52 Weeks...Reviewing My Year of Artfulness

Wow...a journey ends (or does it?) and another begins...

On January 16, 2012, I started a whole year of arfulness with Kim Klassen using my photography in her class (but it's not really a class...it's like a spa or retreat or just what the doctor ordered) Beyond Layers:  52 Weeks of Artfulness.

I thought I would review the year in this post...

Monday she gave us this challenge to edit one of her photos utilizing using all that had evolved in us over the year.  Here is the original photo...

...and this was Kim's challenge...

I shot this tulip photo using a black background (something I rarely do)..... When I looked at the photo on my computer I knew immediately what I wanted to do with it. Then it hit me... I wonder if the Beyonders might do the same....something completely different.... what might they do?   And so... I give you this image... play away..... I will share my version along with my recipe on Thursday......
 

Here's my interpretation...

 

 

It made me reflect in a profound way how much I had grown in my art, one day at a time, one week at a time, just showing up, doing the work...with persistence and patience.

 

Come with me as I review just a smidgen of what I experienced in 2012... 

 

 

"Just Enough" - taking a photo...simple composition...simple texture...simple processing...just enough to draw the viewer in...

Writing a memoir in ONLY six words...

And then there was Vision and Blur...using aperture and exposure compensation to create a small area of focus and a soft blur...maximizing light and softness.

And I remember when we were challenged to create a storyboard and document our day...this one day of work in pediatric palliative care.

And learning how to make a photograph have a painterly effect...this was a place setting during our palliative care retreat at the O'Neil House.

And we worked on Black and White...this was at the Barnes & Noble in Columbus at Polaris...

And this was a still life done at home...(never really got into doing still lifes before this class).

We experimented with finding and photographing fences...

Played with type tricks...this is from our butterfly bush in the front yard...

And we were challenged to find shapes in our every day world...my grandson, Elijah, and I looked for circles at Seiberling Nature Realm.

 

And how to make a photo look like a polaroid...

 

Or like it had been taken with a Kodak Instamatic (remember those Flashcubes?)...

 

Making dream-like images...

 

One photo, three ways...

 

A still used as a book review...(actually, kind of a composite of some favorite books that hold meaning to us)...

 

And playing with life's light...

While I learned all sorts of tips, acquired tons of new textures, explored things I hadn't done before...it was truly a class that went Beyond Layers...the mechanics of learning to do photographic art with layers...but to relish in all of the inspiration Kim provided, as well as embracing our own unique creative gifts by taking the time to slow down, to see, be present, to be ourselves, to march to the beat of a different drummer, and finding others like us. 

We Beyonders have become quite a community...like family.

What a year it has been...and now onto Beyond Beyond!