July 17, 2006

74: Summer Break

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Top row (left to right): Me and Kerry at the Winnipeg Folk Festival; teaching Duncan to make an origami crane; Kerry searches for a seat at the festival's afternoon Sadies concert. Middle row (left to right): Anna mugs; skipping stones at dusk; Anna gives her brother a boost on the Gimli pier. Bottom row (left to right): Sunday sunrise, Lake Winnipeg; on the porch on a hot evening, curing what ails me.

I'm shutting down for an indefinite amount of time, for a variety of reasons - some good, some not so good. Firstly, it's summer – and I'm having a harder and harder time justifying the act of using my time to sit at the computer tinkering with photos or crafting other creative jobbies while it's either too sweltering or too beautiful outside to fully devote myself. Also, with summer come summer doldrums – recently I’ve found my ability to concept is outracing my ability to properly execute; too often I'm scrapping ideas at the sketchbook stage for lack of craft, concentration or the seemingly outright ability to draw. This I have to attend to on my own, without the self-imposed pressure of posting stuff here each week (this sounds strange as I type it, but it's oddly true).

On the plus side, the days ahead are also busy with fun and fantastic things. The Winnipeg Fringe Festival will roll into gear this Wednesday, and Kerry and I plan to get our fill before the end of next weekend when my sister, her partner and my niece come for her inaugural visit to Manitoba. Quickly on the heels of this is a visit from my dad. Then it will be the all-too-brief local corn season, and fingers will be far too messy to type. And then it will be the MS Society's "Biking To The Viking" event, a 170-kilometer weekend charity ride to Gimli, which Kerry and I are attempting for the first time. The thought of a strong north wind scares me even now, more than a full month in advance.

In the meantime, I have to quickly cobble together a concept for the fall edition of the HOWieZine (theme: pirates) for mailing to the States next week. And below I've attached submissions to both PhotoFortnight (theme: work) and Photo Friday (theme: remarkable), to fill the void.

Have fun with your summer. I'll be back as soon as I rediscover my creative mojo.

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Above: a penned goose at an organic strawberry farm. The geese are let out to the fields while the berries are still green, and devour just the weeds. While they also adore overripe berries, they do not touch the good ones – nice work if you can get it.

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Above: my remarkable niece Cadence at six weeks. Nearing her second birthday, Cadence is about to make her first trip to Winnipeg.

7 comments:

Unknown said...

Nice shot of the goose! They eye is quite striking!

Enjoy the time "off". I know what it's like when the concentration batteries are low. But don't be a stranger or I'll tell Kerry what really happened!

Dave

lew! said...

oh no

what the hell am i supposed to look at now?

your groups of shots rock jeope. that's what i am palnning on doing once all my film is processed.

well enjoy the time off, give that creative mojo a break - then come back and wow us some more.

enjoy the sweet corn.

Ian said...

Say it aint so! :-) Well enjoy your summer. Just post these grids of photos once in awhile, that would be enuff! Oh and we'll see you out on #17 Hwy going about 12km/hr!

Mary said...

Yeah, sometimes if you take the creative pressure off, you immediately get that mojo back again. Have a fun summer Jeope, we'll all look forward to your blog return! :)

Jeope said...

Heh. 12 km/h if we're lucky. By then we might be walking the bikes!

The photos may continue if I'm out and about with the camera.

Mark Kruk said...

Hey, I always thought you were very ambitious doing weekly posts. :) Along with all your other submission sites.

I find updating Easton's site around the 18th of every month a little too much, but I love doing it. Once a months suits me fine and it leaves me time to get other stuff done.

Enjoy the time off and get busy outside. Recylce to the EXTREME! Jeope, you might be the only one that gets that. :)

Take care,
Mark

patricia zapata said...

awww! here I thought I was in for a good dose of catching up since I haven't visited in a while. enjoy your time away from the keyboard and hope to see you back with great things as usual.