As creatives we wander our inner worlds, we respond to the outer world, we connect the dots between the two and translate these into paint on canvas, light on a digital sensor or film, lyrics of a song or words on a page.
We do so again and again and again.
There are times in our artistic careers when we’re encouraged to conform, to fit in a box, to quieten, not be so big, loud or take up too much space. For the most part it’s utter discomfort, on the daily we try our best to live with the age old somewhat discouraged life as a creative living in a world seeking order and edges.
For those that know my logo it has many layers, there is the C and the L, the circle representing the lens and the square representing the physical photograph. Most importantly, there is the round peg and square hole.
I have never truly felt that I fit. I had lots of friends at school and yet was never ‘in’ any specific friendship circles. I have moved about, as a child of divorced parents, different schools, different colleges and then into life as a young adult, job after job, city after city. Then I went travelling at 28 and the shifting tides enveloped me on a global scale.
My moving, my ‘not fitting’ has left me challenged and lost many times and yet, it’s who I am, who I have become and makes me the artist I am today. I am proud of being a mis-fit. There’s that awesome TED talk by Lidia Yuknavitch about this very subject. About missing fitting in. Take a listen if you have a moment.
I have stayed with the way I create as much as I can. Playing with every kind of camera from my DSLR, now mirrorless to my phone which I am currently loving for creating ‘light sketch’ reels. Pop on over to my instagram if you’ve not had a chance to see them. I’m also on TicTok for all my sins!
Where am I going with this?
Back in February I received an email from Tokyo, the kind you have to read ten times allowing the words to really sink in. That said, I’ve not received much correspondence that has surprised me in my life - as an over-thinker beyond proportion I spend my life anticipating what could or may happen and as a believer that…
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