STILL inspired

Last year I discovered Mary Jo Hoffman's STILL blog and was blown away with her images and her commitment to posting a photo every day. She is local to my region and many of the photos are from places that we live and visit. Hoffman offers such a wonderfully unique view of things that are so familiar to me. It is truly inspirational.

Taking a cue from her blog to try it out myself, I fussed and floundered around the idea in 2014. Getting that pristine white background is a challenge, shadows are total frustration. While taking a walk in the Wisconsin woods in the winter in the middle of the day with the sun shining high in the sky, I was finally able to do something similar.

I've been thinking so much about what it is to be an artist. In the most recent Lean In meeting we discussed creativity and art. While I raised my hand high when identifying that I am a creative person, my hand creeped down when I was asked if I thought of myself as an artist.

I believe that artists bring meaning to their creativity. Meaning loaded with social commentary about anything and everything. And that is the very thing that I struggle with. To me, art is not just about creating beautiful images, but gathering those images into a series that says something. To me, art is about the daily practice that evolves into meaning. I have lots of daily practices but they never seem to evolve and maybe that has to do with being a gemini - always dabbling, rarely mastering. But also as a gemini, I keep gaining inspiration by the people and the world around me.