No. This is not me.
This is a portrait of one of the witches that lived under my bed when I first learned to draw.
These witches had the disagreeable habit of terrorising me after dark. Then, one day, my mother gave me some important news. “Witches,” she informed me, “are very small. Not much bigger than your thumb. My thumb at that time being somewhat insignificant, I no longer found it necessary to cover my head with the sheet when I went to bed.
Witch. Life size.
This portrait is more or less to scale. I hope you will find it much less frightening
Did that teach me the importance of imagination? At six or so I already knew it. Maybe I was even then beginning to forget it. I know what Picasso meant when he remarked that it took him a lifetime to learn to draw like a child.
I’m still an artist and I do love to show my art, but a gallery is not enough. I hope that as well as giving you a few tips on my current passion, iPhone art, my blog may cause you to look at the world in a new and rather exciting way.
When I say ‘look at’ I mean that literally. After all, my blog is called ‘Seeing Things’. I hope you will.
I’ve pared down my categories to just two:
‘Mind’s Eye’ and ‘iPhone Art’.
I’m fascinated by how we see and remember things. Drop me in a library and I will head straight for the psychology shelves. I’ve been listening to some fascinating podcasts on the latest neurological research. A photon or two of proper light is beginning to fall on the dim and largely undiscovered world of our vastly complex brains and how they function.
Who am I to be your guide?
I like to think of my approach to life as creatively scientific. There may be quite a few adjectives people apply to me when they think I’m not listening. Otherwise the one they most often choose is ‘creative’.
Well, what does come to me as naturally as breathing?
Drawing does. Writing doesn’t.
Why am I witing a blog then?
Why was I an advertising copywriter?
How did I get an Oxford degree in English?
Maybe I have to go right back to what first inspired me. Long, long ago, my mother took me to my first movie, Snow White. I remember even asking her where to look for the picture. When it appeared I was body and soul enthralled. At the end I refused to leave the cinema.
I think I am still there. The witch no longer holds such terror, and whenever I experience an inspiring book or film, I long to create a similar land that is all my own. Words are necessary as well as pictures.
When the internet came into being, it was an open doorway to a world where I could be creative to my heart’s content in both words and pictures. Come and join me!
I’d love to contact you guys, to let you know about my app “iCreated”.
It promotes iPhone art, and links art to iPhone apps.
Please contact me dleibo@mac.com, so we can talk.
Regards,
David Scott Leibowitz
http://stone.com/icreated/index.html
http://tinyurl.com/icreated
http://stone.com/icreated/Press_Release.html
http://www.flickr.com/photos/leibo
http://www.leibo.net
Thanks for letting me know, David.
Oh! How I relate to all of this! I’ll go with you to the library — you head to your psychology section, I’ll go to the Arts section. And the Literature.
Then we’ll meet in the Readers’ lounge (the one with all the tall windows and lots of daylight and comfy furnishings, and trade articles and book sections. (I’ll sneak in a couple thermoses of hot coffee.) You can keep your “studio” on as long as it’s on silent.
And what you wrote about creating your own fantasy worlds from great films and books is right on! I’ve been doing that from the time I first read Heidi of the Alps.
You may not write as breathing, but it sure seems so. I love your humor and how you see the world, and then how you present it here. Creatively scientific. That’s a lovely thought.
One last thing, my friend. My degree is also from Oxford… er, that is, Miami University, Oxford, Ohio.
Delighted you brought that hot coffee Barb! We can spend many a happy hour in that library.
Hello,
This is Rose writing from http://www.huliq.com. I visited your blog and liked your content.
Would you be interested to send us a guest post on any of the issues related to the topics that you cover in your blog. We will publish it in our site http://www.huliq.com
In return with each guest blog we will give one link in the author’s biline back to your blog. We only ask that the guest post ( we prefer it be a news coverage, sources can be Google News, CNN, MSNBC, Yahoo News, BBC and others) be a unique story and not be published in your blog.
HULIQ is indexed by Google News and Google requires that the length of the unique news is at least 5 paragraphs. We desire it to be at least 6 paragraphs if possible. And that all need to be a unique content. Once you send us a new story totally unique we will immediately publish it with you link in it, and within 15 minutes it should be indexed by Google News.
Please let me know if you may have any questions about http://www.huliq.com.
If you want to consult the topic with me first that’s perfectly fine as well.
Many thanks
Hello Owl,
Pleased to meet you.
You have produced a very detailed witch.
May I ask, when you sketched her?
Hello Ana. I drew this witch when I was around six or seven. Since Hitler often shared the dust balls and cobwebs under the bed with the witches, you may judge that that was rather a long time ago!
Hi Kevin,
I just recoloured the background image. This is a little striped, stick-shaped rectangle called bg.jpg which is repeated along the top of the screen to make the panels. It is to be found if you go to to your blog –> themes –> amazing-grace –>wp-content –> images –> bg.jpg (Hope I haven’t missed any folders out but you’ll find it I am sure.)
Just recolour it as you wish and replace the bg.jpg with your own version.
Valerie:
On Vladimir Prelovac’s website you mentioned changing the background color of your header – could you let me know how you did that? Thanks.
Kevin
But did I see the owl flying over St Anne’s this lunchtime? Plenty other fascinatingly uninteresting people there…