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Join me on the trail using #morninghikewithkat

Do you like to hike, walk, or run in the mornings? Do you ever stop to take a photo of something interesting? If so, join me this summer on Instagram using hashtag #morninghikewithkat.

I’m trying to get out into the forest as much as possible as the days start to get longer and the weather gets better here in Oregon. The extra time I’m out of the house, along with the leaves arriving on the trees, mean it’s time to shake things up with my art. No more bare trees! Instead, I’ll be trying to regularly photograph and edit images from my morning hikes, and I’ll share them using the #morninghikewithkat hashtag on Instagram. I thought, wouldn’t it be fun if other people are doing that too?

So, what do you say? Are you in? Just add #morninghikewithkat to your image, and we’ll be able to meet up.

Whether its daily or weekly or once in a while, I hope to see you on the virtual trail!

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Photo-Heart Connection: November 2014

What comes next?

Morning Forest Silhouette Oregon Kat Sloma iPhone Photography

The dawn of each day brings a whole new range of possibilities.

I am not sure what comes next, but I am excited to find out.

My Photo-Heart Connection this month has to do with the Photo-Heart Connection monthly practice itself. I’ve decided that I will end the practice as a regular feature here on the blog as we complete 2014. This month and next will be the last of the Photo-Heart Connection link ups.

There are a variety of reasons for ending it now. With my schedule, it is becoming harder for me to complete and post exactly on the first of each month. Making that happen has become more stressful than peaceful, which is not a good state of mind for quiet introspection. I haven’t been doing the practice justice. For the last number of months, I haven’t been able to visit the participants regularly, which weighs on me as well. (I do hope you have been visiting each other.) And participation has dropped off dramatically over the last few months, probably in connection with my frame of mind around it. So I’ve been thinking… is the Photo-Heart Connection ready to end?

While was pondering what to do, my Inlinkz subscription (the link tool I’ve been using for years) came up for renewal. It seemed to be a sign. It was time to make a decision, and that decision was to not renew the subscription. I will place this lovely practice on the shelf as we head into 2015. I do still believe this is a wonderful, powerful practice. It’s brought me through much transition, moving back from Italy and into my new love of mobile photography, helping me find my heart’s path. I cherish that. Now is just no longer the time for me to commit to it each month.

I also know that when I end something, it makes space for other things to come along. New possibilities open up. I can say “yes” to what comes next, when it appears.

So with that, I’d love to invite you to join in with your Photo-Heart Connection for these last two months. Review the art you created in November and find the piece that speaks to your heart. Listen, and share it with us here, by leaving a comment and providing a link. (If your comment goes into moderation, I will get it posted as a soon as possible.)

Thanks to everyone who has participated these last three years! Let’s take this practice out on a high note.

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The Trouble with Mornings

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Sometimes my mornings start out slow. I wake up, and snuggle down into the warm covers, drifting off to sleep again. But some mornings, my body, once awake, does not drift off again. It lays there, ready to go, waiting for my mind to catch up and realize it’s time to start the day.

Sometimes my mornings start out quick. Up and at ’em. Things to do, let’s get started. Sometimes though, I sit in my chair and let my thoughts drift. No motivation to write or to read or to create. Just observing the quiet. Noticing the stitches of my quilt, the tick of the clock, the warmth of the tea cup in my hand.

I had plans for this morning, this blog post. But this morning had other plans for me. No matter. There will be another morning tomorrow, to make good on all of those plans. For now I will sit in the quiet and ponder the personality of mornings. How each one unfolds in its own way.

And that’s ok.

The only trouble with mornings is that they come just once a day.

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Creativity and Time

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I’ve been on a remarkably even keel since the returning from the yoga retreat last weekend. It’s as if I rebooted. Reset everything to a new baseline. It’s wonderful.

It’s allowed me thoughtful space and given me new clarity. I’ve been thinking about how I’m spending my time. I’ve been pondering some little changes to focus myself back in on what’s important. Writing a book, for one. Evaluating what I want to tackle in 2015. And creating new work. Always, always creating new work.

I’ve been realizing a deep truth: As an artist, everything hinges on continual creation. Everything. Self-understanding, renewal, and growth all come from a creative practice. It’s in creating that I understand the direction I want to go. It’s through my artwork that I tease out the signals to follow. I don’t wait for inspiration and then create. I create and then I get insight. And so I create some more.

No matter what else is going on, creating has to be at the core. It has to be a priority for my time. The pace may change, but it can’t go away. If it does, eventually the fuel for everything else that swirls around the art I create… this blog and the book and the workshops and the art events… will slowly, quietly fade away. And you know what else will fade away? An important, even vital, connection to my heart and soul. The connection which provides understanding of who I am and the confidence to seek my own path, no matter the influences around me.

We forget this. Our culture tells us to do otherwise. It tells us to focus on all of the other things that require our time: Work and family and friends and commitments. Things beyond ourselves. Get the work done first, then have fun. Then, with your spare time and energy, with the dregs left over, only then can you create. Everything else, everyone else comes first.

That doesn’t work, for the artist. For the artist to have a thriving creative life, creating art has to be part of the priorities. It has to be the work. You have to give it your best time and energy, on a regular basis. You have to make the right choices for yourself, even if others aren’t happy with you.

So I renew the choice, for myself, to continue creating new work. I don’t do it because I need new images to share or to blog or to show or to sell. I do it because I’m not me if I’m not creating.

I’ve worked long and hard to figure out who I am amidst the clutter. I’m not going to let that knowledge or connection fade away.

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Boy in the Morning

My boy, early in the morning.

As we snuggled on the couch this morning to keep warm, the soft light and shadows inspired me to grab my camera and convince him to sit still for a moment or two. This doesn’t happen often these days. When he was little, he was my main subject but at some point he got tired of the mamarazzi and put his foot down. He was done having his picture taken. That’s when I began to explore other subjects to improve my photography skills, opening up a new and different world. The world you see most of the time around here.

That doesn’t mean I don’t want to capture him. His growth, who he is. He’s at the cusp of teenager-hood, making his own choices. Listening obsessively to pop music, growing his hair out (my one condition: he must keep it clean) and playing computer games.

But… he’s still my boy, for this brief moment, early in the morning.

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Beautiful Morning

Another texture play day! This is one of the photographs I took but decided not to use for my Mortal Muses post today, for the theme “Morning.” Pop on over there to see the photo I did choose and the poem that I wrote on this journal page. But I thought I would share this one here today, as another experiment in using textures from Kim Klassen. For this image I used her “Autumn” and “Wet Tile” textures, both blended using Soft Light. I like how it softened the image, giving it a more contemplative feel, which is what I was going for in the shot. Original image is below for comparison.

See you all again on Tuesday, with photos from Oktoberfest!

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