Today I participated in a press conference for the public launch of the Baker Artist Awards. Thanks to my copious blogging about the Baker Awards, the executive director of the Greater Baltimore Cultural Alliance invited me to say a few words on a live webcast. I had a great time despite going against my typically introverted character and putting a minor kink in the trainings I was doing for new VISTAs at the office.

Overall, I feel like I was given a great opportunity to be part of this process. Rather than writing about it at length, though, I will just make sure to post a link and a few more words when the recorded version of the press conference comes online.

In other news, I tried out a few new ideas over the weekend. I have often thought about but never tried to represent my exceedingly poor vision. Continuing with my current work, I took several images of the scene I see when I wake up in the morning.  Unfortunately, I don't think this one came out quite blurry enough...

[The upstairs railing, as seen through the bedroom door when I wake up in the morning.]

Combining my past work around lights at night with my current domesticity images, I finally got around to capturing an image that catches my eye every time I sit in our reading room at night. I may eventually go back and retake it from the couch with a longer zoom lens to represent my vantage point a little more authentically.

[Streetlight outside second floor window, looking into the back alley.]

I love my house.  When I wake up in the morning or come home from work in the afternoon, I take note of the color palette, the furniture, the way the light shines through from one end to the other, and I give some thanks for this living space (and the wonderful husband and cat I share it with).

Recently I've been inspired to capture small details of my life in the physical world.  My success was limited at first, or so I thought. The images didn't seem to capture the essence of what I saw. They didn't “pop” for me. Looking at them objectively I appreciate these images in their own right, but I was disappointed when I first shot them:

As I left the scene behind and moved in closer to examine what was actually striking me, I came out with some far more satisfying images. Generally speaking, if I'm not happy with an image it means I wasn't close enough.

After moving in on my subjects, I took a few steps back again and came upon this nice little shot:

As much as I'm enjoying collecting these little snippets of domestic life, I'm coming up with some questions in my mind.  I'm afraid I should be doing more.  My goal has always been for my work to be contemplative and multi-faceted, something I could write multiple essays about if I was so inclined.  I know I have the intellect, so what am I waiting for?  It's been too long since I worked on a serious body of work.  Creating the handmade book to show my best Reclamation pieces was such a fulfilling experience.  The photos were fabulous and I was very pleased with the short creative non-fiction I included in the finished piece.  As I settle into a home that is once again inspiring, I feel very ready to get my head into a new (or renewed) project. 

Then again, maybe I should take my attraction to these images as a sign and give them a little more thought. I can see a very intimate collection of photos coming out of this, and I'd like to do a bit of writing to go with them.

We'll see where it goes in the coming weeks, especially as fall and winter begin to set in. I find the cold months to be my most prolific time in terms of writing and photography production, and I'm very excited to see where my inspiration will take me in this new home and new city.

If you'd like to follow along, I've started a new Flickr set, Domesticity, which I'll be populating with images as I get them.