By: Julie L. Cleveland
By definition, an artist is someone who is engaged in any of the ways that art can be created, demonstrated or practiced. Such is someone who paints with oils or words. It is someone who works with paper or clay. It is the one who can see things beyond what is visible to the naked eye. It is the one who sees from their imagination. By that definition, we are all artists, but only a few use that ability to create for the enjoyment of themselves or others.
I was recently introduced to word clouds. I didn’t know what a word cloud was, but I had seen them before. As soon as I got my hands on the word cloud generator, the artist in me rather erupted spouting words that I wanted to cloud.
Every day, I see the sun set in the west and cast a purple shadow onto the Bridge Mountains to the east of me. Until I saw that, I never understood the words, purple mountain majesty. So, for my first choice at the word cloud, I sang America the Beautiful.
As a writer, I see potential in this expression, and as an artist, I see a product that would be a very cool print.
There are a few word cloud sites that offer a place to play. Some are free, and others have pay services attached to them.
The first example was created in Wordle, and it is one of my favorite word cloud generators, but you cannot just save the image, so I did a screen shot for my example here. The second sample is from Word it Out and decent enough, but not my favorite.
This one is my favorite, and it is a pay site that I will pay for when I get my words together. ImageChef is a lot of fun, and it gives you the opportunity to design your words into shapes.
This one has a lot of potential from an artistic point of view, and it has commercial potential.
Here is a website that has compiled a list of the word cloud software sites that may be of interest. SmashingApps. If you like to play with graphics and new programs that help create websites and other fun stuff, you will love Smashing Apps.
Say something to the word cloud!
Enjoy
Julie and Blu
