Category: Photography

Posted in Abstract Art, Judiasm, Photography

There Used To Be Magic

Posted on by debthumanblog

Mine is the last generation that will see magic in the night sky. Ancient people looked up at the sky, and saw stars arranged into constellations. Legends were created for these constellations. Escaping slaves followed the drinking gourd which pointed to the north star as they traveled along the underground railroad. The moon was made of green cheese. People counted, and some still do, time by the phases of the moon. There was a Man In The Moon. The night sky was filled with magic.

In July 1969, the magic died. The instant Neil Armstrong’s boot touched the surface of the moon, we exchanged magic for knowledge. We lost more than we gained.

I took Brady out to pee, and looked up. There was a smiling moon and a bright venus. I tried to put magic back into the night sky by making the moon out of green cheese.

Life. This one surprised me. Although it was not my conscious intention, there’s a Hebrew letter here. It’s called “shin” and the letter makes the sh sound. It’s also the first letter of one of our most important prayers and the letter that adorns a mezuzzah.

Gestation.

This is the first in a series of three paintings about life. When I was little, I tried hard to remember where I was before I was born. I couldn’t access the memory but I knew I existed before I was born. I eventually came to understand the concept of a soul. The soul exists long before conception and long after death.

Life.

Death.

I need to clean up the edges on this one.

I’m linking with Nina Marie here: https://ninamariesayre.blogspot.com/

My store is here: http://www.DebThumanArt.com

My Spoonflower shop is here: https://www.spoonflower.com/profiles/deb_thuman

Posted in bipolar disorder, Mental Illness, Photography, Psych meds

Magical Mystery Tour and Other Marvels of Modern Medicine.

Posted on by debthumanblog

After a couple false starts, the Magical Mystery Tour commenced last week. I had to be put on blood pressure med only because my blood pressure was reliably in the dangerous range. Now, it’s in the normal range. That’s the good part. The bad part is that it’s taking way longer than I would like to get through med adjustment. I’m exhausted. I have flutters in my chest. I will be so glad when med adjustment is finished.

The ketamine dosage for the Magical Mystery Tour has been raised because I had minimal response the first Magical Mystery Tour trip. I don’t expect ketamine to cure bipolar disorder, but I’m hoping I can get by with a lower dose of my meds.

I’ve been reading Dean Ornish’ book UnDo It. He writes about lifestyle medicine and has about 40 years of research to back up his assertions. Years ago, I had a nasty cholesterol result and a friend recommended I read Ornish’ book abut reversing heart disease with a low fat vegetarian diet. I dropped my cholesterol 40 points in 6 weeks. I know his lifestyle plan works. Now, we need to go back to low fat vegetarian eating. Jim has clogged arteries and I need to get rid of inflamation as well as getting rid of more weight than I like to admit. Yes, there will be updates. Hopefully good updates.

I’ve been working with a physical therapist to banish my vertigo. Turns out, there are crystals in my ears and the crystals got stuck in a particularly difficult place from which to dislodge them. Two sessions, and I’m significantly steadier. I was steady enough last night to shoot a crooked grin moon.

I used focus merge and cropped the shot because I didn’t think I was stable enough to use my 150-600 mm lens so I stuck with the 18-400mm lens.

Then, I started playing.

Remember when the moon was made of green cheese? The magic of the moon disappeared that day in July 1969 when Neil Armstrong’s foot touched the surface of the moon. We learned, but we lost the magic.

I’ll be using these to work out fabric designs.

I’m linking with Nina Marie here: https://ninamariesayre.blogspot.com/

I have 126 new designs in my Spoonflower shop here: https://www.spoonflower.com/profiles/deb_thuman

My store, Deb Thuman Art is here: http://www.DebThumanArt.com

Posted in Beads, Photography

Sparkle

Posted on by debthumanblog

Painting class has started and I’ve picked out some photos that I’d like to turn into paintings. I suck at realism, so I’ll be doing some landscape paintings.

A special place in Aguirre Springs, New Mexico. It’s where I decided to live.

A special place at Rushford Lake, Rushford, NY. It’s where I buried the ghosts.

Rock formation on the south side of the Dona Ana Mountains with the mountains shrouded in clouds. Dona Ana, New Mexico.

I’ve been editing photos for Jim, and I started playing around. I may paint this eerie view of the Dona Ana Mountains.

I’ve been working on jewelry and have four new pieces in my store. I’ve been using up my stash of Swarovski crystals. Swarovski has discontinued manufacturing beads so once my stash is gone, I won’t be able to buy any more crystals.

Swarovski heart.

Swarovski leaf.

Pyrite and other semi-precious gems.

Smoky quartz – one of my favorite semi-precious stones.

My store, Deb Thuman Art is here: http://www.DebThumanArt.com

My Spoonflower shop is here: https://www.spoonflower.com/profiles/deb_thuman

I’m linking with Nina Marie here: https://ninamariesayre.blogspot.com/

Posted in Jewelry, Photography

Complicated, Calming, Stretching

Posted on by debthumanblog

I bought Affinity Designer and Affinity Publisher to go with Affinity Photo. I can use just a few of the things in Photo. I tried Designer and Publisher and can’t figure out how to make them work. The problem with Affinity is it’s not intuitive. And there’s no manual. I can go to youtube, but that means having youtube on my iPad while I try to work on the laptop. Bleah!

I’ve been putting new necklaces into my store, Deb Thuman Art http://www.DebThumanArt.com

Making jewelry is relaxing. I can forget about the world, and just work with color.

I put 126 more designs in my Spoonflower shop this week. https://www.spoonflower.com/profiles/deb_thuman Unfortunately, I can’t figure out how to get photos of my designs into the blog. To see the newest designs, go to my Spoonflower shop, click on “new” and the latest designs will appear first.

I’ve been working in the painting studio, and I’ve finally gotten two of my paintings photographed. Eventually, I’ll shoot the rest of the paintings.

I’m not good at realism, so I decided to push myself and paint one of my sunset photos. The painting does not look like the photo. For some reason, I kind of like how this came out.

I don’t work with solid backgrounds, so I gave that a try. I used my iridescent paint sticks for the design. The design means something to me, but I’d prefer not to share that. I’d rather hear what you think.

I’m linking with Nina Marie http://ninamariesayre.blogspot.com/

Posted in Fiber, Photography, Sewing

One-Hour Panties and Other Marvels

Posted on by debthumanblog

When I retired seven years ago, my serger died. Jim retired two weeks ago; my serger died. Now, I have a heavy duty Brother. It threads a bit differently than my old Brother serger, but it’s just a matter of learning new threading. There’s no Dreaded Bottom Looper. There’s a lever that comes out, put the thread in the guide, turn the hand wheel so the lever goes back inside, and then thread the bottom looper the same as threading the upper looper. This time, the instruction manual has good instructions for how to use the attachment that puts elastic on something. A few practice runs, and I had the settings all worked out.

For some reason, my sewing machine, Pfaff Quilt Expressions 4.2, refuses to sew on sport lycra. It sewed on other sport lycra, but it wouldn’t sew on this sport lycra. I unthreaded the machine, cleaned the machine, put in a new needle, still wouldn’t sew. I tried a stretch needle, a ballpoint needle and a universal needle. Still wouldn’t sew. I had been sewing a casing in my undies, then threading the elastic through the casing. PITA. With the elastic attachment for the serger, I can make a pair of undies in an hour. This is very good because I was running out of decent undies.

I made these using fabric I designed and had Spoonflower print on sport lycra. My Spoonflower shop is here: https://www.spoonflower.com/profiles/deb_thuman I just got back seven yards of proofs and I now need to put 294 new designs in my Spoonflower shop.

I use wooly nylon in both loopers when I’m sewing on stretch fabric such as lycra. Where other threads won’t stretch, wooly nylon will.

I want to experiment with other types of thread. I’d like to be able to get the same stretch but with a metallic thread.

It rained today. And yesterday. And the day before that. We’re still about 4″ below average rainfall. That’s a big deal when the annual precipitation is a bit more than 8″. I had a chance to photograph raindrops.

If you look carefully at the water drops, you can see an upside down image of the stem.

No, it’s not a photo of an experiment gone very wrong. It’s raindrops on an agave leaf showing the texture of the leaf.

Here’s the rest of the leaf.

I’m linking with Nina Marie here: http://ninamariesayre.blogspot.com/

Posted in Fiber, Photography, Sewing

70

Posted on by debthumanblog

70. It comes after 69 and before 71. Today, I’m 69. Tomorrow, I’ll be 70. My brain feels 35, but the rest of me is older. I was planning on having beef on weck for my birthday dinner. Weck is a bastardization of the German word kummelweck. It means caraway seed. Kummelweck rolls have coarse salt and caraway seeds on the top. Slice the beef very thin. Put fresh ground horseradish on the sandwich. The plan changed to linguini and raw sauce. Raw sauce is chopped tomato, basil, Kalamata olives and mozzarella. It’s a room temperature sauce. I had this in New York City several years back, and loved it. For a whole lot of reasons, both Jim and I need to switch to a low-fat vegetarian diet. So much for beef on weck. Pass the beans, please.

I’ve been doing a bit of photography today. We’ve been getting rain nearly every day for the last week, and the desert is filled with blooms. 

White oleander. I experimented with a setting that’s supposed to give me true colors. And it did. White flowers are tricky because the camera is set for neutral gray.

Barrel cactus – probably 3 feet (1 meter) tall.

Cactus flower on a different barrel cactus. The fruits are edible.

Flower on a low growing cactus.

I’ve been working on sewing anther pair of shorts, and a pair of slacks that I can wear into the paint studio. Every time I walk in that room, I end up covered in paint. The slacks are being made from more of my proof fabrics.

I’ve been working one geometric fabric designs. Eventually, I’ll order proofs of my designs and then put the designs in my Spoonflower shop here: https://www.spoonflower.com/profiles/deb_thuman

I’m linking with Nina Marie http://ninamariesayre.blogspot.com

My online store, Deb Thuman Art is here: http://www.DebThumanArt.com

Posted in Fiber, Photography

Malaise and Sewing Ugly Shorts

Posted on by debthumanblog

I seem to be having Post Pandemic Malaise. It started during the pandemic, and now refuses to leave. I have to force myself to sew, to design fabric, and to write.

I design fabric, and before I can sell my designs in my Spoonflower shop, I have to have each design proofed. https://www.spoonflower.com/profiles/deb_thuman I can proof 42 designs in one yard of fabric. I must have at least 12 yards of fabric filed with proofs of my designs. Fabric doesn’t go to waste in my house. I badly need shorts, so I got out a pattern and muslin. I picked the size for my measurements, and made a muslin version so I could check fit. If I gained 60 pounds, that muslin would have been way too big on me. I tweaked the pattern and made a pair of shorts from fabric covered with proofs. It’s ugly, but it fits perfectly. At the moment, I’m working on a second pair made from white linen/rayon fabric.

I’ve been having vertigo, losing my balance, and falling lately. I saw my doctor a couple weeks ago, and she referred me to a specialist. I called the specialist and the first appointment was for late October – three months away! So from now until late October, I’ll be staggering, losing my balance and falling. Bleah! I haven’t been doing much photography because I can’t squat down to photograph flowers. Were I to squat down, I’d fall and likely land on a cactus.

Brady rarely lets me photograph her. For some reason, she kept still today and I got to take some shots of her.

This cactus is about 8 inches tall. Ideally, I would have squatted down and shot the cactus. Instead, I had to remain standing and rely on my telephoto lens to get me close enough to the cacti what I could get a half decent shot.

This is one of the barrel cacti in the back yard.

I’m linking to Nina Marie here: http://ninamariesayre.blogspot.com/

My store, Deb Thuman Art is here: http://DebThumanArt.com

Posted in anxiety, bipolar disorder, Fiber, Photography

Making Some Progress

Posted on by debthumanblog

I finally got all my designs, all 210 of them, into my Spoonflower shop https://www.spoonflower.com/profiles/deb_thuman. You have to click on “new” if you want to see my latest designs.

These are two that just went into my shop:

Ignore the squares on the photo above. This is the original shot. I cropped off the squares on the bottom so I could upload a design that had no blank space.

Getting all my designs into my Spoonflower shop took longer than I thought because I had to deal with Social Security. They insist on telephone interviews, but they fart around with their phone system so my phone won’t ring. My phone will have no record anyone called me. If I go to my voice mail, I might inadvertently find a voice mail from someone at the Social Security office. Finally, I managed to reach a human who wanted to call me back. So I went through all the reasons why that wouldn’t work and can’t we do this now? He agreed. I’ll start drawing on my Social Security account in October. I have been drawing spouse benefits under an program that doesn’t exist any more. While I have been drawing spouse benefits the last four years, my account kept growing. I’ll be getting about twice what I get now, and about $1000 more than what I would have gotten when I turned 66.

NMSU decided to switch where we get our prescription meds. As much as I hated Express Scripts, I hate CVS more. Not all of my prescriptions switched over. Jim had to talk to customer service to find out I need to set up my account within his account. I’ve no idea when or if the refills I ordered will arrive. I wanted to talk to customer service because any company that makes it so hard to do the simplest thing deserves to discover what a pissed off, bipolar attorney sounds like.

Only one thing to do when I have that much stress: grab the camera and find something to photograph.

Some of the cacti in my yard are blooming. I thought I wanted a shot of this cactus flower to make a whole quilt design. Then, I realized this was the absolute worst type of photo for quilting. Too busy and I can’t quilt around each of the petals.

I’m linking with Nina Marie here: http://ninamariesayre.blogspot.com/

My online store, Deb Thuman Art is here: http://www.DebThumanArt.com

Posted in bipolar disorder, Fiber, Photography

Art And Banging My Head On My Desk

Posted on by debthumanblog

I’ve been working on getting more designs into my Spoonflower shop. 82 down, 125 to go. It’s going slowly because there’s only so much time I can spend on loading designs into my shop before my eyes cross and my head hurts. My Spoonflower shop is here: https://www.spoonflower.com/profiles/deb_thuman

Some if my latest fabric designs…

I’d like to have a great shot of one of the cactus flowers in the yard. I’d like to have the shot printed on fabric and use the fabric for a quilted wall hanging.

If I crop out the extra stuff, then the photo is too small to print in the center of a yard of fabric. I’ll keep trying.

I’m trying to deal with Social Security. I turn 70 in August. That’s when my Social Security account stops growing. I’ve been collecting spouse benefits for the last four years. All the parts fell in place for me just before that program ended. You’d think it would be a simple matter to get an in-person appointment. Nope. Got to be a telephone appointment. That would work if the person who was supposed to call me actually called me. For the first telephone appointment, there was no record of any incoming call that entire day. Yesterday, I got calls, but rather than being from Las Cruces, NM, they were from Salt Lake City, Utah and Las Vegas, Nevada. I finally got someone to admit they hide the telephone numbers. They wouldn’t have to do that if they stopped jerking people around. After two hours, most of that time on hold, I was told I couldn’t have an in person appointment. The excuse is it would be illegal to let me into the office. Meanwhile, the Social Security Administration sent me a letter saying I could go into the local office. I was so upset after that horrendous two hours that I shook for four days. Brady knew something was very wrong and kept trying to help me. She left me a toy to play with so I’d feel better. She let me hug her. Usually when I try to hug her, she squirms. It took four hours before I was calm enough to find a novel, light a smelly candle, and soak in the tub. It was the worst manic event I’ve ever had.

I had another go round with social security this morning. After being hung up on three times, I actually got to talk to a human. Still no in person appointment. Still refusing to comply with the Americans With Disabilities Act, and someone will call me some time next week. Who do these people think they are? Even delivery people give you a day and a four-hour time window

I’ve filed a complaint with the Social Security Administration and the Department of Justice explaining how I’ve been discriminated against by the local office refusing to give me reasonable accommodations. I’m exploring the feasibility of filing a civil rights suit in Federal Court. The filing fee is $350. Plus the fee to file electronically. I think by grudgingly trying to help me, the local office is heading off a civil rights suit. If I win, which I would, I could receive back payments, damages, and I could recover attorney’s fees. I’m the attorney and I will be billing my time at $300.00 an hour. That’s a mid-range price among local attorneys.

I’m linking with Nina Marie here: http://ninamariesayre.blogspot.com/

My online shop, Deb Thuman Art is where I sell my jewelry creations and my yarn creations. You can find it here: http://www.DebThumanArt.com Look for a small link that says “shop.” It’s located at the top of the page and easy to miss. I’m going to be doing some major overhauling of my shop soon, so if there’s something you’ve been wanting, now is the time to buy it because it may not be available after the overhaul.

Posted in Fiber, Photography, Sewing

Fifty Years

Posted on by debthumanblog

We celebrated our 50th anniversary on June 3. We started the celebration a day early. Translation: we ate at restaurants two days in a row. Fifty years went by fast. I had hoped to take a special trip, but that’s going to have to wait. Until Brady is fully trained, she can’t travel with me. Once she’s my service dog, she flies free, stays in hotels for free, cruises for free. At the moment, I don’t trust air travel. Sure we’re told there are upgraded filters and the air is recirculated. When were the filters last checked? When will there stop being brawls in mid flight? When will we be able to be assured the flight won’t be cancelled at the last minute? There aren’t enough flight staff so flights are cancelled. The airlines blame the traffic controllers. I blame mismanagement and misuse of funds.

Jim bought me roses for our anniversary. I’ve been photographing individual roses each morning.

I’ve been working on a dress. This dress has only two seams because I had to eliminate the center seams in order for the pattern to fit on the fabric. Then, I discovered the V neck revealed far more cleavage than I’m comfortable showing. The pattern has a modesty panel, and I added that. I had to sew the panel by hand and I didn’t want stitches to show on the right side of the dress. I pushed a clear plastic template under the seam for the facing. That ensured my stitches would not show on the font of the dress.

The dress still looked wrong so I added ties to each side. I should have moved the ties closer to the center front. Too late now; I’m not about to rip out and reattach ties. I’ll make changes to the next dress I make.

Although we’re in no danger from the wildfire in the Gila Wilderness, we’re treated to the particulates and smoke from the fire. That’s not a cloudy sky. That’s a smoky sky. The crud in the air isn’t allergy friendly so I can’t spend much time outside.

There are no clouds today and that’s not a cloudy sky. That’s smoke, particulates, and crud from the wildfire.

I’m linking with Nina Marie here: http://ninamariesayre.blogspot.com/

My store, Deb Thuman Art, is here: http://www.DebThumanArt.com

My Spoonflower shop is here: https://www.spoonflower.com/profiles/deb_thuman

Posted in bipolar disorder, Depression, Fiber, Mental Illness, Peripheral neuropathy, Photography, Sewing

Sewing. Depression. Eclipse. Wildfire.

Posted on by debthumanblog

1. Find pattern. 

2. Order fabric in one of my designs. 

3. Print out pattern. 

4. Discover the printer was set wrong and all 37 pages have to be reprinted. 

5. Print out pattern. 

6. Tape 37 pages together matching notches. 

7. Mark correct cutting lines on the multi-size pattern.

8. Trace pattern onto pattern paper. 

9. Make a muslin. 

10. Discover the size that matches my measurements is waaaay to big.

11. Adjust pattern pieces. 

12. Discover that the special order fabric has disappeared. 

13. Find suitable fabric in stash.

14. Iron fabric. 

15. Discover that 42″ fabric isn’t wide enough for the pattern. 

16. Find the sewing directions.

17. Find the instructions for the seam allowance. 

18. Remove center seams on the front and back. 

19.Discover I hate the dress. 

20. Discover one pattern piece is cut 4 and I cut 2. 

21. Discover there’s not enough fabric to cut 2 additional pieces.

22. Design begins when there’s not enough fabric. 

I’ve got the dress and interfacing cut out. I’m working on this dress in small increments because I’m afraid I’ll make irreparable mistakes if I try to make the dress in one day.

The wildfire in the Gila – due west of us – is causing haze, stinky air, triggering allergies, and hiding the mountains.

The wildfire in northern New Mexico has consumed more than 300,000 acres. It was started by a controlled burn that got out of control. The Forest Service didn’t follow their own protocol, set a fire on a windy day, and now we have a disaster. The governor wants the feds to pay for firefighting, cleanup, reforestation, repair and rebuild structures that were burnt. 

I’ve been battling severe depression for several weeks. My doctor tweaked my psych meds, and I’m much better. The depression is gone. I have energy and a desire to do things. 

I wanted to set up the tripod, use my 150-600mm lens and shoot the eclipse. I had a neuropathy flare up and had to use my TENS unit. I had leads going from my feet to the waistband of my pants. Using a tripod under those circumstances is both stupid and dangerous. I used my 18-400mm lens, leaned against a post, and shot the moon.

I’ve been designing more fabric. 

We’ve got blooming yucca – both white and red.

I’m linking with Nina Marie here: http://ninamariesayre.blogspot.com

My on-line store, Deb Thuman Art, is here: http://www.DebThumanArt.com

My Spoonflower shop is here: https://www.spoonflower.com/profiles/deb_thuman

Posted in bipolar disorder, Garden, Mental Illness, Pain, Peripheral neuropathy, Photography

Ouch, WIND, and Iris

Posted on by debthumanblog

I’m having a major neuropathy flareup. I’ve taken gabapentin,  put CBD oil in a capsule and swallowed it, 5mg of THC and my TENS unit. I’m stoned and I think I’m having hallucinations. It’s hard to know how much of what I perceive is real.  I’m also staggering around the house. And I’m still in pain. Bleah!!!

Art reliably helps with the pain. I played around making fabric designs.

The iris are blooming. The original clump got overcrowded, so Jim split the clump in two.

No idea if this will work, but here’s a GIF I had to make for my photography class. We’ve been having WIND in the desert. Right now, there’s a low pressure system blowing in. I could tell by the pain in my arthritic knuckles.

I have to put together a narrative for my photography class. So….I put together a bipolar narrative. I might have stumbled onto a way to show people what bipolar disorder feels like. That’s the beauty of being a multi-media artist. When one medium won’t work for what I want, there’s another one or two that will work. 

Rather than listen to my photography teacher explain how to do a GIF in photoshop (it’s much easier using PhotoScapeX), I played around with collages. They turn into interesting fabric designs.

I’m linking with Nina Marie here: http://ninamariesayre.blogspot.com

My Spoonfliower shop is here: https://www.spoonflower.com/profiles/deb_thuman

My online store, Deb Thuman Art, is here: http://www.DebThumanArt.com

Posted in Abstract Art, bipolar disorder, Mental Illness, Photography

Things Not Working Out As I Imagined

Posted on by debthumanblog

Odd bits of art this week. First, I got the self portraits done for my painting class.

This was the unrealistic realism painting. I suck at realism, but this has a goofiness that I kind of like.

Impasto.

Abstract. I have tried for ages to come up with art that looks like bipolar disorder feels. This doesn’t exactly accomplish that, but it’s closer than previous attempts. I’m bothered by everything being the same value.

I detested the optical illusion portrait, so I killed it and tried to show how a depressive episode feels. When I planned the two abstract portraits, I thought about paintings I had seen by Kandinsky and Kiefer. Not that anyone could tell by looking at my paintings…….

I’ve got at least one and possibly two more in this bipolar series – neither have been painted yet.

This is for my photography class. We had to insert a photo into another photo. We’re supposed to use photoshop, but I detest photoshop. It offers nothing that I don’t already have. Oddly, this photo stunt is easy to accomplish in Affinity. I started with a B&W photo of a part of the art building, and inserted a smiley moon in one window.

The original plan was to take B&W photos and insert a color photo. Except when I tried to insert a color photo of Brady, the color photo turned into B&W.

Artistic commentary on drought in the desert. I had to put an overlay onto the drinking fountain photo in order for the cactus to have any color.

Obviously I need to work on this idea a bit more.

I’m linking with Nina Marie here: http://ninamariesayre.blogspot.com

My Spoonflower shop is here: https://www.spoonflower.com/profiles/deb_thuman

My online store, Deb Thuman Art, is here: http://www.DebThumanArt.com

Posted in Brady, Depression, Memories, Mental Illness, Peripheral neuropathy, Photography

Another Day, Another Anniversary

Posted on by debthumanblog

For me, March is a month of anniversaries. 

March 5, 2012 was the day I was finally correctly diagnosed: bipolar disorder. Suddenly, my life made sense. 

March 9, 2021 was the day ketamine banished a bone-crushing depression.

March 13, 2020 was the day New Mexico shut down. I’ve had insomnia ever since. 

March 20, 2018 was the day I realized the reason I formulated a detailed plan to commit suicide was depression. It was also the day I decided to live and immediately went back on an antidepressant.

This past week was spring break. This past week was frustrating. This past week was, and still is, painful. I’m having a neuropathy flare up bad enough to keep me home rather than going in to school and working on the four self-portraits assigned in my painting class. I am significantly behind working on those paintings and fear I won’t have them done by the day they are due. The grade doesn’t matter because I’m not working towards another degree. What matters is having the work done on time, and it won’t be. I am embarrassed by this.

We are working on still lives in the photography class. This is part of what I handed in. 

Home made abortion tools; it’s a political statement.

Auditioning fabric.

Dead Life.

I rarely use live view, but I used it for this photo. I was setting up another shot, looked down, and saw what the camera “saw.” It was more interesting than the shot I had planned.

Peace. It’s my palate for my painting class. When I’m in the Art Zone, neuropathy pain disappears, the world disappears, I forget to use the bathroom. I love being in the Art Zone.

Cheshire moon. I love taking shots of a less than full moon. I wasn’t steady enough to set up the tripod and use the 150-600mm lens. The marijuana I use to combat neuropathy pain leaves me stoned and walking into walls. I used the 18-400mm lens that was on the camera.

I worked on turning some photos into fabric designs. Eventually, I’ll have them in my Spoonflower shop. 

I’m linking with Nina Marie here: http://ninamariesayre.blogspot.com

My Spoonflower shop is here: https://www.spoonflower.com/profiles/deb_thuman

My store, Deb Thuman Art, is here: http://www.DebThumanArt.com

Posted in Depression, Fiber, Photography, Quilts

Making My Way Through Time and Place

Posted on by debthumanblog

Each year, NMSU has a juried student art show. I’ve submitted work in the past without acceptance. Quilting isn’t taught at NMSU; therefore, quilting isn’t an art. I wonder what the jurors would say about Faith Ringgold’s art. My painting teacher has made it a class assignment to enter up to three pieces of art to the juried show. He has encouraged me to enter my quilts. I chose one quilt: Depression. It’s a depiction of how I felt in February 2021. 

The other two entries are photographs I took when it snowed a couple weeks ago. 

Because there’s a cash prize for best in show, entrants must register for Scholar Dollars. I answered questions about did I grow up in a single-parent home. Yes, for four years before my mother married The Drunk. Do I have a disability? Yes. Bipolar disorder doesn’t feel like a disability but I’ve no idea what normal feels like. Any veterans in the family? My father, The Drunk and Jim are veterans. Overcome educational barriers? Yes. My mother and The Drunk were convinced college made a person stupid and I wasn’t allowed to apply to colleges. I started college shortly after my 25th birthday and earned two degrees: journalism and biology – although I was not allowed to take math or science classes in high school. 

I’m not sure when the decision will be made and I doubt my work will be accepted. I don’t make normal art. Neither does Faith Ringgold. 

I need to come up with 10 additional photos for a sense of place for my photography class by Sunday. I’ve decided most of the shots I want although I’ve my doubts about how some of the shots will be received. Here’s what I’ve shot so far. 

I’m linking with Nina Marie here: http://ninamariesayre.blogspot.com

My store, Deb Thuman Art is here: http://www.DebThumanArt.com

My Spoonflower shop is here: https://www.spoonflower.com/profiles/deb_thuman