This is the week people noticed I sort of quietly snuck away from IG.
The fact the IG and me are on a break is pretty boring, but the one thing that might be interesting is how I’m getting my art fix these days.
And really, was I getting it from place I told myself I was anyway? (Kind of yes, kind of no, is the short answer).
I’m currently in a period of dormancy when it comes to making work. This is normal and definitely expected coming off the back of what I can see, with some distance, as a strong two year period of prolific creation (HA - the inner critic really is making eyes at me here but it is what it is and I said it ok!)
Dormancy is a key part of the creative cycle. I drew a diagram for it once and can’t now for the life of me find it - WOE. But trust me when I say, the downtime is vital to the creation. This time around it’s also a renewal as well as a recharging and it makes sense - the world has changed these past few years and how and what I want to see, how I experience the world, has altered along with it.
Dormancy is something to revel in. It’s not that nothing is happening, it’s just that you can’t see what’s happening. Austion Kleon writes about it beautifully, and the Corita Kent quote he shares is perfection:
“new things are happening very quietly inside of me.”
Seeking out others work is a balm and a vital part of process at this time. I’m someone who ingests a lot generally, but when we’re in this part of the cycle it becomes more vital a nourishment, a feeding, an offering to that part of myself where inspiration will flourish at some point, the place that will process and mull it all over when I’m not consciously trying to. It’s the dense manure in which the seeds will grow.
As a photographer, IG seems like a natural place to get inspired. I don’t really believe in paying too much attention to your own art genre however. A few years ago I realised how detrimental it was for me/my work to closely following the work of peers and so I changed who I followed quite radically (highly recommend!) and whilst I know it’s probably not the case for everyone, things feels better like this. I actually have a crazy dream that I could stay out of the IG space for a prolonged period to see if my work was effected, if how I looked through my lens changed…I read a GREAT set of stories a while back - I know, the irony! - about how the centred weighted image had developed and moved mainstream due to IG etc, how we read images from top to bottom now (instead of left to right which is how we interpret at printed images) an internet based phenomena that we don’t even realise we cater to! But ultimately, I’d miss the community too much I think.
And so generally I prefer to engage with literally anything non portrait photography related. There are obvious exceptions, photographers work I adore, but still there are times in the creative cycle when its really just doesn’t feel like a good thing to be filling my eyeballs with work within my own field. A dormant period is one of those times.
Enter the painters and poets, musicians and sculptors, writers and embroidery artists of the world.
And so here I am, seeking and sharing. And with it comes that beautiful reminder that art is everything. Powerful and soothing and mind blowing and painful and joy-filled. The petri dish of life.
Get ready for some art heavy shared vibes, friends!
LOOK:
Billie Zangewa
Tokihiro Sato
Rachel Jones
Suzanne Valadon
READ:
I'm halfway through Just Kids, and admit to knowing very little about Patti Smith or that Robert Mapplethorp was so prominent in her life. I knew even less that this would be a book about some very deep and beautiful art and love stories. Already it’s got me asking myself and reflecting on what this *gestures to art and life* means to me.
Robert had little patience with these introspective bouts of mine. He never seemed to question his artistic drives, and by his example, I understood that what matters is the work: the string of words propelled by God becoming a poem, the weave of color and graphite scrawled upon the sheet that magnifies His motion. To achieve within the work a perfect balance of faith and execution. From this state of mind comes a light, life-charged.
I never tire of reading about how people just get creative shit done. Really liked this conversation with Louise Gluck
Yes, it’s the end of the road. Yes, you’re getting very old. Yes, the world is falling apart. But here we all are, we’re still alive. And a sense of possibility emerges from that fact, from anything—just that stubborn human need to hope.
What should an artist think about?
WATCH:
Two documentaries that both made me cry and itch to create things forever more: Beyond the Visible and Everything is Copy. Please while away an afternoon with these women.
LISTEN:
Did you know Teju Cole makes and shares a lot of playlists? And they are REALLY DAMN GOOD? I’ve taken to lighting every candle I own, pouring a glass of something and playing this loudly as I swan around in satin Pyjamas. 10 OUT OF 10 LIVING.
LOOK:
Please share your own current or fave art/links in the comments. Feed me!
‘Til next time bbs,
Lx
I'm reading lots and lots of novels right now- it's my primary dormant phase consumption. Priestdaddy, niot a novel but a memoir, was genius. Now I'm reading "The Book of Form and Emptiness" and that is very very good.
This quote from the piece you linked: real seeing “is forgetting the name of the thing one sees” oooh yes