For my Freestyle Collage No. 33, I centered my theme around the concept of gratefulness. I often wondered what was the meaning of "being grateful." Was it a satisfying feeling? An acknowledgement to another person who may provide assistance to you? or is it another concept.
In looking at the meaning of gratefulness, I found this quote:
Dalai Lama 1
The word "gratitude" is derived from the Latin word gratus, which means pleasing or thankful.2 In society, gratitude is an emotion that serves each person well in their dealings with another.
As a young adult, I was surrounded by friends that were not satisfied with any aspect of their lives. My siblings and I were raised to appreciate what little we had in terms of material possessions.
Then, we were taught to appreciate that we possessed good health and a place to call our home. Although our food was not plentiful, we gave thanks to whatever our parents could provide. And, we were grateful to have friends in our lives who truly wish us the best of all things.
Yes, we grumbled and complained like all children our age. That is, until we saw evidence of other children who were homeless, who were hungry, and sick and ailing.
I believe showing us and instilling the concept into our hearts made a difference in how we viewed ourselves and the world around us. We did not take for granted our lives. We realized that any circumstances could take our way of life from us at any moment.
Only then, did we understand the concept of being grateful.
In preparing my theme for my FreeStyle No. 33 collage, I located a unique and serene background with a meadow. Pairing it with LMAC Round 173 contest photo created a lovely and tranquil scene.
I then included the following images. As always, I was able to locate nice images from the LIL contributed my the LMAC members.
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Woman by KELLEPICS at Pixabay
Woman lying in water at PxFuel
Fantasy jar with flowing water by Natalia Rodman at Pixabay
Allenwood Stone Sculpture Contributed to #LIL by @agmoore
Mystical eye and bridge at PxFuel
Metal Man's Back Contributed to #LIL by @alex2alex
Ficus Tree Contributed to #LIL by @alex2alex
Utilizing my Annual Pro Membership Subscription, I uploaded all images into Canva. There, I was able to remove the background from the LMAC original contest image. Only upgraded members have available this feature.
Once the background was removed, I was able to place the image of the town with the buildings in the upper portion of the screen. I feel the combination connected nicely to create a serene scene. The free image of the meadow in the foreground resembled a park across the water.
Finally, I added the remaining images and blended them together. Again, I needed to remove some of the image backgrounds.
This is the completed freestyle collage:
Thank you for visiting. I hope you liked my freestyle collage theme.
CONTEST RULES
IMPORTANT NOTICE:
| What is Let's Make a Collage? | It is a weekly photography and collage contest. |
|---|---|
| Who created the contest? | @shaka is the contest owner. |
| What type of contest is it? | This Contest utilizes a single photo provided by the contest owner as the basis for you to create your own photo collage by adding to the photo provided. |
| What are the rules? | 1. Use as your starting point for your collage the photography provided by the contest owner. It is located on the contest owner's post for free use without any copyright protection. |
| 2. Entries are required to be posted to the LMAC community and must contain a link to the contest post. | |
| 3. Entries need to set the LMAC account (@lmac) as 20% beneficiary to be eligible for the dynamic component of the prize pool.; | |
| 4. Extra support with the LMAC trail to all collages where LIL assets have been included AND the respective LIL-contributors set as 2% beneficiaries; | |
| 5. By submitting your contribution you agree that your artwork remains public domain and that it can be copied, modified and distributed, even for commercial purposes, without requiring further permission. | |
| 6. Any graphical element that is added to the photography either needs to be your own original work (e.g. own artwork or photography) OR needs to derive from sites whitelisted by LMAC. | |
| 7. IMPORTANT: Indicate the source of all materials used in your accompanying post. Otherwise your entry can NOT be put up for the final vote. | |
| 8. All sort of editing, modification and/or manipulation is allowed as long as no copyright is affected. | |
| What do you win? | Prizes listed on the contest owner's post. |
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/
1 "Dalai Lama Quotes About Gratitude". A-Z Quotes. Online at: https://www.azquotes.com/author/8418-Dalai_Lama/tag/gratitude
2 "Gratitude Meaning" Wikipedia. Online at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gratitude
If translation included, I use DeepL to assist my readers.
Thanks for your patience an understanding.
