A new year. 2019.
It started with overcast skies – no sun for 2 weeks. The world often looks like a black-white sketch right now. So good that my photo files are just a click away. I started to play with all-over photo transformations, especially those that turn photos into a kind of drawing / painting. It’s interesting to see how the artificial patterns work that express „leaf“ or „wave“:
The turning of years, it’s always a time of reflection. In December, I joined the #decemberreflections again. One of the prompts that got me thinking was „My word for 2019“. It lead to a sort of word-collage-scribble first, and then to a vispo and this post:
„My word for 2019… isn’t a single word, rather a direction in 3 lines that developed in these days between years :
Enjoy more, worry less.
Dare more, delay less.
Create more, possess less.“
Doing something new
One of the things I want to do more of is: go to new places. Like, the regional wikipedia group I read about last year when I looked for a reading in the Stuttgart library. Turns out, the library regularly hosts such meetings. It’s the perfect place for it:
The Wikipedia group meets each month and also offer introduction courses for new members at that get-together. I had thought of going there for a while, and now went there. I somehow expected it to be a rather male group, as wikipedia is like that from active members – but surprise: the Stuttgart group is one of the group with the highest female member ratio, about 25% percent.
So that was a good surprise, and the whole groups is rather casual and welcoming. Wikipedia and the way it all is organized is a bit complicated, and the introduction helps to get an easier start. I am excited about this.
Pay Attention
Today started with the sad news that Mary Oliver has died. I didn’t see it in the normal news, but in Instagram – and after reading it, I felt the impulse to create a visual with one of her quotes:
Looking at it now, I see the parallel to my „word for 2019“. Would be interesting to see how our minds work, where the ideas they come up link to.
What really touched me was the instagram-feed: every couple of minutes, a new post for her went online with her nametag #maryoliver. I imagined it like bubbles of word rising from around the world.
Also, Austin Kleon wrote about Mary Oliver and her work in his blog, and noted these lines:
„This really is the great message of her work: Pay attention. And pay attention to what you pay attention to. (The message of most great art, really.)“
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For more weekly notes + photos, visit the blueprint blog.
