Postcard from San Francisco

I recently returned from a month-long stay in the San Francisco Bay Area. It was so great to leave the hot and humid weather of Tucson behind and enjoy the mild weather than the Bay Area offers. For me, there is nothing better than watching the fog roll in off the ocean and cool temperatures way down. I slept under the covers for the first time in months and would purposely leave my bedroom windows open to feel the cool temperatures all night long. I know, I am a bit crazy, but when you live in southern Arizona, you dream of cooler temperatures and sleeping under blankets.

While in SF, I went to an afternoon Giants game, and on another day, walked up Powell Street past the cable cars and on up to Union Square. My purpose, besides enjoying the unique atmosphere of The City, was to visit the brand new Apple Store, a large two story retail store. It was very different from any other Apple Store I’ve visited and is the model for all new Apple Stores. I have already written about it in my tech blog, if you care to read it.  

How does this relate to the image above? Well, I took the original photo that became this image image from the second floor of the Apple Store, when they had their giant windows wide open. As you may know, all my digital paintings and sketches originate with a photo. Using a unique art app called “Prisma,” I turned the photo into the image you see here. I call it “Blu City.”

Prisma works on both my iPhone and iPad. For this type of work, I prefer using the larger iPad. There are many choices of art styles in Prisma, but I chose this one as it appealed to me the most.  I’ve done a few experiments with this app and some similar apps to see the results. 

Many years ago, I pioneered the art of turning photos into digital paintings and sketches. I still do it. In the early days, it took many hours, sometimes days and weeks to produce a piece of art I could be proud of. I made a successful living selling my work in art shows all over the Western United States. My work was also featured in several art galleries. Like most artists, I was proud of what I achieved over the years.

But times change. Now almost anyone can produce nearly instant art using some of the available software on the market today. It makes me a little sad to see how easy it is for people to produce unique pieces of art with the cell phones. I used to sweat blood and tears to make a quality work of art.

But, time marches on as does technology and I can do nothing more than embrace the new applications. You might want to give it a try yourself. Prisma is currently free. But just a word of caution: even with these amazing new apps, the old rule of photography still applies…Garbage In, Garbage Out!

Postcard from Torino, Italy

The Palace

by Rudyard Kipling

WHEN I was a King and a Mason - a Master proven and skilled
I cleared me ground for a Palace such as a King should build.
I decreed and dug down to my levels. Presently under the silt
I came on the wreck of a Palace such as a King had built.

There was no worth in the fashion - there was no wit in the plan -
Hither and thither, aimless, the ruined footings ran -
Masonry, brute, mishandled, but carven on every stone:
"After me cometh a Builder. Tell him I too have known.

Swift to my use in the trenches, where my well-planned ground-works grew,
I tumbled his quoins and his ashlars, and cut and reset them anew.
Lime I milled of his marbles; burned it slacked it, and spread;
Taking and leaving at pleasure the gifts of the humble dead.

 
Yet I despised not nor gloried; yet, as we wrenched them apart,
I read in the razed foundations the heart of that builder’s heart.
As he had written and pleaded, so did I understand
The form of the dream he had followed in the face of the thing he had planned.
. . . . . . . . . .
When I was a King and a Mason, in the open noon of my pride,
They sent me a Word from the Darkness. They whispered and called me aside.
They said - "The end is forbidden." They said - "Thy use is fulfilled.
"Thy Palace shall stand as that other’s - the spoil of a King who shall build."

I called my men from my trenches, my quarries my wharves and my sheers.
All I had wrought I abandoned to the faith of the faithless years.
Only I cut on the timber - only I carved on the stone:
"After me cometh a Builder. Tell him, I too have known."

 

Digital Painting by J.R. Corkrum – “Entrance to the Grand Foyer”

Kings Hunting Palace in Torino, IT