My brand new Presentation for the AAW Symposium in Hartford!

Most of us in the woodturning community can do a lot more than turn wood. To share some of my other interests and skills with my woodturning friends, I like to offer symposium demonstrations on different, but related, subjects.

This year my alternative offering is digitally oriented. It's called "Image Editing for Artists". Next week I will be giving this presentation to my local club, the Rocky Mountain Woodturners.

Am I nervous, giving a new presentation for the first time? Of course. As always. In Aviation, we always used to say that a healthy level of nerves is what keeps us alert and therefore alive. There is a bit less performance pressure among my local friends at the RMWT than there will be at AAW. At the same time the club offers pressure of a different kind. The AAW symposium attendees who come to my presentation in Hartford will be in that room at that time because they are (at least presumably) interested in my subject. The RMWT members are just attending the meeting, willing to watch whatever and whoever our program director (David Nittmann) chose for us. They may have no interest whatsoever in my subject! Add to that the fact that I am really best at making stuff out of wood. I learned to do digital image and video editing mostly as a necessary part of my business.

In this Image Editing presentation, I will be sharing some of the skills that I have found valuable. Just making artwork is not enough, in itself. Sharing my work with the world is what brings the energy full circle, and gives the greatest reward of all. The creative process brings me close to the work in a way that the viewer of the piece doesn't always see. And the viewer sees things in my work that I might not have been consciously aware of. That subject is fuel for a whole 'nother discussion, on another day!

Digital images, in all of their forms, are the best way to facilitate sharing our work with the world. In my case, I use digital images extensively in marketing. My website, printed ads and articles, notices about my demonstrations (like this one in the RMWT newsletter), business cards, show applications, selling on various websites (such as the AAW online gallery); they all ask me to edit digital images!

What I find, in learning to edit images, is that the Computer offers as much creativity and adventure as Woodturning does!

So, please attend my digital demo at RMWT, or at AAW in Hartford. You just might get inspired to have some fun with the camera and computer!. I hope so. See you in Hartford!