Life of the CREATIVE GEEK

On Seeing H.E.R I, too, felt the shame of not knowing who she was... We can overcome this void, together, though. We can stand proudly in this new wave of R&B and let H.E.R. be a guiding force. H.E.R, a 21 year old from California, graced UAB's Springfest stage tonight...and it was divine! She embodied the essence of Erykah and the energy of Prince as she played her lead guitar and then at times switched to keyboard. An hour long set provided the 1000+ crowd a soulful ensemble of original material from her self-titled album and added a little UUMPF as she sprinkled in some R&B'ed hip hop covers.  A crowd favorite and in current radio rotation, she sang her hit, Focus , but by the end of the night she switches to a bluesy croon, a nasty guitar hook and she belts out her version of  Make It Rain . I was reeled in by her magic. You can tell a lot by an artist's fanbase, their enthusiasm and the knowledge of H.E.R. lyrics. We definitely have a ...

I shed countless tears over you as we gathered your photos together. The crew (your mom...my Aunt Caroline and Aunt Shirley) labored day and night in your mother's office to create the graphic masterpiece of an obituary that I had been called upon to work magic over. It was the most mentally horrific thing I have ever had to do... "I should not be here doing this--at THIS point in time," I told myself often. The sweetest, most caring, adventurous, smartest person I knew lost a battle with his own demons. My cousin, only three days older than my twin and I, committed suicide. It took a while to NOT try to understand... as a human being we try to rationalize everything and this was one that would always remain a puzzle. It is what it is... Depression and substance abuse always hung in the gray areas of the background...waaay in the background. African American folks acknowledge it (kinda) but don't really speak on it...He was getting assistance, but I never knew to WH...

I am def not an Auburn fan BUT if you wild like these overlays for your profile pics...FEEL FREE!!! They are PNGs in a 1:1 format... 1LOVE. mnj

10 Things That Get On Your Nerve During the Fourth of July Weekend... Written by Marc Lacy Graphics by Marika N. Johnson of MNJ STUDIOS. I thought this was hilarious commentary by the Huntsville creative soul, Marc Lacy. He does a variety of these at any given hour... you should check out his FB page, HERE . I have always wanted to create an INFOGRAPHIC and with my renewed passion for Adobe Illustrator--VOILA!! The FOURTH INFOGRAPHIC WAS BORN!! GO forth... (pun intended) and be merry!! -mnj

Just working on ai with the girls... I wanted to document their progress. Here are 1st attempts with Maia, Nadia, and Emily all ages 10 and 11. Just working on basic shapes and cutting and pasting multiple images... What are your kids working on for the summer? I would like to enroll my two into some early computer coding. -mnj

Quite an easy method of putting several images together using Photoshop. There are many methods to "perfecting" the final image from masking to playing with the opacity. I am merely sharing the initial steps. All YOU need to know is File>Scripts>Load Files into Stack. Your computer may take a minute (or NOT) to compile all the images into one file. Once the file opens, you will end up with several different layers... My first example that I played with looked like this... a starfilled sky with an overall time lapse of an hour. There are beautiful examples out there with hours upon hours of multiple exposures, such as... http://www.eso.org/public/images/271109-cc/ Another stacked image, also referred to as "cloning", that I compiled from a set that was recently photographed at our local swimming pool. I wanted to stitch this set of pics to show her journey from the diving board to the final entry splash. Have you tried this process befo...