Kickoff: Inspiration Mondays!

So, I had an idea…

Part of what moves me, motivates me, gets me out of bed in the morning, keeps me from going to bed in the evening, is creativity.  I just love things, people, events that are creative.  They inspire me.  And they drive me to create.  Often times I am inspired to attempt to recreate something I have seen; a kind of “wow, I want to do that!”  And eventually I become inspired to seek out my own vision, and to express it.

Being a photographer, and with the advent of the web as the modern art gallery, I am a blog and artist website junkie!!  I darn near collect blogs: photo blogs, blogs about photography, blogs about vision, blogs about craft, blogs about gear, blogs about creativity and the creative process.  And why do I collect these blogs?  Well, to get inspired, to learn something new, to discover what others are doing in order to push my own creativity.  And that got me thinking.  If I have such a good (well, I think it’s good) collection of inspiring blogs, perhaps there is a way to share them beyond simply listing them on my blogroll (although my blogroll, albeit short at the time of this writing, is filled with inspiration for me.)

So here is my idea: Each Monday I will blog about something or someone that inspires me.  I will start with photographers but I imagine over time I will post about other creatives that inspire my art and could inspire yours as well.  I am really excited about this little project and hope you will like it.

Now the big question: who do I kick off this endeavor with?  Well, I think it is going to have to be my good friend Nancy Newell.  Nancy is a photographer in Albuquerque whom I met through Flickr.com where she has been a prolific poster for the past several years.  She was pretty good in the beginning and in 2009 she started “A Year In Pictures” project where she took and posted a picture every single day of the year.  Her dedication to the project (and her husband’s support of it) over the course of the entire year is inspiring in itself.  But what inspired me more was watching her progression as a photographer and as a post-processor.  Each month she created a different theme around her daily photographs in order to learn some new aspect of the craft; one month it was black and whites, another month it was adding textures, another macro shots, and yet another was reading her camera manual and applying something she had learned.  As a result she closed out 2010 with an incredible body of work that shows a progression from good photographer to amazing photographer that inspires others.  Her following on Flickr is a testament to her skill and creativity and I think she should have an equally large following here in the blog-o-sphere.

And she’s at it again.  She is undertaking another year of “A Year in Pictures” on Flickr.  In addition she has hung some prints in a “Flower Power” show in Albuquerque at the Wooden Cow Gallery and is a featured artist on Joy’s Gallery.

So do me, Nancy, and especially yourself, a favor and stop my her blog, her website, her Flickr stream, and spend some time wandering along with her on her photographic journey.  I think you will be impressed.  I even think you might be inspired.