2011

The Christmas tree has been down for a week or so. The decorations are all packed back in their boxes--I used to take everything down right after Christmas because I worried about the tree drying out and becoming a fire hazard. A couple of years ago, we bought an artificial one and it's okay, but I sure miss that great smell. Oh well.......

The house got a good New Year's clean. I finished sorting through my 'To File' file and gave the studio a good going over.

Time to regroup, to access and to think about 2011.

I spent the last few days sifting through my visuals stack--all the clip-outs of clay and other ideas, hints gleaned from the magazines I had received this last year. All my own notes and thoughts of new projects and ideas. It does get the juices flowing.....

It wasn't until I had sat down and sifted through all the little scraps, notes and various pages of my purse notebook that I realized what a great batch of things I had thought up at randum points in time. (After I read the book on Agatha Christie's notebooks--How in the World did that woman keep track of what she was doing? Even with notebooks**) I know that jotting down ideas as they pop in your head isn't such a bad idea after all.

**Agatha Christie's Secret Notebooks by John Curran.

I never go anywhere with some kind of small notebook. After I leave a show or while in a museum, I make rough sketches and notes (sometimes even too cryptic for me if I let them get cold) about what I have seen and what might be a good springboard for my own work. Sometimes, mixed in with that will be grocery lists, book titles, other reminders. I AM learning to use my iPhone to list book titles to look for, thereby avoiding the amnesia that always descends on me at the library or bookstore.

Anyway--

I have a new camera to learn how to use and have been taking some shots with it and the old camera to see if there is a difference--and there certainly is. An 8 GB video card just arrived in the mail.

I'm still finding there is work I have never photographed. And I will try to correct that in the coming year.

This is one of the first photos I took of a piece I made early on. This was before I took a class from Roger Schrieber, one of the best professional photographers there is, whose work can be seen at http://www.schreiberstudio.us/index.html.

It's out of focus, wrong angle, strange background (my driveway) at least it is a record for my own use. I usually take my own shots (in the basement, excluding all outside light, using a special bulb and neutral grey backdrop roll, tripod and my old SLR). I'm sure the new camera will do fine, but I won't have that great hands-on ability as much as with my old camera and it's beautiful lens.

I just uploaded a bunch of photos for my Gallery page on the Southern Arizona Clay Artists' Association website. With the exception of the big green teapot, which is a pro shot, they were all taken with the old camera.

I have no idea how the new camera will work. I won't really know until I can return to my set-up and get a new light bulb. It makes me wonder how long those special lights will be available......