I’m on a roll these days. A roll creating imagery filled with delicate branches and fading leaves. It’s my own personal quest… Can I create just one more? Can I convey the grace and beauty of this transitory time? Can I create another piece that touches my soul? Maybe touches another’s?
What do you think?
Sometimes the thought pops into my head, I shouldn’t share yet another image like this. People will get bored. I remember feeling that last year with my bare trees too. But out of that came a body of work, Treescapes. Out of that came a more cohesive vision than I’ve had before in my photography.
So… maybe a fascination with something is really needed to develop vision. The desire to try to create just one more piece with a specific subject, a specific technique, a specific feeling isn’t so wrong.
I only need to look to the great masters, painters like Picasso and Van Gogh, to see they repeated themselves. They would often paint and repaint the same subject and scene, varying things slightly to see what happened. Why do I feel I shouldn’t do the same?
Maybe I’ll reframe it… I’m not repeating myself, I’m exploring the theme. I’m seeing how far I can take it. And when I get bored with it, I’ll move on. Until then, there are still branches with leaves to capture, for a little while yet. Then there are branches without leaves, too. Oh yes, I’ve noticed them. Their time will come.
What about you? Do you worry about repeating yourself, or do you follow your fancy even if it leads to the same place every time? Where do you think this idea that we must create something “novel” every time comes from?
Liking your reframe 🙂
I think the idea that something must be *new* is a mental hangover from the barrage of marketing we’re subjected to almost constantly, whether we’re aware of it or not. What’s fresh this season? the new and improved whatever, etc. As ever-learning critters we are hardwired to examine that which is new or different; the the marketing pastes the value judgement over top that. Or not… lol
Those are some great thoughts, Della. Media and advertising is all about what’s “new” or “hot” this season, isn’t it? Add to that our biology and we are really challenged with this concept. Maybe we need to retrain our brains along with the reframe.
Oh, yes – the old repetition question. I continue to deal with this issue. When is enough? How will I know when I have taken it as far as I can? How “new” does something have to be to make it worthwhile? I, too, try to lean from the masters who often explored a single subject with multiple works. I appreciate your contribution to this discussion and the way you have reframed the question.
Oh, yes, those questions definitely come up for me too. I’m starting to see, though, out of the exploration of a theme I can find a greater sense of who I am as an artist, what I want to convey and how to convey it. It’s as if I’m expressing myself in paragraph rather than a single word.
With a resounding YES, I follow my fancy even if it leads to the same place every time. But I do also find myself throwing new things in…which leads to being a new fancy until I get that look I’m after or it fills something up inside. This summer when I took a blog break, I was also in the throws of a very busy Monarch caterpillar/butterfly time . . . my hard drive is filled to the brim with thousands of photos of Monarchs. Each time I photographed one on my front porch, the lighting was different or it was on a different plant, or I shot from a different angle, but none the less it made me happy. And you know Kat, I’m not so sure it’s repeating as much as it is continuing the story.
“Continuing the story” — yes! That’s it!
I also forgot to say, yes, please keep sharing these they are beautiful.
Thanks! I will.
Beauty is never boring. Keep creating these beautiful images. I, for one, can never get enough of trees.
“Beauty is never boring.” So true! Thanks for that thought!