A Bookmark. + some ideas
I haven’t, obviously, posted anything since late May, over a month ago. I’ve been busy. But not uncreative in the slightest. Just without direction, yet. I have done very little photographing in the meantime, and even less editing. But I have been writing. All sorts of things, ideas, questions, narratives; I have also started to deeply explore poetry as well. I will pair a form of written and visual art in the future, not sure if it will be in this project or another, we’ll see.
I am posting as a placeholder for a thread of an idea. Kind of like a bit of visual notetaking, a quick image to capture a moment of inspiration, not necessarily of the subject, just of the moment. I'll make a post about visual notetaking later. This will serve as much the same, I hope, a physical, well, electronic I guess, bookmark in my process to keep an idea alive…
In the past two weeks, I have nearly finished reading a book other than a photo book or poetry, and it has become one of my favorites. The Lonely City by Olivia Laing is a work of memoir, biography, and art and cultural criticism wrapped up together, about the function and nature of loneliness, isolation, and solitude in art and society. Woah, scary words, huh? I agree. But it is very well written and draws together the lives of several famous artists with the principal thread being loneliness. The art of Edward Hopper, Andy Warhol, David Wojnarowicz, and more is explored in its relationship to loneliness, not only in the literal work, but through the lives and personas of each artist.
One of my biggest takeaways was how much influences an artist’s work. Each artist, like all artists, had endless influences and inspirations, both external and internal. It got my mind in a groove of curiosity surrounding how my internal self influences my own art. What is my art saying that I don’t even know? Well, a lot, I’m sure. But that’s the wonderful thing about art, it exposes, expresses, speaks the ideas, thoughts, emotions, and things that aren’t necessarily known, or acknowledged. This extends out of the self and into community, family, and society/culture as well.
What is art so good at? It is a powerful tool of change. It changes the artist, the artist grows, learns, transforms, and through art, the viewer learns, grows, and transforms as well. Art can expose injustice and harm, it can speak for the unheard, and show the unseen. As art does this, the individual grows, which aids in growing relationships with others and their community. Positive change is not possible without individual change, and a catalyst for this, in my opinion, is art. It impacts people in ways most mediums don’t. This is the power of art!
I don’t know what to do about it yet though, except to keep creating, “alchemising terror into art”, as Olivia Laing said in Funny Weather. For now, I also am reflecting on my influences, I am revisiting older work and listening to what it has to say, what I can learn from it. In doing this, I hope to come away with a better understanding of how I can use my creativity to inspire positive change, even if it’s just in myself, or one person, it is an act of good, nonetheless.
So that’s one of the things that has been on my mind this past month. Quite the rant, but I guess I am probably just writing this more for myself anyways… I think I will have some new photos soon maybe? We’ll see. Maybe even some poems on the side? I do know that I have gathered up 24 of my favorite images from the past two to three years and am going to do something with them. Probably just think about them for a while, but it’s also another placeholder, a bookmark of an idea for a thread of a project.
Last but not least, a poem for dessert, as well as my Apple Music profile. Go listen to my playlists dang-it! :)
