Dear Friends,
I am excited to write you again after such a very long hiatus from the newsletter. It is a cool Saturday here in Minnesota. We are getting ready for the dipping temperatures and fallen leaves to be replaced by frost, snow, and ice in the not so distant future. In the Karp household, our conversations are filled with talk of college applications, driving practices, adjustments to middle school, and discussions about remarkable events at work and school. The weeks are moving so quickly this year and my to-do list at work and at home appears to be bottomless. In this issue, I have shared a few photographs from a recent work trip to Washington, D.C. I managed to carve out 90 minutes for a brief photowalk on my last full day in the city. Please enjoy Issue #23 of A Twenty Percent Creative and have a wonderful week ahead. Warm regards, Jeff
INVISIBILITY: 8 MONTHS LATER
Despite the stresses and busyness of daily life, I have continued to find ways to be creative and make things. When I last wrote you, I had finished my photography book called Invisibility. The printed book has been shared with friends and family and is a source of inspiration on days that I don’t feel like picking up the camera. There is something special about holding the book, flipping through the pages, and seeing how the texture of the paper along with the ambient light interacts with the photographs. Later in the spring, I tweaked the design to make the book easier to view as an e-book (basically I made each photograph fit on a single page versus across two pages). I have enjoyed sharing the e-book with colleagues at work as a token of appreciation when we finish demanding, time consuming projects.
I have made little effort to sell the book which is probably a good thing as I recently decided to make a new version of it. I removed the captions, added some new photos taken this year, changed the size and aspect ratio of a few photographs, and removed some spreads to tighten up the project and reduce the number of pages. The March 2023 version was 78 pages long. The new version has 58 pages. I should receive the first print version of it in the mail this week. Book making is so much fun!
What is going on in your life? Have you started or finished any creative projects lately? I would love to hear all about it: jeff@jeffreymkarp.com
POSTERS & SQUARE BOOKS
I worked on a few other projects during the spring and summer months. I continued to make and share posters and photographs for sale on my renamed darkroom store: https://atwentypercentcreative.darkroom.com/. I also set up an instagram account (https://www.instagram.com/atwentypercentcreative/) for my posters and other things I make available for purchase. In June, my graduating residents and I compiled their photographs and my annual poem for the graduates into a 90 page square photography book of moments and memories. I formatted the book for them in Blurb as a small square (7×7 in.; 18×18 cm) and made the cover design in Adobe Illustrator. The image wrapped hard cover book turned out really great. So great that I have already decided that my 2024 photography project is going to be a square book of square photographs. It will be fun and challenging to explore this aspect ratio for a whole year.
I DECORATED MY CLINIC OFFICE
I have been doing a fair amount of printing of my photography too over the last 6 months. I have decorated my home office and added some of the prints for sale via darkroom too. Last week, I finally hung up a series of framed prints in my clinic office. The response from my colleagues was so kind and positive.
For the first time since moving into this space in 2012, I feel like this office is mine versus just being a space I use when working there. It is a great feeling to share my photography in the “real world”, not just on social media. As you can see, there isn’t a specific visual theme to the photographs that I selected to frame and hang. They happened to be the test prints I had piled up in my home office. I plan to change out the prints over time to keep things fresh and interesting.
MY NEWEST CREATIVE PURSUIT
On October 3rd, my oldest daughter sent me the text below which sparked my newest creative pursuit. For the last month, I have been captivated by the study and history of flag design, also called vexillology. I have watched Youtube videos, learned about the North American Vexillological Association, listened to the Flagged for Content podcast, and studied “Good” Flag, “Bad” Flag design for city, state, and country flags.
I spent at least 30 hours designing flags (at least 100 of them) between October 3rd and the 30th, the deadline for submission of flag designs to Minnesota’s State Emblems Redesign Commission. Earlier this week, my 3 designs and 2,120 other flag submissions were published online for public comment. It is quite a group of submissions. My submissions are found on page 13 of the flag site. I am going to leave it to you to guess which designs are mine;)
The Commission will narrow down the pool of submissions to 25 by the end of November. I will keep you posted if one of my designs advances further in the process. The Commission has been charged by the legislature with selecting Minnesota’s next state flag by January 1st. The new flag will fly over Minnesota beginning on statehood day May 11, 2024.
If I have peaked your interest about vexillology, here are a few videos showcasing the importance and beauty of a well designed flag.
A MUST WATCH!! The TED talk by Roman Mars | Why city flags may be the worst-designed thing you've never noticed
sidenote: Roman Mars’ podcast, 99% Invisible, is fantastic too
The TEDx talk by Michael Green | Unity Through Design: The Power of Flags
The TEDx talk by Michael Green | Designing for pride - identity, flags, & sports
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Comments, questions, feedback: Please email me directly at: jeff@jeffreymkarp.com
Check out my photography at https://www.jeffreymkarp.com
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