THERE BE DRAGONS

"Dragons have long been antagonists in our stories, from weird worms and sly serpents to winged wyverns and fire-breathing beasts, these enchanting creatures appear in our fairy tales as both fearsome and wise. Revered across many countries and cultures, dragons feature in some of the world’s most famed legends, including the tales of Saint George and King Arthur, originating in England and Wales, as well as the Ancient Greek myths of Hercules and Perseus."

 ***Quote from Pook Press: Dragon Fairy Tales – Fiery Stories, Myths, and Legends

Your challenge this week to pick one quote form the list of quotes below about Dragons and create your art around that quote!

If the sky could dream, it would dream of dragons. (Llora Andrews)

A life fueled by passion is a life riding on the back of a dragon. (Suzy Kassem)

If you banish the dragons you banish the heroes. (Andrew Soloman)

If you dance with dragons, you must expect to be burned. (George R. R. Martin)

Meddle not in the affairs of dragons, for you art crunchy and good with ketchup. (anonymous)

If you can't take the heat, don't tickle the dragon. (Scott Fahlman)

Every treasure is guarded by dragons. That's how you can tell its value. (Saul)

She hurried at his words, beset with fears, for there were sleeping dragons all around. (John Keats)

I always wanted to ride a dragon myself, so I decided to do this for a year in my imagination. (Corneli Funke)

Perhaps all the dragons of our lives are princesses who are only waiting to see us once beautiful and brave. (Raine Maria Kilke)

Take it from a guy. if you're in love with somebody, you will swim any stream, you will climb the mountain, you will slay the dragon, you are going to get her somehow, some way. (Phil McGraw)

He who fights too long against dragons becomes a dragon himself; and if you gaze too long into the abyss, the abyss will gaze into you. (Friedrich Nietzsche)

For night's swift dragons cut the cloud full , And yonder shined Aurora's harbinger, At whose approach ghosts wandering here and there, Trooping hone to church-yards...For fear lest day should their shames, They will fully exile themselves from light, And for aye, black brow'd night. (William Shakespeare) 

I posted a page of images for you to use if you wish in your Dragon artwork! Have fun this week creating your own dragons! Don't get burned!

Here are my Dragon Creations!

I am sorry the Challenges have been late these past couple of weeks. My Father passed away 3 weeks ago and so it has been hard. I have lost both my parents in the span of one year. If it were not for my art and be able to create art with my wonderfully, imaginative, artist friends I would have felt vey lost! I thank you for always motivating me and inspiring me with everything you create!

Thank you for joining in on the challenge!

DARK GOTHIC POEM ART CHALLENGE

For this Challenge, I thought I would try something different! I wrote a dark, gothic poem for you to use to create your dark art instead of offering an image! Create your dark art around the words of the poem and let your dark imagination do the rest!

 WALK THROUGH THE NIGHT

As if in a distant dream, 

I went for a silent walk in the dead of night. 

The sky above is starless and vacant of light.

A veil of darkness enshrouds me like a heavy, black cloak, draped around me, giving me the feeling of invisibility.

Walking, yet unseen.

The tree limbs, long vacant of their leaves, reach out their limbs, like knurled, tangled fingers, bare like bones of bark.  

 In the distance, there is the undisturbed quiet of the cemetery.

 The departed lying in the cold of shadows lingering, in a city of ruins.

I wonder, Am I a ghost, myself?

The statues standing guard, unmovable, unyieldins, and yet, I feel their eyes, empty and vacant, watching me as I slowly pass by.

 Their stare of stone lingers as if to say, 

"Beware, Oh, Thee, a Child of Woe!" 

Their silent message in the knowing that life is only ours for a brief moment. 

Their witness of time spent in wistful decay.

I wander aimlessly through the transparent mist, the forlorn cries of the night creatures echo, calling out to the dark.

The sound of my footsteps on the sidewalk, echo as well, as if to say, "I hear, I am alive, I am listening!" 

Even in the cold of darkness, life abounds, different from the life of days.

 A world all of its own, sharing always the oblique for eternity.

I should return to the warmth of my home, lock the door, retreat to my bed.

Hesitant but willing, instead, I walk on.  

Overcome by the feeling of separateness, as often asleep, I do not quite belong to this oblique world of night.

And yet, now, I feel that I am no stranger to its call, beckoning me further, to penetrate the gray, predatory gloom.

There is a sudden chill in the air as the low whistle of the wind hastens toward me, whips around me with no hesitation, sending crisp leaves flying, the feeling of ghost-like hands gently reaching for my face.

A shudder passes through me, thinking of the paradox of life itself. 

There cannot be day without night. 

How the light and dark of my days measure out to the empty span of time, stretching always before me.

Even so, it is the black of night, all of mankind has for centuries feared. 

The light and dark of my days measure out to the empty span of time, stretching always before me, as the unknown future beckons, an open door. only well-imagined fears 

What lies beyond its threshold? 

Only what the mind of well-imagined fear can know.

 That solid fear, strong, sending ripples through the thickened blood of my veins, my heart pounding out the answer to my questioning soul.  

Yes, I fear and wish for it to be a stranger.

Must I accept the irreverent reality of the gloom, the dark, as much a part of my life, this old friend?

Long have I learned, that without its presence,  could I ever appreciate the light? 

And yet, it is in the knowledge of having known the light that brings a certain feeling of peace in the solitude of this obscure night, mysterious and ancient.

All that we can know will always be, present and waiting, in the light or the dark.

It is left to us to fill the passage of time with our own doing; understand the things we cannot know and  embrace what we always knew, have known for centuries. 

Life is to be lived, a journey, how we are to travel is but our one decision.

Never faltering, it is not good to see too far down the road.

As it is with Life, from beginning to end, what is well, we make well. What is not, we leave alone.

The rest we do not think about until we are forced to recognize our own upcoming fate.

Life, our possession, is eternal. A gift.

I know, and thus so willingly, understand.

Up ahead, I see the timid, coming of Dawn, as night slowly fades into day. 

Morning pierces the sky with her fragile colors of hope, a promise for a new day.

 In the stillness of this light, I suddenly feel the timid beginnings of joy ensue,

Alive, alone, I walk on.

FIRST ANNIVERSARY CONTEST ANNOUNCEMENT AND MORE!!

 Announcing the Winner of the Vampire Art Anniversary Challenge!

The Winner is...Deann!!!!!

Deanne, please email Kim Rayko at the address here for your Shopping Voucher!!  

conjurerofdreams@gmail.com

There are more prizes!! 

Since everyone created such awesome, spooky Vampire art, Kim Rayko has a Coupon for everyone who participated to use to shop at the Conjurer of Dreams Etsy Shop! Email Kim at the above email address for your coupon!!

For our Dark Art Challenge, I will be interviewing a really spooky guest today!

Through the questions I ask our guest , you will have to guess what or who our scary guest is and then create your dark art about our guest!

Me: what do you do?

      Guest: I come out only once a year!

Me: And what is your purpose?

Guest: To Scare you!

Me: How do you do that?

           Guest: I wear a spooky mask and knock on your door!

             Me:  That does sound scary? What else do you do?

          Guest:  If you do not give me what I want                        then I will do terrible tricks on you!

Me: What kind of tricks?

           Guest: I will throw rotten eggs at your                        door and steal your pumpkins! 

       Me: What if I do not have what you want?

          Guest: Then be afraid and beware my                terrible consequences!

         Me: Well, thank you for the warning! I hope I have what you ask for!

Guest: And so do I or else!!!!

Can you guess who our creepy guest was? If you know then use our guest as the subject of your dark art for this challenge!

Here is my Guest Dark Art Creations:

A special thanks goes out to Kim Rayko, the owner of Conjurer of Dreams and Sponsor for our 1st Anniversary Vampire Contest with her amazing Vampire Images!

Conjurer of Dreams

Happy Halloween to everyone!!

Digital art created from Chez Simone Tresors Haunted House Background Paper Kit,  Pixabay, and the Vintage Halloween Pictures from Pinterest

WE 'RE OFF TO SEE THE WIZARD!!

 I had a request from Michele to do a Wizard Of Oz Theme so that is what I decided to post this week for our Challenge! Any time anyone has a request for a Theme just let me know and I will post it!! Thank you, Michele, for suggesting such a fun Challenge!!

 I also found some "Great and Wonderful Oz" free images for you to use in your artwork this week which I uploaded and posted as well! 

Sorry I was late in posting but had internet issues and just now got them resolved! I live way out in the country and from time to time I have this issue! I have a new Wi-Fi carrier so maybe this will not be a problem in the future!!

Let your imagination go down "the yellow brick road" and create your own special OZ artwork this week! Cannot wait to see what you will come up with! 

HAVE FUN MY LITTLE PRETTYS!!!

Here is my Great and Powerful Oz Creations!!

Digital art created from Pinterest Images, Wikipedia, and Photoshop Elements

STEAMPUNK ALICE

Hasn't this been a fun month of Challenges!! I knew when I picked this theme, all of you would really enjoy creating Alice Art! I paired Steampunk with our Theme this week because I love all things Steampunk as well as I love Alice, and I know you do too! So, to finish out this month of All Things Alice let's create Some Steampunk Alice as well!

Here are my Steampunk Alice Creations!

Digital art created from Pixabay, Pinterest, Facebook Group Free AI Images, DreamFusionPrint Digital Kit Steampunk, Honeycomb Digital Kit Ethereal Enigma, Friday Designs Digital Kit Old Vintage Portraits, Miles Before The Moon Crow and Company Digital Kit, Conjurer of Dreams Digital Clips Steampunk, and Miriam's Digital Kit Scraps, Itkupilli's Digital Kit Woodlands, 

MAD HATTER TEA PARTY

 Is the Mad Hatter right? Are we all "Mad" here? Well, look at the artwork we create!! Isn't there a certain madness in our method? I know how obsessed I have been since I first began creating digital art, and it seems that I cannot ever not think of anything else!! Ideas are always popping in my head daily, no matter where I am or what I am doing! It seems that the whole world can inspire me with just the ordinary in my day-to-day activities of my life! How about you? Feel the same? 

That is why I love creating art with a theme like Alice In Wonderland because there is no limit to how many different ways you can use your imagination to interpret how you see Wonderland and all of its quirky characters!

The History of Hatmakers and their Madness goes back to the 19th Century when in London, Hatmakers were forced to inhale harmful chemicals used in Hat Making, so that over time, slowly their brain cells were destroyed, thus creating madness! Hence came Lewis Carroll's flamboyant character, The Mad Hatter!! And don't you think the perfect character and companion for Alice as she navigates the upside-down world of Wonderland?

Another Note of Trivia...there is a neurological disorder called Alice In Wonderland Syndrome! People who suffer from this syndrome have a distorted visual perception of objects that are either smaller or larger or appear to be closer or further away than they really are! Interesting!

Put your Mad Hatter on and create some Tea Party artwork for this week's Theme! I have posted a few more free images just for you to download for inspiration! Can't wait to see what you will create!! 

Here are my Mad Hatter Creations!!

Digital art created from Pinterest, Pixabay, and Miriam's Digital Kit Scraps

CRAZY ARCHITECTURE

"What's that strange-looking building on top of the railroad tower at Chickamauga Dam?" reads the headline in the Chattanooga Times Free Press.

When I first moved to Chattanooga, I began working as a Caregiver for an In-Home Healthcare Company and was traveling from patient to patient every day. I had to cross the Chickamauga Bridge to get to most of my patients that I would be caring for in that part of the city. 

One day, as I was crossing the bridge, I looked over to my left and saw a house sitting on the railroad tower. I thought I was seeing things, hallucinating a house on a tower! On my way back home that evening, I crossed the bridge to go home, and there it was...the little, white house still sitting on the tower!! So unusual!!

Many questions entered my mind about the little house. I became obsessed with why the house was there and what its purpose was??? The abstract artist in me was so fascinated with the house and the surreal setting it was in. I had to find out the history of this place and why it was there! I also thought that it would be a cool theme for one of our challenges!!!! 

The simple answer is that it was the control house for the railroad bridge, named Tenbridge. It housed a control room where an operator could raise the bridge to allow tall boats to pass underneath it. 

So this is your challenge!! Using your imagination, create an odd, surreal place in your artwork where you would least likely see a building or a house! Go as "crazy" as you want. Really bring out the abstract notion of this challenge! I cannot wait to see what you will come up with!  

I want to apologize for my absence from the blog for the last 2 weeks.  I had to order a battery charger for my laptop and it took 2 weeks to get it in the mail. I was without a laptop this whole time!!! Ugghh!!!! I did not realize how much of my life is consumed by creating art until I did not have the means to create it with!!!! It's all good now, and everything is back in proper working order, thank goodness, so without any other unpredictable delays, we can return to the regular schedule. Thank you for your patience!!

 

Looking forward to August, I have something really special planned for the whole month!! A Hint..."A" is for Alice!!!! My most favorite story and characters to create art with!!! 

I know it is yours too!

Here are my Crazy Architecture Creations!!!

 

Digital art created from Honeycomb Digital Kit Ethereal Enigma, Itkupilli's Digital Kit Wooden Houses, Wikipedia, and Pixabay