Artist of the Month, Part Deux

As I wrote last week (al-frelling-ready?), I received a call that my name had been pulled from a hat to be Artist of the Month.  The pool is made up of those volunteers and member artists who volunteer more than the minimum 5 hours a month at the gallery, on committees or at events  (I think).

Despite having one of those* fathers, I got hooked by the B&W photography bug early.  I was my Jr High School's "photographer" and went on many basketball & wrestling tournaments during my year (year and a half?) stint.  I even went to Anchorage for the state band tournament, much to the dismay of the band.  I spent a lot of time in Kilbuck Jr. High's** darkroom that year.

I volunteer at the gallery because:  I am self-employed and have time to give them.  I want to keep the doors open so I can finally SELL a photograph, rather than have me and my S.O. give them away as gifts.  I also want to be a part of an artistic community, as I didn't do when I lived less than 5 miles from Penland School of Crafts.

I am not a natural club member, being a loner.  And I don't like dealing with the public much, thanks to years spent behind the counter working at a convenience store in high school.  I'd rather spend time actively doing something, but get stuck behind the desk a lot.  I do catch up on things while I'm there and there isn't much foot traffic.  Multi-tasking at it's best!

So I have five photo's in the front half of the gallery as artist of the month.  Two are black and white oldies from college, but I like them both enough to have them framed and hang in my house.  Three are digital color prints I took on a trip to New Zealand with my Mom a year and a half ago.  They are pretty much straight prints, though I want to play with them a bit with software, though I don't know what the hell I'm doing and get frustrated more often than not.  

It's an honor to be chosen as Artist of the Month, even if I did get pulled like a rabbit out of a hat.  I had to answer 6 questions about my creative process, which is a bit of synchronicity, since I'm focusing on all things creative and introspective and networking and with RLB's Platform Challenge.  

My next challenge is to find a way to post photos to my blog.  I think I need to do this through Google's program.  Which is yet another software program to learn.

*"DA-AAAD, take the picture already!"
** Currently just an elementary school, with the Jr High & HS students combined.  EEK!  Poor 6th graders!