"The art lies in the man, not in the medium, and the photographer who loves the poetical, dreamy, sometimes melancholy...moods of nature, will show these qualities in his work."
~Rudolf Eickemeyer, Jr.
For the longest time, I wondered whether or not I was an artist. To many people, the act of selling ones work makes one an artist. If someone else wants to buy it, your work is art. To me that definition is too inclusive. I have struggled with the identity of my work, the value of it and the meaning for it, more for my own definition than for any other purpose. I ran across this quote this past month while writing my newsletter and the words struck home. It doesn't matter what the external manifestation of it is, it is the way the mind works that is art, it is the vision that is art, it is the perspective and the ability to change that perspective that is art. Your thoughts?
Thank you,
Sarah McTernen
www.ardentphotography.com
Posts
Sarah -
ReplyDeletei have spent pretty much my entire life wishing i was artistic and had creative talent. only recently has it occurred to me that making food is creative - blogging is creative as well.
and for some time my family has been telling me they love my photos and that i was an artistic in that why - did i believe? nope, not really - i am too highly skilled at the art of doubting myself!
then yesterday i finally printed some of my recent photos out and had the gobsmacking experience of realizing that, yeah, i can take some pretty cool pics and i.AM.an.artist --- now if that isn't one of the most scary things i've ever written out i don't know what is! but i'm going to claim it and nurture it and enjoy it whatever happens :)
That is awesome. :)
ReplyDeleteCreation is art. I convinced myself I hated, and was bad at, "art" when I was younger, at least making it, but only included drawing, painting, collage work, etc. in that category. Having joined a community of artists this year who crochet, bead, make cards, paint, take photographs...I have to extend my definition of art to creating.
yay for expanding definition and communities too!
ReplyDeletequestion for you. how do you put the watermark on your photos for the blog? went searching a bit today but my brain was hurting from enjoying some physics reading and i got completely frustrated!
I use Watermark Factory (http://www.watermarkfactory.com/) for batch watermarking. If I want to post something while I am processing, I just shrink the file in photoshop and add my text to the bottom before I close it out.
ReplyDeleteThanks Sarah :)
ReplyDelete