Kat Eye Studio

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Be Delighted

Sometimes, when you are following your heart and your creative inspiration, when you just play around, you get to be delighted. Happy surprises appear out of nowhere. This image is one for me. I found this free action for Photoshop (works in Elements too – yay!) through a post on a Flickr group yesterday. I went to run it on another photo I had open, but somehow chose the photo incorrectly and got this one. Happy accident! I loved the result, it made the photo of the carnival lights in Geneva much more abstract and interesting.

Here’s the original:

When we get creative, when we play, we have a lot of opportunity for happy accidents. These are what happen when we give up the idea of Serious Creativity with all of the pressure of creating something perfect, something that others will love, something marketable even, and just have fun.

Yesterday my son decided it was an “art day” and (to my neat-freak husband’s horror) proceeded to pull out all of his art and craft supplies (and some of mine) and spread them out on the dining room table. I found some artists chalks amidst the wreckage and had fun playing with colors and getting my hands dirty. I call the result “The Color Comet.” Here’s another recent happy outcome, a painting I did a few weeks ago when I just felt like putting paint to canvas and playing around. Not trying to be an Artist with a capital A, just enjoying the process of creating. I like the colors and the message, it sits on my desk and reminds me everyday to believe in myself. I share these little pieces, not because they are fantastic art, but because they are not fantastic art. They are just the result of creative play. The process of playing around delighted me, so the end result delights me too, if only for the memory of the fun I had. Pastels on my fingers, paint brush in my hand.

So if you have time this week… wait, let me rephrase that… Make time this week to play creatively. Find a fun new action, pull out the paints or the pastels, go through your art and craft supplies and see what your fingers itch to hold. Don’t have a plan, just have fun. Be delighted in the result. Come back and share your happy accidents!

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Laughing Out Loud




We spent one day and evening in Geneva during the “Fêtes de Genève,” a huge, three week long festival on the lakefront. It was fantastic to capture the motion, the lights and the uninhibited joy of these people on the bumper cars. Can’t you just feel the laughter? When was the last time you had this much fun?

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Making Ideas Real

Flowers in pots on doorsteps or windowsills are favorite subjects of mine. I love the angles of the architecture as a backdrop for the curves of the plants and the pots. There is often interesting contrast in textures and colors of ground, wall, door, pot and plant. I love the care that the inhabitants take in creating the little scene on their doorstep or windowsill. Each one is different, unique, like the people who create them. So I keep being inspired by them; I keep photographing them and sharing them here.

This morning in reading Simple Abundance, one of my favorite books at the moment, I came across this thought from the author Sarah Ban Breathnach, “…While you are offered many dizzying opportunities in a lifetime, Spirit only comes once for each Work seeking creative expression through you, then moves on. The bottom line is that the Work must be brought forth. If you don’t do it, someone else will.”

Interesting thought to ponder… that these ideas that come along to us are only “ours” as long as we do something with them, make them real. If we don’t, someone else will get the opportunity to be inspired by the same idea, and we’ll be left in the dust saying, “Hey, I had that idea first.” Which, as we all know, doesn’t count for anything.

So the “work” I’m doing with my art and the creative inspiration I receive for this blog – whether it’s sharing the art of doorstep gardens, the little everyday details I see as we travel around, the ideas that come to me for my Exploring with a Camera series, or the insights into my creative process – are only “mine” as long as I actually use the ideas. Make them into something real.

There is a a saying I love in Italian, “Tra dire e fare c’è di mezzo il mare,” which translates roughly to “between saying and doing there lies the sea.” I want to be on a boat, crossing that sea, as much as possible. I don’t want to lose out on all of these wonderful opportunities that inspiration brings along, even if it’s as small sharing the image of a few potted plants on a doorstep. Thanks for joining me along this journey to turn these ideas into something real.

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It’s That Simple

A pot of flowers on a step. Some color. Some texture. Some contrast. Nice light.

Seeing this made me happy.
Photographing it made me happy.
Rediscovering it in my image files and editing it made me happy.
Sharing it today makes me happy.
Writing about it makes me happy.
Looking at it makes me happy.

Can happiness really be that simple? A photograph of a pot of flowers on a doorstep? Yes, I believe so.

What simple thing makes you happy?

(PS – You can also share your answer here!)

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The Power of Photography

On our recent travels I’ve had the opportunity to see a number of photography exhibits. Some of these were planned visits, others I just happened upon, but they all show the power of photography in different ways. I love uncovering and discovering all of the different ways that photography can impact us, deepening our experience in the world around us.

In my visit to the Rosengart Collection in Lucerne, I had the opportunity to see the photos David Douglas Duncan took of Picasso. Duncan, a photojournalist, became friends with Picasso and captured some extraordinary images of ordinary moments in Picasso’s life. The thing that struck me was the humor and zest for life that Picasso had, it just comes through in the images of him in his home, interacting with his family and his art. How powerful is that, to capture the artist that created the art, and to get a glimpse of the personality? It makes my understanding of Picasso and his work so much deeper. I don’t have any pictures of the exhibit, but you can see many images of Picasso by Duncan on the web here.

As we explored the Swiss countryside around Gruyere, we stopped at the Musee Gruerien folk museum, where they just happened to have an exhibit of the photography of Emmanuel Gavillet, a modern Swiss photographer. The subject was Gastlosen – the Swiss “Rocky Mountains.” All black and white, shot with an 8×10″ film camera, the images were beautiful in their capture of contrast and texture. The display also showed some elements of the 8×10″ camera, which were helpful to explain aperture and film to Brandon, who is fascinated by the workings of my camera and the idea of “film” is completely foreign to him. The images, printed large and on the wall, were powerful. They were images full of quiet grace, showing the timelessness of nature. A reminder that photographs are at their best when viewed large, they are truly art.

The city of Lausanne has one of the first museums in Europe dedicated to photography, the Musee de L’Elysee. The current exhibit is reGeneration2, an exhibition of 80 young photographers (in art school) from 30 countries in North America, Asia and Europe. I was struck by the sheer variety of it all… from people to architecture, from candid moments to studio, from black and white to color, from film photographs to digital collage, even shape (see round photos, in image shown above). Some of the photography I loved, some I didn’t like, but it all reaffirmed my belief that we all have a unique vision to show the world. Art is personal, so for every person that doesn’t like our art, there is someone who will. We need to keep showing our personal vision, developing our own style. Regain the irrepressible confidence of youth, the belief that you can do anything, that these photographers show.

While wandering the waterfront in Geneva, we ran into a photography exhibit called “Chernobyl: 25 Years After the Catastrophe.” Powerful images from Guillame Briquet, showing the area surrounding Chernobyl today. He captured the decay of the human creations and the rebirth of nature left to itself, even in the wake of such a damaging event. What a contrast, against the backdrop of the festive carnival also happening along the lakefront. The most striking images for me were the ones that showed the evidence of lives interrupted. Just left behind. And the saddest part? It was too late for most of the people in the town of Pripyat to survive, since they were evacuated a full day after the accident because of the extreme radiation to which they were exposed.
This exhibit showed the power of photography to teach us about history, to remind us of events of the past and the longer term ramifications. To teach us about what the human ego can do, when left unchecked. Photography has the power to keep the world honest.

Finally, last weekend back in my home area of Milan, Italy I found the exhibit of Alberto Bortoluzzi‘s 24+1 Cinema Chairs Project. What a delightful find this was! Finding an old movie theater chair in the dump, Bortoluzzi was struck by the disappearance of these chairs for their cushy, higher tech cousins. He began wondering about the stories that old movie theater chairs might tell, and started to find and document these chairs. He then contacted filmmakers for their memories of the cinema and the result is a powerful essay on the history of film, through the images of these chairs and the words of the people who helped create the films. A first for me, I actually made a beeline to the bookstore and purchased the book of the project so that I could enjoy the images and stories at my leisure. Bortolozzi’s work shows the power of photography, when paired with stories, to capture something greater than the image itself. To create something wonderful and new.

Photography is amazing, isn’t it? We need to move it from the computer screen and onto the wall. We need to experience it larger than life, as a part of our physical environment. If you can, take the opportunity to go see an exhibit in person soon, and share what you learn! As for me, I think I’m going to figure out how to view some of my photos, live and in person.