Canvas to the Imagination

Be Your Own Beloved wrapped up last week, and by the end I managed to shoot twenty out of the twenty-eight self portrait assignments. It’s challenging to show up for something like this every day because I’m not often in the mood to take a photo of me.

Taking Up Space

Part of a Bigger Story

I am very happy with the ideas I came up with for each theme. I managed to keep things interesting and creative despite the limited time I had to work on these each day.

This puppy wanted to be in the picture too

Out of Focus

I wasn’t feeling very motivated or inspired before the course began but it was just the thing to get me energized and creating new work. It really pays to shake things up sometimes and take workshops with other creative people in order to seek out a new source of inspiration.

It’s been an interesting experience the last few weeks to maintain my commitment to the Be Your Own Beloved e-course. I don’t mind taking a self portrait every once in awhile, but doing it every day is tedious. At least that’s how I normally feel about it. But with Vivienne‘s daily email prompts of inspiration to guide me, it makes it easier to get it done. She always provides something personal to reflect upon, as well as a place to start to come up with an idea to shoot for the day.

I really like the work I’ve been creating, and through this series I’ve come to realize I am process oriented even with my photography. The ideas come as I work, rather than being fully formed from the beginning.

Day 18

Day 21

Day 22

The creative aspects of this project aside, it’s made me realize a few things about myself. Mostly that I’m not very good at self-care, or about being good to myself. The intensity of the stuff that has come up out of this has really surprised me, but I am determined to create more awareness around this and make changes.

There are just a few days left of the course. I think I will miss the daily excuse to come up with an idea to photograph.

More of the self portraits can be found on Flickr.

The self portrait series continues for Be Your Own Beloved. Valentines Day is always a good excuse to create an image using a generous amount of the colour red.