365 days. 576 posts. One enormous "thank you" for an experience that changed, and is still changing, me.
One year ago, I was double-dog-dared into setting up a blog. How could I refuse? Posted mostly from an archive of my highly unpublished poems, along with a desultory photo or two.
Because of your reflectivity, your attention and feedback, your support, I kept posting. I started drawing again. I began taking pictures deliberately, with the kind of attention I applied to drawing. I spent increasing time in the meditative practice of really looking at things.
Here are just a few of the things I've experienced:
Visual arts transcend language barriers; people in far-away places can smile and share their delight at creative efforts even in the absence of a common written or spoken language.
Brilliant poetry flickers all over the Internet, and those who write and share it, who pursue it with love and passion and a firm work ethic, inspire me every day.
There is work shared that may not move me -- but how moving that people are reaching out to share it.
People who I've never met, people whose "real" names are unknown to me, have been stalwart friends of my creative growth -- what stunning generosity of spirit that is!
So, thanks for coming by to see my blog.
I hope it fuels your own creative energy.
14 comments:
your blog has become part of my morning routine and is truly an inspiration. you've got the eye! keep it up.
Mazel tov! I've enjoyed your venue as you know and our offline colloquys. Moreover, I've enjoyed the counsel on drawing you've provided me, though in all candor I've stopped with the forks, eggs and leaves (impatience) and begun working on the stove (Delacroix and I have much in common). This has led me to believe that I've succeed in hatching a new genre of art: Modern Pre-School Ashcan.
Again, keep it up and I'll send you the address later today.
Here's to taking on a dare! I'm so glad you did. Your posts and comments are a consistent delight, Lori. I never stopped to question how your blog might have changed over time, that it might have been different from what I first discovered, but you've inspired me to go back through your archives... so glad you're here.
... and congratulations!
Happy blogday! Thanks for all the great posts. Hope you stick around for a while.
You're so damned talented and it's so much fun to see evidence of all of it! Hurray for your blog and, most of all, hurray for you!
Wow.
Wow, wow, wow, wow, wow.
First off, happy anniversary!
Second, the photo tied to this post - I swear, your photos can be a quasi-Roscharch test. The first thing I thought - didn't think, appeared in brain - was, "fossil remains"
You have met the challenge and exceeded! Your photo titles are the cliche frosting.
MjM
Happy first blogiversary! So glad to have found you, though not long ago so must go through your archives. I love this photo! May your second year be just as rewarding, Lori.
Wow back y'all, and what's the HTML for "group hug"?
;-)
It's so nice to find my motley tribe through this pixellating medium.
raindog: Now all I need is a little more craft...but that will come. Back atcha on the inspiration, and day job willing daily as well.
Ref: Damnned if you don't crack me up. "Modern Pre-School Ashcan" and Delacroix indeed. Me, I love Daumier, but then I would. Glad to hear you've fried the egg, but of course now I need to see the stove. ;-)
MB: Go back to my last November, and you will see the first photos I took since, well, college -- thanks to my friend Andy loaning me a digital camera for a camping trip. I was camera-shy in all senses of the word until then. And since digital cameras reward the instant gratification part of looking, and since poems are a bit slower for me to produce, I got very fond of the chrome-plated shaman's bag and now carry a camera everywhere I go.
pbmc: Words can't express my delight at discovering you and your oh-so-elegant and fresh sketches. One of these days I will go back to working on learning Portuguese, but in the meanwhile I am grateful you can understand most all my languages, since I am far more limited.
Dave: I read somewhere that the Internet rewards obsessive-compulsive behavior. My corollary is it rewards those "daily etudes" that artists use the keep a hand in and stay limber. So I need to stick around if I'm gonna do mo' bettah. ;-)
Larry: Aw shucks. And likewise. Say, would you find a way to post or share your musicianship? Would love to hear what you hear, as well as see what you see, sometime.
Laura: If you lived within driving distance, I would raise a glass of some suitable adult beverage with you to celebrate our ongoing pixellations. Hurray for me that I've "met" you and have had the pleasure of watching your hand, eye, mind and heart shine on your blog!
MjM: You are not only my favorite Bot-A-Day artist, you have a heck of a bunch of additional gifts based on what I saw you do with that turning gauge image I shared. I am lucky to have "met" you, and am tickled you have as much fun with my title-play as I do.
marja-leena: And you are another treasure -- so creative, engaged and involved! I am glad to have discovered you (I think I owe Dave some BBQ or something for introducing me through his links to so many talented people.) Thanks for your kind good wishes!
From all of us over at GIMME YOUR STUFF, we give you a big wet smooch in congratulations for making such a lovely place! So much fun! I'll have to send you some more milo!
Happy Anniversary! Hard to add to what's been said above by your online admirers except for one thing: I have the pleasure of knowing you in person.
Keep up the good art!
Good thoughts...what we learn from posting and the thought of the communal experience that can be found on the net.
On pythia3's blog, I recently read an intriguing post entitled "Comment Masturbation", an startling title meant to provoke conversation and consideration. Her question was about the meaning of the many comments she has read on her blog as well as on others. Some comments are meaningless responses, hollow shout outs for the sake of shouting out. Some are probing and thoughtful continuations of conversations.
One thing I have always liked about this blog here is that while there are the usual: "Good job..thanks" kind of posts, there are also the thoughtful one that try and comment on how a photograph may have impacted them, or tried to give their own interpretation of the work.
Peace,
Stewart
happy BD, Lori!
you have made a great contribution through your blog
a big hug!
Your blog is one of the most interesting in all of the blog-iverse! How you find the locations and crazy subject matter astounds me. Congrats Lo-Wi! And here's hoping you post thousands more!
Should I make up a fake name now? :P
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