Inspiration enters at the border between hard work and laziness

From Free Will Astrology:

LEO (July 23-Aug. 22): “It’s better to be clumsy than clever,” says an ancient Chinese book called *Poets’ Jade Splinters,* “better plain than affected, better crude than weak, better eccentric than vulgar.” That’s a good prescription for you to use in the way you live your life in the coming days, Leo. Here’s another observation from the same text that should also be helpful: “Inspiration enters at the border between hard work and laziness.” That suggests you’ve got to work hard and discipline yourself in order to earn the right to inspiration, but often the inspiration flows in when you’re goofing off or giving yourself some slack.

Wholeness

Wholeness

Traveling to Bowen Island just got a whole lot faster, easier, and fun with the introduction of the Granville Island Water Taxi service. Boris and I took it over to Bowen on friday evening, and came back on it Sunday night. It costs more than the regular bus and ferry combo, but getting home in an hour makes it all worth it. I’m looking forward to making the trip during daylight hours sometime and enjoying the view of Vancouver from the perspective of the water.

Good things from the weekend:
– Long naps on both Saturday and Sunday
– Adventures around Bowen with Boris and Kirsti that included a stop for hot chocolate
– Finding interesting objects for future art projects at the wild and crazy community garage sale
– Walking through the rainy darkness to and from the ferry
– Eating German apple cake and many other delicious things

The Holga Show 2008 – Saans Downtown Gallery

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saans_invite

I was thrilled to learn one of my shots was accepted into the juried holga show at Saans Downtown Gallery in Salt Lake City, Utah. There is also a limited edition book published along with the show. Opening night is tomorrow, November 21st, and the show continues until January 5th, 2009. If you live in the Salt Lake City area please check it out.

The Holga Show 2008
Saans Downtown Gallery
173 East Broadway
Salt Lake City, Utah

Weekly Moleskin Collage – Airships

Weekly moleskin collage - airships
A weekly collage from a few weeks ago.

A Few Good Things:
– Watching the little yellow goofball play around on my mug as he tries unsuccessfully to drink from it
– Enjoying a very relaxing and lovely Remembrance Day
– Working on my “Scenes from a Movie” shot for most of the day, and reminding myself I have excellent photoshop skillz
– Getting into the routine of writing two pages in my journal every morning
– Having my work accepted into two Holga/Toy Camera shows at the same time

Surreal portraiture

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Blurred face - Kirsti

Week 26 - An experiment

A few weeks ago I came up with the strange looking portrait of myself for my 52 weeks series. The idea was inspired by double-exposure shots, which can’t be done with digital as far as I know. I decided to take four shots of myself, one sharp, and the others as I shook my head from side to side, and then overlay them in photoshop. I liked the resulting surreal effect so much I’ve decided to shoot other people in a similar manner and create a series of these portraits. Kirsti was my first model, and she looks just as strange as I do. Who shall be next…?

A Little Bit of News

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Walking back the way we came

The problem with looking back at what I was up to this time last November is realizing I was a much more productive artist then, and I was actually selling work. It’s easy to focus on the things I’m not happy with when comparing to last year and I think it’s a counterproductive thing to do. I need to reflect, but not compare so much because a year later often means different circumstances that factor into artistic productivity.

And on that note, I do have a few things to be pleased about with my work. I have one photo published in the current issue of Geist Magazine that doesn’t seem to have translated well into print but in print it is nonetheless. I’m also pretty sure I have some work in the Plastic Photographer – Low Tech Photo Show , opening Thursday at 2221A Artist Run Centre. I say “pretty sure” because the person I talked to about whether or not my work had been accepted wasn’t very clear with me. I’m planning on checking out the opening regardless. 🙂

Five Things Meme

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Golden leaves

This came my way from Ariane.

5 Things I was doing 10 years ago:
– working on a series of graveyard photos printed with liquid light on roof tiles
– on a month long trip in Spain and Italy with my cousin
– working at the Peel Heritage Complex
– learning Photoshop/Illustrator/QuarkXpress/html/
– wishing for better things in my life probably

5 Things on my to-do list today:
– write a letter to my mom and mail two other letters
– research various costs for travel in Japan
– research images from The Birds and Vertigo
– go for a walk to enjoy the sunshine
– laundry

5 snacks I like:
– chips
– grapefruit cut by Zak
– candied ginger
– almonds
– crunchy apples

5 Things I would do it I was a millionaire:
– buy a live/work space, and fill it with equipment to enable a variety of creative projects
– give my sister a tonne of money towards her new house
– go on a year long trip around the world
– help friends in need of some extra cash
– buy a fancy new bike

5 Places I’ve Lived in (for various lengths of time):
– Brampton, Ontario
– The Annex, Toronto
– Christchurch, New Zealand
– Aliston, Ontario
– Vancouver, BC

5 Jobs I have had:
– Digital Artist at a photography studio
– Photographer, Textile Museum of Canada in Toronto
– Gallery Assistant and Installer
– Picture framer
– Administrative Assistant/Office Manager

5 People I tag:
– I’ll name no names. Please do this meme if you wanna. 🙂

Jellyfish are Pretty

Jellyfish are pretty

Good Things:
1. Having a weekend that was busy, fun, and restful.
2. Hanging out at Blenz writing letters, drinking hot chocolate, and doodling on someone’s arm.
3. Getting inspired to work on a new project and it’s due in two weeks.
4. Spending time wandering the city, hanging out with a friend, looking in art stores and galleries.
5. Finishing the roll of film that I’ve had in my pinhole camera for ages.

(How’s that for some dull blogging? I wrote this while I was a tired zombie.)

Thankful

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Colour

I celebrated thanksgiving dinner with friends yesterday evening, and one of the questions asked was, “what are you thankful for?” The conversation was sidetracked well before it came time for me to answer, but it had been the exact question I’d been asking myself in an unfinished blog entry mere hours before. I wasn’t able to come up with a satisfactory answer in either situation, and it’s not because I’m not thankful for what I have or don’t have anything to be thankful for. I regularly write lists of things I am grateful for as a reminder to myself to appreciate the things I have because it’s important to do this on a regular basis. It’s a check-in with myself through good times, and it sees me through the bad.

Thanksgiving is one of those times of year when I can’t help but compare my current circumstances to the previous year and reflect on the changes. Looking back I realize I am grateful that life is changeable, that good and bad things aren’t etched in stone forever, and life brings each of us the things we didn’t even know to ask for.