Polaroids Helping People

I spent this morning with a good friend whose going through a hard time in his life right now. We didn't really have a plan but once he mentioned taking pictures I could only think one thing ... polaroid. It seems every chance I get now to go take pictures I bring along the polaroid. There's always that one image that looks better in the instant film than any other format. So I've already posted these images to my Flickr page but wanted to share some of my favorites here too. My friend was very pleased with how these turned out and brought a smile to his face as we watched the magic unfold during the developing process.  smooth stones for heavy feet

finding rest upon the rocks

alex crucified from the right side

No Time to Waste

notime After talking with a new friend yesterday I decided to create this piece as a memorial for all those times we've spent wasted ... watching and waiting for something to happen. That's sort of what this whole one-a-day project is about, or not about. It's a daily exercise to push myself creatively and see what comes out. Sometimes it comes from the imagination and sometimes it comes from life experiences. Whatever the source though I hope it can inspire someone else to do something creative each day.

-Kyle

Looking forward with hope and faith

So there I was, staring at this flashing folder telling me that my hard drive is dead and I've lost everything on it. And I had a choice to make... There are a lot of things to worry about in this life; our jobs, our health, our finances to name just a few. And last night I was tempted to add one more to that list. While browsing Safari my macbook froze up on me. This has happened before so I took a break and came back to it about 10 minutes later. When I saw the "Beach Ball of Death" still spinning and unable to force quit any application I was forced to hold the power button down. (I hate doing that) After a cold restart the grey screen sat idle for a few minutes then flashed a folder icon with a question mark in the middle of it. I had never seen this error before so I turned to my trusty workhorse, the Power Mac G4 (Quicksilver edition), and googled the error. Come to find out, after all three troubleshooting steps on apple's support page failed, that my hard drive was dead and I had just lost all my data. And the answer to your question is no I didn't have a backup.

There were no real emotions involved. God had given me a peace that it was okay and the choice to trust God was instinctive. I feel God is giving me a fresh start and doesn't want me to dwell on the past. He is calling me to look forward with hope and faith.

This actually goes far beyond the incident with my computer. That was just one parable God used to show me what He's really talking about. He was speaking to the deep parts of my heart that hours before were feeling sad about being away from Japan and missing the people and times I had there. I feel He's speaking about how temporal our lives are and while memories are important they are also fleeting and momentary. The important thing is that while we live here in a momentary lapse of time we have a God who is eternal and will always be with us, even when we suddenly crash like my hard drive did last night.

What is Graphic Design?

Veerle Pieters held a "What is Graphic Design?" competition on her blog earlier this month. Users where directed to this Flickr group to upload their submissions. The first piece I designed was the 9th submissions out of 654 total that got submitted and the second piece I designed actually caught the eye of Veerle as seen here on her blog.

So needless to say I am ecstatic to have one of my designs as a possible winner of the competition. Is that being too cocky? Oh well.

So congrats to all the other people who caught her eye as well and best of luck to everyone.

A time to be creative

Laying in bed this morning, half awake/half asleep, my mind was flooded with better, more creative, ways that I could be spending my time when I'm bored. Then I thought it would be a good idea to make a list and share them here with you. So here, in no particular order, are creative ways I (you) could spend my (your) time when I'm (you're) bored.

  1. Make a collage out of found objects from walking my dog
  2. make a map of my thoughts
  3. watch 'The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou' for the hundredth time
  4. draw in a journal
  5. take a walk
  6. work through a photoshop tutorial
  7. cook some food
  8. find new illustrations online
  9. flip through the pages of Hand Job: A Catalog of Type
  10. visit ffffound.com
  11. plan a new vacation
  12. paint that empty canvas I stretched 4 months ago
  13. relax

Okay so obviously I couldn't list every possible idea that came to mind this morning. For one I don't remember half of them, since I was half asleep, and also this could go on forever.

But maybe you could share some of your ideas. I would like to here what keeps your creative mind working.

A FRESH START

So I've been thinking for a while now that I should focus more on writing actual articles instead of just spitting out random blurbs of my life. I want to focus on creativity and design (web, graphic, etc.). That seems obvious enough since those are the two things that take up most of my time during any given weekday. So what do I need first? I need a new name by which to call my blog. If anyone has a suggestion that would be great. I like to get input from other people; it helps expand my creative thinking process. But in the meantime, I'll leave this under the monikor of "Kyle Steed's Weblog".

So why waste any more time? Let's begin.

From my experience a fresh start is something that carries both a benefit and a curse. On the one side you get to start somewhere new, and that's exciting. The sky is the limit when you start a new project, or you move to a new location. You can almost become a new person. I think this is true for me when I clean. I feel like I'm getting a fresh start when everything is organized and in its right place. (My wife thinks I have OCD. Well... maybe just a little.) But I can't concentrate when I know there's a mess in the kitchen or if my work area isn't organized.

On the flip side of this coin, starting fresh can bring doubt and fear of the unknown. Perfect example, for me, is moving back to America after the military. I didn't have any plans for a job or where we would live or how we would get back and forth. I would lay in bed at night the months leading up to my separation and think we would be living in a box, with only lent in our pockets and some canned tomatoes to eat that the Japanese people packed up. Yet within a month after moving back we had a car, an apartment and new jobs. But that's enough for a whole other post.

So I think it's important, no matter how you handle a fresh start, to have faith that you will come through in the end. Whether it's a new project at work, or moving half-way around the world, we are constantly being called to the arms of grace. And in that grace we can rest that nothing in this life is worth stressing about.

"There is far more to your life than the food you put in your stomach, more to your outer appearance than the clothes you hang on your body. Look at the birds, free and unfettered, not tied down to a job description, careless in the care of God. And you count far more to him than birds." - Matthew 6:25-26 (The Message)