It is Monday.
The first day in what I hope will be a productive creative week.
Goals for today:
1. Finish this blog post (check!)
2. Narrow down photos from my two photo shoots yesterday (edit 2:27pm: Check!)
3. Finish scanning in new negatives and Polaroids (edit 5:07pm: Check on the Polaroid scans! I kind-of underestimated just how many negatives I had to scan in…)
4. New artwork (edit 5:07pm: I’m not sure I like it, but I did work on a new artwork piece today, so check!)
Last week was full, but really helped renew my spirits in the creativity department.
It started by 3 full days with Wing Young Huie in a Split Rock Arts workshop. The focus was on documentary photography, having the courage to ask people if you can photograph them, and capturing an area in images. Many of the students shot digital, while a couple of us (myself included) decided to stick with film. It has been a long time since I was plunked down at a location, told to photograph for a couple of hours, then sent home to develop and scan that film and have something prepared to show in critique the next day and start all over. I didn’t go the route of talking to everyone on the street and asking to take their photograph, (portraits still really aren’t my thing) I did get into exploring an area of the city and allowing people to be in my photographs. I was totally exhausted by the end, but it was exhilerating not only to realize that I can still do that and be that intensive about my work, but also to go back to the idea of picking a place and photographing it. That is something that is easier to do when you are on vacation and allow yourself days in a smaller area and lots of film, but it is harder to convince yourself to do when you are only a few miles away from home. I did get some great images from the workshop, and I’ll post them very very soon.
Thursday was my Birthday! My mom took the day off of work, I took the day off from volunteering at Banfill, and we had a great time hanging out. First stop after breakfast was to the Walker Art Center to see The Quick and the Dead exhibit. I really recommend going to see it! It is a mind boggling, different sort of exhibit. (There is a certain installation piece there that I really would like installed in our next house) Next we stopped at the Minneapolis Institute of Arts which is always good. Then, on to hot stone massages at The Refinery and off to dinner with my hubby and my dad. It was a great way to wind down after the intenstive photo workshop, and after a long weekend, I’m feeling ready to work again.
Hey World! Here I come!