snow snow snow

My digital camera is having technical difficulties, so here are a couple of blizzard pics my friend Dave took:

books and magazines and movies oh my!

With the impending snowstorm this weekend, I plan on cozy-ing up to my stack of books, magazines, and movies. These are the usual eggs in my creativity and inspiration nest, but now I'll have hours of guilt-free time with them!!...I think I really just need to kick the guilt part altogether.

It was a great mail day yesterday. I got one of my favorite magazines, AFAR. If you love travel that takes you beyond the tourist spots and into the realm of experiential travel check it out. (See the creators of AFAR share their vision in this video.) For you Pretty in Pink fans, Andrew McCarthy is a contributor in this issue (March/April 2010)...read about his adventures in Ethiopia.

Well, it's time to get to the grocery store to stock up on a few things before the snow hits...

photography

Photography has long been a passion of mine. I remember saving allowance and birthday money to buy film and get it developed. When I was living in Santa Fe, about 11 or so years ago, a musician friend of mine, Simon Widdowson, introduced me to the photography of artist Nigel Conway. The photos I saw were taken with a Holga camera. They were so beautiful and inspiring.

Well, I ended up buying my own Holga, and I love it. Holgas are great, affordable plastic cameras (I think I paid about $20 for mine, long before they became a fad at Urban Outfitters). They are unpredictable in that they have a reputation for light leaks, so they're perfect for those who like surprises. They're film (120) cameras, the kind that you have to manually forward to the next frame - just try it, you'll like it. It really is the perfect camera for the adventurous, experimental types.

Here are a few of mine that I've taken recently. Enjoy!

the inaugural post

Welcome to The Happy Amateur!

Dave McKean, one of my favorite artists, sums up my artistic, and life, process in a quote from "ART revolution" by Lisa L. Cyr:

"I prefer to make my own mistakes in a state of happy amateurism than learn the correct way to do things. This means it takes me a long time to feel confident with a medium, but the lessons go in very deep."

So, I guess this blog is about my journey through "mistakes" and the inspirational places they take me. I hope that you, gentle reader, will find some inspiration and amusement as well.