9.1.08 - 1/365

years ago,
30 years ago to be exact,
i started a self portrait journal.
i was in my last year at hampshire college,
concentrating in photography
my division III
(the equivalent of a senior thesis)
was entitled: Sequences, Journals & Mixed Media
for the journal part,
i took a self portrait every day and wrote something
i put the images and writings together in acordian books that i made
it was a year filled with difficulties
the least of which was that i spent 3 months in a full leg cast
the result of slipping on the ice while running

when it came time for my "senior show"
i took the journals
unfolded them
and mounted them around the top of the gallery
which was easily 12 feet up
i posted them as proof that i had made them
as a conceptual statement about daily process
it never occured to me
that people would be up on ladders
reading them

after school, i returned to ny
and was a photographer for many years
then
i stopped
stopped taking pictures all together
i focused on mixed media for a while
and then became a painter

in 2003
i had a digital camera to take pictures of my work
and all of a sudden
there was fotolog
i started shooting again
but i never pursued the self portrait

the concept of a daily practice however, remained
and for the past 10 years i have painted
basically
every day
with watercolor
in various journals

and i keep 2 daily journals on fotola
daily bread & the other side
but i rarely post self portraits

i have recently
after 2 years of construction
moved into a new home
and a new studio
(after living and working in the same place for the previous 25)
this is a new beginning for me
and i seem to be comemorating by starting another round of self portraits

i have very few rules in the studio
but one is
"if something comes into your head
you must do it"
starting this project is following that rule
yesterday
it popped into my head to join the 365 days group
i waited until today to start
because
ever since i was a little girl
i have had a thing about starting new journals on the 1st

for now these images are private
they are visible only to the 365 days group
i am not sure exactly why...