This Aint Your Grandmother's Quilt

The Norcross Art Center opened the exhibit “Contemporary African American Quilts by the Brown Sugar Stitchers Quilt Guild” with an artists reception and a concert by “Main Street Strings”.

Indeed, these are not what you might expect from the word “quilt”, these are glorious, colorful, imaginative works of art. Here some examples. Sorry, but taking photos in the midst of a party just can’t do justice to these works.

The artists graciously explained there work.

On the left: Cleme Cosby with her quilt “Cranberry Galaxy”. On the right: Jeanette Walton in front of her “Out of Africa III – Charmed I’m Sure”.

Even a photo-realistic quilt, “Desert Queen” by Anita Crosby, here with the actual “model”.

You really must see these delightful quilts for yourself. The exhibit will continue throughout the month of August. To see it call the Norcross Welcome Center & Museum to arrange a visit.

.:.

© 2013 Ludwig Keck

Summer Evening in Duluth Georgia

Here in the South summer days are hot and when the sun is not broiling it probably is raining by the bucketfuls. Evenings, however, can be very pleasant. There are delightful gathering spots with plenty of entertainment, eating and drinking places, and sights to see. One such place is Duluth, Georgia.

Duluth has a great park downtown with a fountain and the “Duluth Festival Center” with a stage. On this particular evening the performing group is the “Dappled Grays”. I even created a couple of “paintings” of members of this group.

Duluth has also a very imposing city hall. In front there are two “guard dogs”, you can see one of them below.

One of my favorite places, just across from the park, is 45 on Main Café. A great place for a good cup of coffee, some great food, and delightful entertainment.

Yes, that living room is part of the café, and the group clearly having great fun is “Threadbare Skivvies”.

Now don’t you just want to get up and come right down to Duluth Georgia?

.:.

© 2013 Ludwig Keck

When the light gets low

Evening is such a splendid time for a stroll. The “golden hour” to photographers, when the sunlight bathes everything in a golden glow. But when the sun disappears below the horizon and light fades, taking pictures becomes more difficult.

Of course there are the sunset photo opportunities.

But don’t give up there, there is more that your camera can capture. The sky will have light for some great silhouettes. Here are some of mine.

Look around, there may be plenty of opportunities for evening photos. And when it finally gets really too dark, look up. You never know what the sky might hold.

.:.

© 2012 Ludwig Keck

Make a “Work of Art” from this – The Result

It was an “Event” on Google+. I provided a decent, but flawed, photo with the challenge to “Make a Work of Art from this”. (See post Can you make a “Work or Art” from this?).

To my great delight 19 photographers took the challenge and submitted 23 entries (including two from myself). All of them are delightful, amazing, creative, imaginative, and well done. Here is how Google+ presents the entries by photographer:

Here just a few of the entries to provide a better view:

Jim Haner

Rob Patterson

Rob Patterson

To see the entire collection (I don’t know how long Google+ will keep this available) click the link:

Make a Work of Art from this.

All these wonderful creation started with this photo:

My thanks to all who contributed,  “plused”, and commented! This was a lot of fun for all!

.:.

© 2012 Ludwig Keck

Can you make a “Work or Art” from this?

My readers have chuckled and smiled at my many playful manipulations of some of my photos.

Recently I have done over a dozen attempts at turning a photo into a “Work of Art”. None made me happy. So I decided to challenge my friends and readers to try their hand.

This is a post-processing challenge, not a way to show off you photography skills. You can’t use a photo of your own, but need to use the one provided.

The steps are simple:

• Join the Google+ Event that I set up for this challenge.
• Download the photo from the link provided there.
• Manipulate it to your hearts content.
• Share it with others as part of the Google+ Event.

Rules:

• This is my photo and you may play with it and share your creation with the event group.
• You many not use the photo in any other way unless you obtain specific permission from me (I may ask for compensation ).

So here, at last is the original photo:

Just to get your creative juices flowing, here are four of my attempts:

You are welcome to use any tool, crop and flip, convert to monochrome, or any processing. Whatever you think will result in a “Work of Art” that you would be proud of.

Here is the link to the Google+ Event for this challenge.

.:.

© 2012 Ludwig Keck