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Day by day I continue taking photos for my self portrait/daily life series. I'd guess I've taken over 600 since starting this project on June 11. As of today, 19 have made the cut, but that is not to say they'll stay there. As new images come into being, sometimes the older ones just no longer fit. Now it has become very much about the whole rather than its parts. This is not to say that each individual image is not important. It is. And if anything, my eye gets ever more critical in deciding the merit of each photo. But no matter how much I may like a photo, if it doesn't fit the whole, it's out. I can't tell you how many good photos are left behind "on the cutting room floor." The more involved I get in this project, the more rigorous my editor's eye has become. I can't recall ever before approaching a body of work with this intense scrutiny.

In the earlier stages of this work, I looked to others to tell me which images to keep and which to reject. The opinions I received were from recognized professionals in the world of photography. Their help was essential and I will be forever grateful to them for offering it. It was their encouragement that gave me the courage to take this project seriously. But as time went on I realized I needed to reclaim authority over my artistic choices because no one could get inside my head and heart to know what it was I wanted and needed to say with this work. Only I could know that. So my task of late has been to go deep within myself and ask questions like: Why am I creating this series? What exactly do I want to say? How can I best say it? Which images hold to that vision and which do not? Why? Where do I want to go from here?

Oh my. I do love being an artist.