Category: Word of the Year

Tales from the Quarantine presents Artifact Photography Studio’s newly minted blog featuring the not-too-philosophical musings, transformational progress, curious explorations, artistic endeavors, spotlight interviews, random pursuits and ongoing wanderlust of your hostess with the mostess, Michelle Owens.

On top of that I will throw in a recipe here and there because cooking and baking are, and will continue to be, a way of caring for myself, my family, friends and clients. Even when I want to I can’t seem to stay out of the kitchen.

And if that wasn’t enough, as a prolific reader I will not be able to resist recommending a piece of writing when a book, article, poem or quotable quote moves me. Likewise with films.

As an artist I’m constantly inspired by my environment, community and the world. And most of all: transformation. I rely heavily on creating vision boards to inspire my creativity. As a business owner, I am continually working to create and deliver a truly outstanding experience for my clients while also refining my back-office systems and delivery mechanisms. I’d like to write about these topics, too.

Before moving forward, I’d like to step back for a moment to the start of 2020. Not only was I looking forward to starting a new year, but also embarking upon a new decade. Oh the glory of all the possibilities to be considered and mulled over. To focus my actions I decided to select one word to drive a transformation process.

My “word of the year” for 2020 is Fitness, as applied (in a kind of multi-tasking way) to improving physically, mentally, spiritually and financially. We’re nearly a third of the way through the year and the COVID-19 pandemic has certainly tested me physically, mentally, spiritually and financially.

During trying times I have always turned to writing to work through my thoughts and feelings. My guidebook on how to do this constructively is The Artist’s Way by Julia Cameron (©1989 by Tarcher Perigree). I’ve wanted to start this blog for a while now but with a packed schedule I didn’t feel as if I had the time or the energy to overcome the aggravation of learning WordPress. After six weeks in quarantine, my objections have one-by-one been overruled by slowly crossing off items on my to-do list.

One of my lingering concerns has been… is blogging dead? Do I want to put time and effort into this medium? I questioned if people are just kind of over it? In the pro column I included my favorite blogs that I regularly read. So the answer is no, blogging isn’t dead, and it’s here to stay unless (or until) vlogging slowly takes over. Now that we’re all “Zoomies”, vlogging doesn’t seem like such a horrifying idea. Then it occurred to me that there are topics that I want to write about and haven’t because of the limitations of Facebook and Instagram for longer form writing. At least for my style.

My current objections are rooted in my past experience. I have been blogging since 2010 over at Salvation Sisters, a food and lifestyle blog co-founded with my sisters. Over ten years we have published more than 300 recipes, and we continue on with the project albeit at a stunted pace. Some years were certainly more prolific than others. What we learned is that blogs—or any endeavor really—require time, attention and consistency to flourish. We learned that posting a blog weekly was optimal. That frequency is challenging to maintain especially when recipe testing is involved in the equation.

As anticipated, launching Artifact’s blog has not been without its aggravations. I have come to believe that most small business owners are to some extent masochists. #jokingnotjoking We’re always juggling a million things and dreaming of the day when we can outsource certain activities so we can get back to doing more of what brings us joy.

You will surely see changes along the way as I learn the ins and outs and widgets of WordPress. My business mentor assures me that done is better than perfect. My rallying cry is that nothing is more difficult to learn than Photoshop, so WordPress here’s what I have to say to you, “Drop and give me twenty.” Nice inclusion of a fitness reference relating to my 2020 word of the year, don’t you think? Yeah, I’m just that good… lol.

To wrap up, please know that I welcome and solicit your feedback. Reading comments always makes me so happy. Well, let’s be honest, most comments anyway. Please feel free to leave constructive, on topic feedback to contribute to the conversation. Diverse point of view are welcome, but everyone, as Austin Powers would say, “Behave!” Please refrain from writing anything you wouldn’t say face-to-face. I reserve the right to refuse service to anyone (but you don’t have to wear your shirt or shoes if you don’t want to). Furthermore, rude comments will be removed without notice. Now that we have that said and done and out of the way…

…thank you for dropping by, tuning-in and commenting. My goal is to have this blog be a fun, educational, interactive, and interesting place to visit. Welcome to my little home on the internet.

P.S. If you are interested in having a photoshoot designed specifically for you, please call (833)277-8721, or send an email to artifactps@gmail.com.

Let’s dig in to my favorite question that I will ask of you. “How do you want to be photographed and with whom?”