I loved doing the photograph prompts for The Light of Winter assignments. Finding just the right words to share an idea to photograph around was an interesting challenge. I'd sit with books in big heaps by the computer or the arm chair, dog earing pages to find again later. My brain and I sat before the fire and made lists of ideas, calendar in hand, pending the holidays of Hanukkah, Winter Solstice, Christmas, Kwanzaa, New Year's... and trying to make ideas universal- so that instead of isolating us from each other based on beliefs or disbeliefs, through the photograph prompts and words I offered, the light in me honored the light in each of you.
If you have seen my Facebook profile, you know that under "Religious Views" I have written "the divine is inside each of us." One of my favorite books is God Is At Eye Level, by Jan Phillips, a book that is essentially about the idea that the act of creating a photograph is connected to your soul and the idea is that the divine is in everything you see through your viewfinder. Jan Phillips, who once attempted to become a Catholic nun, expresses the idea of artistic spirituality in a way that is accessible to all- quoting Buddha, the Talmud, the Bible, Einstein, and various photographers, poets, and writers. It is not a religious book. It is a book around the idea that creating art, the act of creating is an expression of the divine light within us.
As an aside, I always feel a bit fuzzy when I try to converse here about topics that tread into areas of faith and belief in one's higher power - such personal, powerful stuff. And, the saying goes, "never to discuss religion or politics in polite company." Just so you know, I am not discussing religion. It matters not what denomination or religion you follow, or what name your higher power carries, if any.
What matters here, is that you are an artist. You create. with words. with paint. with paper. with ink. with light. with pencils. with metal. with wood. with clay. with fabric. with crayons. with your mind. your heart. and yes, I'll say it, with your soul.
In this book I mentioned above, Jan Phillips says,
"Carl Jung wrote that in the process of giving shape to archetypal images, we find our way back to our truest, deepest selves. As we give form to spirit, so are we informed by it, healed by it. As we express the divine through art, so do we express the divine within..." p.13
she talks about the idea of soul longing:
"...soul longing, the longing that sparks creation. It is the formless (n.) yearning to be given shape, feeling wanting to be given form. This longing is felt in the heart of every creator, and every creation is a response to its call." p.76
Anyway, all of this fell into the whirling void that is my overly active brain. I began to think that perhaps I wanted to offer something more, something different -both in my classes and here on my blog. I'm not talking about spirituality as a topic- just the idea that we have a need to create that is deeply significant and any photograph- silly or serious, portrait or landscape, is a way of expressing what lies within.
A year ago in October, I decided to really stop writing about my life on my blog. It had to do with the politics of my little world, and I needed a break from sharing the truly personal. But it has occurred to me, that even without words, my photography is deeply personal.
I make my photos, my art journal pages, my pieces around what I know, my work is strongly autobiographical. And, while I have ideas to move me into other ways of working, some things are simply just the Truth.
For my Point & Shoot Journaling classes, I will continue to offer way of working with photos, photo and archive assignments and journaling prompts, but I have some concepts in mind that we will work around- not spiritual concepts, just a more cohesive package that would allow me to add more content, more thinking, more ways of being creative, and ways of teaching about composition and seeing. More about some very cool stuff there soon.
For this blog, The Poetic Eye, I am going to offer twice-a-week photography+journaling prompts. What I have in mind is to offer up an assignment- an idea, concept, topic, include some writing that pulls us toward the core of the idea, its feeling, and then people are free to give that feeling shape. The assignments in a week may be connected, they may not. Having more than one assignment to choose from in a week would mean that perhaps more people would find an idea they connect to and with which they wish to work. You can complete the assignment in a way that suits you- just shoot the photo assignment, pull a photo from your digital files, write in your journal around the prompt, paste your photo into a journal and write, or create an art journal, or visual journal page incorporating your photo, & your response to the prompt.
I like the whole notion of sharing light. And, wonderfully apropos, photographs are a record of light.
With film, light strikes the film causing a chemical change when the shutter is opened. Now, with digital cameras, instead of film, light strikes a sensitive material, and based on the electrical charge of the photons (packets of light) a pixel map is created by a charge-coupled device. This is all based on Einstein's discovery of the photoelectric effect. (and I do love Einstein, he was so quirky.)
I may or may not include a photo of my own, because I know from teaching, my content can unintentionally limit your content. Without knowing it, your subconscious uses examples to limit your brain's interpretation of ideas. Maybe here and there, we'll check out the work of various photographers. I loved art history classes, taking so many classes that I acquired a minor unintentionally, so expect some of that to seep into both my classes and my blog.
If you participate, you can post your photo, your journal writing, or a subsequent art journal page on your blog.
I don't want to set a schedule for which two days the prompts will appear. I have three littles, a dh, a puppy, a house, my art, teaching, and writing, my family, my making... so I know, if I make a schedule and say Mondays and Wednedays, something will happen, and I will be late. Then, I will feel guilty. No guilt. This is about joy. So, I'll just post two prompts each week. You can always subcribe to my blog, and then you'll know I've posted something anyway.
We'll begin today. Your first prompt for Sharing Light is below...
And, please feel free to mention this on or blogs or link to my post- the more the merrier..
