My choice to settle in to the place I live, instead of holding myself back. My choice to play around with mobile photography and see my everyday in new ways. My choice to spend less time on the computer and more time in the woods. All are simple choices, but they have come together in a profound way.

I didn’t quite realize it until my Mom emailed me with a comment this week after my Silent Communication blog post, and I wrote back, “I am falling in love with Corvallis all over again.” I am. I am seeing what this place has to offer me, as it is.

It was a choice. I could have continued to hold myself apart. I could have continued to wish I was somewhere else or that Corvallis was something other than it is. I could have continued to hang on to who I was in a previous time and place. But I would have missed what was right in front of me for the taking.

We have choices in how we approach our life, even if we don’t feel we do. A lot of that choice is around accepting where we are or how things are. And by accepting what is, you open yourself up to what could be. The phrase “bloom where you are planted” comes to mind.

We could be planted in the rockiest soil, but that may be exactly what we need to bloom. We just have to let our roots grow, and find the nourishment waiting for us in the earth below.

I’ve talked about this shift for me here on the blog often over the last six or eight months. I’m now realizing how deep this concept of choosing acceptance can go. It can mean the difference between dissatisfaction and happiness.

This doesn’t mean we need to stay in a place or a situation that doesn’t feed our soul. This doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t make plans or strive for change. But having a measure of acceptance for what is can lead to greater appreciation and happiness of our current state. If you aren’t happy with where you are now, will you truly be happy in some new situation? We often think changing the place or the job or our body is the answer to our woes, when the answer truly lies within. It is available to us in the choices we make.

I choose to accept what is. I choose to be open to what is available to me right now. I choose happiness.

On Monday I mentioned I went to the iris gardens and didn’t photograph the iris. That’s not totally true, but I didn’t like any of the “traditional” iris images I captured. My favorite one from the day is more about form and color than the flower itself.

Out of context, a bit abstracted. Would you know it’s an iris if I hadn’t told you? The clues are there. That’s what makes it fun.

It’s a different kind of communication, between my heart and the forest. It’s one of the senses. Hearing the quiet between the sounds of the birds twittering and my boots along the path. Feeling a gentle breeze against my skin, or the cool wet of misty rain, or the warmth of sunshine. Smelling the new growth of the earth or scent of spring blooms. And seeing, my primary sense, is enhanced. Seeing what is and what could be, through my camera’s lens. Feeling the abundance of having so much to photograph I can leave most of it alone, and only stop for what truly moves me.

As I sit here writing this I’m struck by the contrast in sound the most. It’s early morning and I’m the only one awake, but the house is not quiet. There is the ticking of the clock. The faint high-pitch whine of the computer. The whir of the refrigerator. The spit of sprinklers turning on in the yard. Trucks rumbling along the nearby street.

Maybe that’s why my soul breathes such a sigh of relief at the trailhead. I must need the quiet of the forest. Stilling the sounds of everyday life for just a little while, so I can hear my true thoughts and desires well up from deep within.

Shhh… What do you hear?

I went to an iris garden with some photographer friends yesterday, and photographed everything BUT the iris. (Well, maybe just a few…)

I particularly loved these alliums. They have such a cool shape! I’ll have to play around with these images some more.

The problem is, we let other things get in the way of moving that direction… Be it our fears or doubts or other commitments and responsibilities. We often spend our energy coming up with reasons why we can’t follow the path our heart sets for us, instead of spending energy removing the roadblocks or starting out along the path.

It often takes something bigger, a crisis to nudge us over those barriers and along the path. Sometimes we need the obvious arrows pointing the direction we need to go.

I was reminded of this as I hiked in the woods this week. I’ve been longing to hike on a regular basis for months. My heart has been yearning for this quiet time in the forest; my body has been asking to be moved. There is a happiness and contentment I feel when I get out and hike which spreads out into the rest of my life.

I started to rearrange my schedule and responsibilities so I could get out regularly months ago, but then I let other things get in the way. I made excuses and distracted myself. And then my shoulder started hurting, which became the arrow pointing me along the path in the direction my heart was already telling me to go.

My heart knew all along what I wanted. My body and my head knew too. Why did I have to wait until there was something painful to make the change? I’m looking closely at this, to see what I can learn.

Do you know where you want to go next? What is your heart telling you to do? Maybe it’s as simple as mine, walking in the woods. Maybe it’s something bigger. What can you do to move in that direction now? Look at what you need to rearrange, what you need to change, and start down the path. If you don’t, you might find an arrow or two appearing, making sure you know the way.

I started with this image, captured with the ProCamera app:

Next I processed it in a new app I’ve been playing with, Tangled FX. It has all sorts of different ways to process your images and lots of tuning controls.

Finally, I ran it through the Glaze app. As always, I played with the different options in Glaze to see which one would work the best. I liked the “outline” effect the combination of the two apps created, the bright colors and the very loose brushstroke feel at this point – so I called it done!

See? Super easy. Try it out!

If you’re in Oregon and you want to learn more about creating art like this, check out my Smartphone Art class scheduled in Corvallis on August 10th.

Even though I wanted to understand the ins and outs before I printed this big, this print was a bit of an experiment, too. The Last Tree is an iPhone 5 image edited in the Noir app. I love Noir for its dramatic monochromatic effects, but the app doesn’t save full resolution files. The info in the app says it does, but that must apply only to phones at the time it was first released (2011) and doesn’t apply to the newer, higher resolution iPhone cameras. I needed to “upsize” the file to increase the resolution, and for that I used the Big Photo app. I was a bit skeptical I would get anything useful out at the end, but the final file came out surprisingly well-processed.

I stepped up to the big print, printing first on 13×19″ paper to verify the new file would look ok, then printing the image on the 17×22″ paper. I was so excited to see the finished print! It came out great. Doesn’t it dwarf my usual prints on 8.5×11″ paper?

The next step was framing. I had purchased some 22×28″ frames and accompanying mats (see my resource page for sources), so that I would have a way to present larger prints. The image at left is the final framed print, temporarily hung on the wall of my family room to give a sense of the scale. The final scene is a bit monochromatic, and the print looks surprisingly small given the size of the frame, but I think it could be a great addition in the right location. In this location, I prefer the color of the painting that usually hangs in above the couch (on right).

So now that I have this print all matted and framed, what am I going to do with it? I’ve no idea! I’ll find a place to hang it in the house, and maybe it will go into an exhibition someday. Until then, I have achieved one of my goals to print as large as I can with my printer, I’ve learned a bit about increasing file resolution with apps and I am ready for the moment I need to print BIG.

Sometimes, a realization blindsides you, leaving you surprised and blinking in the bright light. Unable to move for a moment or two, from the shock of it.

Other times, a realization comes upon you as a gentle knowing. There is a subtle nod of “yes, that’s right” as the idea slips from unconscious hints to conscious understanding. It was there all along.

In the last couple of weeks I’ve had a softly growing realization of the feeling I want to create with my art.

I want my art to create a pause. I want it to create a space, a brief moment, in a busy life to allow for a deep breath. I want my images to give a gift of greater awareness, a chance to notice the world in a different way, and connect with heart and soul.

No small feat, right?

But as I’ve looked at my Photo-Heart Connections over the last months I see this theme of “pause and breathe” in so many of them. This is what my heart is telling me I need to do, for myself. This is what my heart is telling me I need to share.

This is what other people have told me about my work for a while, regardless of subject or process. I’ve heard the term “contemplative” used. I’ve heard other descriptions, but the one that stuck with me most recently, the one that nudged this desire into consciousness, is my friend who told me my work allows him to “take a deep breath.”

So there is nothing new here, just my conscious realization that I want to cultivate this feeling. I want to seek this. I don’t want it to be one in ten or even one in two. This is what I want my work to be about. I may not always get there, but it will help to have an idea of where I am going as I create.

It’s a subtle transition, from
capturing my experience of the world around me
to
creating an experience from the world around me.
A shift from passive to active. A shift from unconscious to conscious.

I breathe deep, and exhale a gentle realization.

I inhale
Fresh scent of spring
Tickles and tingles my nose

I exhale
With the earth
Matching her breath through branches

I step
Along hard-packed earth
Winter’s mud only imprints in my path

I blink
Flashes of sun
Revealing forests of white petals

I see
Joy in sunshine
Leaves sprouting with wild abandon

I pause
One last tree
Waiting sheltered in earth’s shadow

Not long now.

But there is so much more to the swap than the numbers. Every year a phrase or theme comes to me as I look at all of the art that passes through my hands. This year, it was “connection.” You are all doing an amazing thing, connecting through art. Each piece of art that was liberated represents a connection, or two. I saw these connections sharing love, joy, nostalgia, encouragement, acceptance, color, creativity, beauty, peace, emotion, inspiration, light, laughter, memories, words, and life. You are influencing the world in a positive way when you connect through art.

Of course I had my own moments of connection, too. All of your notes and extra postcards and of course, your art, touched my heart. As I opened the envelopes, I found the art of old friends I’ve been in contact with online since I lived in Italy. I saw the art of local friends, people I see often in my real life, going out to make new connections. And one of the most special things was seeing a couple of postcards from artists where I was with them when they took the photograph they shared, both in the US and in England. Wow. I got chills, from the way these connections reverberate and spiral back.

Who knows how this year’s connections will spiral back to you?

Enjoy this year’s video, which includes one piece of art from every participant. The collection is an amazing tribute to the individuality and expression that comes through art. (Be sure to watch it in HD if you can, it looks awesome! Also note that there is a pause partway through, as the songs change, so don’t stop watching too early.)

And now, there’s one last opportunity to connect through the 2013 Liberate Your Art swap. Let’s hop!