It is another art festival weekend here! Jes Lee Studios and Dad and Kiddo Pottery will be at the Roseville Holiday Festival for the first time this weekend! I hope you have a chance to make it out. I have heard it is a great show and a wonderful place to get some of your holiday shopping done. We’ll be in the ‘green room’ at the Roseville City Hall Saturday 10-5 and Sunday 12-4.
I participated in Artsyville’s List it Tuesday again. I’m having a lot of fun with these weekly challenges! This week’s list theme is ‘Been there done that’…kind of a reverse bucket list. It was quite fun thinking of different things I have already done or places I’ve already gone….so much so that I filled up two notebook pages. I have also discovered I like writing on color filled paper, and I have an overwhelming desire to categorize and title my lists……just a little OCD I guess ;)
I don’t usually make resolutions for a new year. I am considering it this year though. Either way, I found this quote by VanGogh through an inspiring person on Instagram, and I plan to make it my mantra for 2013.
It was a busy week. There were so many bits and moments that I am still mulling over and don’t quite know how to put into words. But I have these photos and many more…..
On Saturday I stopped at my Grandpa’s ….on Thanksgiving he said he was slowly working on scanning in wedding photos from when he and my Granny were married. I offered to help and said I would pick up the album. When I went to get it, instead of only one album, I found two boxes full of albums and photos waiting for me. I have a lot of work ahead of me….but don’t mind. Every time I go through that stack of books I find something else, something amazingly cool and special. This will be a long process, but I’m sure you will see bits of it here.
Craft’za was great! We met a lot of fun people, had some great friends and family stop by to visit, and we sold a lot of great pieces (both pottery and photos) that will hopefully make many people happy.
I have two other important things to post today. First is this:
Yes! This means I have completed the Book Arts Core Certificate Program at Mn Center for Book Arts!! I am thrilled, and excited to continue on with the Book Arts Advanced Certificate.
Second is this:
My first visual journal page that I am posting here, and my wish list for winter! This makes me quite happy as I have often wanted to start a visual journal. Today is crazy, and I won’t have a lot of time to spend in any one place, but writing this list made me very happy. The photo is from the latest Patagonia catalog.
Through the tangled web of the Internet and common real world friends, I have gotten to know Lynn Fisher and learned she is not only a great writer, but also a great photographer and visual journaler. And through her I learned about the Artsyville blog and ‘List it Tuesday’ and here I am! I hope to make this journaling more of a regular thing and that it will help kick-start some ideas for the next shows and projects I have coming up.
Today will be a busy day, but I’m going to work hard to give myself a little time on my own in my darkroom. I have a lot of film waiting patiently for me to develop….
My awesome and expensive printer and I are having creative differences today. It thinks it needs to eat my expensive canvas, instead of printing the gorgeous prints it should be.
But, in other news, there were many things on my art-to-do list that were accomplished today. I finished a photo job, picked up more supplies at the photo store, and finished many things for the holiday sales that start this Saturday.
My art-to-do lists often take physical form in the mornings:
Before…..
After…..
Moving right along.
My day today:
Found while trying out my 4×5 camera (that I still have some technical issues to work out with)
A make-up beer. . .infused with raspberries!
Plus some fairly major issues with my new-to-me 4×5 camera, but nothing that can’t be fixed. Really, just a technical issue I have to figure out. Also grocery shopping, then a bunny and wine. At times I didn’t think it was that great of a day, but I realize that it was good! Any day spent with my husband, and bunny, and cameras (even if they don’t work like I want!) is a good day!
I want to write a blog post, but as I sit here in front of a blank blog post screen, I can’t think of anything very interesting to say!
The last few days have been crazy busy to say the least. Thursday of last week was an epic day full of gallery photo shoots. 640 photos later, I made it back home, ready to start a full weekend of work.
Working that hard makes you a bit loopy, especially when you are working with a couple of friends, trying to fake a paper making shot. This is Laura Brown. I’m pretty sure she and I were both laughing at this moment, along with our friend Curt who was directing the photos.
There are a lot of things going on right now in this little corner of the world. Many things I am waiting for (not very patiently) and many other things that I are demanding attention right this second (and yet one other thing that I am promising myself I will not hyperventilate about until I am able to find out some for sure answers tonight). And of course I keep getting distracted. That happens when I have been working really hard for a really long time.
Last night, because of allowing myself on Pinterest for a bit again, I found a sweet photo blog with a few new hair styles to try. No, that is not at all what I need to be concentrating on, but I am happy to have my hair up and out of my face today and doing something different than just a pony tail.
Not all of my procrastinating is non-art related though. Yesterday I taught myself how to make a new to me type of book. Then I did a quick little page layout and made a practice book to try it out. This does have potential for future projects, though the paper I was using didn’t work the best.
So I have been very out of sorts lately.
(yes, my letterpress friends will groan at that bad pun.)
I’m working hard to get back on track.
This morning I did manage to do a bit of work on my 30 Project. I have also decided that I am switching what camera I’m using for that. I had been using my Hasselblad 501c/m along with the Polaroid instant back. I decided a couple of days ago after finishing one more pack of instant film that I was going to cut out the instant photo portion. This is really just because of how expensive it is to keep buying instant film. I decided last night after finishing a roll of film in my Hasselblad that I am going to switch cameras as well. It has been about 4 months since I started this project. I love using my Hasselblad, but I feel like I’m getting a little bit lazy with it. I know I can take really nice low-light photos with it, and often do so at home, shortly before I go to bed. Those photos are just not as interesting! Yes, I have worked hard to make some of them interesting, but I can’t do that with all of them. So, to shake things up a bit, I’m switching. The next 4 months I will be using my new-ish Lomo LCA+ 35mm camera. This one is not as easy to use in the dark, so it will force me to take it with all the time, and take more daylight photos again. It will also give me a lot more practice with it, which is another thing I need. I also think that switching cameras every 4 months or so will keep me interested in this project, enough that maybe I will continue on after this year is over.
I start a new work schedule this week, which I know will make things a bit difficult for awhile. I know it is only temporary though. Hopefully I will figure out a new groove soon that allows me enough time for my photo work, and maybe a little extra time for blogging as well.
