Lines? Beauty defies boundaries!
“Don’t think. Thinking is the enemy of creativity. It’s self-conscious,
and anything self-conscious is lousy. You can’t try to do things.
You simply must do things.”
- Ray Bradbury
Roxy, Dee’s dog, met me at the door with soulful amber eyes. Two cats slept in nearby chairs. A second dog, Missy, came up for the sniff test. I passed, apparently, because she wagged her tail and went back to her dog bed. There’s something to be said for a home filled with pets and life and art, and I felt immediately at peace. The purpose of my visit with Dee was another class on impressionistic photography. It’s so much fun to see where midlife creativity takes me.
On this day, Dee showed me how to go deeper into her favorite Apps on the iPad. What I love is that the only way to get better at this form of art is to play. A lot. Experiment. Crash and burn. Discard and start over. Ignore the lines/rules and splash in the waters of creativity with abandon. See with new eyes and invite the artist within to stargaze.
As we sat next to each other, iPads in hand, we laughed at our foibles and “ooo’d†over successes. We gently cursed technology and embraced the wonder of it at the same time. Woman to woman the teaching came in gentle waves.
As the session ended, I wanted to race home and play on my own. I’ve always been one to listen first and explore later in the privacy and safety of isolation. This time, however, I rather missed the camaraderie of Dee’s guidance and playfulness. I found myself wondering what she would do with this image, or if she would discard that one. What button did she push, I wondered. And why doesn’t my work look like hers?
It was then the strongest lesson came. I don’t want my work to look like Dee’s. As strong and gorgeous as her work is, I am following my style and vibe. I can learn from her while nurturing my photographic leanings, which is another way of coloring outside the lines. Realizations like that? The best part of my day.
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