in progress

1st Birthday

Here is a little clip of us celebrating Eliseo's birthday tonight at the Carmona's house.

It feels so bittersweet to have him turn one. I felt on the verge of tears all day because of it. You know,  I kissed him probably a hundred times. No matter how many times I kiss his soft baby cheeks though, he is pushing ahead, and reaching for toddler-hood with determination.

To think at this time last year I was holding a tiny little bundle with wonderment... and now just a year later he has etched his way into my life, so familiar, as if he has been with me all along.

Love can bend time like that.

(*Here is another video of the kids after he opened his presents. I love how when we ask Lili to hand the hammer back she does it graciously. She was so good with him all day too. They tumbled and wrestled around on the couch together.)

pattern

I finally figured out how to make a seamless, repeat pattern with photoshop today.  It is SO addictive and so much fun. Everywhere I looked after that I was thinking about patterns and designs and how different things could be incorporated into a pattern. The ease of making a pattern digitally is amazing!
Here is the tutorial that I| used which explains it nicely.

Also, Here is a tutorial that explains how you could make a pattern by hand. It is so simple, and yet I for one have never done it before. That will be my next project I think. 

let it be

gathering ideas

I thought I would share what I was working on tonight. A digital sketch (using bits and pieces of half finished paintings) for ideas in a card line I am trying to put together.  

valentine

If you are thinking "Aw, why didn't I get one of these cute Valentines from Lilikoi?" don't fret. Nobody has received any yet because she has a tardy, non-super-mom type mom. To be honest it is questionable if  they will be moved from their pretty stack on the bookshelf any time soon...

Oh well, the point was her having fun. And now you know she loves you. And there is always next year to get it right.

vacuum

Every time I vacuum (with our awesome, vintage, electrolux) Seo immediately climbs up on top the vacuum and sits on it. Then he does some humpty rodeo-style bouncing and he thinks it is so funny.

Kelcey Loomer

2011

paper, ink, acrylic, silk, water crayon, digital

snow fairy

Supposedly we are getting a couple of inches of snow tonight. But the other day when it was 50 degrees and not a snowflake in sight, Lilikoi asked Alex if she could put on her snowsuit. She told him she wanted to make a snow fairy.  So she did... in our pebbles outside our door. And Alex documented it.

*please excuse my dirty glass

valentine pattern

&

I made this fun little pattern tonight for everyone~ thinking it would be fun for Valentine's Day cards. You are welcome to print this image and use it for your own personal creations if you would like.

xxx Kelcey

more practice work

process

Starting image

Detail of original painting/ digitally altered

digital

♥ ♥ ♥

I have been continuing to explore the digital realm of photoshop this week. Some things (like figuring out how to make the text warp and wave) is exhilarating. Overall though it doesn't have the same feeling as sitting down and painting. I mean, I guess this is obvious... But one hour with the keyboard and computer screen has a completely different feel than an hour with a piece of cold press paper and a soft pencil and some inks.  Once I get the hang of it a bit more though I am looking forward to trying to create some art layers to mix digitally. That sounds like a fun challenge.

Speaking of this. When I was at a show a couple months ago I had a conversation with a woman concerning my prints. She was flipping through them and she looked up at me and casually said "I have been wanting to get into the digital world too".  It was one of those moments I felt like a socially awkward person and I couldn't think of a way to politely say that my work is all done by hand. I forget exactly how I replied, but I got the message across. I just wonder how often people assume my paintings are created digitally...

frustration and photoshop elements 9....

...I love you and I also hate you. Argh.

 I have spent much of my free and quasi-free time today trying to figure out my new photoshop elements 9 program. It didn't come with any directions, and I was going to buy a dummies guide book, but then all  the reviews said you can get the same information for free on youtube. And it is true that there are endless tutorials. Some are amazingly helpful, and some tie you in knots they are so confusing.  But my biggest problem is I don't know the exact wording of what I want to do... so....

I have figured out a lot of cool things with it though~ but for every one thing I figure out there are five more buttons I press that I can't seem to fully understand. Or, I will make something happen and go back to do it later and it doesn't work. I loved using photoshop when I was in college, but that was 10 years ago, and I don't have guiding teachers peering over my shoulder this time. 

I know will get there though.

These are some messing around pictures. See those white blobs in the middle of the second picture? No matter what I did I could not make them something else. So frustrating.

weather

Yes, it really was in the 70's and sunny a few days ago when I took that picture of Lili! It is in the 50's and raining now though. And no, I don't think Lili has the pox~ it must have been a fluke pimple I found...

"Let us go in, the fog is rising"

Emily Dickinson