Well, that's exactly why I use Bryce, because it's fun. I like calling it my "Favourite Computer Game". Do you have any favourites in the Archives? One of mine is Golden Castle.

I do have a few favorites in the Archives. Golden Castle for the sky. It's an idea that I want to remake one day. View 1 and View 2 are favs of mine. I love the coloring on them; I find it very dramatic and eyecatching. View 1 I like because when I looked at it top down, this flower-like shape came up as a result of light through the windows. Kind of pretty. There is something wonderful about beautitful things that can happen by accident. And the Glass Temple because it is all light and glass and water, nothing else. Neat colors happened again. When I wasn't very good at putting whole images together, I was happy if I could get some good colors happening.

A lot of people make great pictures with very little imagery, carried almost entirely by their use of colour. And I'm not speaking of computer graphics specifically.
Anyway, let us move on to the Abstractions section.

Let us look at it as a retrospective, so. Talk to us about your abstractions first. Making abstract pictures in Bryce and in Photoshop is my own favourite passtime.

The Abstractions gallery started out because I liked playing with glass and lights. As I mentioned a few other times, color really catches my eye, and abstractions is a great way to play with color without worrying about positioning or realism or things like that.

I know exactly what you are talking about. One of my favourites in this room is Face 1. I saw the face immediately.

The Face was a pure accident; gotta love it when stuff like that happens. Believe it or not, that comes directly out of a preset texture, one of the barnacle ones. The way the lighting hit it just set it off, and I could see a face in the pattern of splotches.

Does seeing images in random textures come to you easily? You just made me think of Weekly World News, an absolutely hillarious magazine full of reports of sightings of Angels and Devils and even Elvis and Jim Morrisson in cloud or dust formations....

No, I'm not the type to see the Virgin Mary in a tortilla or Elvis in the mold on the kitchen floor. But that area kept drawing my eye back.

Well, it's there for all to see...

Now for the gallery labeled Notes from the Underground. Interesting title for a gallery.

Actually, that's the title of a compilation CD of alternative music put out by a small, independant record label. The owner of the label had seen my artwork on the net and asked me to submit some designs for the cover. I came up with 5 designs that focused on 'underground' concepts such as subways and cellars, and Notes 1 was chosen. Granted, this project did not make me wealthy, but there is something nice about holding a CD case in my hand and knowing that I did the cover.

Tell me a little about the WIP gallery.

An idea that I actually got from you, Gunther. I liked how you often shared your Work In Progress with the Bryce Forum and decided that might be a good thing for me to do as well. That way I could get comments and critiques by sharing the piece as it grows. I also think it is kind of interesting to watch how other people develope their ideas, so I share mine in the same sort of fashion.

Tell us about Tally , please. It seems you are creating an intriguing miniature epic, a story ...

The Tally story kind of is telling itself. It was another spur of the moment picture from spur of the moment conversation. "I'm Outta Here" are really forceful words when you think about it. And the idea just came to me in a flash....imagine starring in something titled "I'm Outta Here" and you don't want to do it. Every day life is filled with ironies like that. Wanting to get out of "I'm Outta Here" would be such a large irony. And the story just grew.

So in the beginning there was no story?

No, I don't have it sketched out, or even written out. In fact, I am kind of waiting to see where it takes me. If I get a partial idea and I can't make it coalesce in Bryce, then the story will change to reflect what I can make happen. The world sees Tally as America's Sweetheart, but they don't really know who she is, the person underneath the persona. She's someone who simply wants to be a person instead of the persona...well, this part of the story will come out eventually. But she isn't the kind of star who always sought fame and fortune and then hated what she got. She is more like how Shirley Temple started out; pushed into something until she was trapped for awhile.

What is Jake's part in the drama which is about to unfold?

Jake is going to turn out to be something more than what he seems as well. Should be interesting.

Let us move on to the Newer Gallery . My favourite here are The Piano. The Piano is a picture I almost made myself, only mine would have been a Grand Piano on the water, while yours is an Upright. And mine wouldn't have had those fittings in the background.

The Piano, well, I had just gotten Bryce 4 and simply wanted to see if things would import into 4 faster than 3. Hence the piano and the pipes and tubing. I know you don't like the pipes and tubing, and frankly, I wasn't all that keen on them either, I never intended it to be a serious piece, just a test run of Bryce 4. But then the colors got interesting...

And as we move down the virtual corridor we come to a room with a sign on it saying "Newest". The Time pictures hang here, as well as other interesting concept images such as Who, Wind, Moon, Quarks, and even a modern-day Ophelia.

I really enjoyed making the pictures in this gallery. Frustrating at times, sure, but a joy all the same. Each picture here was born out of a chance idea. The Time images started it all during a long boring night at work. Where the Wind Goes When She Isn't Blowing was an idea given to me by Ferenc Harazsti after he viewed the Time pictures. The Quarks were in response to a Scene Theme idea at the Bryce Forum . My latest, Who , is the first of a series of pictures putting faces to the 'question' words....Who, What, Where, When, How, and Why. My recent favorite, however, has to be Ophelia Today .

Can you tell us why?

Well, believe it or not, my version was inspired by all of the gorgeous versions of her done by the Pre-Raphaelite painters. I wanted something elegant and yet keeping with our times, and I remembered an article that I had read back in college that claimed that there was some sense of Ophelia in all women. So I created an Ophelia that bears a resemblance to myself, a young forklift driver in a large factory.

(editor's note: Karen grins a lot... ;) nice, eh?)

finally: some closing notes...