developing an idea

Go Baby Go, 2026

I made Go Baby Go a couple of months ago, but the idea started with a dream I had in 2022. Here is an excerpt from a blog post in 2024 that I wrote about the original image...Ride the Gator.

Ride the Gator started with a dream I had in 2022.  I had been diagnosed with lung cancer, a real shocker as I had never smoked. They found the cancer quite by accident, and I was waiting for surgery. The dream was so vivid, I wrote in down in my workbook the next morning:

After my surgery and recuperation, the idea of creating a "riding the alligator" image never left me. However, my artistic drive seemed to leave me for quite some time and I felt unable to work with photographs. The idea transferred to my 2023 workbook, then my 2024 workbook, and finally came to fruition in February 2024.

Ride the Gator, 2024

Same theme, different look. I was very happy with the original image...for me, it captured a dream like quality that I was striving for. But looking back at it, I wasn't convinced that it conveyed the sense of exhilaration I wanted to portray.

I should add that this year I have been concentrating on making images that tell a story of overcoming adversity. 

So...back to the drawing board...or, in my case, computer...and I set the scene in a circus tent (life is a circus, isn't it?) and added many more balloons. I tried different animals and birds but decided to keep the crow I used in 2024. And the gator? Instead of a photo of a plastic toy, the gator is real in Go Baby Go. I took a photo of this guy on a trip to Florida in early 2025. Unfortunately (or maybe fortunately for me) this gator was in a cage at a gator zoo. It actually made me feel quite upset to see these majestic reptiles locked up and I had to leave. Perhaps an idea for another image.

(disclaimer....I replaced the eye of the real gator with the eye from the toy alligator!) 

Go Baby Go, 2026

Adventure is Calling

Adventure is Calling, 2026

When I started back into creating collages with my photographs late last year, I was creating images individually and piecing them together with no particular theme in mind. 

When I'm working on an image, I'll print out a small copy and pin it to a bulletin board in my office. Sometimes I'll print it when I'm stuck and don't know where I'm going with the image. Sometimes, everything seems to flow and I'll print it out when it's "done". Almost always, I'll go back and tweak things, change the colour of something, or change one of the elements in the image. And sometimes, the image just stays on the board, waiting patiently. 

When I'm sitting in my office chair, I'll swing around now and then to look at the board and view all the images together. That's when I discover some overall themes, and, for me, that's the most magical part of creating. 

Adventure is Calling in progress

 

 

It's been a while

The last time I posted was May 2025. It has been a challenging time with many huge life changes. But I'm trying to get back on track and am hoping to start posting her regularly. I thought it fitting to show a photo of my bulletin board since that's what I did before I dropped the ball...proof that despite not posting, I have actually been creating new images. I hope to show them here over the next couple of months.

I'll start with an image I made in February. February is usually one of my least favourite months...winter always seems to be dragging on and I start to long for fair weather and spring. 

This image combines elements from 5 different photographs, spanning from 2010 to 2025. 

Make Hay While the Sun Shines, 2026

Here are the "ingredients" that make up this photo collage...they are embarrassing to show! 

1. Black Skimmers on a Florida Beach, taken January 2025 (just before most Canadians stopped traveling to the US!)

2. a field in Upper Branch, Nova Scotia in 2014

3. balloons on a bench, 2013

4. magnolia tree taken on a dog walk, 2025

5. a sheep taken on a farm in 2010 

When I posted this image on facebook, someone (Hi Helen!) left a comment: "I always love imagining the story that must lie behind one of your images". Such a perfect comment...that's exactly what I want everyone to do when they look at one of my creations. And, even better, I love it when people share what they think with me.

 

Just Keep Going

images created to date, May 2025

My office is quite small, measuring a meager 7 x 8 feet, large enough for a desk and a small printer table along one wall, and a low bookcase running along the opposite wall. This little office is my haven, my sanctuary. As a full time caregiver to someone who sleeps a lot, my office is a refuge where I go to create.

After my husband's stroke in 2017, I started focusing on the theme of emotional healing. Through my images and words, I have tried to raise awareness of linking creativity to wellness. Creating is my therapy. I journal, I work with my photography, and I create my composited images in my little office.

My own health had a major set back in 2022 when I was diagnosed with lung cancer despite the fact that I never smoked one cigarette in my life. Approaching my three year anniversary from surgery, I realize how much I was impacted. Combined with my husband's declining health, my creative energies were quite depleted. I felt empty of any inspiration to create with my photography and turned to other mediums.

I (mostly) stopped blogging, I (mostly) stopped sharing online. I turned to art journaling, hand making books, and hand stitching diary cloths. I created "ransom notes", using letters cut from flyers and pasting them to make cards to inspire myself. The learning and the creativity carried me through. I did make a couple of composited images (my favourite thing to do) in 2024. Somehow, some way, I started to feel a stronger creative urge in February of this year and shared a few of them on Instagram. 

I have a large bulletin board mounted above my desk. For the past few years it has been filled with things I found inspiring, or simply just beautiful to look at. This board has gradually changed and is now filled with my own images, all created in the past couple of months. Are they good? I don't know. But it's definitely uplifting to see my own work filling up the board.

Are you stuck? Just keep going.  

Journal Page Feb 2025

 

The evolution of ideas

Perhaps I'm a creature of habit, or maybe I have a limited imagination? However, I prefer to think that I am persistent in my pursuit of working with an idea until I create something that satisfies my imagination and pushes my boundaries of creativity.

2017 was a devastating year for me. My husband had a major stroke, and my world changed significantly. However, I used art to pull me through the darkest of times and worked on several projects that allowed me to express my emotions and frustrations in a visual way.

One project was during the year 2018. I took photographs and then wrote a verse to pair with the image.

One of my favourites was I Had a Dream:

I Had a Dream, 2018

I reach for the light

but the stars

have fallen

and lay submerged

glittering their promise

like diamonds

beneath the sea

The image is a simple double exposure with no further editing.

During the early stages of the pandemic, I spent a lot of time improving my photo editing skills and started to create digital collages...images composed of elements from many different photographs merged into one. Last year, 2023, I revisited the verse I wrote in 2018 and decided to create another image using this photo collage method. The Stars Have Fallen was the result:

The Stars Have Fallen, 2023

This image was created with elements from four or five photographs. The background is a photo of the side of an abandoned car! To be frank, I prefer my original image, the double exposure photograph.

Fast forward to today, when I watched a video on YouTube made two years ago by an artist in the UK. Mrs Bertimus, episode 4  I discovered her work and YouTube channel several weeks ago and was quite intrigued by her artistic style. So haunting and beautiful. Every few days, I choose one of her older videos and watch them. This particular video shows how she created her image If The Stars Fell Out Of The Sky. Oh my, be still my heart! Her painting visually captures what I was trying to say with my verse from 2018. 

I have contacted her and fingers are crossed that I am able to purchase a print of her image (her website says she ships only to UK and US). Edited to note: she kindly sent me a print, and has added shipping to Canada on her website.

And...I am motivated to work yet again on creating a new image for my verse I Had A Dream. Maybe version 3 is in my future.

I reach for the light

but the stars

have fallen

and lay submerged

glittering their promise

like diamonds

beneath the sea

Note to myself: keep trying!