Kat Eye Studio

by

What I Love About Art

Occasionally a piece comes along that reminds me exactly what it is I love about creating art. It doesn’t have to be the best piece I ever made (usually it isnt’t). It doesn’t have to be something others love. It just has to remind me of the joy of creating in my chosen medium.

This piece, Meet Me at the Tree, is one of those pieces.

  
It reminded me of the two things I love about iPhone photography…

First, the immediacy and availability of it, which allows me to capture the world I move through. I was walking from my car to the office building where I work my corporate job, and there it was: This cool twig, which looked like a stylized tree, planted along a crack in the asphalt of the parking lot. A little scene in itself. I pulled out my iPhone, framed and photographed a few images, and then went on my way. (My coworkers think I’m crazy.)

  
And then the second thing I love, transforming it into something altogether different in my editing process using iPhone apps. Taking the image as the raw material to create a new type of art, related to the starting photograph but comepletely different. No requirement to tie to the original “reality” of it, I can transform it into a completely different expression. The world I see becomes a world I imagine. 

  
And I am giddy with it! This is what I love about art. This is what I love about my medium. The ability to see beyond my current reality. The transformation of one thing into another.

I am filled with the excitement of the possibilities. What might I see and transform today?

by

Join me for the #30edits challenge (plus a new Stackables formula)

December is usually a slow creative time for me. Too much to do, too little light, not many photographs. Instead of dropping into a creative funk this year, I’m giving myself a challenge. I’m going to edit the same photo, 30 different ways.

Winter Fog Lake Tree Kat Sloma iPhone Photography #30edits

At the Edge, edit #5 of 30

Care to join me? Pick a photo, and start editing. Post using #30edits on Instagram. There are no additional requirements, no time limits, no awards for finishing except the creative boost you might receive.

Winter Tree Orange Brown Kat Sloma iPhone Photography #30edits

Life Force, edit #4 of 30

It’s already got my creative juices flowing. Ideas are popping on to my head to try during the day. So many options! So hard to choose what to do! What a fun problem to have.

Winter Tree Sky Blue Purple Kat Sloma iPhone Photography #30edits

Blueberry Sky, edit #3 of 30

To get you started, how about a new Stackables formula? This one is called Blueberry Sky.

To download the “Blueberry Sky” formula for your own use, 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.

2015-12-04 05

Join me in the #30edits fun!

PS – If you are anxiously awaiting Part 2 of the Cleaning and Cutting for Compositing Images tutorial, it will post next week!

by

Time of Transition

Can you feel it? Change is coming.

I can feel it on my skin, through the chill in the morning air.

I can feel it in my family, through the words floating around my house… Schedules and homework and supplies and lunch money.

And I can feel it stirring deep in my soul, through the shift of my artistic focus.
  
I’m going inward, taking the time to tend to the inner landscape, preparing myself for the darker, quieter days and months to come. Perhaps I’m preparing myself to create the art to come as well.

I feel it, deep in my bones. Change is coming. 

I am ready. Are you?

by

What do you know about Trees?

Turns out, even though I photograph trees all the time, I know next to nothing! I started to rectify that knowledge gap on Friday when I partnered with Oregon State University Professor Emeritus Ed Jensen to teach a workshop on tree identification and smartphone photography. 

It might seem like an odd combination, but it worked well! Trees brought Ed to photography, which he uses as botanical illustrations for his books. Photography brought me to trees, which are a fascinating artistic subject. So here we met in the middle, and shared our respective passions with a group of interested participants. Fun!

Here are a few things I learned about trees…

I learned how the Ponderosa Pine pollinates. They are a wind pollinator. These are the male pollen cones which are releasing their pollen right now. If you barely touch them, yellow pollen streams away.

 

I learned why the Oregon White Oak, one of my favorite trees to photograph, grows with space between them. (They are shade intolerant.) I also learned why I can only get the really green leaf silhouettes of this tree in the spring.  As the leaves mature, they grow thick and waxy, as a protection from drought. Later in the summer, no light gets through the oak leaves, but right now they make an wonderful silhouette.

 

I learned about the Dawn Redwood, also known as the fossil tree, which was thought to be extinct until China opened up to the West in the 1940’s. It’s a deciduous conifer, losing its needles in the fall. I didn’t even know there was such a thing as deciduous conifers! I guess I’ve only noticed the evergreen variety.

  
And did you know the Dogwood flower is really only the part in the center? Those big “petals” are really more similar to a leaf. Here is Ed, showing us the flower in the center.

  

Isn’t that all interesting? And that is just a small fraction of what he showed us!  It makes me want to learn more about the trees I photograph. Ed has a book, Trees to know in Oregon, which I will be studying. As I learn more about trees, I may find new ways to photograph them. At least I’ll be more aware of what to notice and observe, which is always a good thing for a photographer. 

So, what do YOU know about trees? Have you ever looked closely at the trees in your area? They are a fascinating subject, for both academic and artistic study. 

by

Where does art come from?

Is there a place you feel most like yourself? Where you shed the trappings of everyday life and the expectations of others? I have a place like that. Or places, I should say. It’s wherever I find a dirt trail winding among the trees. Wherever I can be surrounded by the forest – tall trees, filtered light, greenery. Just the sounds of the breeze, the birds, and my breath.

Kat-Sloma-Photography-4635

It’s in the forest that I most feel like me. I’m not Kat the artist, or Katrina the engineer, or Trina the daughter, sister and wife. I’m just me, the core of me that doesn’t need a name. The forest reminds me there is this constant, consistent existence inside all of the outer trappings. This essential “me” that is the same no matter what direction I am facing in life, which name and role I’m taking on. I get to be that essential me, get in touch with that core, when I am in the forest. What a beautiful thing!

This lovely realization came through a couple of hikes I managed to squeeze in recently. It’s nice to know that regardless of how busy my life is or how many items on the “to do” list, there is a constant source of peace I can tap into. This realization has also led to an “aha” about my art.

Sometimes, looking at my work in the last couple of years, I’ve wondered how someone who is so busy can create art that is so peaceful and contemplative. I mean really, look at the work I create. It might make you think I live life in some zen way, full of meditation and awareness. Yet I am usually going a hundred miles an hour, filling most of my time with commitments and projects and goals. I have a full time corporate job, I create and sell art, I write and teach, I’m a wife and mother. Doesn’t sound very zen to me.

At times, I’ve wondered: Is the art I create a yearning for something else? Some simplicity that I can’t seem to achieve? But even though I’ve asked myself those questions, it’s never really felt this way. It doesn’t feel like the art comes from a place of emptiness or wanting. It feels like the art is just there. And I reach in and pull it out.

And that’s the “aha”… My art is there. It comes from that constant core, the “me” that’s me regardless of the name I’m using, the role I’m playing. The same self I get in touch with in the forest is the same self that I’m tapping in to when I create my art. It’s always there, always ready to be accessed. It just takes me finding a moment, finding ways to connect with it. Isn’t that brilliant? My art is from a place of abundance, not a place of lack. Because what I have, what I always have, no matter what else is happening in my life, is me.

I’ve always thought that connections brought through art are special. That when someone creates with honesty, you can see the true person through their art. I’m getting a deeper, more personal understanding of that. People who connect with my art are people who see me. The real me, under all of the window dressing of the different roles I play. It explains why I want to sell my art – because getting out there increases those connections. It explains why I love to teach about art – because it helps others find that connection to self too.

All of this has led to me rewriting what I think of as a “welcome” message, for the About me page on my website. Trying to capture who I am and what I do in just a few sentences is a difficult thing, but here’s my first draft…

My art is an expression of who I am, beyond the trappings of a modern, busy life as a mother, wife, engineer, teacher, and artist. There is a place of stillness, peace, and beauty that exists deep within me which comes out in the imagery I create. If my work resonates with you, then you have this special place within you too. I am honored to have made a connection with you. Nothing makes me happier than sending a piece of my art home with you to grace your space, or showing you how to create that kind of connection for yourself.

Welcome to Kat Eye Studio, my online creative space. Get comfortable, grab a cup of tea and make yourself at home here. Let’s connect through art.

What do you think? Does that capture it? Does it let you see a little bit of that real me, invite you to join me? I’d love to get your reactions to this new understanding, these new words.

by

How Silent the Trees

How silent the trees, their poetry being of themselves only. ~ Mary Oliver



I’ve been on a renewed Mary Oliver kick the last week or so, getting back into her poems after reading a couple of great articles on Brain Pickings. One of the articles included a fabulous interview with Krista Tippett from On Being. 

So instead of a lot of words from me, how about you listen to the wisdom and beauty of the words of Mary Oliver today? Grab a cup of tea and settle in. It’s worth your time.

[soundcloud url=”https://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/189627431″ params=”auto_play=false&hide_related=false&show_comments=true&show_user=true&show_reposts=false&visual=true” width=”100%” height=”450″ iframe=”true” /]

Upcoming Events