Our lives are layered, just like a photoshopped Fine Art Composite

You probably do not realise it but each of these pictures is a collage of more than three images layered to create one. Like our lives, each layer adds some depth, some colour or some texture to the overall effect. Without even one of the layers the image would not be the same.

How many situations in life do we go through that are dark? These are our contrasting moments, our opportunities to grow, to learn and to expand our understanding. Without them our vision of life would not be the same. So too, the light areas are our bright lights that lift us off the page and highlight our characteristics, our thoughts and our ideals.

What is the image of your life looking like right now? Is it like one of my pieces where I had many of the layers in place but it just didn't feel finished because it was missing a layer or two?

Whatever place you are at just know that today you are building a complex composite of your life. Today is the accumulation of a thousand yesterdays. You are all of those yesterdays. They are what defines you, what makes you special. They are your story! They are the image of your life.

The beauty is that you have a role to play in what the next layers are that will be layed upon your life. You can choose their opacity, their colour and their placement. Build wisely the image of your life that you will be able to view with pleasure, just as I view these and sigh in satisfaction.

The Challenge is on...

Finding your passion is one of the greatest journeys in life.  For some, they have a very strong sense of what that is as a child.  For others, it is something that becomes clearer with time as life is experienced. For me, I have been passionate about so many things through the years but most have been within the realm of the creative.  I don't know why, I just love to create.  Be it, music, song, photography, graphic arts or poetry, I just love being able to get a picture or an impression of life and to transform that into something that others can admire and consider.

So it is with delight that I was referred to RedBubble.com, a site for artists.  And on that site I found so much to inspire me in my photography and my artwork, that I have been on a bit of a creative bender to work out how others have achieved what they have achieved.The colours, the images, the textures...all of these layers of creating are important and to see them clearly is just an amazing journey.

And I liken this experience to life.  If we examine life, layer by layer, identifying the things that are important in our daily interactions - our heart, our spirit, our body and how it connects with the world - and we start to connect what we see to wisdom, then this is where the joy of learning evolves.

I just wanted to encourage you to not be a spectator of life, but a participant.  Study it by all means but make sure that you also connect with it.  It is far too easy to be in the judgment seat, reviewing both yourself and those around you.  Live in the moment.  Breathe in the richness that every breath affords you.  Laugh lots.  Love lots.  Enjoy all, because you are not guaranteed a long life.

This texture image is one that I have been given in a challenge to create a fine art composite.  It will be just one layer that I have chosen to use.  I'll post my final product here soon, so check back in a week to see how I transformed one, ordinary image, into something extraordinary.  Just as God is transforming this ordinary life, into something extraordinary.

There's no place like home

When I arrived home last night after a six hour drive from Albany, I had the strangest feeling. Firstly my house was clean - a miracle. Oh, yeah, that's right. That's how I left it for my guests who were doing a house swap with me. Then I noticed just how large it was. After staying in a beach cottage (3 bedroom home that overlooked a beautiful bay), the house just seemed so huge!

It kind of took me back to when I went home for the first time after growing up and moving away. Although this time it was in reverse. When I left this house it seemed so small and crowded, yet when I returned it felt so huge and spacious after being in the more cosy cottage. I guess it showed me that perspective is everything.

Suffice to say, I'm back home. I'm very grateful to have had the opportunity to see so many amazing things while I was away. Hundreds of photos later...

Just so you get a little glimpse into what I'm talking about, on our last day in Albany I took my four children on a tour of Frenchman's Bay. We stopped off at the Natural Bridge and the Gap, which are on the edge of the Antarctic Ocean. Probably one of the most beautiful scenes you'll ever get to see. I don't feel I did it justice, but here's a taste of my last day in Albany...



I'll be posting more pictures of the trip on my website, http://thefocusshop.com in the coming days.

The Big Albany Adventure

The thought of traveling for five or more hours, on my own, to Albany was daunting to say the least, especially given that I was to have four young children in the car with me. Memories of the time I had set out on a similar journey to collect my mother from our home town of Wellington in New South Wales came rushing back. I fell asleep on the freeway in Sydney near Blacktown and rolled my car. Although I walked away with just a small scratch on my foot, it had really shaken me up. I was just a green 23 year old who had never driven a long trip before.

I can appreciate my husband's anxiety, as he knew that I hadn't been sleeping well. I'd been on a creative bender - so inspired that I couldn't rest. All I wanted to do was create art pieces. I don't know how many times he asked me the week before I left, "Have you been sleeping? When did you last get a good night's sleep." He even threatened to disable my car!! So you can imagine how that lack of trust was working on my subconscious.

Then there was the memories of my mother's fatal car accident to contend with. Each car we passed was a potential deadly weapon. She'd done nothing wrong, but was hit head on by someone who did.

So knowing all that about me, I'm sure you can appreciate that I felt a little anxiety myself, very well suppressed mind you, as I reassured him that I was perfectly capable of going the distance and that if I felt at all like I might go to sleep at the wheel I would pull into the nearest town and find a bed for the night.

And as I started out on the adventure of a lifetime, knowing that I couldn't back out because I'd arranged a house swap and my visitors were arriving as I was heading out of town, all I could wonder was do I really have it in me to drive all that way on my own? Don't I need someone stronger than me to be with me and hold my hand?

The funny thing is this is just another realm of my coming to know myself. Coming to know that I am a capable woman, that I can make choices and that they can be good choices.

Suffice to say, I arrived safely in Albany. The sky didn't cave in. In fact, apart from a quick stop off at Mt Barker Hospital to check if my daughter would survive taking too many travel sickness tablets (she'd been popping them every time she felt sick without my knowledge!) we had a very uneventful trip. The roads were very sparsely traversed by others, so we almost had the whole countryside to ourselves.

Stopping when there was a scene I just didn't want to miss capturing, the twin screen portable DVD player I purchased was a real Godsend. It kept my children focused and I only got one or two "Are we there yets?" from my youngest daughter.

And now we are here, the adventure continues. Having miscalculated on the funds side of things, we are having to live very meagerly, but there is so much you can do that costs nothing when you are on holiday and we have been so blessed with our accommodation. I don't know where I have ever had access to a better range of "girly" DVD's, board games and the good old computer and computer games! We definitely got the better deal in the house exchange!

Here is the view out of our front yard...

And a view of the beach where we went swimming yesterday...

And here is Catherine and I at the beach. I met Catherine through the Women Can International site on Ning.com and she's also a member on this site. It was great to meet her in the flesh as she lives in Albany.

"My Knight" Fine Art Print by Hayley Solich - RedBubble [2392302]

"My Knight" Fine Art Print by Hayley Solich - RedBubble [2392302]

I entered a competition to create a piece that reminds you of happy days. I chose to use my wedding as the theme of my piece. This photo is my husband, Andrew and his two groomsmen. I've layered it over my wedding album cover.

I've so enjoyed experimenting with Photoshop and photography. It made me think about the All Things Women blog and to want to put up an encouragement to women everywhere to try new things. You just never know when you might find that you have a talent in a different area than you have been used to operating in your life.

I had a dream about four months ago and in that dream the Director of the Creative Arts school that I attended picked me out of a crowd and said to me, "I am appointing you an Ambassador to the Creative Arts". In the dream I thought to myself, "Creative Arts??? But I'm into Performing Arts, not Creative Arts. Creative Arts is the Fine Arts and I can't paint or draw for nuts!" I then was looking for other reasons why he may have chosen me. I looked down and I was wearing a red shirt. I thought to myself, 'Maybe he chose me because of my red shirt?"

The symbolism in this dream to me was the red shirt represented passion. I am definitely a passionate person and give 110% to everything I do.

The Creative Arts is as I thought, the Fine Arts and that is what this piece above is a composite or Fine Art piece.

Sometimes we have a limited view of who we can be because we have not yet encountered the person that is hidden within us. But when the time is right and if we are open to change, all things are possible!

I'd love to know what you think of this piece. Please leave a comment.

Wow!

I am so excited because my fine art piece, Heart Talk - Expectations has been featured on the Live, Love, Dream group on RedBubble.com. This is a peer evaluated review.


"Heart Talk - Expectations" Fine Art Print by Hayley Solich - RedBubble [2371077]


Also, my piece, "Field of Pink" has been accepted on the Australian Photo Review website.

Considering that I have only just joined these sites, it was a real privilege. There is something very powerful about having your creations validated by your peers. Pop by and leave a comment.

Blogged with the Flock Browser

"Heart Talk" Fine Art Print by Hayley Solich - RedBubble [2367919]

"Heart Talk" Fine Art Print by Hayley Solich - RedBubble [2367919]


Once in a lifetime you do something that creates a new sparkle in you. Something that is like this candle that has laid dormant for your entire life and you suddenly strike a match to it and your world is alive and wonderful.

This is what happened to me when I created Heart Talk. For years I have looked at other's artwork and thought how magnificent they were and longed to be able to create something that so resonates with my own soul that I immediately love it. Heart Talk is such a piece.

It is a collection of things I love - my daughter's eyes, my girlfriend's eyes, textures I love and my favourite font style. These pieces tied together with my favourite colour cause the picture to come into focus for me.

I truly hope that the world enjoys this piece as much as I have as it will be the first of many in my Heart Talk series.

They say that the eyes are a window to the soul...Let these eyes heart talk with you.

Enjoy and please comment.

Blogged with the Flock Browser

Praise is soooooo addictive!

A girlfriend suggested to me that I might like to add my photographs to a website called RedBubble. Basically, RedBubble is a community of artists who upload their works in the hope that someone will see something and like it and purchase it.

In theory it sounds great. The problem is, there are so many wonderful artists in there, all vying for their own space and I think that it may be a bit competitive for my level of expertise. However, in uploading my images, I have become quite hooked on commenting on other's work and receiving some praise for my own and it takes me back to the time when I was addicted to Poetry.com in 2005, then Helium.com in 2007. Is RedBubble.com my next big love addiction and do I really have the time to spare?

It does bring me to pondering about the human condition and how some of us are so geared towards praise that when we find someone willing to say nice things about us, we immediately want to chain ourselves to that person and suck them dry!

I guess I'll have to temper this new addiction with self-control. After all, I do have four children on school holidays to contend with. :) No wonder I'm still up at 1:39am writing this...

The Focus Shop - Finally uploaded!!!

Photos...photos...photos... This past 48 hours I feel like I have been sucked in the vacuum that is the world of photography, processing, watermarking, and uploading images to my new photographic gallery, TheFocusShop.com.

I have been amazed that as I have sifted through the 7000 plus images on my computer, I have been able to pull a sizeable gallery of decent photos together. Further, it has spurred me on to capture more photos, with even more interesting content.

From nature scenes to children, dogs to ducks, motorbikes to helicopters... I love capturing life in it's many aspects, especially people and the many emotions we experience.

A sample of a couple of my recent photos are...





Come and check out the photos and leave me some comments. I love hearing people's reactions to my photography, which I hope brings a new expression of life.

Photos...photos...photos - Check out The Focus Shop.com

It is with great excitement that I announce the opening of my photographic gallery, The Focus Shop.

The Focus Shop has an exhibition of my best photos taken over the past 12 months since I upgraded my camera and developed a real passion for photography arranged in galleries under topis such as nature, people, places, transport, my favourite things and beaches.

Please feel free to browse the galleries and to leave comments about the images. Some images are for sale, so if you like something, pop me an email with the name of the photo and I'll let you know if if it is for sale.

Enjoy!!!

Here is a sample to wet your appetite...

Was this a spiritual visitation? Can you explain it to me?

For my New Year's Eve, I arranged a progressive dinner for some of the girls from Women Can International Inc. The night turned out to be the best New Year's Eve I've ever had. We started out by spending time with three beautiful labradors down on Yanchep beach. While they were fetching stick, we sat and had our gorgeous picnic and I snapped off heaps of photos.

Then we went to a friend's house and had a lovely meal, sitting out the back in the candlelight and discussing philosophy. It was such a precious time.

Then we sped off to another friend's house, determined to be in her spa with a glass of champagne and a slice of the most goregous cheese cake I've ever tasted. It was just a slice of heaven. This stint lasted three hours and eventually we decided we should shelve our discussions and make our way home.

It was then that we decided to upload the photos onto one of the girls computers to see what they looked like. Apart from capturing the most gorgeous beach shots, we were very surprised to see that on about 10 of the shots there were light orbs. These are simply unexplainable. We didn't see them at the beach. It couldn't have been something on the lens as they are not in the same position. There is even a motion blur on one of them, indicating to me it was something moving. The only explanation I can find for them is that they are spiritual beings.

Take a look and tell me what you think.

They were on the viewer in the camera and initially I thought perhaps they were a tennis ball we were throwing, but then I saw there were so many of them and in different places.

For example, the sun was setting so it's not the sun on the horizon. There was a moon and a star above it but they were quite high up in the sky. There just simply is no other explanation for them.

I'd love it if someone else could come up with a plausible explanation, so please post your comments.

I guess this little mystery adds something special to what was a wonderfully, warm and thoroughly enjoyable evening with girlfriends.