TRE2Photo-n-Design

A week ago today, we lost the most dedicated woman I've ever known...My Mom. It was very sudden almost a blink of an eye. She had been sick over the last year, but was on the mend. She had been in the hospital two weeks prior to her passing due to some severe disorientation and confusion. She was on steroids because she'd had an over-active thyroid problem. We believe the steroids contributed to some memory lapses which caused her to misuse her medication and take more than what she remembered taking. But they were trying to fix that.

Last Monday she appeared to be fine the entire day, but that night when my Dad was trying to help her to bed she said she needed to rest when she was only a few steps from the bed. He tried to get her to continue to the bed but he ended up having to help her to the floor. I went in to try to help him get her back on her feet and into bed, but we just couldn't. She became unresponsive and we immediately called 911. They got her to the hospital but it was too late. The doctor said that if it hadn't been for the CPR and breathing tube, she wouldn't have made it to the hospital, but we think the doctor was trying to be gentle. We don't believe she made it there.

My Mom had the same genetic disorder that I and my brother have, Vitamin D Resistant Rickets. When she was 6 months old she went into Shirners Hospital for a solid 18 month stay. She was 2 years old when she finally got to go home. The first time she touched grass she cried.

My brother and I both spent our share of time in Shriners and she was always there by our side. Long hours of sitting and waiting for us to get out of our various surgeries just so she knew we were alright and we could see her before she left to go home and get some rest. Taking care of us when we were sporting body casts and couldn't take care of our basic needs. She was our Superhero.

We will miss her dearly. Our lives will never be the same without her or her infectious giggle.

I took this shot 6 years ago, it is the view from the cemetery where, at the time, my grandparents are buried and now my Mom shares this view with them.



We love you, Mom! And we miss you so much!

It's really short and simple. I joined back in 2006 somewhere around October....it might have been 2005. We'll see if the year mark ticks over come the end of October. I was dating someone who was a member at the time. She was on here one night when I was at her place and I asked her what she was doing. She started showing me around and I made an account that night.

I'd stopped coming around for a little while, but then I got some sort of creative spark and began playing around with Photoshop. Started making forum signatures for myself and friends. Which turned into making fliers for event in City of Heroes. I lost my job in 2007 and ended up buying a camera and picked up photography which first started off as a hobby, but the more I got into it the more I fell in love with it and now I want to become a professional. I even started going to college after 20 years of not being in any type of school. Was working towards my BFA-Photography, but decided to put that on the back burner and switch to something that would be a little more lucrative. So now I'm working on my BFA-Web Design and New Media degree, but plan to go back and finish that photography degree.

I haven't posted much on dA lately, but that is soon to be changing.

That I'll be closing my account permanently by the end of the year at the very latest, maybe sooner.

The rampant art thievery that is allowed to continue here is astounding! I personally have reported image/user after image/user when there is no doubt that the person A) Did not take themselves B) When they outright say that they just took images off the internet and posted them because they think that unless they see a visible copyright, it's public domain and therefore they can use the pictures however they wish.

DeviantArt USED to be an ARTIST community. Don't get me wrong, there are people on here that do the best they can with what equipment they have and there are a lot of great results from that. But when people upload shitty selfies (I HATE THAT WORD), poorly composed images, images that are so out of focus that it looks like you've been on a three week bender and your vision is so blurry the photos look like a mess of watercolors. Don't even get me started on the people that continually break the "No pornography" rule. I'm not talking about the artistic nudes, I'm talking about the images that show penetration or bodily fluids. DO NOT misread that as me being a prude, I've watched my share of porn in my 43 years, but there are kids on this site too...which is a whole other topic that is covered here by KyuubifiedHokage: kyuubifiedhokage.deviantart.co…


Something HAS to be done on dA's part to get these issues under control!!! We report the infractions but they get ignored, or at least that's the way it feels. Like the admins don't care. If that is not the case, maybe it's a lack of personnel to handle all the reports and/or moderate the many different categories there are on DeviantArt. If that is the case, either hire more people, ask for volunteers or don't shun or snub your nose at people who offer to help cull the problem.

I have known too many great photographers who have left dA because of this very problem. Their work was being stolen and when it was brought up to the admins, they got the feeling that no one cared. Or if they did take care of it, it took too long. And when those artists left, others left with them because they were worried that their work and livelihood would be next in the crosshairs of the art thieves.

When I first joined here in late 2005/early 2006, the work being shared was amazing. Do not get me wrong, there are still many amazing artists still here and I personally love checking out their work. But it has become a den of people who think that lousy pictures of their empty pizza box is art. Well, I got news, it's not.

Don't give me that BS about art is subjective and that it's up for interpretation. Even bad art is still art, but your half eaten sandwich you had for lunch and random pictures of meaningless clouds are NOT art.

Agree with me or don't, I don't care. The fact of the matter is this IS happening on DeviantArt whether you like/want to admit it or not and if something doesn't get done soon I'm afraid that the really great artists on here will disappear and it will turn into nothing more than a glorified MySpace knock-off.