Five Years

Realized this week that I've been blogging for about five years now... time flies when you are having fun, doesn't it? My first post was on December 30th in 2006. My youngest was enjoying the "winter break" of his kindergarten year when I started, and the oldest was in 2nd grade. They are now 5th and 7th graders! Not sure what possessed me to start blogging, but it came down to wanting to articulate and organize my thoughts about photography and art, and at the time, I was reading a lot of blogs that were inspiring.

In the spring and summer of 2007, about four to six months after I began to write regularly, I had a banner year in making pictures... it all came together for me, somehow. The exercise and discipline needed to write at somewhat regular intervals fed my passion for making pictures. Making these posts public served to keep them professional and on point. It became part of my creative process, and resulted in extraordinary productivity. (It helped that I had a year to plan for a show at my local public library, too, but I'm not sure I could have pulled it off, without taking the time I did to write this blog.)

I've been reading old posts lately, and I don't regret anything I've written here. The writing has been largely focused on my own process and work, a bit on the work of others, my inspirations and influences from the photography to painting to poetry. Looking at the numbers, however, I've noticed that I've posted less frequently this past year. There are a number of reasons for this... as the kids have gotten older, the demands on my time have shifted, and I've honestly been floundering a bit with making new work... not sure where it's headed just yet, and I've been unable to articulate what I want from my pictures just now, but having reviewed a few earlier posts, I understand that I should keep up with blogging; writing and thinking regularly may bring many of my embryonic and half-formed ideas to fruition.

So, let me close this by saying thank you to those who regularly stop by, and wish you all the very best for a healthy and productive new year.