STILL workshop with artist Mary Jo Hoffman

Here’s what I made in the last ten minutes of the workshop, because I spent all my time noodling around in photoshop!
Which was worth the price of admission.

The wonderful Margo from Alma Provisions catered our lunch. I love the space we were in, thank you Twin Cities Flower Exchange.

Materials Mary Jo provided for us to work with in creating compositions.

What an opportunity. I’ve followed Mary Jo’s STILL blog for years. Watched her evolve a successful art photography practice. I was so curious to hear her speak about it in person. And, she graciously promised to share some of her photoshop tricks for keeping all that gorgeous white space in her images; something I struggle with when photographing my watercolors. My paintings have a fair amount of white space and even with professional photography I often don’t get what I want. Well, that’s all changed now! I brought my laptop and totally nerded out as Mary Jo stood by my side and explained her steps in photoshop. So generous. This was after her inspiring lecture - she was a rocket scientist for 17 years before she started making photos on a daily basis. She shared her thoughts on why she believes her daily practice is at the core of her success. It became clear that the disciplines she employed as a scientist were habits that contribute to her ability to show up for her art. She spoke about the concept of quantity over quality. How sheer volume, keeping on going, has bigger pay offs compared to trying to do a perfect piece. Which, I whole heartedly agree with, based on watching my own journey in art making.

Anyways, long story short, you can read all about her online. Here’s a podcast - Robin Ivy interviewing Mary Jo, and here’s Mary Jo’s book STILL: the Art of Noticing launching in May 2024 from Phaidon. I’ve pre-ordered mine : )