Friday, December 31, 2010

Art-A-Day -- it's over!!

A year ago I started an art project for 2010, in which I would take a photograph every day.  Very soon I realized that to make this project worthwhile, I would need a way to do something with the photos, and started a blog as a vehicle for displaying them.

I cannot begin to describe the benefits I've gotten from this endeavor.  My eye has gotten so much better, my sense of what makes a good photo has improved, my ability to take the picture I see has improved (thanks in part to a nifty new camera).  Even the inexorable demands of needing a photo every day, no matter if I'm feeling sick or have too many meetings or am snowbound or trapped in the intercontinental transportation system, have paid dividends.  I've learned to find photos in unlikely spots, by looking for the unlikely, the incongruous, the visually striking little view among a vast landscape of boring mediocrity.  It's not that hard -- all you have to do is make yourself concentrate, make yourself look, have the camera in your pocket.

As the year has drawn to its close I have thought a lot about whether to extend the photo project to next year.  I do enjoy taking the photos, and suspect it wouldn't be nearly as much fun if I didn't have the discipline of posting them.  But the daily deadline can sometimes be tedious, and I'm running out of failsafe photos to snap when it's 11 pm and I haven't gotten a picture yet today.  You've already seen my thread drawer, my paintings and sculptures, the night view from my back porch, the ice in my cocktail glass. 

I watched with great interest when Linda McLaughlin, who conducted a similar project starting a month before I did, reached the end of her year.  She decided to maintain the routine of posting a photo every day, but removed the requirement that the photo be taken that very day.  She pointed out, reasonably, that her archive of neat photos is fat enough to allow her to post old shots that are nevertheless new to her readers.  I thought this was an excellent solution and so that's what I'm going to do for 2011.

Thank you for reading the blog, and for looking at my daily pictures, and I hope you enjoy doing it next year as well.

December 26 -- frozen pond

December 27 -- plywood

December 28 -- tail fin

December 29 -- nandina

December 30 -- Christmas cat

December 31 -- shadow

Thursday, December 30, 2010

Saturday, December 25, 2010

Art-A-Day

December 19 -- frozen

December 20 -- rivulet

December 21 -- candlelight

December 22 -- cold tomatoes

December 23 -- marked

December 24 -- centerpiece

December 25 -- hearth

Saturday, December 18, 2010

Art-A-Day

December 12 -- holly

December 13 -- sunset

December 14 -- rya rug

December 15 -- globe

December 16 -- alstromeria


December 17 -- Christmas tree

December 18 -- river view

Monday, December 13, 2010

Sign of the week

On the door of a day-care center. 
OK, me not take kids either, at least till 3.


Saturday, December 11, 2010

Art-A-Day

December 5 -- one-way traffic

December 6 -- working late

December 7 -- funny hats

December 8 -- peephole

December 9 -- quilter's Christmas tree

December 10 -- out of season

December 11 -- Live at the Met

Sunday, December 5, 2010

Art-A-Day

November 28 -- drooping

November 29 -- big tree

November 30 -- Christmas pumpkin 1

December 1 -- ripples

December 2 -- use other door

December 3 -- steeple

December 4 --  Christmas pumpkin 2

Monday, November 29, 2010

Saturday, November 27, 2010

Art-A-Day

November 21 -- on the rocks

November 22 -- textured

November 23 -- red

November 24 --  rainy night

November 25 -- pink C

November 26 -- trash

November 27 -- trees

Saturday, November 20, 2010

Art-A-Day

November 14 -- pipes

November 15 -- yellowed

November 16 -- out the window

November 17 -- ducky

November 18 -- in the alley

November 19 -- ginkgo

November 20 -- tree house