Jes Lee

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Thankful

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Last week I got the sweetest email from Van who was kind enough to purchase quite a few of my cards at the MInnesota Center for Book Arts Festival in November. Her email and her project have blown me away! 

This is her tumbler blog: http://ilikeyourgratitude.tumblr.com/

She is sending a thank you a day to someone. When you think about it, how often do you send the thank you cards you mean to send? How often do you actually tell someone they made a difference in some way to you? I’m betting it isn’t often enough. I know I’m guilty of that. I think she has an awesome idea, and I hope that it inspires more people to take the time to say thanks. 

I am honored that she has used some of my cards in her project: http://ilikeyourgratitude.tumblr.com/post/2093732599/thank-you-mama
and seeing all of this has inspired me to send out a few thank you notes to people that have helped me along the way and gave me opportunities to show my work. Thank you Van for the inspiration!!

There are tons of cards out there made by local artists. You don’t have too look far to find them, and they will be grateful you chose them! I am selling many cards in my shop: http://store.jesleephotos.com and it won’t take you long I’m sure to browse through Etsy (http://www.etsy.com) or the Big Cartel (http://directory.bigcartel.com/) store directory to find more! 

Until next time,

~Peace~

Yesterday was awesome

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There isn’t much else I can say about yesterday except that it was pretty amazing.

For the first time in a long time I gave myself the time to develop some film. I stash rolls in a drawer in my studio until I have time to process them. Yesterday I looked and found 6 rolls waiting for me. Many were taken over the summer, right before I got busy framing work for my show. I can’t wait to get everything scanned in now. I’ll post a few here I’m sure.

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My dad and I finally got a chance to work on making some new pottery. It was nice to get back into that. In case you didn’t know, I have been listing a lot of our pottery for sale on Etsy. (www.etsy.com/dadandkiddo)

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I also got my Christmas present early! My family and husband all went together (and with some divine help from my granny!) got me a piano! I have missed having a piano at home for so long! This one is digital, it takes up much less space than a regular piano would, but still has weighted keys, a full keyboard, and sounds amazing! I played quite a bit last night after we got it home. It is so nice to be able to play and unwind again. For the longest time, playing music has been my way of unwinding, of relaxing and dealing with frustrations. My wonderful family knows this and realized that I needed one I could play whenever I needed (I have always had one to play at my mom and dads house) and we found this one. It took a bit of rearranging to have a space for it, and some kind of hard decisions. I had been keeping a lot of furniture that had been my granny’s for quite some time. Much of it was just being stored for when John and I had a bigger place. Not much of it fit our tastes, but it held many childhood memories for me (the server she hid all the glass marbles in!) and I was keeping it just because of her. I have come to realize though that furniture doesn’t embody a person, just their tastes (though stuff made by someone can often be a different story, it isn’t the case here) and often their tastes for a short time in their life. Memories don’t have to be tied to furniture or other objects. Memories don’t fade just because you don’t keep objects from the event. Those are just things, memories are experiences in your heart. In fact, it doesn’t always make sense what triggers a memory. I have had many people now comment on my artwork that certain pieces remind them of experiences, dreams, people, etc.

My granny will live on in memories and photographs forever without her furniture being stored. So, the server that always held glass marbles when I was little, and mostly just hid random things while I was using it at our condo, has moved on to be used by someone else, and in its spot is a new piano that some of the people I adore most, including my granny, helped me get. So what will today bring? For me, more time with family, and perhaps a bit of piano time this afternoon. Tomorrow is back to artwork and other creative bits, and probably more piano time. And being present. And enjoying where I am at.

Until tomorrow,

~peace~

A good day for catching up

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I told you there would be a catch up post coming. Those always happen when I find myself a little too involved with things other than keeping up a blog.

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We have been getting ready for Christmas, like so many others, though this year has been different. This year we have been working on not feeling so rushed, and I haven’t been so crazy with holiday sales. I only had artwork in a few this time. We actually bought a Christmas tree this year too! We haven’t had one since the year John came home. There were many reasons really, we were busy, there wasn’t room, and we just really weren’t in to the holiday. But this year, there were no excuses. We found one that is pretty perfect.

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For the first time in quite awhile it seems like a lot of the craziness has stopped. I still have these random moments of feeling overwhelmed that quite often lead to small meltdowns. Last night John pointed out to me that all of these feelings of being overwhelmed were from self imposed deadlines, and that none of them mattered. They matter, but not in the sense that I have to scramble to get them done. It is amazing how often I need to be reminded of this, but he is right. For now, I need to focus on enjoying things, and being creative.

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I have still been doing the ‘Cell Phone Pic A Day’ project. My favorite photo app has a random setting, where you don’t know what effects it will give your photo. I really love that setting! It has been fun to play with! I am glad I started this project. For one, I am enjoying using my cell phone basically as another toy camera. Also, it has kept me taking pictures. I haven’t been photographing as much otherwise lately. I’ll get back into that, it just always takes me a little while after working on a big project like I did. This at least keeps me doing something.
Of course, it always helps when an awesome customer leaves a new camera as a present!

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It works perfect too! I don’t think anyone has used it before! It has been a lot of fun to play with so far. I’m excited to see what I can do with it.

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After spending the last couple of days at MCBA (http://www.mnbookarts.org) I really want to get back to playing with my printing press too! MCBA just introduced a Book Arts Certificate program. I can find out more about the program and curriculum in January, but I am already excited! I think it is the first time I’ve been excited about going back to school in a way! There is something about making books and printing that I have loved since I first tried it. I believe there is nothing cozier than working on art and book binding and printing on some of these cold winter days.

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Well, maybe really long thick socks are up on that list too!

My ultimate goal in all of this, is just to slow down, and enjoy it. I need to be more present. Giving myself the permission to slow down enough has been tough, but I know it will be worth it in the end.
I think that is enough for now.
Until next time,
~Peace~

I keep taking pictures …

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I have been keeping up with my 365 project for the most part, I just haven’t been as good with uploading them. Here is one from today…my Gramps getting help with his new cell phone. I love when my family is all together like this.

Changes, promises, and permission

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First, you have probably noticed some changes with my blog! My blog is located here, at shadesofsilver.me. When you click on the ‘blog’ link at the top of my website, it will take you here. There are many reasons for this change, but most only affect me, not you as a reader. For awhile I was trying to keep two blogs, a photo work blog, and a personal blog. It didn’t take me long to decide that wasn’t going to work. Photography is a big part of my life, personal and professional. There is no way to logically keep them separate, and that is ok. So, my blog will now be a combination of both. Most importantly, this blog is me. Because this new blog is through Posterous, you can now either grab the RSS feed if you use a feed reader, or you can subscribe to this blog and get updates emailed to you. Easy! On the right side of the page is a ‘Get updates’ heading. Pick what option you like best! Also, I have a new shop! http://store.jesleephotos.com will take you to my new shop, featuring prints and cards of my most recent work. More product updates are coming soon, so keep checking back there!

This past weekend was equal parts amazing, eye opening, and fun, with overwhelming bits thrown in all at the same time.

We tried doing a holiday boutique at my aunt’s house, and it was a lot of fun! I love laid back sales like that! There needs to be more!
Saturday, I participated in the Minnesota Center for Book Arts 9th annual Book Arts Festival. It was though provoking, and inspiring, and so many wonderful things all rolled into one! I was showing off the prints from my show at Bloomington that I had done the letterpress work on. I didn’t sell any of those but I did get so many wonderful comments and feed back from many patrons shopping the sale, and from some printers that I really admire. The best was seeing the woman I bought my little press from years ago be so excited at what I was doing, and that I was using that little press. It made my heart soar! There was some down time at the sale. Many artists brought book binding projects with them to work on. I haven’t been book binding as much (though I have plans to remedy that!! Hello book-arts inspiration!) so I didn’t have anything to work on, but I did have my journal. So I spent all of my down time writing. I had been inspired the other day when I read this post about the discipline of writing. It just makes sense. Since Saturday I have been writing more. Even just little bits between some of the other things I am working on. It doesn’t matter how much, but I am writing, and that is important to me, and very important to my project. After all of the feedback I got on Saturday, I want to keep adding my writing to my work!

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We had a fun night out with friends Saturday evening, and it was great to finally have some time to catch up with everyone. Though after learning the hard way that noisy places overwhelm me when I’m tired, and then a hard drive back home after an ice storm with 3 other people in my car that mean more to me than I can express, I was wiped out. I slept hard that night, and slept in late on Sunday. 

I learned a lot this weekend though. One of the biggest things is that I need to be easier on myself. I realized that I have been very hard and critical of myself the last couple of weeks, and that needs to stop.
This weekend, especially after thinking of the blog post I mentioned above, I gave myself permission to say “I am a writer”, “I am a book artist”, “I am a printer”.
I gave myself permission to dislike and not participate in November’s blog a day stuff. No offense to my friends that are participating in it. If it brings you enjoyment, that is awesome! It has always brought me more stress than anything else. I can barely keep up with reading the blogs I enjoy on a regular basis, much less when those authors are writing steady every day, not to mention me finding time and things to blog about every day. Blogging every day just isn’t me. This weekend I finally gave myself permission to stop trying. I would love to blog more than I do, and possibly even do some video blogging, and I will try to do that as my project ramps up again, but it won’t be every day. And that is ok!
It is ok that I am tired after a weekend full of holiday sale events! They are a lot of work! But they are fun, and they are worth while. I gave myself permission to take a day or two off after one to recover. 
And, today, I gave myself permission to work from home, to use my laptop instead of the big desktop computer so I can snuggle on the couch, and get some work done, but still recover from the weekends events. 
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I have been continuing with my 365 cell phone photo project, and really enjoying it! I had a few set backs with my cell phone SD card dying on me, and not having the time to post things here, but I have kept up with it! It is a great challenge to learn that the best camera you have is the one you have with you. Soon I’m going to start a film 365 project. Possibly medium format? Or with one of my 35mm toy cameras?? Stay tuned for that one!

I’m happy today, and I am looking forward to all that I may accomplish!

Until next time,
~Peace~

And we keep going!

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The show at Bloomington is down, but that isn’t the end! More shows are coming in 2012 and I’ve already begun planning new work to add to this series. It is exciting!
In the mean time, the holiday sales are already in full swing. These not only give you a chance to buy handmade pieces from local artists but a chance to find great things for yourself as well! In fact, Minnesota Center for Book Arts (www.mnbooksarts.org) has their 9th annual Book Arts Festival going on today from 10am to 5pm! I will be there selling prints from my current Digital Dreams of Life series. You should stop by!

*this advertisement brought to you by your local artist hoping for a sale today.

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See the full gallery on Posterous

And this is why I f~€*|^g shoot film

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There is a particular feeling of dread you feel when you are trying to pull important photos and movies off of your smart phone and see the error message. That one that your phone flashes at you, gently telling you that your memory card sucks and you are therefore screwed.
Yes, it stinks. Really stinks. Yes, there were things I didn’t even have a chance to back up. No, it isn’t really the end of the world.

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Of course, my first reaction is to spout off that this is why I shoot film, that film doesn’t just die like that without warning. Which of course is not true. (You just quite often never see the film images that don’t work out. Digital and being able to see things right away and know how awesome they are only to not be able to use them is just cruel.) Film can be a very harsh mistress too, but after having worked with it for so long, I feel like I know it better, know its nuances. I trust it. That feeling is really what keeps me shooting with film so much in the first place…what will keep me shooting with it in the future. My cell phone 365 almost ended tonight. The image in this post is not the one I intended for today, but, it will work. In the mean time, perhaps someone at The Nerdery will be able to resurrect my sd card tomorrow. Maybe not. Life goes on.

Until next time,
~Peace~