to paint again, to find myself with the medium. On the canvas with the tapirs, I'd painted everything except for the tapirs, and as of this writing (2008), I haven't finished it. The painting on the filing cabinets is from the 1980s. It's a detail - a big blow-up of some weeds alongside a road taken from a 19th Century line engraving and painted with a brush in pastel shading. I always liked it, and never painted anything else remotely similar. Taped on the wall is a xeroxed enlargement of a photo Stefan Seitz took of a baby Malayan tapir. I thought I might paint it someday or design it into a t-shirt. Two real tapir skulls sit on the filing cabinet along with the turpentine can (with Mona Lisa's picture on it), and the green blanket is a color I like. I still have it. Also on the filing cabinet is a black figure. I hope I have another photo somewhere. It's a fertility goddess or something like that; a big woman riding on a real deer skull. Marco bought it in the Philippines. It stayed with him in Colorado. The folded paper behind the turp can is a simple collage I made by gluing some picture on top of another; I don't remember the image exactly, but it almost came to mind. I had it around for quite awhile. The easel is a beautiful artwork in itself that Marco gave me and I still have. It folds up and you can carry it with your paint things inside. It's very clever and very heavy, too. The basket under the easel is one I still use as a trash can (for clean trash). I got it in Los Angeles for not much money at a basket store. It's tall and fits nicely in corners and other unexpected places where no other trash can will fit. And, it looks artistic and classy. I've stitched the bottom into it again. I hope it never wears out. The small red wooden thing is a book rack. I think I got that with Robin, and I think we got two of them. It was inexpensive, under two dollars, I think. And I always loved it, especially the color. The canvas(es) propped against the filing cabinet seem to be three that I hinged together to form a triptych, but then never used. There are a lot of memories in this little corner, but I also like the arrangement for what it is and how it looks. It was a simpler time, too. The file cabinets had tapir info and personal files. I've brought them to Oregon with me also. And, they've expanded. I thought this was going to be a quick and simple post!