Hiddenite , or Lithia Emerald, is a rare green gemstone. It was discovered in western North Carolina in 1879, and named after the geologist William Hidden.

This picture of course is not a photograph of actual hiddenite. It's a combination of my drawing with an Apophysis fractal for the background. I laid out the design to give the effect of heading into a dark cave where such gemstones might be mined. This piece was also an experiment in drawing faceted gems - they're harder than the round orbs.

This pictue from 2009 is from a photograph of some crepe myrtle leaves on the ground. It's weird how the weather affects the fall colors. A tree that I photographed in brilliant color the year before declined to put on any display the next year, but the crepe myrtles I had never noticed in the fall were all red and gold. I missed getting them while the leaves were still on the trees, so I had to shoot them on the ground. Then I added a filigree design to emphasize the leaf shapes and colors more.

This Christmas-themed illustration uses several Apophysis fractals for texture. I had seen another wallpaper with hanging ornaments like this and wanted to try something similar. The golden swirl fractal is one of my particular favorites, and it worked well as an ornament design.

This was a photograph I took of my cat, Dusky, looking hyperactive as usual. Selective coloring is a technique that can be overused, but it seemed appropriate for this picture with those glowing eyes!

I wanted to try drawing Dusky's green-gold eyes, and this stylized cat's face grew from that. And a red fractal background from Apophysis completed the picture. This is still one of my favorites.

I took this picture of my cat, Dusky, while he was hiding in a paper bag getting ready to pounce on my mom's cat, Pearl. This is a common expression on his face! He's very energetic and he loves to haress poor Pearlie.

This fractal created in Apophysis turned out looking like some very brightly-colored coral. I added the gold framing and gem in Paint Shop Pro.

I had designed these golden bells for an invitation, and then wanted to make more use of them, so I added the wreath and striped ribbons to make a Christmas desktop design.

This ornate spiral pattern came from the XaoS fractal zooming program, and I added the gold overlay and rubies. How any gems do you think there are?

For this piece I took the same ZaoS fractal I had embossed for Rubies & Gold and laid it over a green Apophysis fractal design. The result was a calmer image that reminded me of the light patterns - caustics - under rippling water. The pearl seemed an appropriate addition.