Sunday, June 21, 2009

Under the Weather

Not feeling great today, so will keep this short. I have been sorting through books, arranging furniture and doing heavy cleaning. The dust may be getting to me. When it comes to deciding which books to keep and which to give away, my brain goes numb. How often do we reread the books we have? Answer: Not very often. Reference books will stay; the rest will go. Guideline: if it can be replaced, or found in the library, let it go.

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Last week's television episode of Obsessed had a segment on hoarding and I began asking myself questions. Why do we hold on to, or want, some things and not others? Is there often an emotional attachment--a memory?

Do the things we collect hold a deeper significance/meaning? Is there a reason we collect what we do?

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Are photographers addicted to photography? And...artists addicted to art? Why take photographs? Paint? Why do we choose the subjects we choose? What makes an artist decided to be an artist? What prompts this desire?

When did you start doing the craft you love to do? Why? Does the desire go deeper than surface accomplishment? What are you trying to say? What is the significance?

What are we learning, or want to learn?

1 comment:

Shawn said...

I can't speak for all artists or photographers, but I feel a slight bit of addiction to photography. I take photographs with the hopes that one day after I leave this earth, family members will someday sit down and comb through all of the images that have encompassed my life as I have with the suitcases full of images my father left me after departing this earth. I choose the subjects I shoot to show small glimpses of my life through my eyes. I try to bring the world as I see it into the frame of my camera. My desire to be an artist is prompted by my passion to leave something for generations to come as way to remember what once was, as sort of a comparison to what now is or will then be. I started the craft of photography about six years ago and have been hooked ever since my first roll of slide film was developed and I could view what I saw over and over again. The desire for me goes deeper than surface accomplishment because I wish to not only capture the moment with a physical image but I wish to convey emotion as well. With photography I am trying to say that although I am small and minute in this huge world of images, my images count even if only a little bit. I think that through photography I am learning alot about myself and alot about the world I live in.
--Shawn