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The Perks of Being an Artist

Tag Archives: portraits

Weekly Tattoo Wrap-up #7

25 Monday Jun 2018

Posted by emilypageart in art, culture, tattooing, Uncategorized

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

civil rights heroes, Emily Page tattoo, Harriet Tubman, Nelson MAndela, portrait tattoo, portraits, raleigh tattoo, Ratatat Tats, Rosa Parks, St. Francis, tattoo portrait

Apparently, it was portrait week for me at the studio. Remember the guy who really likes saints and civil rights heroes? Well, in addition to the St. Joseph, Mother Teresa, Joan of Arc, and St. Cecilia that I’d already done for him, we added St. Francis, Harriet Tubman, Nelson Mandela (with some animals), and Rosa Parks:

Harriet Tubman_compressedNelson Mandela_compressedRosa Parks_compressedSt. Francis_compressed

He has a really hard time sitting still (he likes to play the drums for all of his favorite classic rock songs), but he’s willing to let me experiment and practice portraiture in different styles, which is pretty cool. So far, my favorite is the Rosa Parks one.

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Guest Post: The Art Of Making Up Your Mind

29 Wednesday Jun 2016

Posted by emilypageart in art, gratitude, kindness, Uncategorized

≈ 3 Comments

Tags

art, Audrey Priel, headshots, photography, portraits, Rose Trail Images

I asked Audrey Priel, from Rose Trail Images, to write a guest post about how she approaches her photography. What I love about her work is that she doesn’t overdo it. She edits just enough to make the photos interesting, but she doesn’t do a bunch of unnecessary trickery that distracts from the point. Any effects she adds look natural and organic. After you’ve read through it, check her out on her website or Facebook page! So without further ado, here is her post:

This blog entry could also be entitled, “Do Your Thang” or “Drowning out the Other Voices on Your Facebook Feed”.

It could also just simply be called, “How to Create your Own Gosh Darn Life”.

Let me explain. But first, let me introduce myself.

My name is Audrey, also known as the fancy shmancy “Rose Trail Images”. In real life, I’m a special ed teacher. But my cool super power is: I am also a photographer. It took me a looooooong time to say that last part. In fact, I still sometimes have to catch myself to say YES, I definitely AM a photographer. I usually still start with the whole special ed teacher thing, though. It pays most of my bills, so it’s hard to ignore it.

Audrey editing 3

Anyway, I met Emily about… oh, five years ago or so. I came into Artistic Abandon with some neighbors to get my paint on for the very first time, and lemme tell you… I got hooked. The process of creating something was so amazingly awesome. Even if I wasn’t that good at it. Then I hiccupped, as usual, sang a few lines of the Unicorn Song, and it was true friend love.  We even have girly dates with lunch and nature and princess hats. And yes, I document everything. She’s pretty much stuck with me.

 

 

Anywho, to get back to the point. The point of how the heck I do what I do. Sometimes… I still don’t know. But what I do know is that it’s something I always wanted to do. Like roller derby, only safer. I feel like for the first time in my life, I finally did something I’ve always wanted to do. I made up my mind to buy a camera and take pictures, even though I had no training what so ever. And I haven’t looked back since.

Photography is just capturing moments in time. Anyone can do that. It’s always been said, it’s not the camera or the fancy lenses that makes a photograph, but the person behind the camera. THAT, my friends, is one of the truest statements ever to be told. Each moment in time is looked at differently by everyone. Photographs are the same way. I could see a field of dandelions in the sunset, looking golden and glorious, and all my husband sees is a bunch of weeds, and why doesn’t anyone ever mow over there?? Those are the moments that I get super psyched about. It’s like the show Fixer Upper… they take houses that no one would ever dream of buying and turns them into something amazing because they had vision for it. Photographers are the same way with landscapes and light. It also helps when you have amazing people like Emily to work with!

Audrey editing 1

Some may see just a rickety old fence and some overgrown weeds…I see it as a playground for awesomeness!

Now, here comes the tricky part. Ok, so there are lots of tricky parts as nothing is ever as easy as you want it to be, but here’s the main tricky part for me: if I don’t know or understand something, I figure it out. Usually by asking smart people (my Mom and Dad usually pop into my head first) or by my trusty friend, Google. But with creating art… you can’t just Google that. Sure, they can give you entire books on how to create dreamy landscapes and what exactly is an F-stop, and you want me to place the OCF WHERE? But actually doing it and creating something beautiful… that’s all on you, baby.

I became a part of a bunch of Photography groups on Facebook to help me understand Lightroom and Photoshop and editing skills a bit better. People post pictures of something they have taken and have spent HOURS editing and ogling over, pouring their hearts out on this one image, and you know what happens? People critique it. Not just critique it, but squash it to death. “The highlights need to be fixed on the right side” or “I would totally delete the tree coming out in the background over there”, and “I you definitely need to make it a warmer image”. These are nice comments compared to what I’ve read before. And starting out, I thought all these people were right! I listened… intently… and tried to agree. But then I came across an image someone took. A mother had just given birth to a stillborn, and the photo was in color. Glorious, birthy color. It was emotional, and I felt every inch of that image. And it was critiqued, HARSHLY, because the “experts” felt that an image that raw should be in black and white. From that point on, I realized that every image a photographer/mother/father/human/dog (by accident) takes is a work of art, in their eyes. Not everyone is going to like it. Everyone else will want to tweak it somehow, someway, because that’s what would make it their own. But it’s not yours… it’s theirs. And it is perfect.

Audrey editing 2

This picture, with all the sun flare, would be crucified on those Photog groups. Me? I think the sun flare is the best part!

Audrey Fence

So, now what? Now… I do things my way. I’m a nature freak, so about 99% of all my shoots involve nature in some way. Even if I bring it with me J I have decided I love sun flares, because they make your subjects look like an angel. I love warm, earthy, organic colors. I love the warmer images that make you want to dive into them and hug the subjects and invite them over for a bowl of pasta. But more importantly, I want to be able to show personalities. For example, take our friend Emily over here. We all know she’s a bit silly, but also warm-hearted, down to earth, and real. A loving human being that exudes warmth and kindness. So… that’s exactly how I tried to portray her. In the golden light, being herself, with warm, natural colors and some sun flare for fun. Voila!

 

I hope I haven’t bored you too much with my blabbering. Everyone’s story is personal. Their journey is their own. This is only a tiny fraction of my story, but for me… it adds so much to the overall book of my life. I’m better at not listening to all the naysayers. I am learning to take in the constructive feedback and leave out all the other crap. I’m also learning that my photography… it’s not too shabby 😉 The more I practice and learn, the better it will be. Now… who wants to help me practice?

Audrey 1_compressed
Audrey 6_compressed
Audrey silly 3_compressed
Audrey silly 4_compressed
Audrey 9_compressed

 

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Pet Portraits

21 Saturday Mar 2015

Posted by emilypageart in art, painting, sip and paint studio

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

art, artist, Artistic Abandon, paint, painter, painting, pet portraits, pets, portraits, sip and paint studio

I think this is my 4th post today. Geez. Someone tell me to shut the hell up already! Or don’t. Maybe wait until after I finish this one, then tell me to shut my bourbonhole.

Tonight at Artistic Abandon, we were doing our quarterly pet portraits class. Normally, I dread the class, because it’s a shit ton of work for me prior to class (tracking down everyone’s photos, getting them sized and color corrected and printed, sketching them onto the canvases, etc), and it’s kind of organized chaos during class, especially at the end of class when everyone needs us to fix what they’ve done and make them look like they have eyes instead of black, soulless, pits of despair. Tonight was no different, though it was a nice, low maintenance group at least. But at the end, when most of the painters had gone, I started working on one woman’s painting putting the finishing touches on it to make it actually look like her particular pup. I heard sniffling behind me, but kind of ignored it and kept painting and bringing out the dog’s personality. When the sniffling didn’t stop, I turned around and saw that she was crying. Apparently, the doggy had passed away about a month ago. So I gave her a hug and started asking questions about the dog, and making little changes to the painting as she talked about it that weren’t really visible in the low quality photo we were working from. The other girl that was still finishing up her painting said that her first pet portrait with us a few months ago had been of her kitty that had died, and that she and her husband both cried when she brought it home. She’s done several paintings with us in memory of pets that have passed on since then, and it’s really cathartic to pay tribute in this way.

Sometimes in the clamor of people demanding more and more of me in exchange for less and less, I forget that what we do at the studio can be a real gift. Whether it’s just a fun night out to ease some tension and get a break so a mom doesn’t throttle her kids, or giving someone a loving way to honor a furry family member, we get to help people tap into something they don’t normally get to tap into (sometimes they just tap into a beer, but still, there’s creativity involved). And tonight we did that. The woman we were helping showed me the honor of letting me see a vulnerable side that I’m sure most of the public doesn’t get to see, and I got to validate that and let her know it’s not only okay, but right and good because it comes from a place of love. Tonight, I feel very lucky to do what I do.

Please remind me of that tomorrow when I start bitching again.

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Emily Page

Emily Page

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