Fleur de Rust - Digital Collage - Audio Journal

A rusty flower, a spiral, four corners, Gibson Girls, and a beggar make up today's image, a digital collage.

In PhotoPaint I began with a photograph of a rusty outdoor fixture in the shape of a flower. I sharpened the image a bit, used the Tone Curves on it for some depth. Due to the rust coloring I did not use saturation for this piece.

I have begun receiving Dover Clip Art samples in my email again and so I sorted through them for some collage pieces. I found the ones I mentioned above and added them to the image. I applied Effects> Texture> Plastic> to the collage which gives it a peculiar 3D effect. I adjusted the Tone Curve again for lightening the collage.

Musically I was reading an article with helpful steps to take to guide one to better songwriting. It encourages keeping a Journal of lyrics or poetry or imagery to assist the process. I suddenly realized that I keep an audio Journal by writing a potential tune and recording it. It's not the same as a written one, but I do keep the lyrics and chord progressions in written format using Notepad or Microsoft Word. So I do keep a Journal but it is of ideas formulated, adjusted, written and recorded.

Though the song I keep may not be the best song in it's recorded and written form it is kept as one might in a regular journal. So I felt better about that step in songwriting.

I was recently working on a song about the dirt roads I walked along in my youth. I lived near many lakes so many of the road names were lake name based. I titled the Audio Journal entry, "I Walked Along or the Lakes Song." I recorded it with rhythm, vocals and some improvised lead playing. It may not be a completed song but it is a completed entry into the Audio Journal.

Listening --- I Walked Along or the Lakes Song --- Kirk Mathew Gatzka