Tired of Reading About My Dog?

Here is a post full of random crap and nonsense.

Sometimes I avoid posting to my blog because I am just so tired of looking at my banner that I can't even stand to open the page. Of course, when this happens, I should just make another banner. Sometimes banner ideas just come to me and I have to create it and post it pronto. Other times I just get stuck and put the whole thing off. 

Well guess what... there are now sites where you can purchase a banner for you blog for about $1.50. That's right. Things that I put lots of creative energy and many years of advance Photoshop knowledge into can be purchased for about the same price as a Super Big Gulp from 7-11.

I have resisted this new technology that makes Photoshop easy for your average 12 year old. Back in the day, Photoshop skill was a valuable commodity. I was paid well to add a building where one did not currently exist. I could fix the green water of a hotel pool. I taught classes about channels and curves. I could make a professional photographer's poorly lit model look fabulous. Now, you just click an "action" and it is all done for you.

Painstaking vector art that I created in Adobe Illustrator is now downloadable as a "brush" in Photoshop. 

What was once my career is now homework for a sixth grader.

For the longest time, I would not give in. "I don't care about your Itty Bitty actions, Kevin" I would say. "I will create my own. Thank you very much!"

But just like Eve biting that shiny red apple, I downloaded Pioneer Woman's free Photoshop Actions. Now I have forgotten how to adjust a photo without an action.

It is not the first time I have resisted the dark side then skipped down the evil path with everyone else.

Call identifier? Horrible invasion of privacy! Now I don't answer the phone unless I recognize the number.

Call waiting? How rude! Now I've got to get it. It might be one of the kids.

Cell phone? Who is so important that they must be available every minute of the day? Apparently I think I am, because I would be lost without my iPhone.

So growing irritable with my old banner, yet unable to come up with a new idea, I caved and used a pre-made banner.  Want to hear something worse? I've got to do a new brochure (the first one I have done in about a year) for a client.. dare I say it.... pre-made brochure template. 

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I haven't lost all of my creativity. As a matter of fact, I have been creating a lot recently.  Check out my "Current Work" album on the right. Being at the Inspired Artist workshop has, well, Inspired me to actually do some stuff. I've started two quilts. I have an idea for a new painting and I did this:

I haven't done a scrapbook layout in forever. This one is all about the SEA 5th grade parents. I didn't really grow up with them.  It is more like I matured as a mom with them. I have known most of these people since Cole started 1st grade. Some I looked to for advice because they had older kids and had been there before. Some were clueless just like me. We found our way together. Some of these people will move on and I will most likely never see them again. Regarding some, that is not such a bad thing. Others have young ones at SEA and we have quite a few more years together. In any case, a big part of our lives is changing. I wanted to document that they were an important part of my life and they will be missed.

Comments

[jen compton]

oh, lori. my husband and i have the conversation about photoshop skills at least twice a week. he is a creative director at an ad agency and i went to art school and have worked in photoshop since '91. it pains me to think of the hours i spent agonizing over a image that can now be finished with a matter of clicks.