Kat Eye Studio

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Making a Mark

What am I trying to say as an artist? Where is it that I want to go? Those questions are swirling around in my head after taking a one-day class called Preparing and Presenting your Photographic Portfolio from a wonderful instructor, Chris Eagon, at the Oregon College of Art and Craft yesterday.

The question “where do I want to go” is an important one for us as artists. Having goals and direction are what keep us moving forward, learning and growing. It’s through the continued journey that we figure out how to make our unique mark in the world.

I’ve known since living in Italy that the next step for me, upon moving back to the US, would be to bring my photographs into the real world. I needed the foundation I gained while in Italy: Confidence in the creation of my images, sharing them with others online, and identification of my unique vision. I’m building from there now, learning how to print and exhibit my work. Even harder, learning how to talk about my work and myself as an artist, with people face-to-face. I did not expect it to be such a challenge, with all of that confidence and knowledge I had gained. But it’s a new realm, and the challenges are different. The fears are different. It’s the next step I need to take in my creative journey, regardless of the resistance that comes along.

I am starting to understand that there is the journey that is “Kat the blogger and teacher” and the journey that is “Kat the artist.” The are separate yet inextricable. If I did not continue on my own artistic journey, separate from blogging and teaching, I would have nothing to share here. I have to admit, the journey of the artist feels a bit more scary and lonely. It’s the one I have to do on my own, in order to be true to myself.

So I’m letting my thoughts swirl around the questions: What am I trying to say as an artist? Where is it that I want to go? Only by answering these for myself will I figure out how to make my mark as an artist. I thought I knew the answers, but they have changed. It’s time to answer them again.

How about you, do you know the answers to these questions for yourself? Do you know where you are headed next?

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A Deep Breath

It’s funny, I feel as if I am surfacing for air today. After being pulled down into the Spiral of Creativity with A Sense of Place I am able to take a breath after the launch of registration. I’m always amazed at how this spiral works. How it catches me up sometimes in the currents of creativity, and how much effort and focus it takes to complete something. I’m not done, but I’m in a calm pool for the moment, floating along and catching my breath.

Today’s photo is what I needed to pause for calm, to catch my breath. The color, the simplicity, a frame of beauty found in an alleyway. A respite in the spiral, before I dive back in. Do you ever get pulled into the Spiral of Creativity? How do you catch your breath when that happens?

Today is the last day for linking in to February’s Photo-Heart Connection. I can’t believe it’s been 7 days already! There are such beautiful connections this month. Thank you so much for sharing them, and for visiting each other and connecting at a heart level. I love seeing these heart connections form. There is still room for you to join in today.

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Market/Wheels: The Giveaway!

I wrap up my new Market/Wheels images today with a giveaway! This is my biggest giveaway yet and I’m excited to share it with you. Celebrating the new images in this series the last week has been great fun! It has reminded me that I learn from working with my images, regardless of whether they are newly captured or from my archive.

Today’s image was found in the back alleys of Venice, where I loved to wander. It is another reminder that the work of getting the market wares to the populace of Venice is quite great. First on water, then on wheels. And not just any route! If you’ve been to Venice you know there are a great number of bridges with steps, so the route for wheels must be carefully chosen. Who wouldn’t maximize the amount carried in one trip? This cart, stacked high with crates, is a perfect example.

Before launching into the giveaway information, I want to invite you to come visit me elsewhere today! I’m guest posting on Caryn Gillen‘s site, with a photographer’s view on Enjoying Food Memories. I’ve mentioned a bit about my journey with Intuitive Eating, and Caryn has been a fantastic guide. This work has really clicked for me, and I’m excited to share my thoughts on her site today. Good timing too – with all of the yummy market food that’s been showing up here in the last week!

The Giveaway

Let’s get to the details of the giveaway, shall we? I’ll be giving away matted print of choice from my RedBubble shop to the winner. The prints are 8x12in matted to 16x20in and they are beautiful! This image shows a couple of examples, which are now framed and hanging on the wall of my home:

Greeted Cards and Matted Prints from RedBubble

Are you excited? Cool! Since there is no such thing as a free lunch – I need something from you too. Here’s what you need to do to enter:

1. Visit my updated Market/Wheels Portfolio and look through all the images. (Click on any thumbnail in the portfolio and you can scroll through full-size images.)

2. Come back to this post and leave a comment telling me which are your favorite images and why. Choose one or two or three, the number doesn’t matter. I’m interested in your feedback on any number of images – but only in one comment/entry per person please!

3. Leave your comment by the end of the day on Monday, 13 February. I’ll randomly draw from the entries on Tuesday, 14 February and contact you for your selection and mailing address.

A little bonus for you too – RedBubble has a sale going on through 15 February. Use the code cards143 at checkout and get 10% off all Greeting Cards and Postcards. Yay! I’ll have the full Market/Wheels series added to the shop over the weekend, so it’s a great time to stock up.

How “Market/Wheels” Came About

I’ve gotten a few questions about the series and how I process it over the last week. To finish up today I thought I would share how this series evolved and the creative choices I’ve made throughout.

The first image in the series, Where Fiats Retire, was captured and processed in December 2010. I chose the processing to create a vintage feel. I wanted to highlight the classic Fiat and make the image more timeless. You can read about the processing in this post.

In February 2011, I found two more images which some common elements after a trip to Parma, Classic Italian Transport and Offerta, and the series was born. Follow the links to read about the discovery of the series and more about the processing. From that time on, I’ve looked for opportunities to add to the series. I also knew early on that there were more images in my archive, and I would need to go back some day to find them.

As this series evolved, I had to become clear about what is and is not included. Since I named it Market/Wheels, it had to have an element of both. For the “Market” piece, I require some obvious element related to a market, which could be permanent, temporary, food, other wares, crates or carts. For the “Wheels” piece, I require some obvious element of wheels – used by the vendor or customer and in some close interaction with the market. This seems obvious when you look at the series, but it wouldn’t be if I hadn’t made careful choices. There are a number of interesting images in my archive that almost make it, and I’ve chosen not to include them in order to remain true to the series.

Another decision to create a stronger series was to continue with the vintage processing that started in the early images. I liked how this processing created a timeless feel, and supports the premise that markets and wheels are a combination that cross time and culture. It helps to pull the series together, especially as I add new images from the US to those I’ve already captured in Europe.

There are more Market/Wheels photographs waiting for me in the future, I know it. I look forward to seeking out new images around the US to complement and build the connection to those from Europe. Of all of the personal photographic projects I’ve undertaken, this one is closest to my heart. This is the series that tells me we are all the same, regardless of where we live. It has helped me with my emotional transition between Italy and the US, and has helped me grow as an artist.

I hope you’ve enjoyed this look at the Market/Wheels series over the last week! I’ve truly enjoyed the opportunity to share it with you.

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Following a Dream

I am musing today on transportation at Mortal Muses, with an image of–what else–a scooter! Click on over there to see a companion image to this one. The image posted there is my favorite of the two.

This lovely find was another in a back alley of Ortygia in Siracusa, Sicily. Ortygia was scooter heaven. Streets too narrow for cars and a chilly, off-and-on rainy day led to an emptiness that is perfect for my photography. I would have loved to study this scooter with my camera more, but just as I started shooting the owner came out and got ready to leave. I did ask him if I could photograph it for a moment, and he nicely stepped away so I could take one or two more photos (this is one). I showed him the images, thanked him and then let him go on his way.

It’s probably no secret that I have a dream of owning a scooter, after living in Italy. I’ve taken one step toward that dream, by signing up for a Motorcycle Basic Rider Training course in mid-July after we move back to Oregon. I don’t want to buy a scooter and then discover I hate it, so I’m going to take this course and get my bearings and hopefully my motorcycle license. I also don’t want to let too much time go by, and let normal American life wipe out remembrance of my Italian scooter dream, so I’ve committed myself now. I’ll let you know how it goes come July. 🙂

Switching gears… along the lines of my post yesterday on claiming your artist, I later read this post by Stephey Baker at Marked by the Muse. It seems she and I were on the same wavelength! If you resonated with my post yesterday, I encourage you to check out Stephey’s article as well. Each little piece of information, each little insight will take you a step closer to claiming your artist. It you want to, you can do it.

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Back Alley Bliss

Oh, scooters. How I love thee. Wandering the back alleys of an old city, finding a vintage scooter amongst the texture and filtered light has become heaven to me. Do I see scooters because I love to photograph them, or do I love to photograph scooters because I see them? That is the question. Much simpler than Hamlet’s “to be or not to be” and, to be honest, I really don’t require an answer. I’m happy to both see them and photograph them, regardless of the priority order.

This lovely find was in Ortygia, the old quarter of the town of Siracusa in Sicily. We got lost in the back alleys trying to find the duomo, and it was scooter heaven for me this day. I’ll have several to share over time.

I’ve learned that is my favorite thing to do when traveling… wander. Just wander the back streets and alleys, away from the shopping zones. I don’t need long, just an hour or two. I can guarantee I’ll find interesting things to photograph when we just wander.

How about you? Where are you guaranteed to find creative inspiration?

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Lessons from Abroad: Put Ideas on the Table

Lessons from Abroad: Put Ideas on the Table

[This post is part four in a five part series. See the previous posts here: one, two, three.]

We’ve covered the first lessons from my experience abroad on finding your passion and purpose: Change up your schedule, Find a regular practice, and Get out of your comfort zone. This time I’m going to share a fun and easy lesson: Put Ideas on the Table.

As you begin to see the world of possibility opening up when you get out of your comfort zone, and you begin to receive all sorts of inspiration during your regular practice, you will find that you have a lot of new ideas. You need to put them someplace safe, where they won’t get trampled on. A place where they can be examined but not immediately decided or discarded. That place is “on the table.”

Let me explain what this means by telling you a story….

Early in our time in Italy, the move had definitely inspired my family to look at the world in a different way. As with any change, we were really examining our lives, both individually and as a family, and looking at what might come next. We had this opportunity, this little break from “reality” as I put it, which allowed us to dream up all kinds of crazy scenarios. The problem was, when my husband or I would bring up an idea, it was very easy for the other one of us to feel threatened and quickly point out all of the flaws – how it wouldn’t work for all sorts of reasons.

So during one of these conversations, where I had thrown out an idea and my husband was confused because it conflicted with an idea we had discussed several days earlier, I said, “I’m just putting these ideas on the table. Every so often, I want to pick one up, look at it from different angles, and then put it back on the table. We don’t have to decide right now.”

This concept, of putting ideas on the table, became a huge key for us to be able to really discuss ideas without the emotional attachments or reactions that can crush them too early or drive poor decisions. Let’s examine why…

It takes the idea from being a living piece of you, “your idea”, and makes it a thing, “the idea.” You can imagine it there as physical thing, sitting on a table, like a coffee cup in a store. You can imagine a discussion about it is the same as picking the cup up, looking at it from different angles. Then, you can just set the idea down and leave it there. No decisions or agreements have to be made from the discussion, just like nothing has to be done after you’ve looked at the cup. You’re just browsing. If the conversation starts to get emotional or personal, you can say, “Hey, ideas on the table here!” just to get the perspective back.

Not only does it reduce the emotional attachments we feel to our ideas, it also allows for several radically different and conflicting ideas to be held at the same time. Most of us probably like alignment in our lives. We have plans and like to know where we are going. When an idea that is diametrically opposed to our current direction comes up, it is easy to dismiss it without a second thought because of the disruption it would cause. But if the idea is placed on the table, it can coexist with numerous other ideas that have no relation to each other. You don’t have to think about them all at the same time or choose between them, you look at the ideas one at a time, and then put them back.

Over time, as you periodically examine the ideas, picking them up off of the table every so often, you will find that the ideas sort of magically whittle themselves down. Some of the ideas get dusty, sitting there. Some fall off the table and you never even notice, you just subconsciously discarded them. You might pick them up later, look at them, and think, “Yeah, done with that idea.” Eventually you end up with a few ideas that start to have actions formed around them. The discussion naturally transitions from evaluating the idea to acting on the idea. You may still not be fully committed to it, but you feel these ideas are worthy of more in depth investigation. Just because you choose to pursue one idea doesn’t mean the table has to be cleared off and all of the other ideas thrown away, they can stay there for the future.

This concept works with for you alone as well as with family and friends – any time a new idea comes to you. Here are some thoughts on how to use this to find your passion and purpose:

  • First, be clear that you are putting the idea “on the table.” This might mean discussing the concept of “on the table” with your partner or just writing it down in your journal that you are approaching the evaluation of the idea this way. This frees up the emotional attachment, the fear of putting the idea out there only to be crushed. If you are going to use this with other people, I recommend starting it with ideas that are not the about your core – your passion and purpose – to make sure the other person really gets it and will play along. You might need to nurture those core ideas on your personal table for a while so they don’t get crushed too early by others who aren’t playing along.
  • Once the idea is “on the table,” feel free to examine it or not as often as you like. It will be there any time you want to come back to it. If you feel yourself obsessing about it, leave it for a while. If you find you are dismissing ideas before you get a chance to get them on the table, consciously acknowledge the idea and then just leave it there.
  • Use a physical tool, like sticky notes or a journal to represent the ideas if you want to “keep” them somewhere in the real world along with on the virtual table. I have an idea notebook, where I scribble ideas as they come to me, just to put them somewhere and move them out of my mind. Sometimes, I come back to these ideas naturally, examine them and start to do something with them. Other times, I will only examine them when I flip through the notebook. But they aren’t lost, immediately dismissed to be never thought again.
  • If you find yourself starting down the path of action with an idea, either dismissing it or putting it into use, just do a quick check if that is really aligned with your true intention or if you are caught up in the “action trap” where you feel you have to decide in that moment. If your gut check says, yes, it’s time to move on this idea – then move.

The entire concept of “putting ideas on the table” has been a huge benefit for me, my family and anyone I’ve shared it with. Without this, an idea that needs time to grow and mature to be accepted can be killed too early. Or we can commit ourselves too early to ideas that don’t seem so good upon later reflection. The “table” is a safe place to keep them, examine them, and eventually sort them out – moving toward your passion and purpose all the while.

(Photo is from Dubrovnik, Croatia)

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