blue at play

a blue moment of sur/reality from Lanzarote
added to the photo blog yesterday ....

....turned to a string of blues at play:

... and more image play: the automatic photo blog starting page 

creating a shifting collage of the now & the recent

(inspired by photo friday's theme "at play"

and by Rose Hunter's photo walk at a blue hour)

in between moods, colors and timelines

(this post is inspired by photo friday's theme "Mood" and the timelines of seasons and projects that are  crossings these days)

 

today is a summer day in fall, brought along by warm winds from the south. the sunflowers are still flowering, the dahlias built new petals, the roses, too. some trees are still green - while others turned yellow or already skip their leaves. tomorrow the winds will turn, and the northern low will reach us with rain. and with skipping temperatures: from 24°C today to 15°C tomorrow. night frost possible.

meanwhile, the 100 days of summer project of shared daily creativity is are entering their final week. after posting day #93 in blue yesterday, i wrote to a fellow 100-dayer: "i just looked at the image page of my 100 days blog and felt: this could be complete now. but it would be odd to leave just 7 days before the end.



he wrote back, saying: "what you said about your photo stream is true of mine as well, they could end now. ... we have a challenge to bring ourselves to this for one last week." 

when i thought about it, i realized i already have the next day: a small stone picked at the way to the train station. which also might be the answer to: how to continue after the 100 days, if at all? - i think i will focus on smallstones - small moments and moods of the everyday, wrapped in a few words - a practice to move from the feeling of "in between" to right here. because all our days and weeks are in between, if we keep the focus on the larger image, the next milestone. and at the same time, each moment is right here, if we focus on the now.

another timeline: the Modern Poetry Online Class ("ModPo") - the 4th week is complete with Gertrude Stein and Dada-poets. the next = 5th week will mark the halftime milestone of the course, with a focus on Antimodernists and Formalism of the 1950s.  week 6 will add the beat poets. so many good poetry discussions, and beyond that, right now, a thought-provoking discussion that is developing in the forum on the larger scheme of free online classes: "So is the whole Coursera thing just a philanthropic effort or what?" it's up to 68 posts on education / learning / money / globalization / life now, with 1800 views so far. and it's too bad that they don't have an open area for such themes.

now: time to mow the lawn, before the rain arrives.

and: time to say hi to the flowers and their new, now petals.

------

....done. and i just had to take this photo:

100 days of summer, day 75: colors, asemics + chairs

the 100 Days of Summer - this project of shared daily creativity - now reached it's three-quarter-milestone. above, the screenshot of my current entries at my projec page, participation

after a time of working with mirror images and with layer images, i thought of starting a color series (the start was the red and the blue photo) - but the flow of images then moved into a different direction, inspired by works of other group members. there was a continuing chair-theme, which made me get back to the Chair art installation in prague at day 70 (a colllage of the combined chair is here: Chair Saga).

another theme that keeps running throught he project is: asemics. which made me notice the sky asemics on day 72. for a while i wondered if the 100 days at some point would feel draining, repetetive, but right now it feels the group dynamics keeps leading to new angles and takes, and provides the energy to keep experimenting and creating.

it's also cool that through the project, summer will last until October this year, in a creative way.

**

(previous notes on the project: 100 days of summer)

September, and day 63 of 100

summer, autumn, summer
seasons changed here in the last days. 2 weeks ago, it was summer full on, with almost tropical days. then, the previous weekend: a taste of autumn. morning fog. yellow leaves on the street. the feeling of: is summer over already?

yesterday the skies changed again, and it looks like there is another summer weekend coming. time, and the way it flows.

100 Days of Summer
meanwhile, with August turning to September, the 100 Days of Summer - this project of shared daily creativity - now moved to day #60 and further. the main hub of the project is a facebook group page, which works well on a daily basis, but if you want to move along the timeline, you soon get lost. so the idea rose to create a reflection place. it's online, and includes favourite posts, half-way reflections, collages, all sorted in a mosaic:
100 days 2012 - Half Way Snapshot

Daily Shared Creativity
Someone noted that one of the really great things of the 100 days is that when lacking own words, soon enough someone else finds them, so here some quotes on the unexpectes energy this daily endevour generates, even on the difficult days, the ones that leave you with a blank page at first:

"To have this daily committment to a few minutes of creative play is unexpectedly rewarding. It is like a meditation, something apart from the rest of the day, a pause, a refuge. .. The feedback too is rewarding, many times surpsing me with what others see in something I have done, how a piece connects with others in unexpected ways." - Steve at Hobnailballet

"There’s such a wealth of extraordinary talent collected here it is humbling. Every day brings something intriguing, amazingly beautiful, conceptually outstanding, exceptionally creative. And the feedback and support of those involved this year has been tremendously inspiring and I know this personally, has kept many of us going when we think we have nothing more to come up with, nothing left inside." - Susan at Talespinning

and visiting my own day #50 note: "The group page is one of the first pages I visit in the morning, and it’s like walking through a constantly growing gallery, with threads and series developing. The virtual visit often makes me notice connecting angles / details / moments during the day: the detail of petals, asemic structures, laundry on a line, the changing pattern of things… Looking very forward to the second half." - me at p art ici patio n

today: day 50 of 100

good to reach halfway.

here are some reflections and a feathered halfway moment (and the recent days):
100 days of summer / p art ici patio n

day 40 of 100, or: the relativity of time

today: day 40 of my 100 days of summer project. after a long series of mirror images, i am now following the theme of "Interpretations": the same photo in different versions.

yesterday was different, though: after some sun/shade time on the terrace and reading in the collection of the River of Stones, i included a single sunday image, a prayer flag moment, here: in the wind.

the "River of Stones" was a project of daily creativity that took place in July last year, and again in January this year, the task there was: to write a short, observing poem / "small stone" daily for a month.

the crossing back also made me think about time: it’s interesting how for the river of stones, writing on a daily bases for 31 days felt long. but now, with a project of 100 days, the same amount of 31 days feel shorter, just a part of it, just the first third.

i am also experimenting with the theme setting - and now switched to Mixfolio, which creates a collage-like starting page. not sure if i like the overall layout, but i might stay with it for some days, see how it feels in time.

Otoliths: Interpretations & other visuals

the new Otoliths Magazine is online!

it includes a series of 3 visuals that came together as a collaborative "side" effect of the 100 days project: Interpretations by Julia Davies and Dorothee Lang

seeing this online made me go to our previous collaboration, which made me note the (unplanned) parallels: the colors and the complex structures: "Time & Space" in Mixitini Matrix 

back from there, i browsed Otoliths, the new issue comes with wonderful visuals. here's a collage of some of my favourites: John M. Bennett and Matthew Stolte, lindsay cahil, Sean Burn, Cherie Hunter Day:



and here's the list to the table of contents: Otoliths #26 - southern winter, 2012
(yes, it's that large :)

day 24, or: the luminous effects of doing something on a daily basis

the new photo friday theme is: Luminous

when reading the theme, i realized that i just had worked with it, without knowing about it yet: in the 100 days project, my post for day 23 was a mirror/light/shadow image. the image above is a version before the mirroring. the final image with some notes on the place, and a reflection on photography and reality: archi/texture

actually i had another picture prepared for that day, but then browsed some other entries of the 100 days project before working on mine, and arrived at this unplanned and unexpected result. looking at it now, i think it's the dynamic of following a creative theme on a daily basis, with a fresh approach each day, in combination with the dynamic of a whole group, that brought me to this place.

it also made me think of note on habits: that it's easier to do something on a daily basis, compared to only every second day, or on a weekly basis.

later, i came across this interview in the Rumpus, with Jon Carroll, the author of a long-running daily column in the SF Gate newspaper. one of the questions is about the daily nature of his work. here the passage from the interview:

What is it that you like about starting a new column every single weekday?
Most people would find that daunting.

Yeah, but you can forget about what you did before. I mean, it’s always a clean slate. I start out with an idea. But I start out with the idea that that idea is temporary. It can go anywhere. And sometimes, in the process of writing, I find a nice corner or nook or cranny that hasn’t been explored, so I go off and explore it. And the cranny turns out to be a tunnel and it takes me to another place, entirely.

the full interview (which is long and worthwile) is up here: The Rumpus interview with Jon Carroll 

here's the image in original color:



now, into day 24.

100 days of summer: day 8, or: this curious thing called creativity

the 100 Days of Summer project started a week ago. the task: to be creative daily for 100 days and blog ones work to share and inspire each other.

i first joined the 100 Days last year, some days late, with a photo blog. this year, i am picking up the photo blog again, with a focus on revisiting photos i took in other places, and have a second look at them. the first place i revisited was Vienna - and without planning to, i also added some lines: de/light (Vienna, day 1).  a string of mirror images followed: Lanzarote, Bodensee, Paris, Munich. and again, with each photo, there are some notes on the moment of being there, in form of a poem.

all days are online here: p art ici patio n

so far, i picked and prepared the photo for the next entry in the evening, and added the lines while blogging it in the morning. the odd thing is that i havn't accomplished much creative writing in the previous weeks, neither fiction nor non-fiction. that's why i went for a photo blog again. just to find that it now creates a space for poetry. and also, made me finally wrap up the zen book review that lingered for a week. a (kind of drastic but also true) line from NaNoWriMo comes to mind: "Put a gun to my head and words come out." or like Susan Gibb put it today after writing tomorrow's story already: "Who the hell put a qurter in me?" only that the task wasn't even listed in word count, only in an act of daily creation.

such a curious thing it is, creativity.

upcoming: 100 Days of Summer

the 100 Days of Summer project will start again this week – it’s the one i started this photo blog for when i first joined in 2011. the task: to be creative daily for 100 days and blog the results to share and inspire each other. there also be weekly themes, and its all organized in an easy and simple way via an open facebook group this year.

i look forward to it. the project is also open to new members, if you are interersted in joining, just send a message through facebook (here), and i send an invite. here’s the description: “100 Days of Summer provides its members with the opportunity to share their creative work within the intense framework of providing one artistic submission per day for 100 days. Officially, we are beginning on July 5th and expect the program to run through October 15th or so.”