The theme of Day 23 in the 30 Day Photo Challenge is creativity and until a few minutes ago there was a great big post that accompanied my photo.  Creativity is a subject that is very close to my heart, and something that I’m trying to find my way back to after a creative slump that lasted a few years.

The post I deleted talked a lot about what happens to a musician when she moves cities and leaves her network (and piano) behind.  It was a little bit mopey.  You’ll have to believe me, because it’s gone now.

I think it’s healthier to focus on the ways that my creativity is being nurtured.  My drawing & painting classes at the Melbourne Studio of Art have obviously inspired me greatly this year, and also equipped me with some of the skills that I’ve needed in order to get my ideas onto a page.  After 15 weeks of classes I’m drawing things that I thought beyond my reach, and when I’m not drawing with a pencil I often find myself drawing with my eyes.  These classes have really taught me to see everyday things differently and even my dreams have become more vivid and colourful.

My classes have also taught me that I might have found a way to redirect the frustration that I feel with being away from music, and turn it into something good.  When I came home from work today I grabbed a book that I’ve been altering and sketching in, and I threw a bunch of art supplies at the pages until I came up with something pretty from my imagination.  It felt good to do something fun and messy, and not worry too much about the rules.

I guess that’s why I was a jazz musician.

The A4 pages above were made from gesso, striped paper bags, acrylic paint, aquamarkers, sumi ink (and then more gesso!).  As you can see from the photo below a lot of those supplies ended up on me instead of in the book.

Day 22 of the 30 Day Photo Challenge is alarm clock.  

I recently met somebody who is a Monday Person.  Every Monday she wakes up with the assumption and expectation that it’s going to be a good day, and then she makes it happen.  With a smile!

This person talks with exclamation points about her love for Mondays.  Can you imagine what her colleagues must go through when they are at their most vulnerable?

I’m sorry.  It’s just that it’s Sunday night and I’m dreading the sound of that alarm clock at 5.30am tomorrow.  Let’s hope that I don’t run into any Monday People until I’ve finished my second coffee.

When we lived in Hawthorn we had lots and lots of possums in our street.  We used to watch them walking along the power lines as soon as the sun went down, and we often heard them running over our roof or along the fences.  A particularly amorous pair lived in the beautiful tree in our backyard and they, er, regularly expressed their feelings for the benefit of the entire neighbourhood.

That’s love, right there.

I’ve missed our little possums since moving here two years ago, although there’s been plenty of evidence that they are around somewhere.  Sometimes I’ll hear rustling in the trees late at night, or the dog will follow a scent trail that comes to a dead end at the foot of a tree.  Despite all of the signs I can only remember seeing two since moving into this house.

I guess that’s why it was so exciting to spot this tiny little ringtail possum through a gap in our broken fence.  He was a perfect little model, and although I couldn’t coax him out of his thorny hidey hole I was happy to have a little bit of camera time with him from a safe distance.

I know that not everybody likes possums, but I think their little pink noses are the best.  My favourite photo from this set is below.

Day 21 of the 30 Day Photo Challenge is gratitude.  There are so many things I could have written about and photographed on this subject – people I’m thankful for, Christmas coming up, etc – but it felt a little bit forced to write about these things because of a daily prompt.

Instead, I thought I’d share something that I was truly grateful for today – the trust and bravery of a tiny little marsupial who allowed me to sit nearby for a little while.  It’s nice to think that he’s just outside my window somewhere.

Day 20 of the 30 Day Photo Challenge is landscape.  The photo above is clearly not a landscape – it’s a photo of my homemade Christmas crackers which have been filled with cute things for Christmas Day.  I totally recommend doing this by the way – just steal some cracker snaps from the cheap store-bought versions and fill some tubes with stuff that people actually want!

So anyway, no.  It’s not a landscape.  But, it is an example of landscape orientation!

… I know.  I’m disappointed in me too.

Day 19 of the 30 Day Photo Challenge is hands.  

I would like to thank my hand model, who had the sense to mow the lawn before our shoot for the sake of a little extra grittiness.  You can tell that he’s a pro because he didn’t burn himself on the candle and ruin my shot!

That kid has a real future in this business.  Gonna make him a star.

Today’s drive to work was a little bit unusual, thanks to my my big, heavy camera sitting beside me on the passenger seat.  The theme of Day 18 in the 30 Day Photo Challenge was journey to work, and I really wasn’t sure how I was going to safely operate my manual transmission car and a DSLR at the same time.  Obviously, I only took photos when the car was completely still (and the handbrake was on) but I was still a bit worried that I’d see flashing lights in my rear view mirror!

Fortunately it was a beautifully gloomy, wet drive to work today which made for some lovely moody photos.  I was even lucky enough to spot my last Movember tram for 2011 on the last day of the month!  I will miss that big moustache, and the smiles that it put on the faces of my fellow commuters.  Such a great idea.

All of my photos turned out pretty well, but my favourite is below.

Day 17 of the 30 Day Photo Challenge is favourite beverage.  

Mine is water, diluted with a little water and then poured over some frozen water.

Simple pleasures!

The theme of today’s 30 Day Photo Challenge is in your fridge.

I decided to not be too literal with this one, although it was so hot  and muggy today that I was tempted to empty my fridge and crawl in there myself.  I totally would have photographed it too, except for the part where I am mostly too lazy to carry out my best ideas.

So instead I photographed the bowl of eggs that I was bringing up to room temperature.  They were already beading with condensation after three minutes on the bench.

My hate/hate relationship with Summer is going to feature here a lot over the next four months, I can tell.  I would be such a good eskimo.

I’m past the halfway mark now.  Hope you guys are enjoying the daily photo!

Day 15 in the 30 Day Photo Challenge is Technology.

I am quite sure that our leading innovators of computing and telecommunications technology had other things in mind when they came up with their inventions.  Like, for example, curing cancer.  They almost certainly did not develop their genius so that I could blog, RSS and tweet simultaneously from my bed.

But I’m glad they did.

We’re totally living in the future, by the way.

(This ridiculous scene was set up for the sake of today’s photo.  I usually make it a policy to only use two idevices at any one time…)

Day 13 in the 30 Day Photo Challenge is Your front door.