Harvesting Inspiration and Ideas

On September 27th I caught the train from Gladstone, New Jersey and headed to Brooklyn, New York. I'll be spending two weeks keeping company with Fern, my daughter's one-eyed cat, while she and her husband are on a road trip. As always, I had a mental list of things I wanted to do, places I wanted to go and work I wanted to get done.  I decided that I would consciously move more slowly through each day, processing my thoughts and inspirations rather than my usual habit of "harvesting and storing until later". As a result, I've fewer photographs and sketches from the last several days.  What I do have is a manageable quantity of inspiration rather than a plethora of ideas that will never be able to move further along due to the limited human lifespan and the fact that tomorrow I'll experience another flood of inspiration and ideas.  The key is to be more selective in what I harvest.  I can enjoy and appreciate that rush of delight when my mind is filled with the inspiration ... and then let it go if it's not one I'll harvest and take the time to transform.

You'll notice I have several versions of the same view, different found compositions from the same location.  The final images that I've presented are either the original photo as I framed it on my phone, a cropped version of a photo or the scene taken from a slightly different angle. I use my phone as a camera to help me become aware of what excites me visually, what grabs my attention.  When my attention is captured, the act of stopping and documenting it with a photograph causes me to be more observant, searching to discover what it is that excites me about the scene. In the past, I've rarely look back at the photographs ... it's the act of pausing and becoming aware that was important to me.  It's when looking back through my files that I see how many jewels I've harvested and forgotten, never having taken time to cut and polish them, transforming them into my own visual expression of the inspiration or the thought it triggered.

The process of going through multiple stages of sketches to develop an idea isn't new to me ... taking the time to do it IS relatively new. The workshop led by Liz Hough in Tuscany earlier this year was a turning point.  As a result of the various methods Liz presented, I was able to fully appreciate how taking steps away from the original visual spark can bring me closer to a truer expression of that spark.  This is what I will be thinking about and working on during the rest of my time in Brooklyn.