Those feet.
Those soles.
They've seen the world and all it offers.
They bear witness to numerous adventurers called Malcolm.
Stories recounted. Sights beheld.
Many trails trod.
Delightful; Fruitful; and Fraught with danger.
The Malcolm's of the world accept all as a challenge.
But lately, he's slowed;
pausing to ponder the meanings of his encounters.
Are they warnings?
The mind is beseeched with doubt
as nature's elements took a toll.
They say time takes it toll on your body and mind.
On that point, I agree wholeheartedly.
You may wish, plan, then uproot your physical self.
But something tugs at you.
It's the loneliness I feel.
Stirrings of unfamiliarity
prevent you from forging ahead amid uncertainty.
Desire to branch out stirs deeply.
I once was young and imagined accomplishing all things.
Alas I am old.
Optimistically much wiser.
The desire that flowed in me no longer burns
with the flame to set afoot and wander.
But to return to...
the safe;
the familiar;
HOME.
In the post, nftshowroom X alienarthive challenge for November: the feeling of home, NFTShowroom has featured all the month's Geometry themed Art minted so far on the NFT Showroom's home page / twitter. Also, Alien Art Hive will be curating participants' blog posts. This challenge was intended for the full month of September. Participants were required to:
- make art incorporating the feeling of home theme;
- mint it on https://nftshowroom.com/;
- make a blog post about it in Alien Art Hive; and
- use #nftshowroom in your tags
Below are my steps I took to create my second design for this theme.
Information for my mint on NFTShowroom.
Name: The Many Roads Taken Toward Home
Date Minted: 11/7/25
Link: The Many Roads Taken Toward Home
Number Minted: 5
Cost: 10 Hive/each
For creating the "feeling of home" scene in this design, I utilized an unusual image of a large foot I retrieved from the stable diffusion program, StarryAI.
I feel that the most dramatic part of the scene is the skyline with a beautiful sunset.
The lone man on the road encounters weariness on his quest for adventure.
To complete the design, I uploaded all images into Canva, my design program, then added layers of elements.
Detaching the stable diffusion image's foot provided the opportunity to place it in the setting I felt would grab attention.
I was thoroughly pleased with the decision to add eyes to the feet. This symbolizes that the feet witnessed much during their travels.
The resulting still image turned out amazing in my opinion.
However, as usual, I wanted to push the design further. I called upon Deep Dream Generator to generate an animated version of the feet moving as well as the eyes blinking on the feet.
Thanks for taking the time to view my post. I hope you like my final mixed media project for the November "feeling of home" challenge.
SOURCES:
a) JustClickindiva's Footer created in Canva utilizing its free background and images used with permission from discord admins.
b) Unless otherwise noted, all photos taken by me with my (i) Samsung Galaxy 10" Tablet, (ii) Samsung Phone, & (iii) FUJI FinePix S3380 - 14 Mega Pixels Digital Camera
c) Purple Butterfly part of purchased set of Spiritual Clip Art for my Personal Use
d) All Community logos, banners, page dividers used with permission of Discord Channel admins.
e) Ladies of Hive banner used with permission of and in accordance with the admin's guidelines
f) Thumbnail Image created by me in Canva.
g) "Flames." What is Apophysis 2.09. https://flam3.com/
If translation included, I use DeepL to assist my readers.
Thanks for your patience an understanding.