Lately I’ve been intentionally slowing down the pace in which I engage life. Though I’ve never been good at being still or meditating, I have found lately that stillness is what I’ve been craving the most. My favorite pastime these days is to sit in what others might call silence and listen to the sounds of the world around me. Crickets chirping; the wind moving through the trees; jets passing overhead; neighbors listening to a ball game on their porch radio. If I can manage to stop thinking about each individual sound, I can start to hear them all as one, and accept my place within it.
Read MoreWhen is a Work of Art Finished and Other Creative Musings
I recently discovered a new love in the pressing and photographing of plants. I love the hunt for new specimens almost more than I love the challenge of interpreting their natural beauty in an image. It’s an exercise in slowing down and seeing the beauty in the quiet, unremarkable moments I so often take for granted. That said, plants are simultaneously the hardest and easiest subject to photograph in that they can’t collaborate with me to help me flesh out an abstract idea or mood I may have. Rather, they simply exist as they are and I can either figure out how to capture their beauty or not.
Read MoreMy Story: A Short Documentary by Brandon Goodyear
Brandon Goodyear is a local videographer that has an ongoing series focusing on makers and what motivates them to do what they do. Over the span of a month he captured a couple of my photo shoots, me climbing at my home gym, and me watering my vast collection of plants. We also got deep and chatted about my journey through trauma and where I find inspiration as an artist. Check it out.
Read MoreMake or Die
I recently collaborated with illustrator/designer/friend Dylan Menges. I wanted to explore shooting a subject through plexiglass while they painted and he was the first person that came to mind. Collaboration with another artist really takes a lot of the pressure of me as the photographer. I can give him some basic direction and then just capture the beauty that unfolds before me. An element that I really love but didn’t plan for are all the scuff marks on the plexiglass. It adds such a gorgeous tactility to the images…
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Living an Un-curated Life
Today marks the one-year mark of me leaving social media. To say that this past year has been transformative for me would be putting it mildly. I’ve grown more mentally, emotionally, physically, and creatively in the past year than any other time of my life. I’ve come to learn that there was a significant amount of trauma in my past that needed to be addressed and worked through and through the process learned to separate my sense of worth from what I can create or do for others. I’ve learned to appreciate those who have loved me and supported me unconditionally through the years. I began the process of tearing down walls within myself, letting past pains and fears intermingle with current hopes and aspirations. This process, which I refer to as the un-curation of my life, has brought me to a level of peace and self-acceptance that I hadn’t before known and I feel ready to engage the world in a new way.
Read MoreRemembering My Roots with Kate Sweeney
Kate Sweeney is a powerful voice in contemporary photography, who just so happens to live in my neck of the woods. She always brings so much to both sides of the camera. I’ve been fortunate to have collaborated with her a few times now, and it’s always a great time of swapping industry stories or talking about who has been inspiring us lately before moving on to making some new art of our own…
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Life on the Other Side
It’s been nearly four months since I deleted my social media accounts. By “delete” I don’t mean that I simply removed the apps from my phone. I mean that I closed the accounts, resulting in the loss of nearly 60,000 followers (if you’re interested in reading my original statement on this, visit my blog post). In my post I list a number of reasons for leaving social media, such as follower engagement overly influencing the ways in which I create; an increase in anxiety, brought on my social media; the investment of hundreds of hours per year on with little quantifiable pay-off.
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