class | Change Is Hard

Our instructor in the beautifully painted art room.

Last fall I was looking for a local acrylic painting class and I stumbled across something called art journaling. That particular month the description included instructions for people to bring their favorite pair of old shoes to class.

I, not knowing what art journaling was, found the request for shoes intriguing.

I emailed the instructor and asked if she planned on having the participants walking or jogging or perhaps doing calisthenics while doing some sort of art project? She replied with a lot of lols.

No, the participants would be drawing their shoes and embellishing them with bits of paper or scraps of poems, maybe photographs, to describe memories or events that made these their favorite shoes.

Arranging bits of my holiday.

They do this in a journal, and month after month they meet to create different projects, explore different memories, all the while making art.

Well that sounded fun.

So I went, way back in September to one session and had a good time, and then travel and other life events interfered and I missed the next meeting. And then the holidays hit and I accidentally fell asleep the evening of the November session.

A little bit of Christmas.

So here it is January, and we met again, this time having collected bits of paper that reflected our lives. During the class we tore that paper up, doodled on it and glued it all back together again.

Well hello Dolly!

These photos were taken in bad light with my phone, but you get the idea. The whole two page collage represents what I did during the holidays. I saw the musical Dolly, I volunteered with Little Brothers at Thanksgiving, I wrapped gifts for Christmas.

It’s not great art, but it’s fun art and very relaxing. Plus the other women there are all funny, smart, welcoming and happy.

The finished project.

Just the perfect way to spend a dark winter evening in the middle of January.

Detail of the art on the wall.

Saturday I attended an all day class intended to up my skill level in the photo editing software Lightroom. The first half of the day was spent learning about cataloging your inventory of photos within Lightroom.

Mama! Don’t you see this stupid stick right next to me?

Much of that went right over my head. I have a system to keep track of my photos, and though it isn’t perfect and would probably make little sense to anyone but me, I am not sure I’m ready to change.

Well, if you don’t look too close, that’s a little better mama. And I like the light!

After all, change is hard.

Cheerful little guy.

The second half of the day was spent in the development module, and was the reason I was there. Though I tried very hard to focus and listen while at the same time playing along on my laptop, some of it still escaped me.

Sitting in a spot of make believe sunshine.

But I learned a lot of the basics, and as I practice I’m sure I’ll get better.

Sunset at the park.

The photos in this blog were taken in the past week with the new Nikon Z6 camera. I’m posting the original, out of the camera image and then the adjusted, messed around with image.