For the self-employed artist, getting back to work after the holidays is a bit tricky to define. For me, it means getting focused on some projects I put on to the back burner and letting some other projects languish a bit. I made some huge progress on the short film I made in collaboration with my daughter. The footage I got was far from idea, due to my shortcomings both as director and cinematographer; but I originally wanted to get the film to be three minutes long, and after solving most of the problems as well as I could, it turns out to be just over three minutes. Maybe I can actually get it under three minutes. I’ve really been amazed in my short editing career how cutting the fat from the movie clips really improves the story. I spent a couple of hours browsing the internet for sound effects and got some nice stuff. I might have this ready for viewing in a couple of weeks.
Yesterday we found the Jefferson Memorial closed (of all things) for renovations. 
So we went right to the American Art Museum and the National Portrait Gallery. Here’s one of about fifty sculpture busts I photographed (with Carlea in the background on this one): Philip Johnson, I believe. I didn’t take the time to note who all the portraits were of, but it was a rich vein of material as I get ready to do my portrait sculpture workshop in March.
Then we saw a show called Hide and Seek, which is a note very focused but never the less absorbing collection of diverse work on the theme of gender identity; and subsequently wandered in to a wonderful collection of large black and white photographs made early in the career of Elvis. How that young man ever turned into the “Las Vegas” Elvis is, maybe, the story of the United States. Still a mystery to me.