I hope this doesn't sound...um...conceited, I guess, is the word I want...but I do think my photography and digital collages are improving.
For one thing, I'm getting to know how to use Photoshop a lot better. When I look back at my older collages, they look rather crude to me--not bad, just sort of naive. As I relax with both the photography and the way I put images together, I guess I am, more and more, giving myself permission to express myself freely, rather than copying other people's techniques, to create what I think others will approve.
I've been in one of these moods lately--you'll see what I mean when you look at these images.
Dust to Dust
Them That SleepThese collages are both made from pictures I took myself--I didn't have to rely on any stock images for them. The first one has a photo of a deer skeleton that John and I found behind the Semel factory in Amston. (The original's not blurry.) The statues in the two collages come from two different cemeteries; the one in "Them That Sleep" is not in the graveyard pictured in the background.
I suppose I think more and more about death these days. If you had told me ten years ago that I could have lived so serenely as I am living now with a diagnosis of terminal cancer, I would not have believed you. Next week I have my PET/CT scan to see how effective the radiation to my sternum was, and, of course, to see if I have other metastases. Of course I hope I'm okay, but I'll just accept what comes. I'll be upset if there's spread, especially if it's significant, and then I'll get over it.
This is how I think things should be. Americans think death is a terrible thing, when it's simply the natural thing. The Life Extension Foundation, which sells all manner of supplements that supposedly extend life, has posited, apparently, that humans might be able to live 500 years, under ideal circumstances. Is that a good thing? Where would all the new little humans fit? How would there be enough food and fuel to go around? Why can we not stop thinking that we are the pinnacle and perfection of God's plan?
I comfort myself with thinking that, perhaps, someday we shall evolve.
May
. . .
I suppose I think more and more about death these days. If you had told me ten years ago that I could have lived so serenely as I am living now with a diagnosis of terminal cancer, I would not have believed you. Next week I have my PET/CT scan to see how effective the radiation to my sternum was, and, of course, to see if I have other metastases. Of course I hope I'm okay, but I'll just accept what comes. I'll be upset if there's spread, especially if it's significant, and then I'll get over it.
This is how I think things should be. Americans think death is a terrible thing, when it's simply the natural thing. The Life Extension Foundation, which sells all manner of supplements that supposedly extend life, has posited, apparently, that humans might be able to live 500 years, under ideal circumstances. Is that a good thing? Where would all the new little humans fit? How would there be enough food and fuel to go around? Why can we not stop thinking that we are the pinnacle and perfection of God's plan?
I comfort myself with thinking that, perhaps, someday we shall evolve.
May
. . .
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