The DIY Art That Is Shifting The Way I See Good Photographs

Do you ever wonder what is behind the photographs and artworks that keep you hooked inside the frame for a solid minute or more?

If you thought it's primarily luck of the draw, being in the right place at the right time, or having a sudden surge of joy and inspiration... Well, you aren't alone. It's what I initially thought happened most of the time too, before I finished the most unusual still life drawing of my life!

Yeah...

But wait, hold it - you might be thinking, how is this about photography?

That I'm getting to...

But you didn't think photography was just about shooting and technical editing of photos did you?

I mean yeah that's part of it and a part that I used to load myself too much with trying to perfect every technical nuance of but never really honing in on why one worked and another didn't.

That is until my hips and back started nagging and complaining that something wasn't right with the way I was working. To be frank, it kept me from sitting still to focus for even an hour in this new age digital darkroom...

Which to be honest I don't know if I'll ever totally embrace like I did film for the simple reason of the peace of mind that having the box of RAW negatives gave me vs a black box filled with circuit boards that who knows what is going on in or how long it will last but that's another conversation.

...I would do it, but grudgingly. But I sometimes wondered would I ever find the spark of joy that I once found in image making and photography years ago?

The abstract still-life drawing above is kind of where it all started. It began as a traditional still life study until the college professor prompted us to turn the page every 20 minutes and continue.

Can you imagine?

I was unsure of what it was going to look like at the time too. The excitement that I had for working with the various media, mainly compressed charcoal and conté crayon plus the time constraints of the class time, was the joy I rode all the way... That I think kept me from stepping back and second guessing what or where to add the next mark. At the end when I stepped back I realized the abstract representation of the still-life I rendered surprisingly held both mine, the professor, and classmates attention longer than anything I had made or was making at the time. That's an unexpected win!

But... It wasn't quite so easy to translate to a body of work.

It led me to experiment with different still life in photography because what worked in a drawing surely will work in a photograph, right? In theory, yes but at the time it didn't dawn on me to experiment like crazy with double exposures and layering in images.

Hindsight's 2020.

I kept missing the mark time and time again until I moved onto other subject matter studies. It wasn't until my last year when all of the seemingly random trial and error work finally uncovered a few gems. Some of which came literally in the darkroom over lovely conversations next to the tray of fixer.

But all the while at this time I wasn't sure where the work was going and unlike the time constraints set forth in that drawing class and the fairly new understanding of how to use the materials of photography...

The project sort of ran dry for a time...

Until this year when I began looking at and writing about what I felt is behind these small visual gems (which I will go deeper in my next story). It's still hard to put into words completely but something in the way these and the still life drawing were collaged together from unlikely sources ignites joy for me more than generically recorded and printed photographs.

The quest to follow my heart and find acceptance continues.

So the saga continues today with a pair of Fiskars scissors and cutting mat that mom handed down to me. The joy I found was still there after all these years only this time using colored strips cut from old rejected proofing prints.

One less thing in the landfill is always a big win!

I was excited to start because it wasn't merely a fun collage project but an opportunity to train my eye in a slower-paced, more controlled environment to see more purposeful compositions. In other words from shooting sporadically to more intentionally.

As I prepared the palette by cutting the prints into small strips it reminded me like I was cooking a delicious vegetable dish... The part where you have to wash and cut the veggies... Needless to say is not my favorite part but it teaches us patience and to appreciate the process no less than the end result. So it's one of those times where you gotta find the joy in hardship.

Inspired by one of my favorite paintings, "Starry Night" please enjoy this short time lapse (2:14) that consolidates hours of work and leads to the finale of it all to this point - where I made it into a mini installation that continues the divine Fibonacci spiral composition that Van Gogh used well in his dreamy representation.

So what did I learn from all of this?

Well in a nutshell that indeed, one does not just "point and shoot" as is popular in photography today. That's only the tip of the iceberg (or the tree above ground that no one sees all the imperfections below that feed what is seen). What I found through researching and building this piece just confirms it further.

Did you know?

Behind our favorite photographs or artworks, the ones we love to look at over and over again are subtle fingerprints of the life behind the camera or canvas...

And I'm still unraveling the mystery behind why I now have two Van Gogh inspired pieces at home... Perhaps all of us artists are little misunderstood or socially awkward? Let us unite!

And just like that, I found a renewed interest and maturity for things I used to study in art history but only barely made the grade because it was required to cram names, places, and dates in a huge lecture hall over a few months' time. I find it more beneficial to study art history at a slower pace like for this distinct project or another in front of me. That's certainly something I wasn't expecting when I started writing this.

Now I can't wrap this up without noting that yes, I realize the works I've shared in this piece aren't particularly mind-blowing in the history of master images or in the contemporary media's eye... Yet! But to me they are like placeholders in an ongoing body of work...

That is when I remind myself to not take non-artist family and friends opinions of what they think makes a good image so seriously. It led me to a place of burn out and an eye tainted by...

1. This crazy unframed world that literally presents infinite photographs to us (thanks digital technology but sometimes it's good to be an editor more than "photographer" with the camera; your back will thank you for that - trust me)... Then there's -
2. What I like to photograph, or what first catches my eye which is usually the light in a scene that sometimes goes to war with...
3. What others find pleasing and think I should record, usually spur of the moment.

There's always going to be people who want you to shoot what's already "popular or trendy" and that stuff is okay in moderate doses but if that's all we do, well we run the risk of losing sight of the spark of joy that started us off on the path and sustains us through challenges.

I want to thank both Vocal and Fiskars for running the "Create Your Happiness" challenge and inspiring me to rediscover a joy I had buried deep over the last decade in an effort to please others without a lot of post-collegiate-professional-in-the-field-mentor guidance. Not that I'm particularly strong with the work I've shown here but the joy I find beyond making it has to count for something. No one really notices but me how everyday I wake up and smile when I look at the unlikely drawing that came to fruition from doing something a little out of the ordinary.

Now that's kind of the story of my life!

I hope this small rejected trash turned treasure art piece helped you look at a familiar rut whether you're a photographer or another kind of artist in a different light. Now if you're an artist, photographer, or video creator you might want to bookmark my profile on Vocal because my next piece out this month is on a passion that runs deep... This piece was just the beginning to it. Until then, stay curious and joyful through good and hard times (something I'm learning to step up and this story definitely helped with that).