Evolution

Last November a friend challenged us to channel our inner-artist and to experiment with any format we wanted to try. We could try writing, comedy, singing, song writing, drawing, painting, or anther artistic expression. Initially, since I was still on my Esperanza Exposure high I wanted to try and sing her new song “I Do”. I printed the words and I practiced for a week and it was okay, but I wasn’t fully committed.

Deep inside I knew I wanted to tap into my love of art and the written word. My true self. The little girl who wanted to be a writer and a fashion designer. Over the last few years I’ve started to share glimpses of her, of me, of my true self.

Last month I created a modern Vision Board not with cut out images on a poster board, but images placed in a PowerPoint slide, which I printed it and now keep close. One project on the board is a book of my photos taken with my iPhone. I started using my iPhone camera like we all do to capture a quick moment. I was never good at the selfie so there are not many of those, and I went through my food period, but then I started to focus on art found in simple things, in nature, in complex patterns, in flowers and I found my calling and my eye. I found my focus.

Can an iPhone camera be a spirit animal? It is for me.

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UnderConstruction

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I have over 17,000 photos on my Mac, not all taken with my iPhone. My original photos were taken with my first digital camera, a Sony with 3.2 pixels. It took some great photos and I loved carrying that little camera around. As with all things, my needs grew, and my little Sony was no longer my go to camera. I tried an updated version but the pictures where not the same and then when I finally got an iPhone 6 a few years ago, inspiration hit.

So, I looked through my 17,000 plus photos and selected 468 photos that made me smile, placed me back in the moment, and hopefully would amaze. And then I refined this to 102 photos. I spent the month of August researching book publishing software and crafting a first draft using Photos Projects on my Mac. The first version only had pictures, but I also knew I wanted to include captions, poems, and stories. I captured these on a Word document, printed it and cut them out. When the mini-book arrived, I spent a weekend positioning and gluing in captions, highlighting photos to remove and writing down photos to add.

I really liked the mini book format, but another friend encouraged me to go with a slightly larger format. Thank you Susan! So, I spent another weekend converting to the larger format and incorporating my changes, and even though my Photos Projects kept closing, I managed to add updated captions, replace photos, and include a few meaningful stories. Off to the printer it went.

Artful is here! I am so pleased with this new format! This project did not feel like work. It was joyful and meaningful and Artful. I still need to create a version I can publish if I want to sell or gift it as a hard copy and an eBook version, but I am very close. I wanted to share a few pictures of this journey. My Vision Board has more projects and I can’t wait to get started. #ArtIsEverywhere #ArtFindsAWay #Artful