Today’s image is one I had to go digging for, because my brain would not let it go! Looking out over Verona, this arch in the arena was a perfect frame for the scene, capturing my husband and son in silhouette. I like the juxtaposition of the old and the new, a unique portrait of our visit to this place.

If you ever visit Italy, don’t miss Verona. Not only is it in the Veneto, my favorite region of Italy, it also had my favorite Roman arena. Oh, I know, the Coliseum in Rome was the biggest, but the one in Verona is the best preserved. You can walk in it and through it and sit on the marble seats that are two thousand years old. They still have performances here, although we were never able to time it right to see one. This arena is living history, the best kind in my book.

When we take some raw material and transform it into something new, we create. When we cook a meal from ingredients, we create. When we combine pieces of clothing from our closet into an outfit, we create. When we pick up an instrument and bring sounds from it, we create.

I’ve been exploring this aspect of creating through my new/old guitar. I’m not the “creator” of the music I’m learning, but I am the creator of the sounds. This guitar would not be making these sounds were it not for me. The music doesn’t exist without me.

Every day, we get to create. Every day, we start with raw materials and turn them into something new. There is freedom and joy that comes with this knowledge. I love knowing this, don’t you?

This month’s {in the picture} theme is “Write On,” putting words on our self-portraits in some way. I thought this quote was perfect to express what I’ve discovered about playing the guitar. I envisioned this shot in my head, wanting the view out the window overexposed and me to be dark in contrast. I set it up using a tripod and remote, and discovered it was challenging to use the remote to trigger the camera, drop it, and get my hands in position in time to take the photo. It took a few tries! The blur of my head was a total accident, I must have been looking between my hands at the moment the picture was taken, but I found I liked the softness it brought to the image. It went well with the light.

So, month two of my self-portrait journey is done, and it’s getting a little bit easier. It helped to know what I wanted to “say” with the photo, and focusing on the concept I was wanting to convey rather than the idea that it is a photograph of me. How’s it going for you?

“Ordinary people.” Hey, that’s us.
“Individual actions.” We do this every day.

Is there power in the individual actions of ordinary people? I believe there is. I believe that each of us, through what we create each day, bring something of value to the world. In countless tiny ways, we create the existence around us. Artistic creation is but one aspect of the lives we create each day.

A while ago I received this quote on my Yogi tea bag, “Our thoughts are forming the world.” I set it aside, I didn’t get it at the time. I mean really, the world is made up of things not thoughts, my logical mind protested. Sometime later I realized that all of these things around us, with the exception of nature, began as thoughts. Someone thought they could create a light bulb. Someone thought they could capture light with chemicals, and later with electronic circuits, to create a camera. Someone thought they would build a building, or a town, or a country. Our world is changed, formed, by thoughts which begin in the minds of individuals.

It’s not just the big invention-type thoughts that matter though, those are only tangible examples to show the concept that things start as thoughts. For everything we do, our actions start as thoughts. Our practice of creativity helps to form those thoughts, helps to link ideas in new ways. Our practice of creativity gives us power: new ideas lead to new actions which change the world within or around us in a million tiny ways.

“Every one of us has something distinct to offer to the all-encompassing process of creativity,” McNiff goes on to say later in the book. Do you see how it is true? McNiff wrote his book, I read it today and re-interpret it here, you read and re-interpret it again. You think about it, form your own opinion. Each connection, each thought, is part of the overall creative process.

A creative process which is available to ordinary people. Sparking change which begins and ends with ordinary people. People like you and me.

Consider your power, as an ordinary person taking individual action, no matter how big or small. How will you use it today?

Nonetheless, it wasn’t raining and it was a beautiful afternoon outside. I found some interesting things to photograph, and being out and about with my camera kept me calm and cool. I was excited to find this interesting green building, in the tiny town of Harrisburg, south of Corvallis. Even more interesting, was the green door of the green building. The shapes, color and subtle texture were fun to compose.

I have this sneaking suspicion though, that this image of the green door is always going to remind me of the day that I truly realized that teenager-hood is just around the corner. That parenting through the next few years is going to be so much harder than it has been up to now. That the choices I’m making now will affect what my son learns about how to navigate the world around him as an adult. Whether or not he learns to connect the dots: Regardless of what life presents you, you always have a choice in how you respond.

We all have to learn this lesson. Maybe again and again, for some of us. Somehow, this simple image of the green door is always going to remind me: When life presents us with a challenge, we always have the choice in how we respond.

My Tea with Toan interview has been featured on The Huffington Post and Intent.com this week. Wow! I’m excited to get the word out about the Photo-Heart Connection, and hope that more people will find this as a wonderful tool for personal growth and connection. I’d love for you to come visit if you haven’t seen the interview yet.

Keep connecting! Good things always happen when you are connected with your heart.

Consider this utility tower, captured with my point-and-shoot camera from a car window on the freeway. Who would have thought this subject, often considered an eyesore, could be so photogenic?

I swear, it’s all in the silhouette, abstracting the lines and shapes against that beautiful sky.

Have you been playing with silhouettes this week? What interesting silhouette images have you found in your archive? You have another week to look and share! Visit the gorgeous images of your fellow explorers, linked in below.

This photograph, from the Newport Bayfront, called out to be shared today. I remember capturing it. I was working on the idea behind Exploring with a Camera: Process of Elimination at the time and I wanted to show how the whole scene wasn’t as interesting as the smaller part, below. I really worked this smaller scene of the crab pot and door, to find a composition I loved.

But when I got home and looked at the whole scene on the computer, the scene that was supposed to be an example of an “uninteresting” view, I discovered how much I liked it. The whole was just as interesting, if not more so, than the part I had focused in on. The crab pots, the weathered door, the weed, the graffiti all worked together.

Maybe that’s what I’m at the cusp of, seeing a bigger picture. Maybe I’m focusing in so much on the parts that I’m not seeing the whole, laid out before me. I’ll have to think on that today, as I stand at the edge, seeing only fog.

Have you ever noticed this? That sometimes, when you do something that is opposite to your normal routine or nature, you get a burst of energy. While it can be uncomfortable, it can also be fun and liberating.

It takes a bit of a reminder at times, a push to get out of our comfort zones. The participants in my Find Your Eye: Journey of Recognition class are doing it right now, so this quote resonated when I read it today.

And it made me think. Have I been outside of my comfort zone lately? Maybe a little. This expansive landscape shot is different than my usual city scene. But it’s not that far out of my comfort zone. Not really. I need to challenge myself to step out a bit further to get that boost of energy that comes from trying something new.

How about you? Have you stepped outside of your comfort zone lately?

This video, Evidence of Love, is made to do just that – Share the Love. I want it to bring warmth to your heart and a smile to your face. Feel free to pass it on to those you care about, remembering this quote: “Love grows when shared.”

I’m SO excited to also share, there is an interview on the Photo-Heart Connection posted today on Go Inspire Go. A video interview. If that’s not out of my comfort zone, I don’t know what is! But it was really great fun to have Tea with Toan Lam, the creator of Go Inspire Go, and share my love and excitement for the Photo-Heart Connection. I invite you to come by and visit.

The final sharing of today – who won the Market/Wheels Giveaway? Out of 31 comments, the winner is #11 Holly (aka soupatraveler). Congrats to Holly! She’ll receive the matted print of her choice from my RedBubble shop.

Thank you all so much for your thoughtful feedback on the Market/Wheels series. It was very interesting to see which images resonated with you! The leading images were, by a large margin, Mobile Display and From Water to Wheels. Runners up were Carriage Display, Creperie, Merchant of Venice, A Bite or a Bike, Waiting for a Sale, Offerta and Classic Italian Transport. I look forward to doing my final selections and getting ready for the exhibition in the next couple of weeks. Next time you see this series, it will be hanging on the wall of The Arts Center!

Have a wonderful Valentine’s Day! Share the Love!

Sometimes life throws us a curveball. Through some twists and turns, the guitar came to me in January. My brother, the only one who played, inherited it after my Dad passed away in 1995. Now it’s come to me for safekeeping.

I have so many memories of my Dad playing this guitar. Listening to him play 50′s and 60′s country-western music. Singing along to “Country Roads” by John Denver and “Sing a Song” by the Carpenters. Hours spent on Saturday nights watching TV at a certain house, while my Dad played music in the basement with his friends. He had this guitar my whole life, even before he married my Mom in 1969. It was a tiny piece of him we were able to keep after he passed away.

My Dad and the guitar in the 1980's

If you had asked me, two months ago, if I would be learning guitar today I would have laughed at you. What guitar? Who has time? I would have said. But when this piece of my history arrived and I put my hands on the guitar I knew it couldn’t stay in its case. I knew I had to learn. It’s like a living thing; it needs to be played. And by playing it, I feel closer to my Dad than I have in a long time. As I learn to play the chords I wonder how he managed to use his very large fingers to play them. I wonder how and when he got this guitar, why he chose this particular one. And I miss him, even more.

My guitar-playing friends seem to love this guitar. It’s a ~1956-7 Gibson ES125 hollow-body electric. Don’t know that that means? Don’t worry, neither did I a couple of months ago. It’s an early electric guitar, and little tiny piece of guitar history. A big piece of my personal history, growing larger every day.

I was surprised at how comfortable it is in my hands; how well it seems to fit me. I find that I like having music in my life again. Making music again. (I played flute years ago.) I always like learning something new, but in this I’m a true beginner. I can see how far I have to go, to even play a song. But I’m working on it. Working a little bit everyday, through the sore fingers and the awkward pauses to play the chords right and someday, I’ll be able to play a song or two.

And you know what? Surprise of all surprises, I’m loving every minute of it.

PS – Today is the last day to enter the Market/Wheels Giveaway! I would love your feedback as I prep for my exhibition, and you could win a matted print for giving it. Visit this post here for the details.