I am right there with you, in a phase of questioning my direction and where I put my creative energy and why/if/how it matters. The act of questioning this and being willing to change course is a form of adaptation. Our world is demanding that we adapt to it. Thank you for sharing how messy and vague that process can be.
Sorry for the delayed reply, Klea. I've watched your shift, and it seems thrilling to me. I'm waiting for that breakthrough moment--a friend said, maybe just stop thinking about it, stop questioning "creativity," see what happens. I know he's right. Sure enough, I was looking through my things for a particular C-print I have (I know I saw it in 2020, when I mounted a couple other prints of that series, all from Portland, c. 2005 or so), and I came upon my old thesis box, and it was FILLED with ALL of my negatives from Oregon, probably ranging from 1997 until 2005 roughly. I was amazed! I thought I'd lost them all. Now I found a project and an idea, that of the feeling of what I'm calling "continuity," or the lack thereof, in what I've seen as a split somewhere, where I'm disassociated/disconnected/disoriented from my "former" life. When I see all these photographs, the negatives, it instantly catapults me into that past life so that I feel it. Now I plan to get experimental (lith printing, for one, probably some old expired Panalure paper, too) to get at that feeling, that time: to reinterpret these images is, I think, to reinterpret the past.
That was a long reply--I'm working this out as we speak--but thank you for your thoughts.
I am right there with you, in a phase of questioning my direction and where I put my creative energy and why/if/how it matters. The act of questioning this and being willing to change course is a form of adaptation. Our world is demanding that we adapt to it. Thank you for sharing how messy and vague that process can be.
Sorry for the delayed reply, Klea. I've watched your shift, and it seems thrilling to me. I'm waiting for that breakthrough moment--a friend said, maybe just stop thinking about it, stop questioning "creativity," see what happens. I know he's right. Sure enough, I was looking through my things for a particular C-print I have (I know I saw it in 2020, when I mounted a couple other prints of that series, all from Portland, c. 2005 or so), and I came upon my old thesis box, and it was FILLED with ALL of my negatives from Oregon, probably ranging from 1997 until 2005 roughly. I was amazed! I thought I'd lost them all. Now I found a project and an idea, that of the feeling of what I'm calling "continuity," or the lack thereof, in what I've seen as a split somewhere, where I'm disassociated/disconnected/disoriented from my "former" life. When I see all these photographs, the negatives, it instantly catapults me into that past life so that I feel it. Now I plan to get experimental (lith printing, for one, probably some old expired Panalure paper, too) to get at that feeling, that time: to reinterpret these images is, I think, to reinterpret the past.
That was a long reply--I'm working this out as we speak--but thank you for your thoughts.
Best wishes in your endeavors, wherever they take you!
Thank you--and they took me right up to a courthouse in Indiana, still looking for documents!