A Year to Create

How is it that another year is reaching its end, a new one ready to enter in? While each year feels like it passes so quickly, I know that there have been twelve months, just like every other year. Fifty-two weeks of work, play, smiles, tears, adventures and routines.

And opportunities to create.

Create was a word I chose to intentionally consider as I entered and moved through 2012. Not so coincidentally, I believe, opportunities opened up this year to flex my creative muscle in many ways.

In relationships...

I have taken on new roles at work that have me fostering collaborative relationships with educators and caregivers. I am part of a project to build capacity in child care centres to run more inclusive classrooms, and enhance the social and emotional development of the children in their care. New relationships have been created with staff at each of the centres I have become involved with. The project grant we are operating on is for three years. It is exciting to know that I will be growing along with the people at these sites as we create even better environments for young children.

In other areas, I had a chance to re-create relationship with family this past summer. I've also re-created some of the way I do relationship with my friends--old, new, near and far. And, I've created a new sort of relationship with my younger brother, as we live under the same roof again for the first time in fifteen years.

At home...

Oh, how I continue to love my home! Especially in the summer! I continued to work towards setting up  and creating my back yard just the way I want it. Someone once told me it takes roughly 25 years for a person to landscape their yard space to perfection. I'm not entirely sure I will be in this house that long (though, it's not entirely out of realm of possibility), but I really hope it doesn't take me that long to create the perfect space. I'm aiming for somewhere in the next five years--that would be nice.

I set up the hammock this summer, creating a peaceful space to enjoy a book or a nap in the sunshine. I planted a couple new things in the garden this summer, offering a space for God to create His wonderful edibles. I also rustled up all my bulbs at the end of this season, creating a new floral landscape along the side of my house that I hope comes to fruition (florition?) next spring. Only time will tell.

I am looking forward to another summer in the hammock, in the garden, and in the dirt. It is really His creation, not mine; but I love that He lets me muck around a little. :)

Behind the lens...

Ohmygoodness, where do I even start? I have had such fun with my photography this year. I continued to create fun shots with my 365 project, and finished it up at the end of July. I have--s l  o   w    l     y--been working through a second project. It was meant to be a one-a-day kind of thing, but I quickly realized that the quick pace was kaiboshing the creative process, so I have slowed it down. It's not easy to create, some days.

In the spring, I took part in an international photography project, resulting in one of my photos being published in a book! Mine was one of 1,000 (out of 100,000 total) to be selected for the book. I felt very honoured to have been recognized this way.

I also managed to have one of my photos published in a local calendar, which was exciting.

Finally, I have been putting my toe into the artisan market a little bit. I had my art in the gallery at last year's art exhibit in Lacombe. Nothing sold, but it was neat to see my work amidst that of other artists... and to not seem like my work was out of place!

I took the canvas-printed photos to work shortly thereafter, and sold several to colleagues; that was a surprise! I also participated in an On-the-Spot pop-up craft sale, selling several photo greeting cards to passersby. I'm hoping to take in more of the pop-up scene in 2013. On the whole, my photography is in the hole, financially speaking. But sometimes just the richness of the experience is valuable, too. While I am hoping my photography will put me back in the black this coming year, I'm not out there to make a career out of this. I never have been. I enjoy taking photos purely for taking photos. When I have to start thinking about customer demands and quantities for larger markets, I fear the creativity will be lost. Photography will have become an obligation, not a passion. Being able to sell my works is really just a tangible affirmation of my skill. It is nice, but not necessary, to know that what I'm creating is beautiful.

So.

Much has been created.

Thank You, Creator, for making me in Your image, that I might create in this world, as well. May everything I create be for Your glory, in Your joy, and bring Your peace. Amen.

Pleasing to the Eye

I could not get enough of these flowers at the Muttart today. I was there this afternoon shooting family photos for friends, shooting flowers both before and after, of course.

Now that I have seen the Butchart Gardens, I have to say that neither the Devonian Botanical Gardens nor the Muttart Conservatory hold a candle to the floral experience there. Nevertheless, the Muttart holds its own as a year-round escape to colour and beauty in this city. I have been often enough this year that I'm planning to purchase an annual pass for 2013 on my next visit.

A photo I took there a couple years ago (an impromptu shot in the middle of a portrait shoot, nonetheless) will be featured in the Muttart's 2013 calendar. This is the second publication this year in which a photo of mine has been included; crazy!

And all because I can't keep my eyes off the colours!

But I'm Not a Quitter AND SOTC 30/365

I've never been one to give up easily. I value integrity and loyalty, which goes hand-in-hand with persistence and general stick-with-it-ness much of the time. So when I DO have to prematurely terminate a project, a trip, a visit, a commitment of some sort, I do not do so comfortably. And I certainly do not do so flippantly.

I have spent the last month taking photos, consciously working in-camera to avoid the need for post-processing, to enhance my creative photographic skill.

I gotta tell ya, this hasn't been nearly as engaging so far as my first 365 project.

It's not that I don't like working without Photoshop; I certainly don't need it for many of my photos, anyway, and I have surprised myself a few times with what I've been able to pull off in my camera. There is tremendous satisfaction in knowing that what I'm creating is a pure, unadulterated image!

But those have only really happened when I've been purposely out shooting anyway--a photo club event, an autumn walk. I'm not enjoying the days so much where I fly through my work day, get home, and then have to try and find something interesting enough to want to spend time shooting. And those have, unfortunately, made up the better part of these last thirty days.

In short, I enjoying creating great images, but I am not really enjoying this project.

And, okay, even that's not entirely true. It's more like I'm not really enjoying the pace of this project.

I'm thoroughly enjoying the challenge of creating a higher ratio of images that don't require any post-processing. I just don't like doing it every day. There seems to be a subtle qualitative difference in the underlying energy that's going into these photos than in my last project, where I wanted some great compositions, yes, but more than that I wanted this-is-me-right-now images.

So, after much deliberation, I'm discontinuing my photo-a-day project.

Sorta.

I will still continue to make a conscious effort to create photos that I can pull Straight Off The Camera, because like I said, the actual challenge it provides when I am out taking pictures is awesome. But I will not necessarily seek to take one each day.

I need to work at my own pace. I need to work with my creative drive, and not try to force it when it's not there.

Day 31 is coming... just not tomorrow...

Hands That Flung Stars Into Space?

I am often floored by God's creation. I stand at the edge of my garden in the spring, watching tulip buds poke their way through the ground--again!--after a long, winter sleep. I stand at the edge of the ocean, listening to the undulating crash against the shore. I stand at the summit of a mountain, the rocky view going on forever. And I am filled with words of praise like 'awesome', 'peaceful', 'glorious', 'lovely', 'expansive', 'refreshing', 'humbling'. Words that try to--but still don't quite--speak to the superlative nature of the Creator and the fact that he has chosen to bless my senses.

Such is the same when I find myself outside of the city, looking up at the night sky. There are SO many stars! Some are so far away that they have already burned up by the time the light has traveled far enough that I can see them. And yet, I see them. The sky is so vast, and the stars are so many. I feel like such a small part of the universe; and yet, not in a bad way. More like, I am a very small part of this universe, but obviously an important part if God chose to create me amongst the whole of His creation around me. The whole thing just blows the mind.

Last night, I had my first opportunity to see and photograph a meteor shower. The Perseid Meteor Shower is an annual event, though this is the first I recall hearing of it (or perhaps I've just never been in a position to check it out, so I've never paid attention).

I drove out to the quiet of the Cooking Lake-Blackfoot Provincial Recreation Area, about 45 minutes east of the city. There were a few other star-gazers watching from the hoods of their cars in the gravel parking lot, and one couple who had set up camping chairs about 15 feet from where I set up my camera in the adjacent field space.


While I only managed to capture three meteors across my camera sensor, I saw at least a dozen in the three hours I was there.* Short and long bursts of high-speed light, moving every direction across the sky. And we have been given this light show every year for the last 2,000 years.

Sitting under the infinite sparkle of the sky, I was reminded of something I read years ago. In her book Believing God, Beth Moore talks about God's simultaneous ability for order and creativity. She says,

G.K. Chesterton wrote of a God who "is strong enough to exult in monotony. It is possible that God says every morning, 'Do it again' to the sun; and every evening, 'Do it again' to the moon. It may not be automatic necessity that makes all daisies alike; it may be that God makes every daisy separately, but has never got tired of making them. It may be that He has the eternal appetite of infancy; for we have sinned and grown old." 

Ours is a God who delights in a perfect concoction of creativity and order. Though He could have thought out the entire cosmos into existence in a millisecond, instead He brought it about with great patience in six distinct increments. 

Then rested on the seventh. 

Then later insisted that His children do the same. 

God likes order. He likes repetition. A God of fundamentals, He brings up the sun every morning and the moon every evening, but His creativity within that order is gorgeously displayed in the changing sunsets and sunrises surrounding them.

In reflecting upon this--the repetitive nature of this astronomical event, as well as just the multitude of stars above me--I found myself curious. I found myself wondering: when God was creating the stars, did He place them around the universe one by one, setting each one just so? Or did He hold them like a handful of sand and toss them out all at once?

I'm not sure why that--of all the possible ponderings I could possibly have during an evening of star-gazing--was the question I had, but it was.

And the answer was, I don't know.

And I'm okay that it's I don't know. (I'll find out one day!)

What I KNOW--and am so blessed to know--is that there is an amazing Artist, who can create a million of the same thing, and yet have each one be unique. Who plays with the entire colour spectrum--sometimes one colour at a time, and sometimes all at once. Who bends and moves light. Who blesses the senses.

And all we have to do is sit, take it in, and know.



* That may not seem like many, but think about it--how often do you see even ONE shooting star? Exactly.

Left and Right OR 202/365

I am left-brained. And not just left brained, but SO left-brained. I like planning and structure. I'm not a heart-on-the-sleeve kind of girl. I did well in math, and love numbers. I enjoy writing. My way of thinking is sometimes so linear that rulers get jealous.

This is not to say that my right brain never speaks its voice. I have a good sense of colour. I am a visual learner. I love music. Still, right-brained thinking is certainly not my default at any given moment. That being said, I value things that are associated with the right side of the brain: creativity, art, colour, feelings. I have been trying to exercise my right brain more recently, encouraging it to take over sometimes:

• At work, we continue to infuse more concepts from the Reggio Emilia philosophy into our playroom. The decor is coming along nicely; currently, my partner and I are trying to decide if we need to rearrange furniture to better utilize the space (feng shui, anyone?); I'm trying not to let my left brain get stuck in the functionality of the room as it currently is. We are also setting out a variety of craft materials for the children to create art with--and not just the typical crayons, pom-poms and glue. Some of our recent craft materials have included fish tank gravel, marshmallows, twigs. I have spent some time this weekend cutting shapes out of used gift cards--recycling at its most interesting. I have also decided to start scanning some of the kids' art so that our Office Manager can start embedding it into the newsletter instead of Microsoft's clip-art (no offense, Bill).

• My photography is sometimes a paradox. The visual 'eye' needed for photography definitely comes from the right brain (I have even noticed that when I put the viewfinder up to my eye, I naturally go to my left eye, which is controlled by the right side of the brain. Interesting). That being said, I think I'm a left-brained photographer...if such a thing exists! It's taken quite a bit of training and conscious effort to remember to shoot a subject from a myriad of unique and different perspectives, let alone get crazy artistically abstract with my photos. My default is definitely to capture things as they really are, and in the moment; I'm pretty sure I don't even use a tenth of the potential that Photoshop holds for photography. And really, I'm okay with that. It's creative enough just to grab those unique perspectives of the world around me, and I've been working on doing that more often.

It is a long weekend here in Alberta, and I have been using my time today on a couple different photography projects. Letting my right brain influence my cropping, colour-matching, and organizing. I would love to see what it all looks like on an MRI...

Create for 2012 AND 154/365

So, if spontaneity was my guiding word (not to ever be confused with my Guiding Word) for 2011, what have I chosen for 2012? Again, I didn't have to think hard, but it isn't a word I necessarily chose as intentionally as last year--this one more just sorta came to me.

Cre·ate (kr-t): (v) to cause to exist; to bring into being. To produce through artistic or imaginative effort.

This one has somewhat of a broader scope to it. While I think it will definitely focus around my photography, I do not want to limit it to just that. I want to take advantage of opportunities to create in any activity.

• To create relationships--with people at work, with people in my community, short-term or long.
• God calls us to be in relationship with others. I have purposely paid attention to this calling for a few years now, and continue to seek growth in the way I connect and interact with others.
• To create my own -- my own space, my own food, my own comfort.
• I am moving swiftly through Year Two in my house. I filled rooms with my colours, the garden with my vegetables, and the whole house with my essence. I look forward to taking the best parts of last year and continue to create in my home.
• To create for the eye -- ah, the photography.
• I am very excited about finally purchasing a Macbook Pro. It should arrive in the mail sometime next week. In short turn, I will load Photoshop and Aperture onto its hard drive to work in conjunction with the great graphics hardware that the laptop will have on its own. After recently looking back on some older photographs, I was surprised to see just how much skill I really have gained since expanding my photography beyond just snapshots. Both in pure images, and in my ability to artistically and/or aesthetically enhance images. I can't even start to imagine the new things I will learn how to do with my images through new programs (and continued practice in the field, of course).

Because the word "create" implies something that currently does not exist, there may very well be other areas in which I create--for myself, or for others. As with every new year--every new day--2012 is an unknown. I feel like the words 'create' and 'discover' may end up going hand-in-hand.