I made some sales through my Zazzle store

I'm finding the creative work on Zazzle rewarding, almost in it's own right and, bonus, I make sales, too!

It's not always my fine art that sells...

Here are some of my sales in the last few days, not a black and white / art photo amongst them!

Lose it at the weekend - poster

DJ on the decks - birthday card

Salsa dance fun

Daddy from Princess birthday card & verse 

My sales pitch...

All are customisable with your own words / pictures. See how easy it is to do on my Zazzle store: HightonRidley

I've got lots of blank cards with a selection of my artwork ready for your own message, have a look and let me know what you think. ...And for kids you might like gifts and cards from my Spudpeeps range.

If you're the type who likes to say the extra special things on a greetings card, you should probably see my Thinking of You, Thank You and Inspirational ranges.
I've even got a Gothic range, for those whose tastes tend that way. And if you're a romantic at heart, see everything with traditional poetry.

If you like what you see, you'll probably want to spread the word and tell friends and relatives alike, I'm sure. Folks do like to hear personal recommendations because there's so much dross and so many scams around—so help them out and let them know.

Go on, right now - strike while the iron's hot!  :) If you twitter, then click the tweet button, or maybe you do lots with stumbleupon - click the Stumble It button. It all helps, so thanks in advance!!

Own a piece of my affordable artwork

...on something useful. Remember, the very best of my shots are available on items to suit all pockets. If you find an image in my galleries you like, there'll be a panel next to it showing all items available with that image. I know that many, many of my followers really like my work, and if you are one of them, you'll find something affordable to own, whether t-shirt, poster, card or mug.

I love to read your feedback and you can be sure I take it into account as my art progresses...

comments / critique / feedback always welcome :)

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I apologise in advance...

...for the birthday card verse I wrote—it's a right groaner (you can avoid it by reading no further!)

From a Pretty Pink Princess to her Mummy

(or Mommy)

I love my Mummy because...

She helps me play dress-up, I get to use makeup,
We giggle and laugh a lot.
She chooses the dresses, the shoeses and tresses,
And ties up my hair in a knot.

She's now my hand-maiden, with eyes of black raven,
And maybe a hint of a witch,
In dreamland at Camelot, I rule and I'm Queen a lot,
With Mummy to see there's no hitch!

Copyright 2010 HightonRidley

What did you think of my cheek, rhyming "shoeses" with "chooses" and "Queen a lot" with "Camelot"? Anyway, here's the card I wrote it for:

And while I'm on about my Zazzle store, I did another Potato Patch character - Spudpeep Paddy, who is the first aider there. If any of the other Spudpeeps have an accident, he sorts out any cuts, bumps and bruises.

see all my Spudpeep Paddy items in my Zazzle store

You may now punish me in the comments for my dreadful rhyming!

comments / critique / feedback always welcome :)

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Another verse, Gothic this time...

Well, I don't know if I'm any good at this 'ere poetry, but needs must when the devil drives!

Folley's Dream

I created a poster that felt like it needed a verse. I was feeling a bit gothic and came up with:

In fright she fled
From love foreseen.

The fears she felt,
The tears she shed
- blood red! My heart!

In flight from Folly's Dream

Copyright © Highton-Ridley 2009

Here's the poster

Folly's Dream poster with verse by HightonRidley
Shop the other artwork at zazzle.co.uk

comments / critique / feedback always welcome :)

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Exploring the thought that I treat my images like poems

A painter who visited my work asked:

The hay stacks - a lot of atmosphere in this pic - wonder if you see your photos as poems (reading it on different levels?)

I said in my reply that it was an interesting topic that I'd explore some more in my blog. The short answer is - yes, often, sometimes more so, sometimes less.

So here goes with the long answer

First, a couple of concepts I'll be relying on. Beware, I'm not formally trained so might not use the right words but hopefully I'll get my meaning across. [Amusing mixing of levels, here: Note to self, a picture paints a thousand words, so why don't I use a photo to express what I mean? Oh, I'm going to, don't get ahead of yourself!]

Meaning

Interpretation and subsequent meaning is in the eye of the beholder - if the beholder is a cat, don't expect the meaning you derive to be the same as the cat's (unless, of course, you happen to be a cat reading this).

Two humans would likely agree on key aspects but even then, differences between them (some from nurture, some from nature - and think synesthesia here for an extreme example) will lead to differences in impression. Some will "get" connections that are implicit in the work more quickly than others.

Levels

Levels appear in many contexts; for example, between a subtle pun in the title chosen for the piece and elements of the piece itself.

A good example of this is the haystacks work above. Its title is Hay303 Stacks and if you care to look, you'll find it explained that this was taken on the UK road, the A303. Ok, you see what I did there. But there's also a hint of something else - there are three haystacks on the skyline and the fields are razed to the ground, barren (=0). There's lots more subtlety in there but that's all from me about it, there's got to be some mystery!

This one has the title One, Two Three - Snow! (rhymes with the way we started races when I was a kid - "one, two, three, go!" so there are echoes of childhood simplicity mixed up with image simplicity). AND there's also the one road, two pavements (sidewalks) and three objects - or one lampost (also = the digit "1"), two squares, three surfaces.

Back to the poem question

To me anyway, a poem has certain characteristics before you get to the actual words used and their meaning. The meter / rhythm, the inner structure (how many syllables to a line, how many lines to a stanza) and the overall structure of how many stanzas. (In simplest terms, anyway, and from a non-poet's viewpoint.)

These are like the compositional elements in a photo before you get to the actual content itself. They equate in some sense to the viewpoint taken, the framing of the elements and their form and spacial inter-relationships within that frame.

In photos you have the main subject and in poetry the main theme. A poet then carefully chooses words to convey the meaning felt by them during that part of the work, possibly using the rhythm to reinforce but also phrasing things and choosing sound-shapes to bring other echoes to the mind of the reader / listener, as befits the meaning intended. And then they polish, polish and polish some more.

I think I do the equivalent with my photos once I get them to the digital darkroom. For example, in choosing the colour to mono conversion technique to use, I'm building on what tonal relationships -- in and between the elements -- to play up or down, polishing what happenstance put before me and I arranged in the viewfinder. Another example is Knot A Rope Knot - notice there's a rope (knot) sandwiched between two knots on the wooden post.

So with both poems and pictures (and, if you think about music, with that too) artistic expression is about creating a work that encapsulates a piece of the artist's world-view. More than that, to be considered "worthy", it has to survive the translation through their chosen medium to become the observer's impression. And if the same meaning as was intended is felt, then it has worked.

Of course, the observer always has the chance to mis-, over- or re-interpret, and if that results in more than the artist consciously intended ...then all to the good! Either it was there and intended or it was there as an artefact of something else but, nevertheless, still artist-inspired.

How well it is appreciated depends on the inner creation envisaged by the artist in the first place, how well the artist packages that up in their piece, how accurately this piece is perceived and interpreted by the observer and how much their interpretation then appeals to their sense of beauty.

So, finally...

...I think that pretty much anyone consciously "doing art" whether they be poet, painter, musician or whatever, weaves an expression of their art using all the strands available (including multi and mixed levels), that they think are relevant and that have meaning in their chosen medium.

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