I work well within the scaffolding of a project. I don't have to question what the next step is or where to throw my energy. I just take the next step. In 1995 I decided to give myself the assignment to put flowers in a vase and snap a photo every day for a month. I wanted to pay attention to how my pots held the flowers, to understand what my tendencies are in picking flowers. I wanted to see stems against rims and necks. Every so often I reassign myself the task as the pots change, the garden shifts, or my ideas about backgrounds transform.
Early on in the process I put an iris in a vase with a weedy piece of grass and Warren asked, "if you put the two of those together in a vase then why do you feel compelled to pull the weeds out of the garden." It was a good question and I relaxed my weeding for awhile until the grass took over the flowers. I put the photos in small books as a way to catch the days of summer and the particulars of each year.
"A schedule defends from chaos and whim. It is a net for catching days. It is a scaffolding on which a worker can stand and labor with both hands at sections of time." -- Annie Dillard
Early on in the process I put an iris in a vase with a weedy piece of grass and Warren asked, "if you put the two of those together in a vase then why do you feel compelled to pull the weeds out of the garden." It was a good question and I relaxed my weeding for awhile until the grass took over the flowers. I put the photos in small books as a way to catch the days of summer and the particulars of each year. "A schedule defends from chaos and whim. It is a net for catching days. It is a scaffolding on which a worker can stand and labor with both hands at sections of time." -- Annie Dillard
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