Fractured Beech II, 2014 - Michaela Harlow – 15″ x 20″, pastel & pencil on paper (19″ x 24″)

Winter returned today; giant, pom-pom snowflakes, swirling like madness outside my windows. Unable to find clear ice, I spent the early morning looking over my frozen puddle snapshots to help refresh my memory. Although my paintings look quite different from my photographs, they often assist my process. Quick snapshots serve as excellent field notes; helping me recall detail or feeling after days, months or even years pass. Sometimes my visual notes assist with composition, fine details, mood or color. As I learn more and more about photography and creative editing, I find the relationship between these two forms of expression is becoming blurrier and blurrier.

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