I have no formal training in art outside of the technical drawing realm (most of my schooling has been related to my engineering profession), but I have been interested in computer graphics and geometric artwork as long as I can remember. I toyed around with computer programming and artwork as early as grade school, but didn't really develop a passion for it until took my first AutoCAD class in the mid 90's. I realized then that I could create interesting images with little effort that would be incredibly tedious to produce by hand. When I started my first mechanical design job, I was lucky enough to be assigned to learn SolidWorks (a fantastic 3D CAD program) and PhotoWorks (its photo rendering add-in) - I was off and running!
By early 2000, I had created a few interesting images, but I really didn't have any goals for my newfound passion. I decided that in order to motivate myself (not always easy with a wife, three children, a house and a full time job), I would strive to create at least one new original image each month to share with a select group of friends. So, in February 2000, the monthly desktop email was born. Since then, I had an unstated goal that I would create at least 100 "desktop images" in this way, and at times that goal kept me going. On the other hand, I found it somewhat constraining in that I sometimes end up putting less detail into the images, in order to meet the monthly self-imposed deadline. After achieving my 100th image, I figured I needed some new direction, so I finally put together my website to hopefully reach a bigger audience than with the monthly email or the display in the basement closet under the stairs ;-)
I managed to cram in all of the former desktop images from 2000-2007 as well as some older stuff and even some that didn't make the cut along the way, with short descriptions of each. I had to scrimp a bit on resolution (most images were originally 1024x768), so I have cut most of them down in order to keep below the 15Mb cap on this free yahoo account (also please excuse the requisite yahoo advertising over there-->).
Now that I theoretically have more time on my hands, I plan to break from the tradition of an original design each month to go back to "finish" some of my earlier projects that have room for improvement. I would also like to add a modular origami page as well, but that one may not be ready for a while. If those turn out well, putting something together for some of my fishing and hiking photos may be in order. We'll see how it goes. This is my first attempt at web page creation, so bare with me if some things act a little goofy for a while. At least, I figured out how to turn off the monkey border patrol that once danced around the edge of the page.
Most of my images come out of experiments with 3D modeling in SolidWorks, but there are deviations from that including my forays into basic computer programming of fractals, cellular automata, stereograms and other odds and ends. I also occasionally employ some "post processing" photo manipulation software in order to get certain desired effects.
I would love to hear feedback on my designs as well as the whole website layout. I tried to make it easy to navigate while keeping all of the content I wanted, so let me know if I succeeded or not. Thanks to everyone who has given me feedback and encouragement from the early "desktop of the month" days. Hopefully, that has helped me improve along the way, or at least helped me figure out what you guys like to see. As always.
Share and enjoy!
Keith
