How come? How come it is that the flu seems to be worse each year? My gods! This thing needs to GO! It’s almost as though my body knows I have things to do and it just will not cooperate with the rest of me. LOL Hmmm….. Maybe my body is trying to tell me something.

Somehow, in the middle of this dreadful bout, I have managed to transcend, yet, again. I’ve noticed that my ‘interests’ are evolving. From the awakening that I got when I met up with Snowy, and the others, at Magickal Scraps, I began to realise that what I adore in scrapbooking is the art. It isn’t grabbing up some goodies and making a photo layout with them. It isn’t creating a kit or the elements. It is in the techniques that one can use, along with the program’s abilities, combined, that make up the artistic value of a design.

I am one of those people that has to realize a concept my way. I tend to think linearly. I am drawn to a particular design, yet, don’t understand, right away, what it is that draws me in. It is only after I see other designs and what they do for me, that I begin to understand what it is that I like. This is when I go in search of tutorials and/or resources to create those aspects I admire. Getting ‘side-tracked’ doesn’t even begin to explain it. LOL I could peruse the creative sites forever. I love to see what people have done. I’m so in awe. I have to make myself stop.

This pattern has tottered along for a few months, I guess. Then, Friday night, I joined in on a chat at Magickal Scraps. The subject was collages. Snowy gave us the resourses, a bit of this and a bit of that – ephemera, I would call some of it. (My new word for the week. LOL) She included some flora, both images and borders and several vintage images of Victorian ladies. The concept was to use flowers, all or any of your own, in a background, then, ‘collage in’ the images. The resulting layouts by all those who joined in are just amazing. They will all be made available in QP’s in a blog train soon. I found my creative juices gushing as I attempted to apply her suggestions. I love the results! I still want to ‘tweek’ my results with some applications, but, I am in my element!

The next morning, while recooperating from the side-splitting laughter during the chat, I happened upon the “art-e-zine” website. I found nirvana! LOL Check it out. Click on the numerous links and take a look at some of the images! There is list after list of resources, as well. The designs were what I interpretted as what Snowy had been alluding to in this chat challenge.

(click on image to go to art-e-zine)

So, in a matter of a day or two, along with a bad dose of influenza, I think I have found the stirrings of a style of my own. Just the stirrings, mind you. I don’t want to just mimic what others before me have done. What I want to do is take this concept and run with it. I have other ideas that should couple nicely with this abstract style of collages. So, I go off to my CS3 to practice using the many styles, brushes, patterns, images, etc, as well as some of the techniques I am learning, to come up with my own interpretations.

Botticelli had the little flowers spilling down his paintings. Picasso, his abstract masterpieces. da Vinci is an island unto himself, but, his style is well-known. I don’t plan on being another da Vinci, but, his love of understanding images is one I, too, possess. Let’s see what I can do. If I can ever get over this damned flu!

Editor’s Note: Some six hours after posting the above, I realized one other thing. Music. Music has always been a mood-altering ‘drug’ for me. It was pure coincidence, however, that I stumbled upon a blog with some cool music. Copying over several of those songs to my own ProjectPlaylist account, I added to my collection of songs that I like very much. I am pretty sure that much of my progress over the past weekend has had a whole lot to do with music. In the piece I am doing for the Magickal Scraps chat challenge, Enya gave me the inspiration for the word art. Here is the song:

http://assets.myflashfetish.com/swf/mp3/mff-mpodmin.swf

Music Playlist at MixPod.com

See what I mean? LOL I can hardly wait for my finished piece!