Photo A Day Challenge

Daily Journaling of a sort is how I taught my self cartooning and how to use PhotoShop to paint. I was inspired By Connie Sun’s lovely daily comic Connie to the Wonnie, which she described as a series of illustrated status updates. The reflection on my thoughts and a moment from the week was calming to me, and allowed me to focus on the skills I was trying to learn instead of worrying about what to draw that day. This month I’m going back to those sort of roots with the FatMumSlim Photo-A-Day challenge. Thirty one themes with mini blog posts as I sort through my days. 

01/31 I Stood Here.
When I first got on Instagram in…2011?, I  did the photoaday challenge for several months. I saw my sense of  composition and ability to wrap my head around thematic ideas grow. And I  made so many good friends that I still follow and enjoy watching grow  today! Maybe I’m feeling a need to reach back to that feeling, or maybe  I’m looking for something, for growth. Or maybe I just love doing fun  activities with my friends. At any rate, I’m looking forward to  exploring this month in photographs 

02/31 A good habit.

A few years ago I resolved to  try to live more intentionally. To be mindful of my choices throughout  the day. One of the first things I did was to begin making breakfast  every day, sit and drink all of my tea, and make a list…reflecting on  the day to come. 

It’s a sort of miniature ritual of choices. 

 03/31  Treat. 

Part of my understanding of mindfulness is being sure to stop  and do at least one thing solely for yourself daily. It doesn’t have to  be something big. It could be a walk or drawing or journaling. But  something that’s only real purpose is centering yourself. What have you  done for yourself today? 

Today  I read out loud to myself before bed. Which felt a little self  indulgent, and a little awkward, I really wanted to get a sense of not  only the content of this essay but also of the way Mr Pullman puts his  words together. This essay was written as a speech, and it feels right  reading it that way.

 04/31  Time. 

There’s too much of it when I don’t want it, but never enough  when I do. I’ve been in a fortunate position of being able to be at home  when my kids go to school in the morning and here when they get home in  the evening…I’ve had control of my own time for so long that it had  come to feel like a non-negotiable. Sometimes seeing the path forward  from where we are starts with examining  those non-negotiable things and  redefining them. There’s never going to be “enough” time, but maybe  it’s possible to shift the time we do have in a way that’s more useful  to us. Let go of one ledge so we can land on another. 

It’s scary. 

05/31  Over. 

Like pretty much every artist I’ve ever known, there’s an ever  changing collection of little things over my desk. The oldest relic is  this statue that I got from a friend in college and the newest is this  little female construction worker figurine I got from my friends at Hex Games.  Patterns start to form in any collection, even unintentionally. One of  the things that I’m drawn to with this pair is the juxtaposition of the  very soft femininity of the statue to the almost adventurous, rugged  pose of the figurine. But yet they’re both women. They’re both strong. They’re both feminine.

     Before I had kids, I had nothing to compare the experience to, short  of my own brothers and a small handful of nephews. So the only picture  in my head was a little boy like I was, who I may or may not have wanted  to name Luke Skywalker. Abigail was an amazing surprise, and all my  thoughts became directed towards helping her and her sister be  themselves. To be the human she was, is and will be. 

     As sisters, both of them embrace different aspects of being girls  without letting their femaleness define them.  We were at the playground  the other day and an older lady called Abby a boy because of her  haircut and the way she carries herself. Olive jumped to her sisters  defense saying that she was a girl. Abby though declared loudly to the  lady, “I have no gender! I’m a potato!” 

Thank you all so much or stopping in with me today!

Until next time, take care and be good.
Your friend,
Jeffrey

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