I could list a lot of reasons for this time of year being hard on me. A lot of very bad things happened in my life between Thanksgiving and Christmas on several different years that had nothing at all to do with the holidays. People I loved dearly died in those times. Even after years and years, I struggle with those memories. Partially because their deaths were senseless and unjust.
I hate the advice of “just think about something else.” Or “you have to focus on what is good in your life.” It is not that those are not valid techniques, but people so freely give advice without ever really understanding or asking deeply. The older I get, the less reticent I am to give advice unsolicited. Often what people need is simply to be heard. To know they matter.
Talking with my son, who has great auditory skills and plays several instruments and speaks multiple languages, admits that visual art often bores him. But let some classical piece of music play and he is in rapture. As we try to understand each other, I explained to him, that the magic of my camera’s view finder is I get to choose what I focus on. Often, I can express an emotion that I just don’t have words for.
Do these images speak emotionally?
I can take a photo. I feel very mastered with my camera to shoot in just about any kind of condition. In fact, I am often hired to shoot in situations that confound even professional photographers. I no longer care to show you what I see. That to me is too easy. Rather, the goal I have every time I pick up my camera is to convey in visual terms something I feel.
Sometimes I think I do that well, other times, I wonder. Color, form, composition become for me a language and with editing, I blur certain parts of the photo and sharpen other parts. I saturate some areas while removing color for others, in an attempt to drag your eye around the image in the order I want to tell the story I want you to experience.
One very wise art mentor told me that for an image to be great art, it can’t just be pretty, it has to tell a story, it has to have a beginning, plot and ending. I am not sure about that. I think some great art is just about being a visual feast of beauty. But if I can do that in an image, using visual clues, well now, something of magic happens.
I hope my art enriches your life and that your holidays are filled with peace and joy and that the chill of winter gives way to the warmth of love and companionship.
Happy Holidays.