The Weekend in Pictures

This past weekend, while celebrating my cousin's wedding in Columbia, South Carolina, I enjoyed a deliciously solitary Saturday morning. I sat in the memory garden where my grandparents' ashes are buried, in a space between my uncle's house and the mobile home where my grandparents lived for the last decades of their lives. I updated my Facebook account (first things first, of course), listened to the wind chimes, and worked on a spread in my art journal:

Then, with only fifteen minutes to spare before I was due to have lunch with a dear friend whom I had not seen in 28 years, I grabbed my camera and made a mad dash around my uncle’s property, looking for interesting details, scenery, and “photo opportunities.” I have debated all week with myself about including the photos in my blog, since (as I’ve noted previously) I am a terribly amateur photographer without the sense to set the settings on a simple point-and-click digital camera. I am sure that with more experience and study, a better camera, and a knowledge of PhotoShop, these photographs could have been truly amazing. But in the interest of my theme for the year, Begin, I will start where I am now, and share what I came up with!

My first picture is intended to capture the kind of sadness of staying at my grandparents' house now that they are no longer alive. I took some pictures of the now-empty rooms inside the house, but I thought the dried-up plant on the front porch captured the spirit of what it was like to be back even better:

The statues in the memory garden were both beautiful and a little bit haunting:

There are no more willing models than my aunt and uncle's horses. They were lying on the ground relaxing when I started across the yard, and I was hoping to catch them at rest before they noticed me. No such luck, but I think I got an even better photo of this horse in the process of standing up:

Some more images of my "willing models":

My aunt and uncle had all sorts of interesting "country" details and photo opportunities on their property:

And one final photo, in the interest of living the creative life: Do YOU have a crocheted brick in YOUR home? Well, perhaps you should! This one acts as a door stop and displays my grandmother's initials:

A crafty classic!

I welcome your feedback on my shots, as well as any advice that has helped you take better photos. Though I am not quite prepared to make a thorough study of photography just yet, I am happy to learn from any tips I might pick up here and there.

Art Swap!

In the interest of my theme for the year, Begin, I made a fun and spontaneous decision last night to enter my first art swap.

One of my favorite bloggers, iHanna, is hosting her second annual Postcard Swap,and I signed up yesterday. To participate, I will create ten postcards. They can be collaged and painted and embellished, made from photographs or fabric or existing postcards that have been altered, drawn or scrapbooked or sewn. As long as they’re postcards, they’re eligible to be swapped! Once they are mailed (by April 8), I can expect to receive ten postcards from other participants.

The fun comes both from challenging myself to create the ten postcards on a deadline, and from receiving “free” art pieces from creators from all over the world! (Hanna, the organizer, lives in Sweden.)

I am very excited to participate, and would like to invite you to join in too, if you are interested. You can click here if you would like to sign up, or just read more about the swap.

I will keep you posted on my postcard creations!

Better Late Than Never

Back in January, I joined the masses in making a series of resolutions for the new year. My resolutions mainly had to do with trying out new recipes, finding some new foods that my toddlers might consent to eat, and putting into place some of the health and wellness tips I’m always running across in the magazines and web sites I read. These were my STATED resolutions.

I obviously had a lot going on “behind the scenes” too, because I started up a blog primarily focused on art, creativity, and motherhood; began an art journal; and started teaching myself to draw. These things seem to reflect some UNSTATED resolutions.

Since the beginning of the year, I’ve been reading more and more blogs by people who find a word or theme to provide a focus and inspiration for their year, rather than creating a list of specific resolutions. The very first time I ran across the idea was in this post from Make Great Stuff. Sarah Bush lists all kinds of possible themes such as Allow, Show Up and Take Risks. She writes that she got the idea from this post by Cairene, who in turn learned about yearly themes from her life coach Laura Burkey. Laura has been choosing themes for many years, including Balance, Break Through, and Be Love. Most recently, I read a beautiful blog post by Kelly Rae Roberts, who has chosen Gentle as her theme for the year.

People create art around their chosen theme, or talk about meditating on it daily, or say it like a mantra.

It’s been in the back of my head to come up with my own word or theme for 2011, and it came to me at the end of February. My word for 2011 is BEGIN.

It seems to sum up my stated AND unstated resolutions. Don’t just stuff new recipes in a file folder; pick one out every few weeks and begin cooking something new. Don’t just collect articles on healthy foods for toddlers; make an effort every few weeks to find something new they might add to their accepted menu. Don’t just make a list of things you OUGHT to be doing for your health; pick one, work it into a habit for a month or so, and then work on something new.

Don’t just sit around and read the articles and look at the pretty pictures…BEGIN!

This word is so helpful to me because it seems as though everything I start turns complicated fast. And I am fortunate that my focus for the year seems to come with a calm and reassuring voice. Listen in on some conversations from my head:

So I want to get my blog started, but now I see that there are all these web sites with Blogging 101 tips for making it better—creating my own original banner, nifty buttons, blog etiquette, that sort of thing. Just begin…you can pick up those tips as you go along, make improvements along the way. It doesn’t have to burst onto the Internet fully-formed and perfect.

My camera isn’t that great, and I have no idea what all these settings do, and the photos on everyone else’s blogs are GORGEOUS; mine look really amateur by comparison. Just begin…you don’t have to wait until you take professional photos to post them on your site.

I really want to do some of these art challenges I keep reading about, but I’m worried about putting too much pressure on myself, or not being able to keep up with the commitment. Just begin…have fun with them…none of them are there to put pressure on you; they’re meant to inspire you and help you become more a part of the art and art blogging community.

I have so many art materials, and have read about so many techniques that I want to try. Just begin…use your art journal as a vehicle to try them all out!

I don’t really have a “style” that I can call my own. I look at all of these other artists, and I can identify them by their work because they have such a distinctive style. Just begin…the more you create, the more you explore, the closer you will come to developing who YOU are as an artist.

I’m not really that good at drawing. I have a long way to go to draw well, especially drawing from life, rather than just drawing something that someone else has already drawn. Just begin…that’s what your sketchbook is all about…practice, have fun, don’t put too much pressure on yourself.

Wow, I have a sewing machine now! That’s another whole new “art supply” to explore. There are so many projects I have bypassed before because I didn’t have a sewing machine, and now that I have one, there are so many new things I want to try. Just begin…jump in, get familiar with your machine, enjoy trying something new and see how it expands your creativity.

BEGIN is not just a focus theme for me; it’s a built-in pep talk!

What could be your word or theme for this year?