oh the weather outside is frightful…

I am having an attack of SAD (seasonal affective disorder) due to the fact that I am not truly a hearty mid-westerner, though I have played one on TV for the past 24 years.  This cold is really getting to me and I need to snap out of it!  I was looking through photos from warmer days so I thought I would share this one from Labor day weekend 2010.  We usually go up to a friend’s cabin and there is lots of time to take walks in the woods, sit down by the lake on the dock etc…  and this year I did a series of these little nature portraits.  There was an abundance of great textures and I came back from a stroll with my pockets FULL.  The first time I made stuff like this was about 10 years ago when I was doing a “portrait a day”  inspired by an artist and teacher named Mimi Holmes.  We were selling work in a local shop and this (project a day or week) was an idea she used with her students.  About a year later I decided to do a self portrait a day for a year and when I was on vacation in Jamaica, I made some portraits from things I found on the beach and photographed them.  Ever since then I have been doing them with stuff I find in the yard or wherever.  My friend Elsa Mora did a book of amazing flower people a couple years ago, check it out, all of her work is spectacular.    It may be time for me to do another project a day to re-focus and get my mind off this weather induced slump because we still have a few more months of winter!  Anyhow, stay warm and keep working, I will do the same.