Digital Creations

We live is such a digital world. And I love it. I thrive in it. I can’t imagine life without it. Like I mentioned a couple weeks ago, I even love to scrapbook digitally. And I especially love digital photos. Mixing photography with computers is like putting icing on a cupcake. They just go together so perfectly.

I am not an artist. Or at least not one in the traditional sense of the word. But putting to use my love all things digital makes me feel like I am. Remember this photograph of Layton:

While it may not look like a masterpiece to you, it feels like one to me. Why? Because this the original:

I think there is a huge difference, don’t you? Kind of like this photograph:

I think it really gives it such a retro dreamy feel.

I’m not showing you these things to brag that I am some magnificent photo editor. Because, truth be told, I’m not. The effect for the first photo I did following along with a tutorial from Spoon Graphics. The next one was done using a programmed ‘action’ in Photoshop Elements where all I did was click one button and it did all the work for me.

But somehow doing these things makes me feel like I can have a little taste of what an artist must feel like when they create something beautiful. Obviously it is not the same. My experience with it is just a shadow of what a true artist must feel, but it still gives me a feeling that I have added a little bit of beauty to my tiny world.

What President Uchtdorf said at the Relief Society General Meeting last year is something that I am learning to be true:

The desire to create is one of the deepest yearnings of the human soul. No matter our talents, education, backgrounds, or abilities, we each have an inherent wish to create something that did not exist before.

Everyone can create. You don’t need money, position, or influence in order to create something of substance or beauty.

Creation brings deep satisfaction and fulfillment. We develop ourselves and others when we take unorganized matter into our hands and mold it into something of beauty.

Even when our creation is something as simple as a flower garden, a scrapbook page, a lovely home cooked meal, or a touched up digital photograph, I think we feel a sense of accomplishment and joy in our creation.