Category: Blogs

10 Years of Pics and Posts!

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Abstract Balloons

It’s my 10th Blogiversary, y’all! I’ve been managing this blog for 10 whole years!

When I started Pics and Posts a decade ago, I had little direction. I only knew that I needed a space to share some of the beauty and light I encounter daily. The blog was intended to be and has become my online “happy place” with a semi-captive audience for my photography, art, snail mail, and the random thoughts that cross my mind.

My goal was to craft a space that was free of the emotional weight of social ills and politics. Though I have sometimes been compelled to address certain social issues, I hope we have created a space together that calms rather than riles.

And here’s more great news: Once I hit “publish,” today’s post will mark another milestone–my 1000th blog post!

1000 posts! An average of 100 posts per year. Whew! A whole lot of blogging for the person who started posting whenever the mood hit or when time allowed.

In those early days of “blogging,” sometimes two or three months would pass between posts. Gasp! That’s hard to believe now that I make a point of posting two to three times per week.

Since I was nearing my 1000th post at the beginning of the month, my friend Cy gave me permission to “bow out” of the “blog-every-day-till-my-blogiversary challenge she issued. “We” decided it would be fitting for my 1000th post to be published on my 10th blogiversary.

I was going to keep going, even though I was insanely busy and pretty exhausted most days, but I was elated for the “reprieve.”

So here we are folks! 10 years in! How long will we keep traveling this bloggy road together? Should I take the blog in another direction?  If so, which of the zillions of ideas should I pursue? Should I start over on another platform? So many questions. So many things to consider.

I’ll be mulling over these questions over the next few weeks. Until then…continue enjoying the ride with me!

One more thing: Thank YOU! I am ever grateful for your support, comments, likes, and reads!

Happy Blogiversary to Us!

Student Post 9: The Eye

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Image by Gerd Altman on Pixabay.

We’ve reached the final “student post.” In Student Post 7 I mentioned that sometimes the students’ blog posts start with an exercise in class. One such exercise was “stream-of-consciousness” writing for 3-5 minutes in response to an image by Hipgnosis artists, Thorgeson and Powell, who designed cover art for English rock band Pink Floyd.

To see the image, click here >>>–The Eye–in the blog post, Ten Artists Who Will Change the Way You Think.

To read my students’ writing on the image, click the links below:

If you missed any of the student blog posts, be sure to backtrack and read all of them. You will find their blogs delightful, and they’ll be encouraged that you dropped by to read and say hello!

Student Post 8: The Monday Blues

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Butterfly in BlueUgh! Monday…

Is that how you felt when you opened your eyes this morning? Sometimes, I look forward to the work week. At other times, I want to reverse time and extend the weekend another seven days. In our final post focusing on a single blog, sweet Kyara of Thoughts of Key provides tips for beating the Monday blues in her post aptly entitled, “Monday.”  Be sure to skip over to her blog, pick up a cure or two for the blues, and follow her!

And if you’re really in a funk, perhaps this cute song from My Little Pony will help you say good-bye to those Monday blues. If this doesn’t help, cheer up. The weekend is only five days away!

Disclaimer: This is my first time ever seeing or listening to anything from My Little Pony, but I have to do this because part of the fun of this Monday morning is knowing that my posting the video will drive my son a little crazy. 😀

About the Image: Featured in the photo is a section of Hani Shihada’s sidewalk art, shot in New York 10 years ago. I’ve used the photo in many art and snail mail projects. You can see some of them here and here (scroll all the way down to the outgoing mail slideshow). The full image is a little dark, but I’ll have to share it some day. 

Student Post 7: Wisdom from The Magician’s Nephew

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Sunflower PhotoArtStudents in my course are encouraged to shape their blogs in the way that serves their blogging purposes, but there are obviously some skills they must exercise to become strong non-fiction writers. To that end, we do some workshopping and writing exercises in class that help them stretch their writing muscles. Some of these exercises are developed into blog posts. Some are submitted to literary journals. Some remain in the students’ writing journals while they continue to work with them.

One of the exercises required students to reflect on a significant quote. In today’s post Markus of Mark’s Art Stew talks about a quote from C.S. Lewis’ The Chronicles of Narnia, “The Magician’s Nephew”, and its recent impact on his life. Be sure to read his post and follow his blog. He offers a little something for everyone.

About the Image: The image above is one of the [far too] many pieces of sunflower photo-art hiding in my files. I might have to compile them into a book or start a sunflower blog. 😉

Student Post 6: Joie de Vivre

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Joie de Vivre

#blackboyjoy

We can learn so much from children. They are unbothered by the expectations and scrutiny of others, so they freely demonstrate the joy of life. In today’s student post our quiet, mild-mannered A’na of The Banana Hut reflects on a childhood moment of joy and muses over what happened to that overtly expressive child: Joie de Vivre.

About the Image: The photo above captures my son (a decade or so ago) in a moment of pure joy as he played in a pile of freshly raked leaves.

Student Post 5: Autism Awareness

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autism-2377410_1280

It seems that for success in science and art, a dash of autism is essential. — Hans Asperger

Today’s post was written by the broadcast journalist of the group, Patricia of Patricia’s Corner. In the post she writes candidly about her experiences with Asperger’s Syndrome. She also invites us to look around and find others, like her, all around us. “They may seem different, but they’re the same.”

“Autism Awareness Month, or How I Learned to Cope and Accept My Asperger’s Syndrome.”

Patricia is, of course, in good company. Poet and artist, Morgan Harper Nichols, similarly shared about her recent autism diagnosis and how she’s learning to cope.

Student Post 3: Three Poems and a Tea

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Red and White TulipsThe weather is not being nice to me today [imagine that in a whiney four-year-old voice]! We went from gorgeous, breezy, 80-degree (Fahrenheit) days to a chilly, windy 30/40-degree day!

The temperature thwarted my plans to take long walks between tasks and classes, but it gave me an opportunity to pause, sip tea, and read poetry. Don’t you want to join me?

Well, just grab a cup of your favorite tea and settle in.

I am sharing a few poems written by Na’veh of The Bloggings of V.  Na’veh is one of our department’s most prolific poets, the self-proclaimed favorite student, and my homegirl (from NOLA).

Here are three of her poems–because poems should be read in threes:

If you need more poetry for your tea, you can find Na’veh on her blog or at thewritingsofv on Instagram, where she shares her poetry with complementary imagery.

About the Image: The red and white tulips are from one of my very early spring walks. I was surprised to see the “field” of tulips in a hardly peopled area of campus. Na’veh selected the tulips for this post because she “loves roses.” [Inside joke] 😉

Student Post 2: Liley [Children’s Art]

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Kid Art OAA-Carlie

Ladies have style. Ladies have fashion sense. I love flowers and bright colors. Go ladies!

I’m baaaccck, as promise, with another student post. This one, “Liley,” is by our cup of Teayanna of Steep the Tea. She writes about a sweet art experience she shared with one of her students. I was torn between “Liley” and another post, but since I’m a big fan of children’s art and the sassiness of Liley’s girl, she won. Click here to read the story and check out Liley’s masterpiece–it is not the image above: Liley.

About the Image: Teayanna’s post reminded me of the many pieces of children’s art from the annual art fairs at my son’s school. I’ve been “hoarding” them for years. I always intend to share immediately after the fairs, but things get buried in all the digital clutter rather quickly. Anyway, this piece was done by a little girl (in second grade?) named Carlie (in 2016!). Since it’s been so long, I can’t remember any other details about the work. I love her fashionable lady and her affirmation of femininity. Go ladies!

Eight Years? You’re Stuck with Me!

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I am super overwhelmed by everything–pandemic, storms on the Gulf Coast, fires on the West Coast, police brutality, life in general–so I wasn’t going to blog today. But the WordPress bot reminded me that I first registered for a blog on WordPress eight years ago today! So let’s celebrate!

My first blog post was not surprisingly a “welcome” post. A few years ago, I made that post private and added the content to my “About Me” page. I made it pubic today in honor of the day and because there’s a pic of my first and favorite Cherished Teddies figurine.  🙂

I’ll be back in a day or two with a “real” post. For now, thank you for being here  for all the shenanigans of Pics and Posts. This is one of my happy places and I enjoy sharing my snail mail, photo adventures, and random thoughts with you.

Later, folks!