The night before -

"Trick or Treat II, 2009"
digital photograph by Mick Mather

In my early teen years the Hallowe'en tradition always began the night before. I and one or two of my pals would dress up and go 'round trick or treating in the far reaches of our "official" territory. Mostly we had doors slammed in our faces, suffered a few lectures about our cheek and our age ... but a rare few kind-hearted souls would say wait a moment, shuffle away to the candy bowl (already well stocked I bet) and return with a little something. Today's post is a nod and another wink to those good old days. A digitally manipulated version of this photograph will appear tomorrow at MickMathersARTblog. Ding, dong!

Jane -

"Rediscovering Jane (Before & After Version)"
manipulated digital photograph by Mick Mather
- original photograph by John Mora -

- click on image to view full size -

On the left is the initial cropping of John Mora's photograph and on the right is the end result seen here at MickMathersARTblog.

Shake, shake, shake -

"Salt and Pepper (Original Drawing)"
sketch by Mick Mather

This is the original drawing pulled from one of my sketchbooks that was the basis for the block-relief print seen at MickMathersARTblog. Jump over to have a look if you haven't already seen it.

From a 1994 sketchbook -

"Lamp & Glasses (Original Sketch)"
drawing by Mick Mather

When I was making attempts to gain competent drawing skills during the 1990's, I carried a sketchbook and ink drawing pens everywhere. A favorite pastime was to do a drawing of whatever was on the table at the restaurant-of-the-week either before or after dinner. These early sketches, resolved quickly in public places, went a long way toward teaching me the difference between a sketch, a study and a finished drawing. It also helped to eliminate feelings of shyness about sharing my work and allowed the warts of inadequacy to become a strong desire to constantly do better by drawing, drawing and drawing. Anyway, this is the original of the manipulated piece now showing at at MickMathersARTblog.

"COLD STREETS": The Movie -

"'COLD STREETS' - The Movie"
digital collage by Mick Mather
- click on image to view full size -

After getting a delightful comment from hpy for this post at MickMathersARTblog, I decided to go forward and create a movie poster. Get your popcorn and candy, Hélène, the first reel is about to begin!

More BIG sky -

"So Big the Sky I"
digitally manipulated photograph by Mick Mather
- click on image to view full size -

Here's the first manipulated version of the piece posted to Thursday Challenge for this week's theme, big. The other version is posted at MickMathersARTblog if you aren't already aware. I really like both although the pea soup clouds of the storm seem very foreboding and give it a slight edge as regards which one is my favorite, if forced to choose. :)

Stimulus Package II -

"Stimulus Package II (Original Photograph #1)"
digital photograph by Mick Mather

There's a sequel to Seth Apter's project, Disintegration Collaboration, that's due on August 1st. I have plenty of time to come up with something as explained here when I posted the before and after composite of my part of DisCo. As mentioned, one way for me to go is with a series of digital prints based upon photographs of the only bit that was left of Stimulus Package I, this bit of string. I'll be posting a few of the prints at MickMathersARTblog with the first going up on Saturday, May 9th. I took a series of photographs of the string, arranging it in different shapes each time, and I'll post each original here to cross-reference the manipulations as they come out.