2011 - the year that kicked my butt

2011 was a tough year for me. I lost my grandfather, my sense of home, a job, plans for the future, felt very alone, useless, and over all a giant mess. Nothing is resolved and for a lot of things I will not receive a sense of closure until much later, if at all. All these things have changed me and influenced me in some unexpected (good and bad) ways.

In review of older posts from this year, I found the way in which I reacted to life.

In this Rock Collection post, I consoled myself over the loss of my grandfather through learning about the things he was interested in. One such thing was the rocks and minerals he studied.

Nick has stuck with me through this tough year and we're both beginning to learn more about the struggles and triumphs of a relationship. I shared my favorite pictures of Nick in this post.

Though I did feel very much alone, my friends and family were always there when I needed them. Eric wrote a very lovely song about my photography in this post. They encourage me and even got together to give me the money to purchase a DSLR so that I could further pursue my dream to be a self-employed photographer.

Being unemployed was a mixed blessing. The positive part about it was the time I received to be creative and stretch my artistic abilities. I did more experimental work this year than I ever have with film: Halloween portraits, expired film, double exposures, graphic design, event photography, studio work and lots more.

This year I worked on two big projects in black and white photography. Both projects reflect the loneliness and distance I felt, and being able to work with those feelings in a creative way was very therapeutic. You can see both completed projects here and here.

And in helping with keeping up a weekly blog schedule, I started two themes a few months back. This is my favorite book review and this is my favorite Flickr inspiration.

Good-bye, 2011.