Kat Eye Studio

Archives for June 2016

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How well do you know yourself?

Last week, my husband asked me: “Are you still doing that abstract project?”

Me: “Yes, I am.”


Him: “I haven’t seen anything lately. Isn’t it supposed to be every day for thirty days?”

Me: “No. It’s whenever I get to it.”

If you’ve been following me in this project, you’ll know I’m on a bit of a hiatus. With back-to-back fairs and a looming vacation there has been so little time for creation.

That’s why I don’t set time limits on these #30edits projects. I know myself. I know I’m not an everyday-come-what-may kind of creator. I know that having a deadline on creating art will make it stressful for me, not fun. I would kill myself to achieve and then resent it.

That’s not a good formula for making art.

That doesn’t mean that challenge and struggle and pushing through boundaries aren’t all part of the creative process. They absolutely are.

But the challenge does not have to be in every dimension, so I take it out of the dimension of time. That works for me.

You will definitely see more #30edits abstracts soon, and I’ve been experimenting with some collage art as well. Lots of creative material to work with.

Perfect timing too… I just got an iPad Pro and Pencil! After three different people, whose iPhone art I like and respect, told me it would rock my world, I decided it was time. I’m looking forward to creating art on the big screen. 

When I have time, of course.

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You just never know…

…what is going to happen at an art fair.

Will there be sun, rain, wind? Will the people show up, and will they like my stuff? Will I meet someone interesting?

Actually, for that last one, I think the answer is always “yes.” I always meet interesting people. 

And now I’ve met someone famous too! 


My travel hero, Rick Steves, stopped by my booth at the Edmonds Arts Festival this weekend. We traveled all over Europe with his books when we lived in Italy, so it was great to meet him in person and to say thank you. I was an embarrassingly gushing fangirl, but I had to ask for a picture. My husband and son were jealous! 

This was a fair of a lot of firsts, and not just meeting a celebrity. It was my first time out of state, to Washington, and the farthest I’ve gone for a fair. It was the first time I’ve driven my husband’s truck, since my Jetta Sportwagon was totaled in January. First time collecting tax (Oregon has no sales tax). First time using AirBnB. 

And you know what? For all the firsts, it all went great. It was wonderful to get back out there and share my art with a new group of people. I met some really wonderful people, some who’ve participated in the Liberate Your Art swap or have met online before, some who were ready to learn iPhone photography, some who just wanted my art on their wall. 

Here’s my booth this year:


The banner and books on display are new, otherwise pretty much the same display as last year. What you can’t see is a new inventory control system I figured out this winter, complete with bar codes for easy check out, all run with my iPhone. It saved me soooo much time figuring out what sold and what I need to replace before my next show! Very happy with it.

Next art fair is this weekend: Lake Oswego Festival of the Arts!

Will I see you there?

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Begin with a Background (Mobile Tutorial + Stackables Formula)

I’m already learning from my #30edits Abstract Challenge! Just what I was hoping would happen. And that, of course, means I have new things to share.

One of my early observations: The first step in any abstract edit is removing the connection to reality in the image.

Abstract Kat Sloma iPhone Photography

Turns out, that is harder to do than I realized! Our brains seem to want to make meaning out of the slightest texture and pattern, so removing that connection to reality requires some work. One way to do this is through blur of the image, which softens the lines and textures which provide a lot of information to our brain.

Today I’m sharing my favorite method for creating background blur using the Stackables app, using an image I shared last week in another post. I think this forest fern image was leading me toward my abstract project.

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I started with this forest image, which caught me eye due to the interesting repetition in the ferns and fir needles.

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In Stackables, you can add a blur layer by going to the Adjustments menu (top bar) and selecting the Blur effect (right menu). You can increase the blur by selecting Intensity (lower left), and then increasing the slider (bottom bar). Layer 6 in this iPad screen shot is the blur layer in the Stackables formula I’m sharing with you today.

File Jun 13, 6 07 19 PM

If you want to increase blur more than possible with a single layer, no problem. Just duplicate the layer. You can keep adding Blur layers to reach the desired effect. Increasing blur increases abstraction, by taking away the edges and textures of the object you photographed.

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The final image (here again) was created by blending the blurred background with some other fern images. It is not a full abstract, but you might be able to see how the original image comes through as a background layer.

File Jun 13, 6 08 08 PM

Now I have the Stackables Formula for you! This formula, called Bluish Blur, was used to create the fern background above. It shows you how you can use blur along with other Stackables layers to begin changing an image toward abstract. Have fun abstracting!

To download the “Bluish Blur” formula for your own use in the Stackables app, do the following:
1. Make sure the Stackables app is installed on your iOS device.
2. On your iOS device, download the formula file from this link. (This is a Dropbox link, and you may be prompted to save the file to your Dropbox account, if you have one. Go ahead and save it to your Dropbox and then download from there.)
3. When you go to download or open the file on your device, use “Open in…” and choose the “Open in Stackables” option.
4. Stackables will open and ask if you want to import the formula, tap “Import.”
5. To use the formula, load a photo, go to Formulas (1), choose Favorite Formulas (2). You will see the imported formula (3), so tap to preview. Click the wrench icon (4) to apply the formula and make changes to the layers.

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Join me in a new #30edits

I’ve been in a creative lull lately, so it’s time to kick it up a notch. I’m starting a new #30edits project, and you are welcome to join me! 

This time, instead of creating 30 pieces from the same starting photograph, I’m going to create 30 abstract pieces, starting from different photographs. The thread tying them together is the abstraction. It will be an exploration of line, color, and shape separate from reality.



I’ve danced at the edge of abstract for several years now, but I’ve always maintained the tie back to some recognizable element of the photograph I used to start the process. The goal in this project is to eliminated that tie. Push into new territory.

How far can I go? What will result? Watch here and Instagram to see. 

If you’d like to join me in your own #30edits project, I welcome you. Pick your parameters–whether it’s 30 edits from the same image like I did last time, 30 abstract edits like I’m doing this time, or something different–it all achieves the same result: Getting you outside your comfort zone. There is no timeline requirement (such as 30 edits in 30 days). Go with your gut. Do what works for you.

Use hashtag #30edits on Instagram to participate. I’ll see you there.

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The Speed of Time

Most of the time, we move through our days with an idea they are never-ending. They stretch out into a routine of day after day, week after week, punctuated here and there with a few big events. That illusion has been shattered for me with one big milestone this year: High school. 

It’s as if, all of a sudden, I am truly internalizing that my son is growing up. Growing toward gone. When the last four years of childhood started to get chunked up into grade levels… Freshman, Sophomore, Junior, Senior… I woke up to how little time we have left with him here at home. How fast it all has gone.

In the blink of an eye, from seedling to full grown tree.



I was talking to friend at work with a young daughter, having the typical “it goes so fast” conversation. But I told him parents with older kids don’t say this to give advice so much as they are in shock. We can’t believe it ourself. We are dazed and surprised that this seemingly endless phase of life is nearing an end, ending, ended. We utter the words in the hopes we can make sense of it, for ourselves.

My son is finishing up his freshman year in high school right now. With this year, we started talking seriously about college. Prep courses and requirements and grades and activities. What he might want to study. Where he might want to go.

And in the back of my mind, this dawning realization that there is so little time left.

In the last few months, I’ve started to shift my thinking and priorities around the idea that he has about three years left at home. What do I want that time to look like? 

It’s an interesting shift. I’ll own it…. Up to now I haven’t been the most “involved” Mom. I’m there, I’m supportive, but my kid has never been the center of my identity or my world. I have a career (two!) that matters to me and a partner to share the load.

But now, maybe more than ever, I find myself turning toward my son. Realizing career can wait, art can wait. I want to be there, on the front lines, seeing him transform into an adult. I want to be available, when he wants it, to listen or advise. To nudge him in he right direction. 

Control has ended, influence is all I’ve got left. And three more years of time.

It goes so fast. 

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Leaving Italy Behind

Every relationship, every experience, every phase of life shapes us. The sum total makes up who we are, becomes part of our story. 

Some experiences are more significant than others, of course. Some have a “before” and an “after” you can pinpoint as a moment of transformation. Some are more gradual, affecting a subtle change you don’t notice until weeks, months, years later. 

Living in Italy was a before/after time for me, for sure. After I returned, everything referenced back to it. I had changed dramatically and emerged shiny and new. It was not just the travel and experience of living and working in another country, but becoming an artist too. Rediscovering and reconnecting with that essential part of myself.

Classic Italian Transport, Parma, Italy

The time and experiences since moving back home to Oregon have brought more subtle transformation. It’s not the same type of before/after. Italy was like a flash flood, radically altering the scenery. The last five years in Oregon have been a gradual reshaping, like a river over time alters the landscape. Bit by bit I continue to learn, grow and transform… And hardly notice it.

Until recently, that is. Recently there have been a few signs I’m leaving my Italy experience behind… 

I’ve sold my scooter. It was a great idea and I’m glad I learned how to ride it, but it turns out I like to bicycle better. I still love a good scooter sighting, but they are few and far between.  

I’m rewriting my artist statement. It references the change in my art, moving from Milan, Italy to Corvallis, Oregon. For urban scenes to forest elements. But that was five years ago now, and the change isn’t happening anymore–it’s happened. I need to talk about what’s relevant to my work now.

I took my eCourses down off of my site. A Sense of Place and the Find Your Eye series were all very timely, coming from my photographic experience and artistic growth while living in Italy, but it has become hard to promote them when the art they teach isn’t even close to what I create now. 

And with these small steps and signs I realize that my experience in Italy has been folded in to the mix. It’s been integrated into what makes me Kat. It’s no longer this huge thing, so momentous that everything has to reference back to it. It’s part of the greater whole.

That’s a good thing. It’s not that I have forgotten my Italy experience or I don’t want have the big before/after moments in the future, it’s that I want to continue to learn and grow all the time. I want to continue to transform while living in my little town, in my regular, everyday life. And I can. 

I know I can, because here I am, five years post-Italy, creating and teaching a different type of art and living a life based on choices which are right for me today. Still an artist — thank you time in Italy, for showing me that — but an evolving one. 

So maybe that’s my final Lesson from Abroad: We keep changing and growing, no matter where we are. If you had told me five years ago where I would be today, I wouldn’t have believed you. 

Where will I be five years from now? Who knows. I certainly don’t. 

All I do know is that I will be different. My art will be different. My life will be different. It will be interesting to see how everything turns out. 

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