Category Archives: digital play

Back to it

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When I say “back to it,” I mean collage. A grief series I suppose. I leafed through my piles of magazine cut outs yesterday looking for a scarlet red. Yes. Yes, I wanted to cut out a heart shape and rip it in half. Materials took me in a different direction.

I used the paper collage in my double exposure app and came up with a few variations. Today is one of six summer writing workshops so I may not get to the cutting table again until tomorrow.

I’m reading another Kate Atkinson. The Jackson Brodie series. As previously mentioned, she doesn’t cut it as a cozy mystery writer but I’m engaged.

On TV? There we go. Two cozy mystery series on offer: GRANTCHESTER and BEYOND PARADISE.

Full moon in Capricorn. My usual terrible photo

Grief wisdom from this morning’s insta tour: we are suffering from PTSD as well as grief. Not surprisingly, it often accompanies a sudden violent death. I know this is obvious but it was somehow clarifying to acknowledge this morning.

Wrapping up

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Saturday, June 28, 2025

Usually, after a trip to California I add something to my household that from then on feels essential. How did I live without it before? One year, it was a rice cooker, another, a Dyson stick vacuum. This year, it’s gonna be a new waffle maker and bourbon vanilla extract. Used the extract for French toast this morning — yum!

Heading home shortly. I don’t know why, but when I get back I want to do a deep cleaning of the downstairs.

In case you’re not on Instagram, here I am modeling my new haircut. Billy’s caregiver used to be a stylist and a good one as it turns out. Did you know you should change your side part every other month?

Christmas in July. For trump, that is.

I’ll say no more about SCOTUS for now, but holy fucking Christ.

Two Insomnia Collages to end.

Is it Saturday? 5/24

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Ever since Ken retired we hardly know what day it is. That’s why we announce on Friday evenings, “IT’S THE WEEKEND!” For a while, I made a point of cooking up a nice hot breakfast on Saturday mornings but not so much anymore.

Still weekends feel different, they do. No appointments or classes or zoom calls (for me). He has a cocktail in the evening. Less roaring and beeping construction sounds. Fewer kids at the playground next door.

Soon we’ll be treated to the “Cape Effect.” Love it. The Cape Effect is when our town becomes noticeably quieter because so many vacate to their second homes.

As for us, we’ll be heading to LA soon. Just in time for their “June gloom.” I’m gonna load my kindle up with books this time so I’ll always have a novel in my pocket.

My brother won’t be up for attending a protest, but since one of the No Kings gatherings will take place in nearby Pasadena, I may pop down the hill for a bit.

PS Two digital collages above from this week’s Paris Collage Club visual prompt. Combines my photo of Ken with Finn, a former PCC prompt (the tree), and photo of a quilt.

Two more:

It was a shocker to find a figure framed in that slave cabin window (above). Revealed by the quirks of the filter. As many times as I looked at that photo of mine, I’d never discerned the person inside. Photo below.

Here’s the exposure slid to the brightest setting.

A night out

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April 26, 2025

The last time I saw Alvin Ailey was in 2013. It’s a little hard to believe sometimes how time passes. The show, no surprise, was spectacular and moving. It was good to get out.

Stitching to a terrible Netflix Series, Ransom Canyon. Hallmark movie without the Christmas, I say, including the signature near-miss handsome lead. This hero looks like a mash up of Timothy Olyphant and Matt Damon and all I can see is how he’s not Olyphant. Then there’s Ugly Brooke Shields. If you watch, you’ll know who I mean. Lots of preposterous story lines.

Walked over to Chinatown before the performance last night and got a little turned around getting back to the Wang Center which isn’t the Wang Center anymore but hey. It was a lot of steps, steps on uneven, wet, and unpredictable sidewalks. I’m tired today.

Week of April 26, 2024

Thank you Cory Booker

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I listened to Cory Booker for a short while before my doctor’s appointment and then for a good long while later, stitching in the afternoon sun. I’m noticing how much better I feel. I’m noticing how much it matters for people in power to speak up.

Got quite a few “finishers” in the works. Antidotes to despair I suppose. Medicine against feeling powerless. One stitch at a time.

Trimming, binding, signing, and adding dowel sleeves. It always takes longer than I think.

Here are examples (below) from four recent series of digital collages. Almost all incorporate paper collage or photos of my own. If I weren’t feeling tongue-tied by national events I might have something to say about them but they can speak for themselves I guess.