Saturday, December 21, 2013

The Granddad I Never Had


Please click on photos for larger size

The following series of compositions were created during a collaborative volley with an artist from the Photoshop Grunge workshop, Jim...
We had a fixed selection of photos, backgrounds, vectors etc available. Jim created the serve, and I started my composition starting on his., then he created his next composition based on mine, and so on till we had six compositions in total.

Creating my first volley was very challenging - so far all my compositions were based on how I felt on the day, being able to chose freely of all those photos in my huge photo library. Now I was confined to just a few photos and had to use another composition as a starting point, ohhhh....

Well, during that first volley, I created a few different compositions, then decided on one that I offered as my first serve. While waiting for Jim's serve, I continued playing with those photos and created another few compositions that I liked. While doing all of that, a bit of a (fantasy) story emerged ... both all my compositions and the story are below.






(The above was my first volley.)

How could I forget.....

You went.
To see the letter you once wrote to me... it seems to be a lifetime ago. 

I still have your cogwheels in my drawer, they were part of the heavy machinery you used of the farm, remember? 

You locked your secrets away, but left me the key.... wonder if I ever get to know you, now... now that you are gone.








(The above is one of those photos that I created during my first volley, based on Jim's serve)

Free?

You appeared to be a free spirit, but really - be honest - you had locked yourself in, you got yourself stuck. Trying to please, to be accepted, to be valued, to be important. 
You know you missed out on being free, even though it was only one step away.

Now you watch me...........





(The above is just a variation, but I quite like it as well :-)










(The above is also a version that I created during my first volley, and is also based on Jim's serve. It's not my favourite version, but has a place in this sequence)

Window of Opportunity                               

You always saw them... the windows of opportunity. When I was little, I didn't understand what you meant... back then. But now I can see you sitting there, seing the light at the end of the road... the light behind the closed door... and off you went to chase the next opportunity, the next excitement, the next story.


Now you are gone forever from this world ... wherever you are, you'll find more windows of opportunity.













(The above was also created during my first volley, but it is not based on Jim's serve)

Machinery.

Your love for tools and machinery was contagious. I can't remember one single day seeing you without making something, taking something apart or putting it together. Now - wouldn't you have loved to lift up our little house with a crane to move it to some other place...











(The above is my favourite of all. It was created after I had sent my first volley to Jim, while I was waiting for his next one. It has been created completely from scratch, but also only using the photos and other elements that we had restricted us to use.)


Conscious Moments.

There would have been a moment where you saw the sun. 

There would have been a moment, where you smelled a flower. 
There would have been a moment where you  felt the structure of wood and where you  noticed the texture of the rose... where you listened to the song inside... 
...where you were CONSCIOUS. 












(The above is my second volley, based on the composition that Jim returned after my first volley)

Ah, I never knew about her, you were hiding your true feelings so very well. Thank you for leaving your book behind for me to find, I feel so much closer now.... but really, I didn't enjoy feeling your sorrow over lost opportunity, losing the love of your life. I will remember the lesson it taught you.






(I was agonising so much over the colour for my second volley, took me a full day to decide on the cooler colour that I eventually went with - the above is just a copy, but using a warmer red as the background. I still don't know which one I like better....)




(The above is the inside part only - again just a copy of the above)














(The above is the third and last serve that I did - and I like it very much :-) - it is based on Jim's latest volley)


Looking back on a long long life.... so many regrets.... so many regrets.




(And here again - the above is the 'inside' only.... before I twisted some of its parts to sit differently :-)





And lastly, here the photos that we restricted ourselves to:




And the miscellaneous pieces:



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