This winter I have been mostly hiding out in my attic studio working on the nuts and bolts of my photography practice. Culling through thousands of photographs to find the handful of gems that make my heart sing, ruthlessly deleting the images that don’t work and weigh me down like too much clutter. I’m also busy backing up folders to the cloud, editing, tweaking, printing, grouping collections, cleaning up my website, polishing my CV. I have lists taped to the walls near my desk, and I dutifully cross off each task, as I do the important behind the-scenes work that is so essential to who I am as an artist.
I’ve been writing a lot too. Morning pages, inspired by Julia Cameron’s book The Artist Way, and also jotting down possible titles or series ideas as they come to me throughout the day. I try to go everywhere with a pencil and paper handy. Ideas are flying in and out so quickly. It’s been a fertile phase, this solo time. Foundational and fortifying, and perfectly timed for the cold, grey months. I feel in sync with the seasons and with the rhythms of my work.
I have so many ideas rattling around in my brain and lots of new work that’s lighting me up, but the two aren’t synthesized fully yet. The ideas and the images are still getting to know one another. They’ve only just met, after all. So, I’ll share a few photographs that I am dancing
I hope you too can find a period of time to clean and cull, write and gestate with your ideas. I am so grateful that I have had this time.
xoxo Deb
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Each one of these creates such a perfect mood. I can completely see why you are dancing with them!
Thank you, Kirstin. It’s fun to have time to linger and ponder. xoxo Deb
Wow – such a beautiful set, Deb! I love it all. For a while, The Baltimore Museum of Art had an installation by that same artist, Tavares Strachan – https://artbma.org/events/2018-08-08.daylight So beautiful. I love how you’ve been using this downtime. It’s so rare that we dedicate time to letting ideas and images “get to know one another.” So good! Excited to see what comes of all this.
Gah! Did you go? His installation was one of the highlights of the fair in Miami. Thank you for your kind words. It’s always good to clean up the mental and physical clutter so we can think! xoxo Deb
Yeah, the installation consisted of the lights outside the museum, which was very cool.
Deb, what an amazing set of images. I love the idea of letting the ideas and images get to know on another. And, cleaning things up, culling through images, and getting things organized always helps me. You are such an inspiration friend. xoxox
Thank you, friend. Our time on Whidbey got me thinking a lot about writing down my ideas and thoughts, pondering the deeper meanings in the work I create. It’s been fun. xoxo Deb