Archive for the ‘From the Canvas…’ Category
AlignBetween Art Custom iPhone & Laptop Skins at the Lotus Pond!
AlignBetween's Contemplating Bodhisattva laptop skin in Deep Dark Teal
This is my Mac laptop, and this is how a custom AlignBetween skin (made by GelaSkins) looks on the cover. I love it! It’s:
SLEEK & SMOOTH
NON-DESTRUCTIVE
COLORFUL & FUN
TOTALLY UNIQUE
I also love that my favorite “home sweet home” yoga studio in Tampa, The Lotus Pond Center for Yoga and Health is now carrying AlignBetween custom skins in a variety of designs and devices. We have iPhone 4/4S, several Mac laptop sizes, as well as standard PC laptop sizes.
First round of AlignBeween Art custom GelaSkins have arrived.
These make great gifts or stocking stuffers…or a nice little “treat yourself well” gesture. It’s also a hip way to get a little AlignBetween in your space. Val, owner of The Lotus Pond, is enjoying the Bodhisattva on the studio laptop, and Ancient Ganesh on her iPhone.
I’m contemplating putting these up for sale on alignbetween.com, but for now they’re a limited quantity experiment. What do you think? Would you like one? If you can’t make it to the Lotus Pond, drop me a comment or an email, and we can work something out (UPDATE: Feedback has been so great! Skins can now be purchased online HERE (Laptop / iPhone), not sure how long this will last, these may become “collectors” items or a permanent fixture – we’ll see!). All AlignBetween art on canvas can potentially be made into a skin. What you see above are:
Bodhisattva
Ancient Ganesh
Peaceful Warrior
Energize the Root
Grounded
Infinitiii
Yours truly at the front desk with new skin 
Funny, that's how the Lotus Pond makes me feel after a sweet yoga class.
The Lotus Pond is one of the best places to practice yoga in Tampa!
Peace Grows from Within on the AlignBetween iPhone.
Infinite Possibilities in Color
The universe is abundant, the possibilities are infinite, the path lies within you.
- Paul Williams, Das Energi
AlignBetween Art: Energize the Root
Oh, the joys of digital design, endless color palettes and infinite possibilities. I’m having so much fun with this AlignBetween art print on canvas, incorporating the elements of yoga, meditative mandala, and the wide-open center of a lotus flower.
So much fun that I’m feeling the desire to go crowd sourcing, and get your artistic, creative and stylish feedback .
This piece is titled Energize the Root. The original color palette was actually inspired by a recent West Elm catalog. Deep rich reds, almost maroon. Mellow and versatile tan or beige. The contrasting of white in the symmetrical mandala design…
…and then I found myself experimenting with all the variations you see below. What about you?
- What color combination and style are you drawn to?
- Where would you hang a piece such as this?
- Do you like the more subtle palettes or would you like something more bold and colorful?
- What images and impressions does this piece conjure up?
A little insight into this AlignBetween work of art: The silhouetted figure is my sweet yogi friend Carrie Ielfield of Brahma Living who teaches sunrise and sunset yoga classes in New Smyrna Beach, FL. This particular lotus flower was shot at Hakusan Shrine in Niigata City, Japan.
Don’t be shy! I’d love to hear your thoughts and suggestions. Take a look, leave a comment, Twitter or Facebook your thoughts, and share with your fellow art and design enthusiasts.
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Flower Power
- Image via Wikipedia
Life can be so…noisy. A few days ago I read that now we process 3 times as much information than the average person did in the 1950′s. My significant other even speculated it must be higher than that. Beginning with the hated alarm clock every morning, moving in to the radio on the commute to work, inundation with conference calls, computer screens, televisions and smart phones…it’s a heavy downpour of incoming bits, bytes, sounds, images, videos and attachments. And we LOVE it. How wonderful it is to be so connected. How many times have you sat back and wondered in sheer amazement how you would EVER get your job (or life) done without modern technology? We’re evolving to live under the pressure of noise, and furthermore we see it as life-sustaining as our own heartbeat.
But there’s a lot of power in quiet. In silence. It’s why every yoga class ends in savasana and we’re taught that this is the most important pose of all. It’s why we’re drawn to beach vacations, meditation, hiking in the mountains…benefiting from all the gifts we receive when we reduce the noise in our lives and quiet the mind.
To demonstrate this phenomena of balancing extremities, or the multi-tasking mindset vs. the stark simplicity of minimalism, I trace my photographic steps backward.
When I first took this photo, I casually wandered out to my front yard and snapped this shot of yellow flowers bouncing happily in the breeze. They were bright, full, and brimming with the sun’s energy. They looked like tiny little sunshines on flexible green legs. However as I loaded the photo into my computer I saw something very average, un-special and actually quite “noisy”. Frankly, it seemed so one-dimensional and forgettable.
As I cropped, desaturated, and rotated my way through the photo, the striking center of this one flower emerged. The detail in its heart, the outstretched petals absorbing the light. It reminded me of an exploding firework, and I thought, there’s alot of of power here, diving in to the center of this single flower bustling around amongst its brothers and sisters. How much better it seemed when I cut out all the noise and simply focused.
That’s the message in my Flower Power art print on canvas. Reminding us to pause. To give up the rush of boundless streaming inputs. To unhook ourselves from the matrix and discover the rejuvenating blend of life without the stimulation, of silence…and remembering to breathe.
Visit: Art for Inner Spaces
Peace Grows from Within
Image by Swami Stream via Flickr
Thailand. The ancient capital of Ayuthaya. Ruins that still crumble with the memories of a battle against the Burmese invasion. In late September of 2003 I toured these ruins and stopped, amazed, at this solitary Buddha head, detached from its steadfast body. The roots of the Banyan tree had grown protectively all around it, mothering its peaceful face. The invaders had viciously beheaded the revered statues, a profound statement of intimidation and ill regard, reminding me of the modern-day destruction of the Buddhas of Bamyan.
At the dusty site, chiseled stone bodies still remain in varying states of strength and withering away, necks exposed to the elements, and very few heads to be found, if I recall. The poetic justice of this preserved and tranquil Buddha is the message: History beat it down, but nature’s embrace grew around it. So the quiet face continues on, eternal blissful and supported.
“Peace Grows from Within” seemed such a fitting title for this art print on canvas. You can find many photos, snapshots, and personal stories about this particular Buddha from travelers all over the world. If you’ve seen it in person, I’d love to hear about it! So here’s AlignBetween’s interpretation…close up, high contrast, and growing within!
Visit: Art for Inner Spaces
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