Friday, July 29, 2011

Buccal Cavity

Oh my, this week's IF word surely hit home. I'd already begun this image, & in fact had already begun lecturing myself about my obsession with detail... I have a tendency not to see the forest for the lichen, so to speak.

I obsess about a lot of things actually, but detail is probably at the top of the list. It gets in my way as often as not, but it's a deeply ingrained part of my personality. Usually I try to fight it, but I let it take the reins on this piece. (Except that, to tell the truth, I could easily keep tweaking it for another 3 hours or more, making changes that were virtually invisible to the eye. But I have a lot of other things that need doing, so this will have to be it.)

I used to have a related obsession with putting hidden words in every picture. I let that one sneak back in here too.

This is the second in a series I'm calling Curiotype.

Photoshop with text from an old dictionary. I kind of veered off from the word that inspired this originally: Buccal, having to do with the cheeks or the cavity of the mouth.



9 comments:

  1. Very cool start to your series. This week's word has gotten me thinking about my art obsessions, but I think I can safely say I've never obsessed about lichen. Maybe there's hope for me? If I say I love your detail, does that just feed your obsession?

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  2. I'm really lichen that beard :)

    I'm glad you obsess about detail. You wouldn't be you and your art wouldn't be your art!

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  3. Thanks so much, Linda & Laurel (Lolo)-- it's good to know all the nuttiness isn't completely in vain. (My obsession remains all too healthy whether it's fed or not.)

    It's also good to know that I'm not the only one with a terrible weakness for puns! ;-)

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  4. Oh, I like the smuggled word ! This is perfect finishing touch! And I guess it is also my problem: I often see things or I like to see things which actually are not! It costs a lot of energy to search in every piece of lichen for nice details...

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  5. I'm confident your submission will be the only one on the entire IF site in which lichen figured as the source of obsession. Wonderfully odd!

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  6. @ SL Vitale : do you think that really? I thought it is very common and widely spread obsession ;) !!!

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  7. Oh, this is so cool! Really love the detailing!:
    It really reminds me of a cute version of a painting by Giuseppe Arcimboldo :D

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  8. SL & Art, who doesn't like lichen?

    Miriam, thanks so much-- I'm a big Arcimboldo fan so no doubt his work was an unconscious inspiration!

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  9. Oh, I'm loving this series! I was going to ask about the dictionary backgrounds last week - I'm glad you talked about it this time. So you use real dictionary entries, but sort of tweak them?

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