A Magician and Her Tricks
I am feeling thankful for this blog today. I felt like I might end up with a third post where I have done nothing more than write “I have done nothing” and it motivated me into action. Glad to see the accountability is working. While it may not have been a super productive day with progress occurring on all the tasks, today I tried three things I had never done before. Four if you consider the level of mess in my studio/office as something I have done today, but that’s tomorrows problem.
I also want to thank those readers who have messaged me with encouragement and stories of their own art and creativity journeys. I thought I would just let you know your effort is appreciated. I included a comments section below my posts if you want to join in by sharing thoughts, experiences or even photos from your own dalliances with the arts.
One comment I received has stuck in my mind - that I am brave to put all my creative mess out in public (thanks Eris!). I think that it is essential that the curtain gets pulled back and that the process gets exposed. I recently met one of my favourite portrait photographers Lori Cicchini (check out her work here: http://www.loriana.com.au/). I have spent the last year in awe of her work, it is creative and whimsical and stunningly beautiful. Her work has been used in many magazines, including Vogue, and was exhibited at the Venice Biennale (like the Olympics of the art world). In the talk she was presenting she walked a room full of photographers through her process, how she made some of her most famous works, how she got to where she is now. It took 10 years of practice and hard work, of taking the opportunities that came her way and gaining the skills that she could. That talk and the chat afterwards was one of the most encouraging events in my photographic journey as it demystified her work from the realm of unobtainable magic, to obtainable if I work really (really!) hard. Not only that but the hard work is enough to make it as far as she has.
Some of you may have heard me talk about how magic only happens when you don’t know what’s going on. We are faced with so many success stories, especially in the arts, of people magically getting discovered, of one day walking in their normal lives then next minute everything is transformed into wonder and success. What we don’t hear is the years of persistence, the work, the practice, the hours of effort put in so that when that opportunity came, they were ready to take advantage. It’s because they could take advantage that it looked like luck, a whirlwind success story, like magic.
A magician never reveals his tricks because once you know how a trick is done it no longer seems that special. Even with Lori’s immaculate master pieces some of the shine is taken off now as I know how I could recreate (or at least emulate) what appeals to me so much in her work. Holding onto your trick and only showing the magic is fine if you want a life alone on stage. With Lori’s talk she invited us to join her. She took her love of the photograph and shared it with us so we could explore, play, and create alongside her.
I don’t need to be alone on this stage – that is too boring and lonely for me. I simply want the joy of creating and to prove to myself I can be disciplined with my art. It has taken me a while wrestling with this arty side of me to allow it out and for it to be active in my life. I struggled watching other people perform, make and create with seemingly effortless brilliance and I felt unworthy. I know the emotional baggage, the brutal things the inner critic tells me, the procrastination, are all unpleasant, uninspiring, and ultimately not the points one would include in a 30 second elevator pitch about who I am and what I do. We are talented as humans at hiding the uncomfortable and ugly. It helps us get along with others and is a useful skill to have in polite society. But it can shame us into feeling those parts are somehow wrong and shouldn’t exist in our lives.
The fact that I am blogging my way through this process is not to feed my ego (although I will again thank you for the encouragement you give by simply thinking my work is worth reading) but it is so that by going through the mess I may be able to smooth the way so that someone else may not have to. That they may feel encouraged after seeing behind the curtain. That they might join me in the fun that is the creative stage.
THE RUNDOWN
Art – I tried a pour painting yesterday, still drying today. . . And I thought acrylics were supposed to be fast drying! Today I painted champagne glasses with glass paints that were donated to me about 5 years ago and I have not really explored with them until now. (6/100)
Writing – Book: 300 Blog: 5550
Cooking – Baking tomorrow, will have cookie photos for you on Friday. (PS is there interest in the recipes?)
Music – Half an hour today bringing it to (4 .5/100)
Photography – This week’s photo challenge is black and white. I chose a subject that is usually so colourful (my paint wall) and contrast the subject with the presentation. (3/52 weeks)
Craft – I made the yarn mini me in the header image. Any suggestions on how to do eyes will be met with gratitude. (8/100)