2015 Photography Project - Week 1

This year I've continued my 365 photography project - a photograph or work of art - every day. This is a compilation of the first week of photographs, week one, January 1 to January 7.

New Year's day, January 1st we were in Williamsburg, Virginia. We stopped in to visit the cabinet maker's shop. The light was lovely and I took this photograph of one of the master carpenters at work.

The second day, it was back to work. Bartholdi Fountain is one of my favorite places to visit on Capitol Hill, Washington, D.C.

On the third day I visited Loudoun County during the week, and captured this barn on a cold and blustery day.

Days 4 and 5 involved still life compositions at home. Pomegranates and feathers.

Day 6 and we had snow, my dog Bear delights in the snow and I delight in him.

 And to round out the week, on the seventh day, an outside composition of a pear in the snow.

If you would like to see my work on a daily basis, as well as other projects I undertake, please follow me on Facebook at tART - Photography and Art by Terry Rowe,  https://www.facebook.com/tarrowe. If you'd like to purchase a print of any of my images please contact me or visit my website, http:/terryrowe.photography

Coyote Quorum

Coyote Quorum

In the high altitude of Santa Fe, I went to sleep with the windows open to the cooling night air. The full moon silvered the shadows.

Sometime in the darkest of the night hours, the yips and yowls of coyotes woke me from the deep of my sleep.

The chorus rose in volume as more voices, more yips and yowls joined in – until the sound filled the room. A small primitive part of my brain cowered at the sound of predators hunting in the night – and another part gloried in the sound of the wildness, the sound of the untamed spirit.

In a very short while, the chorus dwindled to a few last yips and howls – a few having the last word in the song of the night.

In the silence that returned, I drifted back into sleep.

In the dawn’s light I wonder did I dream the coyote moon song?

Full Moon Composite, Santa Fe, New Mexico by Terry Rowe

A House Unkept

At the worst, a house unkept cannot be so distressing as a life unlived.
~ Dame Rose Macaulay (1881-1958)

There is a conversation that is periodically repeated in my house about keeping the house clean and doing the chores versus heading out the door with my camera or working on art projects or visiting with friends and family. So the quote by Dame Macaulay is a perfect illustration of my feelings about housekeeping chores and a life to be lived.

As an artist I want to be surrounded by things that are beautiful or inspiring or both. I need my own kind of chaotic order in my studio. Throughout the house, I often arrange the items on shelf or in a cupboard to be pleasing to my eye, it's a satisfying way to make a chore into an art project.

Order in the house leaves space for me to be creative. I needed to find a space to store my (expanding) collection of still life objects. Necessity led to a project. Now the linen closet needed to be reorganized so that I could fit in baskets of personal items. By rearranging items, refolding blankets and towels I was able to clear space and store the baskets in the closet.

It is not terribly exciting, nor is it all that beautiful, but the space pleases me and I can find what I need when I open the door.

The process of cleaning up the closet became a creative exercise and a satisfactory one at that.

Now if only running the vacuum and dusting could be so transformed. Or maybe I should just grab my camera and head out...