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| My Purse, Colored Pencil, 1/7/2010. My second drawing for this blog. I kept it. |
After they taught me all about my new 'Book,' Georgia sat down to take a look at what I had stored many more times than necessary. What she saw horrified her. Not only was I out of memory from too many duplicates, but I had a ferocious virus--something called Open Candy. When I told her I got rid of my virus protection because it just kept sending me these scary messages on little signs all the time, she hollered something in Greek that sounded a bit nasty, sat me down and made me start going through my picture files. She needed enough space to install a new virus protection program. When she had what she needed, she downloaded virus protection and turned my laptop over to my son to do his thing: he cured the sick machine.
It took everything he knew from years of experience and all night long. In the morning, free of disease, Georgia gave me my homework assignment: free up at least 40 GB. So far, I've cleared 17.4. I only have 22.6 to go. I'll be here in front of this screen for quite some time the way I understand my situation. There are 1024 MB (megabytes) in one GB--in case, you're as clueless as I am. If not, these numbers should give you some idea of what a hoarder I was.
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| By January 7th, 2011, one year into the blog, daily drawing seems to have driven me mad. This isn't a keeper. |
This morning, I read a great line in John Adams by David McCullough that I think applies both to daily painting and computer care. It's from a very old play, Cato by Joseph Addison, and was frequently said by both John Adams and George Washington. "We cannot insure success, but we can deserve it."
At a GB a day, I'll be sitting here trying to deserve some degree of success for quite a few days to come--at least till we leave for Mexico next week. --Maybe I can coerce the house sitter to clean up a few files? Nah, that's for me alone to do.
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| Chocolate Mice, Acrylic on stretched canvas, one of the first completed easel paintings, on my journey back to painting via this blog commitment. Finished in early February, 2011, I'm the only one who likes this painting. |
I'm afraid to admit that I suffer from the same problem - image hoarding - or the inability to press delete when photo is no good. I have also been going through my photos trying to free up memory.
ReplyDeleteIt's so time consuming I might just go out and buy more terabytes!
There's 2.72 TBs in My Book, my external hard drive. Even though I could just transfer all my photos to My Book, this is a good time to sort through. There's no sense keeping photos of unfinished work that's been finished and no longer looks like the 'in progress' photo. Next: Documents. I transferred videos first. They were huge! --I'm also classifying the photos, which is interesting. The process will clarify which genre and which medium I really favor.
ReplyDeleteMy kids were appalled at my disorganization, something I prided myself for as a professional designer.
My problem has been saving reference photos that are really no good or that I will NEVER use. So, I am being quite ruthless - although I must say that I do have some interesting ideas for paintings now.
DeleteFunny how often our kids are appalled at things we do - I'm sure in your case it's a reaction against being super organised in your professional life.
My kids are super computer geeks. That's how they earn their living. Their shock and dismay was warranted. I'm guilty as charged. -- I'm not throwing anything away unless it's a duplicate. I'm simply moving it to 'My Book,' my EXTERNAL HARD DRIVE. If I want any photos, I can open that drive by attaching it to the computer via a USB and open it up via My Computer in the start up menu. You should consider buying one. It expands the capacity of your existing computer and is a lot easier and less expensive than a new computer with a new operating system.
DeleteYes good idea, to clean your computer of unnecessary pictures! I try to do that from time to time. Good luck!
ReplyDeleteIt's tedious--but every other photo surprises you--for better or worse. A gigabyte a day. I'm following my daughter in-love's advice.
DeleteAnd you do, indeed, deserve success! But how do we measure success? I think it's something that only you can feel, inside you. If it comes from somebody purchasing your work, or just from somebody saying something especially appreciative about it, or just from the satisfaction that you like what you created that day.
ReplyDeleteComputers are like closets, aren't they? They just get loaded up with everything we don't know where to store. I wish I would get my family pictures off the computer and into an album, or something where we can enjoy them.
I like the purse drawing, its a really artistic composition!
All of us do. I haven't thought how I would describe success. In art with me, it sometimes involves sales--but if you look at how I chose to spend my life--doing something else, I would be torturing m, I would want to make a lot of sales and would probably gear my art to what sold best. Then I would have been pigeon-holed, confined to the best selling genre. I don't like being confined.
DeleteThis year, I have confirmed that I could be a good portrait painter if I continue on with it. I'm sure of it in fact. However, in my clean up of these photos, I'm noticing a lot of interesting still lifes and some pretty good florals. So next year, I'll loosen up my restrictions to accommodate my broader needs. I do want to try plein air--even though the idea of shlepping everything into the car to drive to some obscure scenic spot sends a chill up my spine. --Success was mine this last weekend when I saw my granddaughter stroking the painting I did for her of her cat Mr. Fuz Zy Pants. She loved it; I could see it in her eyes. That meant a lot to me.
Thank you Kit--I hope you don't mind me calling you Kit--but I don't have the Greek alphabet on my keyboard. Thank you for following; I really appreciate (and can use) all the support and encouragement I can get. I had a lot of nerve thinking perhaps I could become an artist at this late date? Anyway, I keep plugging along. I'll be by to visit shortly. I have a pastel class this morning--that's a whole other story I'll have to tell you.
ReplyDeleteThe nightmare of managing computer files. The convenience of having so much data at our fingertips is at the cost of having to organise it and get into a rhythm of basic housekeeping. Understanding that is not the same as doing it, I've just invested in extra storage myself and am putting off the day when I start to organise it properly. Your disciplined approach to the job sets a good example.
ReplyDeleteBut I am quickly becoming discouraged. No sooner did I get one gigabyte free, windows updates set me back .8! This could take forever. I'm not too upset though Mick. I've put painting aside till next week on the Caribbean beach. I love painting beach umbrellas. They are so cheerful and no sweat. I'm just biding my time.
DeleteWell, I like your chocolate mice! :) As for the computer clean-up ... I don't envy you.
ReplyDeleteI could make it simple and just transfer all the photos to the external hard drive, but I chose to categorize and sub-categorize them into files--big classification ART, sub classifications Portraits, Still lifes, Photography, etc. That way I get to see where I've been spending most of my time these last three years. The transfer has been interesting, but gigabytes are large. Getting one freed up a day takes dedication.
DeleteGreat post, LW..I'm guilty as charged too (too many images on my computer). I've done exactly as you have done, gone back to delete and I agree I see (in my archives) many paintings that were really baaaaadddd. It kind of stuns me and I think...why did I subject people to this? It's the daily thing, I presume, I just decided that I will put up what I did, good bad or indifferent. You can count me as one of the ones who does like your chocolate mice painting. Dave bought me one of those once...and it was so adorable, I had a hard time eating it (but I did). I love the painting. It's "ironic".
ReplyDeleteIt is the daily thing. It's also the blog and taking photographs and downloading outside materials you think may be of interest to readers.
DeleteI didn't buy a mouse. I wish I had. I'll bet they were delicious. How can anything so creepy looking be anything but delicious? Maybe we'll make it back to that bakery sometime? I'd like another shot at it.
It's hard to get a gigabyte of memory a day via transferring to the external drive. They seem to be multiplying somehow--even though I'm emptying the recycle bin constantly.
It would be easier to organize my studio shelves where all these paintings are actually stored.
My computer has a godfather, my husband.
ReplyDeleteSo I am a diligent person and after losing a computer in a viral attack (despite the anti-virus malware are nasty) and have risked a second to a similar crisis (again despite the antivirus) now I'm back up, I keep my photos in external hard drives and everything that is necessary in order not to have regrets ... A good technician pulls out always data from the computer unless it does not catch fire at all. My daughter had a partial fire due to a defective fan,but the technical data has, however, taken in its entirety. It 's very funny your story, the second wife of my father was Italian-Greek ... and hear her scream in greek was a show. So while all Italian speaking in her own family ,all they loved fighting and yelling in greek, because they found it.... more satisfying!So when someone spoke some words in greek (in this family circle) was a real sign of war!
Georgia was just exasperated with me--not too much--no wars--just the friendly kind of banter that goes on in families. Plus I didn't blame her; I had kept every photo I took since I got a digital camera and sometimes there were two or three copies as I enhanced them via cropping and making exposure adjustments. I'm glad you enjoyed my telling of my Thanksgiving tale. It was funny after we got through it. I still have the oven to contend with. I'll worry about that after Mexico.
DeleteIk vind de eerste erg mooi gedaan en de tweede iets minder en de 3de doet mij gelukkig niets meer 2 1/2 maand geleden was dat wel anders ik ben nu 2 1/2 maand suikervrij eet nergens meer suiker in en ben daar heel blij mee lieve groetjes Danielle
ReplyDeleteYou're being kind Danielle. The middle drawing is really quite awful, but I did show it anyway way back in year one of this blog. My objective was to draw something--anything--everyday. And that's what came out one day when I probably didn't feel like drawing anything? It takes about three months to form a habit. That horrible drawing is evidence that I was probably fighting the commitment. I published it anyway just because I said I would; I'm against failing. I think the drawing, a free association doodle, does tell a truth: sometimes my very best effort isn't--and that's okay. I'm human and subject to failures.
Delete