Tuesday, March 21, 2017

Still Here & Still Creating.

Dear friends, a few of you may have noticed my lack of online activity of late.
 At the end of February I deactivated my Facebook accounts, both personal and business related.
It's not a statement or stand of any kind, simply something I chose to do for myself. A way to simplify, refocus, and give attention to the nuances of one moment at a time, one day at a time, right here and right now with a fresh, undistracted ability to concentrate. It's probably not something everyone will get, but it has felt liberating for me.

I will admit to you that I am one of those truly introverted people who struggles to try being extroverted in order to grow friendships, develop my business and be able to share my art. It is not a hardship by any means. I'm happy to be who I am, but it is a reality that often hinders me from being highly successful in sales and promotions or online presence. I have peace with that because those things are not always so high on my priority list, but practically speaking, it is nice to be able to pay the bills. It's kind of ironic I suppose that years ago I started my career with a Master's Degree in Communications and jumped into the corporate world of Marketing and Advertising before getting into teaching and slowly working my way to where I am now.....stay at home mom and artist.

I spend my days caring for family and home, working out of my studio, teaching a few classes here and there (sometimes workshops, parties or camps). I help out at a local sign shop printing t-shirts and making signs (something I did in college), just three or four days a week while kids are in school.

I'll share something personal with you. Over the past two months one of the most exciting projects I've gotten involved with has been one of collaboration with a very good friend and photography mentor. We are making short photojournalistic video montages each month. They are little compilations of 1 second (or longer in my case many times) video clips put together to make a movie of "captured moments", completely unposed, life. We put background music on them and it sort of reminds me of what you might see in the intro to a TV sitcom like "This is Us" only it's about our own families. Supposed to be only about a minute long. Hahaha. My first attempt was narrowed down to about four and a half minutes. Next time I'll make a shorter one. It is a fantastically challenging and thoroughly enjoyable project. My family had no idea I was taking video clips the first month so when I sat them all down to show the completed video they were really surprised. I love that.

Well, enough with the personal monologue. Here's an excerpt from my first attempt at photojournalism through "videography" (isn't that a word? video & photography...I believe it is, or should be anyway)




P.S. Just because my FB is gone doesn't mean I am. I will definitely still be here, working away and available if you need artwork, a class, tutorials, photography, design work or other fun creative projects. I may not post super often or on any kind of regular schedule, haha ( I know. Terrible.) But at least if you follow me, your inbox is not bombarded with random posts every day. One plus right? 

God bless you blogosphere friends. Stay creative.

4 comments:

Tiffany said...

What an amazing treasure! You are so gifted! The only thing it was missing was YOU!!

Jackie said...

Haha, thanks Tiff! There were at least a few hints of me, printing t-shirts and glimpses of my artwork. I am going to try some different stuff for the next video to include little shots of me as well though....just as proof that I'm part of the family too, lol. Love ya friend!

Melanie said...

Beautiful! I have a friend that does similar work. You might like her work. She's at Heathercluff.com . Again, beautiful!

Jackie said...

Thank you Melanie! I looked at your friend Heather's website and her work is beautiful. Thanks for sharing.