"Nothing is original..." quote

This is so true...I am doing an online workshop by Traci Bautista and this week we are working on our inspiration notebook. I've been making these since high school where my art teacher called them "reference books".  I spent half an hour this morning collecting things that inspire me from a stack of fashion magazines and taping them into a notebook. Part of the creative process...here's the quote:

“Nothing is original. Steal from anywhere that resonates with inspiration or fuels your imagination. Devour old films, new films, music, books, paintings, photos, poems, dreams, random conversations, architecture, bridges, street signs, trees, clouds, bodies of water, light and shadows. Select only things to steal from that speak directly to your soul. If you do this, your work (and theft) will be authentic. Authenticity is invaluable; originality is non-existent. And don’t bother concealing your thievery—celebrate it if you feel like it. In any case, always remember what Jean-Luc Godard said: ‘It’s not where you take things from—it’s where you take them to.”

- Jim Jarmusch
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12 on the 12th January 2011

I mentioned that I got a new camera for Christmas and that I have been taking at least 1 picture each day so that I will have a daily chronicle of life at the end of the year... Another thing I am doing this year (actually it's the 3rd year in a row that I am attempting to do this) is taking 12 pictures on the 12th day of each month. Today is the 12th. Grab your camera and carry it around with you today. Take 12 pictures of anything that catches your eye, inspires you or that you want to remember.

so far so good

I got a new camera for christmas and have been taking a photo each day so far. I am also encouraging my two kids to do the same so we can have a chronicle of daily life at the end of the year. It’s only day 9 of 2011 so far and I am hopeful that my camera will indeed see a new picture each day.

I am also trying for the 4th or 5th year to take 12 pictures on the 12th of each month. This year, instead of relying on just my memory which has failed me so far in remembering about this, I have added it to my google calendar and set it to remind me to take the pictures. :)

Why am I taking these pictures? Besides wanting to have a no-matter-how-mundane chronicle of daily life events thru 2011, I am planning to make scrapbook pages in Photoshop each month with the photos and hopefully get a coffee table album/book printed at the year’s end. I think it would make a neat gift for the grandma and grandpa.

See more progress on: take a photo every day for a year