Ancient Yet Familiar | LMAC FreeStyle No. 124

Ancient Yet Familiar was a concept I envisioned for my current freestyle collage. My approach to pair vintage with progressive paired well I feel. When we study the past during a time we didn't actually experience, we're learning a part of history that may have been diminished with time or overlooked as irrelevant to society as a whole.

I remember when young my family would recall their lives in a rural part of another state before moving. Too young at the time recall any of the events, I was always fascinated with the people and their way of life. How did they survive? What did their everyday life consist of? These questions intrigued me especially since these events were well documented.

Researching certain historical data may be sketchy if you don't have individual accounts to retell their story. Piecing together events is tedious and time-consuming. You can only imagine what life was like or how the landscape appeared based on external information that may not be particular to your own set of circumstances.

For the past two decades, I've been researching my family. It's fascinating to attempt to connect the old with what I now know and experience. I shared my research with the rest of the family. From death certificates in the early 1900s, I discovered a family medical history that others in the family hadn't known.

The adage is true: you have to live it truly to understand the meaning of it.

I utilized Canva, my design program, to blend the collage in which I began with a blank, white canvas. I then added layers of elements in accordance with my upgraded Annual Pro Membership that includes tools to remove backgrounds, detach different parts of an image from its background to use separately, resize, colorize, filter, duplicate, and reposition items. Of all the tool, detaching has been one of the most useful assets. Below are my procedures.

The assortment of images I retrieved from free sources and the #LIL combined to illustrate my double faceted portrayal of old versus new.

^{Water landscape ~ Female in yellow dress ~ City alley - Contributed to the #LIL by @seckorama ~ Blue abstract pattern ~ Futuristic Hourglass ~ Abstract blue lines pattern ~ Medieval haunted house ~ Night Owl Sketch - Contributed to the #LIL by @airmatti ~ Picus Tree - Contributed to the #LIL by @alex2alex ~ Baroque Castle with landscaped garden ~ Entrance view of seashore ~ Castle granite stairs ~ Eclipse ~ Water nymph ~ Gargoyle - Contributed to the #LIL by @seckorama ~ Elephant's Eye - Contributed to the #LIL by @alex2alex ~ Black sectional statute - Public art from "Sculpture's Garden" in Tel Hashomer - Contributed to the #LIL by @alex2alex ~ Snake - Contributed to the #LIL by @seckorama}