The Year that Was 2011 – Time for My Annual Round-up and Recap


IcePoint_2875, originally uploaded by carolsLittleWorld.

Every once in a while, I like to take stock in where I am and what I’m doing. Normally, I do this as a run-up to the New Year but instead this year I’ve decided to wait until the New Year actually arrived before starting my planning sessions. As I get more and more accomplished as an artist, these planning sessions, unfortunately, become harder and harder to do. More details, more people involved in the process, more logistics to work out. Ugh! This year is no exception. There are so many things I want to fit into the new year and only so much time to fit it all in. Because of this, I thought I would start with my annual re-cap-I would start by looking at 2011 and see how I did.

For starters, I wrote 171 blog posts in 2011. That’s far fewer than I have in year’s past-I’ve really let the blog slip some, but I do still try to keep up. Facebook, Twitter, and other forms of social media have stepped in and stepped up a bit, in order to fill in that void. I think though that, going forward, I would like to make more meaningful blog posts and I would like to continue to post more frequently. We shall see how I can get along with that, seeing as I have a lot on my plate this year.

Early 2011 found me on a few oddball location shoots. I shot the Chinese New Year celebrations (with flame-breathing dragons!) in Austin and also traveled to Kona for the first of my location shoots. While in Kona, I got to witness the start of a volcanic eruption, which was an adventure, and I got to enjoy a lot of golden sunsets and wonderful shooting in the tropics, which were relaxing and productive.

March brought Alpha Rev at the South by Southwest music festival, which was a real treat and lots of shows, which were fun. April found me getting more new gear-a tripod this time. I’d have to admit that 2011 was the “year of gear” for me, as I got no less than 3 new cameras last year. Phew! Finally settled on the “baby mark” aka the Canon 5D Mark II as my main rig and that’s worked out quite well. I highly recommend this camera to anybody but it sure took me a while to find it and settle down into that grove. Sometimes experience comes in packages from the camera store afar, I guess. I also got a new tripod, new head (well, same as the old head only not as beat up) a new fisheye lens and lots of other stuff. Phew!

May found me making my first movie, “80 Shots” from my work, a practice I intend to continue in 2012. June brought some pinhole work, a museum show, a show in Seattle, and lots of odds and ends.

July started the quest for a new location, which kicked off the planning and preparations for my Iceland trip in August. I also managed to complete a draft copy of a book I have in the works. Still working on that one, but hope to complete it in 2012. Of course, more shows as well were going on. Always shows, lots and lots of shows happening. It keeps the world going round and round, I suppose.

Half of August was spent on location in Iceland, including time spent trying to get back after (during?) hurricane Irene. Lots of spent compact flash over that one, as Iceland is a wonderful place. It’s a must-see for photographers, I place I intend to re-visit, and a wonderful memory all tied into one. What a great trip I had and I can hardly wait to go back and visit that place again. It’s wonderful-so hard to even pick a high point but, if I had to do it, it would probably have been getting to shoot icebergs while it was 108 in my current hometown of Austin. That was, well, if I say “cool” will you promise not to laugh at me? Cool in more ways the one, let’s leave it at that, ok?

September brought on the great drought of Texas, wildfires and the start of preparations for the East Austin Studio Tour (EAST.) October, some painting and more preparations for the big tour were underway.

November was National Blog Posting Month or NaBloPoMo as they like to call it, so you heard me “yapping and snapping” quite a bit over the course of the month. Lots of deep inner thoughts and musings on art and life in general, not to mention the chaos and fun that EAST brings. EAST was a banner year this year, in terms of getting the work out there and having more work than ever displayed as part of the festivities.

December had a wind-down of sorts. I actually got to enjoy a great holiday and headed deep into the studio for a multi-piece series of larger-ish paintings. Presented on 18×24 inch panels, my “Earthen/Dusk” series will be (hopefully!) 20 panels of work once complete. It’s larger than I have worked in the past and it promises to be a 20 piece series, suitable for a 1-person show once complete. Wish me luck what that, as this is still very much a work in progress.

There were some great shows in 2011, including a museum show in Texas, the EAST tour, a show in Seattle, a show in Vermont, and a 1-person show as part of South by Southwest. If I had to wrap it up, I’d say 2011 was a great year for travel (Iceland, Kona, etc.) a great year for shows (lots to pick from here) and a “year for new gear” with lots of packages headed my way.

A few days ago, I posted the image Flickr considered my “Shot of the Year” for 2011. While I tend to agree with Flickr (it is, after all, an algorithm and so it’s kind of hard to argue with that, right?) I do tend to think of this image, and ones like it, as my “Shot of the Year” for 2011. The icebergs really define 2011 in a lot of ways for me. Shooting something different, using new camera gear, traveling to points previously unknown to me, and sort of the “poetry of ice” come together to make 2011 a memorable year for me.

Next up, we’ll start the actually planning for the 2012 year in art and photography. Oh what an adventure 2012 is going to be. I can hardly wait!

Until next time…

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2 Comments

  1. Great Grandma Lin
    Author
    January 10, 2012 / 1:59 pm

    what a creative life you live…Iceland was definitely poetry in ice although I missed the glacier part. I'm still working on a imovie of my experience with my 2000 photos..fun times-glad we met over Greenland. Come to Utah sometime and shoot photos-it's beautiful here.

  2. Carol
    Author
    January 11, 2012 / 1:34 pm

    Thanks, yes I'm a creative type indeed, always doing something or up to something new. Best of luck with the movie, I learned they can be hard to corral but fun to do also. Greenland was great, so glad we got to peek through the clouds.

    Utah is on my list but I don't know where I'll be going yet this year. Still doing planning for 2012 and can't make up my mind yet.

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