If you’re curating your personal art collection, you collect pieces that bring you joy. Curate your life the same way. Fill it with people, activities, and (a sparing number of) belongings that make you happy. Let your life be your greatest work of art.
This just in: Paris state of mind
And all I can think of are the bright lights of Paris. And the people and the music and the picture-perfect scene that welcomed me in around every corner all those years ago. Live in the moment, love the heck out of every experience, and help as many people as you can along the way. That’s what Paris taught me all those years ago, and continues to teach me still.
This just in: It’s time to choose happiness
“Without play, there would be no Picasso. Without play, there is no experimentation. Experimentation is the quest for answers.” ~Paul Rand
My teacher, mentor, and friend, Ed, posted this photo yesterday and it made me think of this quote from Paul Rand. We don’t play enough. We don’t smile, laugh, or enjoy life to the extent that we should. We deserve to be in the front row of this photo in every way, every day. So choose it or lose it. Experiment. Make art. Sing out loud. Dance like a fool. Try something or create something just because you want to. Love big. Take a chance, hold on, and enjoy the ride no matter where it leads. Happiness and play are choices. Make them.
This just in: My latest collage – a self-portrait painted in paper
My latest collage: a self-portrait painted in paper. Halfway through, I hated it. I almost threw it out but decided to stick with it anyway. I’m glad I did. Sometimes you have to love and nourish something through its difficult early stages to really appreciate what it offers.
This just in: Be a seeker
“What you seek is seeking you.” ~Rumi
A few months ago I mentioned that I was interested in building out opportunities to bring D.C. residents together in comfortable settings to do interesting things like artist salons and discovering forgotten and hidden stories. For a hot second, I thought about starting something myself but instead decided to look around to see if something similar existed in Washington that I could join and support. I found two interesting opportunities: Little Salon and Obscura Society’s D.C. chapter.
I learned two important things in this search: 1.) to be a discoverer, you have to begin as a seeker and 2.) the best way to discover is to search together with others. And these are lessons I will continue to carry with me at the top of my mind and at the center of my heart. More details soon!
This just in: Starting an art collection of photography
On Saturday night, I stopped by to hear a FotoWeek DC panel discussion about the future of photography. To be honest, the panel was much less insightful than I had hoped it would be. However, one quote that inspired and resonated with me came from George Hemphill, the owner of Hemphill Fine Arts, a commercial art gallery here in D.C. He encouraged people to get started collecting by saying, “As a collector you can’t make any mistakes. Just collect what you love.”
In the past few months, I’ve started to dip my toe into the world of art collecting. The genre that’s recently resonated the most with me is photography. My friends, Kriti and Allie, went to Pancakes and Booze this summer and I met CJ Bown, a Philadelphia-based photographer. I fell in love with his work and the process he uses to produce canvases of his photos. (Each one takes about 2 weeks to complete.) I snapped up two of his pieces – one of the stairs to Bethesda Fountain in New York City’s Central Park and another of Boathouse Row in Philadelphia.
On Sunday, I learned about the intensely physical work of aerial photographer Vincent Laforet. “You have to try to take photos that no one else has taken. In 2015, that’s a tall order so I have to come up here.” By “up here”, he means in a helicopter as it whirls around while he attempts to capture stunning nighttime photos of cities. The fruits of his labors are stunning. They are living, breathing artifacts of how a city moves. I couldn’t stop looking at the galleries on his website so I bought a limited-edition lithograph of one of his New York City shots.
Are you a seasoned collector? Have you also started to collect art? Have You been thinking about starting a collection? I’d love to hear any tips, ideas, and perspectives. Let’s learn together.
This just in: The hard work of editing
“I’m all for the scissors. I believe more in the scissors than I do in the pencil.” -Truman Capote
As hard as the writing process can be, editing is so much harder. It’s emotional, even painful, but it’s also necessary. Editing is the polish that makes a piece of work shine, whether that work is done in words, images, or sounds. It takes perspective and intense reflection. What are you really trying to say or show? What thought, feeling, idea, or action are you trying to evoke in the people with whom you share your work? Creation is so much more about what you give, not what you get. It’s an act of generosity so edit, edit, edit, and make it a gift you’re proud to offer.
This just in: Soul retrieval and the colors of Fall
Have you ever had a situation come up in your life and wondered “what the heck is the purpose of this?” This week Brian and I talked about the idea of soul retrieval—the Native American belief that when we go through a traumatic experience we leave a piece of our soul with that experience. Stay with me here; these two ideas connect because Native Americans also believe that throughout our lives we are offered opportunities to reclaim the parts of our souls that we’ve lost. These opportunities show up in the form of confounding situations, scenarios that require us to rise up, change, and do something that’s difficult. They often require us to break a long-held pattern that needs to be reversed.
I recently had a few events like this pop up and Brian did a brilliant job, as usual, of guiding me through them. Even though I knew it wouldn’t lead to the best outcome, I was tempted to act in a way that I’ve acted before when these types of circumstances arise. Brian counseled me to examine how I would normally react and then he encouraged me try a completely different tack. It was uncomfortable to react in a completely different way than I normally would, and I wasn’t sure what the outcome would be. Still, I followed Brian’s advice, tried these new approaches, and then waited to see how it would unfold.
Brian’s advice was spot on. I broke patterns that had long-outlived their purpose, and the situations resolved themselves in the most favorable way possible. And I woke up on Friday morning feeling more whole than I’ve felt in a long time. The air was balmy, the wind was soft, and the brilliantly colored leaves made me smile wide. I got some pieces of my soul back. It wasn’t easy, but it was worth it.
This just in: Now’s the time to be a dream chaser
We all have a choice to make every morning—stay in bed and hope for a brighter tomorrow or make the most of the day we’re given. Sometimes it’s a harder choice than we’d like it to be, but I’ll tell you this: never once have I gotten up to chase a dream and regretted it at the end of the day, regardless of the outcome. Get out there and give it everything you’ve got. Time’s the one resource you can never recover.
This just in: FotoWeekDC kicks off tonight
Tonight I’m attending my first Instameet in D.C. at the Former Spanish Ambassador’s Residence in my plucky neighborhood of Columbia Heights. IGDC and FotoDC are sponsoring the special event that will showcase the residence’s exhibit before it opens to the public as part of FotoWeekDC. Over the course of the next week, I’ll be attending classes, workshops, and exhibitions that highlight all of the incredible photography that happens here in the D.C. area. I hope you’ll join me and take part in this wonderful celebration that captures life one frame at a time. Details on all of the FotoDC events can be found at http://www.fotodc.org/events-fotoweekdc-2015/.
