A couple weeks ago, I reflected on my creativity-less funk and created ACTION STEPS. One of my action steps was to use my phone to take pictures everyday. I am pleased to report that I have followed through on that! My phone pictures are mostly taken on my walks throughout the day (Shoutout to my Fitbit!). Though being more consistent is lovely, the most rewarding thing for me has not been the increase in pictures. Rather, I am most excited about the fact that I am paying more attention to the world around me. When I am walking around my neighborhood I am actually looking around. I am beginning to see things I never knew were there. Beautiful things. Interesting things. Mundane things. Ugly things. Regardless of the things, the point is that I see them and try to capture them. Here are some of my capturings! The rest (and much more!) can be found on our BRAND NEW and SUPER DOPE Instagram page.
I like how the world looks at night. I notice vastly different things. For example, what caught my eye in this picture was the water stain on the wall. I thought it looked cool with the shadow. I have walked by that wall many, many times (during the day) and had yet to be intrigued by either that wall or that water stain. However, add a shadow, some gloomy ambiance, and some illuminated green leaves to provide some contrast and I am completely on board.
This is a portion of a lamppost. I have walked by this lamppost about 17 million times. I never noticed that this particular lamppost had a vaguely Rothko vibe. Or how the different colors layer on top of each other. Or bothered to decide whether or not I like this accidental combination of colors (I do). I paid attention to what I have spent four years walking by.
When I pay attention to a thing, I can appreciate it, evaluate it, and create something from it. All things that help eradicate the funk and get me back to creating, experimenting, and enjoying the process!
Compulsive Creation 
I’ve been playing with the idea that without curiosity there can’t be creativity; so that when we stop actually seeing the world around us and instead just pass on through we loose touch with aliveness and inspiration itself. Life gets boring. We get boring. That’s the message at the heart of all the books on drawing I’ve been reading: you’re not trying to draw things in general (not the general idea of a tree) but the immediate subject itself (THIS TREE!!!!). It’s about immediate experience and what that evokes. So way to see, Claire!!!
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Yes! That’s exactly it!
However, on a slightly tangential note, I am wondering what the balance is between drawing (or whatevering) the general idea of something vs. the actual something. There are great artists that were more concerned with the idea of something vs. what it was in reality. Is one way more or less valid than the other? Or is it a matter of taste? How much of art is/should be communicating an idea vs. accurately capturing a subject? And anyway, is it ever really about the immediate subject itself? A drawing/photograph/painting/whatever is always from the perspective of the drawer/photographer/painter/whateverer. So, it seems like by default it is about the artist communicating the artist’s perspective on the subject, rather than what the subject truly is. So, not THIS TREE, but rather, the ARTIST’S VERSION OF THIS TREE.
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Yea definitely the ARTIST’S VERSION OF THIS TREE! Agreed, there’s no true objectivity, no ability to even see something without utilizing our own lenses. But I do think there’s a value in trying to get as close to the subject as we can in certain art forms or styles, a way of acknowledging the miraculous in the ordinary that doesn’t even need the human imagination to expand upon it. So, YES to whatever style rubs you right (…questionable language, but I’m going with it). And maybe once I become better at drawing, I might begin to incorporate more imagination into the realism. But for now I’ve chosen to learn how to draw a hand before I draw it as an awesome hyrbid human/gargolyle hand of death to symbolize the utter doom that is upon us in these times…
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Hello Compulsive Creatives,
Claire, I enjoyed your post and your experience of how much more aware you became of the world around you when you were seeking interesting things to capture on your phone. How fascinating that you “saw” so much more. The other day at lunch I was walking off campus and a woman ahead of me suddenly stopped a couple of times. As I approached her, I asked “is everything Ok?” And she said “its the shadows of the sun through the leaves thats just so beautiful”. She had come to a total standstill a couple of times simply to admire beauty. It made me so happy to realiize that there are people that do still “notice” and appreciate the world around them in their everyday lives.
Your post also reminded me of a friend who with 2 other friends had created a photo creativity game. They took turns coming up with a weekly theme, and every day they were to take a picture and send it to the other two. My friend had explained to me how much this practice made her pay attention and the delight she would feel when she would capture an image that seemed to magically match the theme. Or the creativity she would use to somehow fit an image into the theme because often nothing real clear and straightforward surfaces and you have to expand you idea of the theme in curious ways. Perhaps this could be a future community art project.
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