Is it Abstract?

By Kathy Garvey

Since "Abstract" is the title of our monthly Pieces of 8 challenge for January, it's been on my mind.  So, while out walking with my camera and taking pictures this morning, I thought I would use one of my photos of sidewalks (yep!) to make an abstract when I got back home. And then this blog entry was going to be about how something realistic can become something abstract. But, that's not totally what happened.

I started with this photo. (I'm fascinated by cracks in sidewalks!)

After straightening it in Photoshop, I applied some favorite filters and modified the color. Then I applied some patterns to it. All three versions definitely fit the category of "Abstract" to me. (Click on any image to enlarge it.)

That could have been the end of it, but Photoshop is just so fast and so much fun, I took the middle one into a new document, flipped it, rotated it, copied sections and created a new abstract that I liked more.

And that's when my own "interpretation" of this abstract happened. I saw two birds. So, I added "stuff" so that everyone could see two birds.

And that's how my abstract of something real (the sidewalk) turned into something that's not so abstract! Now, time to make that look more like a tree they are sitting in, right? 

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Watch for our group write up on Abstract coming soon! We have a monthly blog challenge and this month it is titled "Abstract." That's it. You could interpret it how you wanted. I don't usually do abstracts except when I'm playing with Photoshop. However, because my frequent designs of birds and flowers aren't realistic but stylized, sometimes people tell me they are abstracts. So, for our blog, I made note of that and put in an image I created that is an actual abstract…in my mind, that's something that might suggest an idea but is open to interpretation. That, with entries from all of my fellow pieces, will appear at the end of this month. January 31st to be exact. 

OK! Couldn't resist...