The Call: When the House is Quiet, I Can Hear the Rain — Cheryl I got up earlier than most today and had plenty of time to listen to the drops hitting the leaves outside the window.

The Call: Summer on Deck — Cheryl I think I could fill entire days—wait, more accurately, nights—with the creation of abstract images in Photoshop. This particular one was made with three different multiple exposure/ICM images of my spray-painted deck, the catkins that have been blown all over the deck, and lilacs swaying in the breeze.

The Call: Lilac Time of Year — Cheryl We have one lilac bush that actually blooms. It could use some pruning, because cutting lilacs involves a lot of stretching and reaching and cutting away of flowerless twigs. I think it’s worth the effort. Not only do I appreciate the splash of purple in the living […]

The Call: Glass Smoke — Cheryl More than a decade ago, Dennis’s parents gave us a glass oil lamp that—amazingly—has survived in our raucous house. It looks and feels quite fragile. In fact, here it is: I created today’s image with four exposures in one frame, a shutter open for 2.5 seconds, and some slow, […]

The Response: Purple Gazing — Cheryl I had a number of purple photos to choose from today, but I settled on this: a four-shot, multiple-exposure image created with the trees in my backyard, and a lovely, large, purple candle my sister-in-law made for me.

The Response: Shades of Meaning (Unless You Change and Become Like Little Children) — Cheryl I’ve read — and believe — that if you think you have the virtue of humility, you don’t. A similar maxim seems to apply to art: if you’re certain you’re creating it, there’s a good chance you’re not.

The Call: Unconstrained — Cheryl I’ve started turning my walls into canvases for my art. I tape up pieces of paper, sheets of stickers, and lengths of tape. Then I shoot and shoot and shoot. Setting my camera to multiple exposure, tilting it, moving it, backing off, coming in close: all of it gives me […]

The Response: Refiner’s Fire — Cheryl This is one of those images that I won’t bother trying to explain (other than to say that it’s a composite created with two copies each of four different photos — two of them being multiple exposure ones). I had not planned on going anywhere near this direction, but […]

The Call: White and Red — Cheryl I chose this image from all the ME/ICM ones I took today, because it reminds me of the work of Mark Rothko and the conversations my son and I have had about Rothko’s paintings. Luke can’t stand them, judging the works to be less than art. I long […]

The Call: What Does “I Am Good Enough” Look Like? — Cheryl Acceptance is one of those words that carry a lot weight, for women more than men, I’d bet. Yes, we all want to be accepted by others, but women seem to have an especially hard time accepting themselves. Throw art into the mix, […]

The Response: Recollections of Liberty — Cheryl I keep returning to my paintings and starting new ones to use as fodder in my multiple exposure and composite images. Combining them in this way seems like a perfect synthesis for me.

The Call: The Right Direction — Cheryl Now that I’ve found this artistic place that feels like home, I discover something new and wonderful every time I pick up my camera. This four-shot multiple-exposure image was created with the corner of a canvas I’m painting, an odd camera angle, and a little tweaking in Lightroom.

The Call: Eye Cannot Explain — Cheryl It seems like a great deal of my life has been centered around explaining who I am or what I mean. Being understood was of the utmost importance to me. Now, it’s not. I once read something like, “If an artist could express himself in words, he wouldn’t […]

The Response: Faith, Home, and Hospitality — Cheryl Well, this is odd. I’m at a loss for words. As I thought about and created this image from three multiple exposure photos (one of a tree and an upper section of my house, and two of the Last Supper plaque hanging next to my front door), […]