Reflections and Announcement

REFLECTIONS ON MY THIRD 100 DAY PROJECT

Wow … it’s been awhile since I posted something on my blog. My life has been full of changes … some good, some not so good. But mostly good. I’m certainly not complaining. I’m so lucky to be in this place and at this time in my life.

Over the last three months or so, I seem to have spread myself a little thin. I’ve begun several new ventures.

NEW VENTURES

  • I refinanced my condo, paid off all my credit cards, and started remodeling. I’ve finished much of the interior painting, replaced the upstairs toilet, put up curtains, and had new carpet installed on the second floor. There’s still much to do, but much has been done.
  • I bought a car. It’s a black 2015 Fiat 500, which I’ve lovingly named Catarina.

    Catarina
    Catarina
  • I started taking French lessons. Let’s just say that I LOVE the French language. And, equally as important, I’m going to Paris in December! I have a plane ticket and a hotel reservation. Exciting!
  • I’ve taken three painting classes. I took an Intuitive Painting class and Beginning Acrylics I at the Indianapolis Arts Center in Broad Ripple. More recently, I took an Introduction to Acrylics class at Addie Hirschten’s new studio, Studio Alchemy. I discovered that painting is REALLY HARD! I have developed a greater appreciation for real art and real artists.
  • I started spiritual direction and life coaching with Amy Gall Ritchie at Persimmon Studio. In addition to her wise counsel, she will also be helping me complete my novel.

REFLECTIONS ON MY THIRD 100 DAY PROJECT

Well, given the above, let’s just say I didn’t quite finish my third 100 Day Project. I stopped on day 71 with every intention of continuing, but the ball never got rolling again.

Also, much of the poetry I wrote was not first draft, but second/third/fourth/etc. draft. However, I’m happy with what I wrote. And the fact that I didn’t really complete the whole project is not particularly important to me.

But it is time to start something new.

REFLECTIONS ON MY PHOTOGRAPHY

For about three and a half years, I have been (nominally) taking a picture a day and posting them on my blog. This journey from complete novice to, if I don’t say so myself, decent hobbyist, I called the 365 Photo Journey.

I feel that setting quantitative goals for photography is no longer serving me well. I want to focus (no pun intended) more on experimentation and incorporating photography into mixed media projects combining painting, photography, and words and poetry.

That’s not to say that I won’t continue posting photographs on my blog. But I will going forward concern myself less with quantity, but more on experimentation and on incorporating photography into mixed media projects.

To this end, I recently bought two new lenses, a budget (and by budget, I mean 400 bucks) 50mm and macro lens for my full-frame Sony A7II:

and a telephoto lens, 18mm-105mm for my crop sensor Sony A6000:

For an idea on how I might incorporate photography and writing into mixed media projects, check out these two videos:

BIG PLANS FOR 2019

Firstly, I will “finish” my novel! I put “finish” in quotation marks because the plan is not to have it perfectly polished … that may require a few more additional months. But the goal is to have all the content written and wrung through at least two drafts.

Most immediately, to finish off this year, I’ll be ‘setting up shop’: experimenting with how to be productive, establishing some positive behaviors and practices, and organizing my previously written material, so that I can hit the ground running in 2019.

Secondly, I will compile a volume of poetry and experiment with ways to publish it. I have plenty of poetry that I’ve written over the last two years to accomplish this.

Also, starting in January, I will be spending my Tuesday evenings at Studio Alchemy, working on mixed media projects. My plan is to complete at least two projects a month, so stay tuned for that!

Finally, I still plan to take and post photos and write new poetry, but I’m not going set a schedule for doing so.

That’s about it, really!

2019 will see the completion of my novel and a volume of poetry. Wish me luck!

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