I originally posted this painted viking rune heArt collage on my heArt #24 entry. This morning I was “leveraging” my art, as Traci Bautista advocates in her book Collage Unleashed. Although the original piece of art is a “real life” collage ACEO I took it into Photoshop and started messing around with filters and the hue and saturation bar. Playing around with that brought out the hidden x factor in the original piece of art for me. I could literally feel a little zing! in my physical heart when the colors and filters hit the sweet spot.

Also, although altered art is a huge trend these days in the paper arts world and really all I’ve read about, I think digitally altering your own art pieces (instead of just photoshopping up photos) could be the Next Big Thing. I think it’s very exciting and fun to do. To me art is meant to be about experimentation and pushing the conventions of tradition. It may not seem valid to some that making a few clicks is all you need for a new piece of art, but even the most traditional artists who are masters at their craft have shortcuts the rest of the world doesn’t know about.

heArt #52 : “Viking Rune Wunjo Variation #1″