Self-portrait
This morning I picked up my camera and decided to create some photos in my house. I had nothing in particular in mind. In fact, I felt that the exercise of making photos today would probably not yield any “keepers”.
But sometimes just showing up and picking up my camera to make random images sparks an idea.
I think that the best thing one can do keep growing creatively is to
Show Up Every Day
whether you think you have something to create or not.
“The most important thing about art is to work. Nothing else matters except sitting down every day and trying.”
― The War of Art: Winning the Inner Creative Battle
There is a kind of alchemy that is set in motion when you show up regularly. It’s as if the daemon of creativity realizes that you’re serious about your work and blesses you with concepts or ideas.
“This is the other secret that real artists know and wannabe writers don’t. When we sit down each day and do our work, power concentrates around us. The Muse takes note of our dedication. She approves. We have earned favor in her sight. When we sit down and work, we become like a magnetized rod that attracts iron filings. Ideas come. Insights accrete.”
― The War of Art: Winning the Inner Creative Battle
I made various photos this morning, through the windows of our house , in our bedroom and in my office. But the one that sparked an idea was this one, the messy bookshelf in my office.
When I looked at my first photographs of it, I thought that they could almost be self-portraits, especially photos of the middle shelf which contains most of my art, photography, gardening, and poetry books.
I began re-arranging the middle shelf with other bits and pieces from my collection of feathers, stones, and statues. Then I made a few photos, uploaded them to my computer, looked at them, rearranged again, and repeated the loop until I had something I was happy with. It was the photo at the top of this blog post. I called it simply, “Self-portrait,” because in my mind, that is what it is.
Perhaps it seems like a small thing, this self-portrait that I made this morning. It is and it isn’t. I believe that any time we succeed in expressing what is in our heart, whether others recognize it or not is unimportant. The important thing is to express through our art, who we are and what we believe. The important thing is to stay in motion creatively.
“If you can’t do what you long to do, go do something else. Go walk the dog, go pick up every bit of trash on the street outside your home, go walk the dog again, go bake a peach cobbler, go paint some pebbles with brightly colored nail polish and put them in a pile. You might think it’s procrastiantion, but – with the right intention – it isn’t; it’s motion. And any motion whatsoever beats inertia, because inspiration will always be drawn to motion.”
― Big Magic: Creative Living Beyond Fear
How are you staying in motion my friends?
May you walk in beauty.
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