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For the past three weeks or so, I have been posting 1501 Quotes Questions & Pondering on the Creative Process at my Facebook Group Page. I invite you to visit the group and sign up as a member. This is an opportunity to enter into dialogue with a wide range of people. You may post artwork based upon the quote. Add to the collection by posting quotes from your own collection on the FB discussion page. Think of each entry as an idea stimulator.

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When the Japanese mend broken objects they aggrandize the damage by filling the cracks with gold, because they believe that when something’s suffered damage and has a history, it becomes more beautiful.

Barbara Bloom

Installation Artist, Curator, Photographer, Designer

b. 1951

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For a synopsis of the book that accompanied The Collections of Barbara Bloom, by Barbara Bloom, at ICP.

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Photograph, paint, draw the face of a wrinkled elder. While you are working, imagine each crack filled with gold. How does that vision change the ways you see the subject? How different would our culture be if we valued elders this way?

Men are not born, but fashioned.

Desiderius Erasmus

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Albrecht Durer the Elder, Self Portrait, Silverpoint, Early 1500’s

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Rainer Maria Rilke, 1875-1926

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And if only we arrange our life in accordance with the principle that tells us we must always trust in the difficult, then now what appears to be the most will become our intimate and trusted experience. Perhaps all the dragons in our lives are princesses who are only waiting to see us act,  just once, with beauty and courage. Perhaps Everything that frightens us is, in its deepest essence, something helpless that wants our love.
Rainer Maria Rilke

We live in difficult times. We carry a heavy load of anger. We battle with entitlements. We place blame on others. Who firightens you? What frightens you. What actions may you take bring your passions into being, no matter what?

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Augustus Rodin (1840-1917 )

Photograph (C. 1907) by Edward Steichen (1879-1973)

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Rilke was Rodin’s secretary for a while, and Rodin one day advised him to go down to the zoo and try to see something. Rilke did and spent some time watching a panther. Rodin respected seeing, the ability to observe, to use the terrific energy of the eyes, to pay attention to something beside one’s own subjectivity. Rilke understood that his own poetry lacked seeing, and he wrote nearly two hundred poems in about six years in an effort to sharpen his seeing. Through that labor, Rilke pased to a new stage of his art.

News of the Universe, Robert Bly

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The Panther
Rainer Maria Rilke
In the Jardin des Plantes, Paris

From seeing the bars, his seeing is so exhausted
that it no longer holds anything anymore.
To him the world is bars, a hundred thousand
bars, and behind the bars, nothing.

The lithe swinging of that rhythmical easy stride
which circles down to the tiniest hub
is like a dance of energy around a point
in which as great will stand stunned and numb.

Only at times the curtains of the pupil rise
without a sound…then a shape enters,
slips through the tightened silence of the shoulders,
reaches the hear, and dies.

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How are you like the panther? How are you like Rilke? When do you make time to sit still and observe? This afternoon go to the zoo, a park, a beach, a… Then sit and observe. Meditate on it. Breathe in and Breathe out. Listen to your heartbeat. Show courage. Love what you see. If you hear voices in your mind, command them to go away or perhaps it would be interesting to listen without judgements. Do this for at least an hour. When you are finished, write in your journal, draw, photograph, create.Use the energy of your eyes.

Let us hear your comments. Did you do this exercise? Did you discover the essence of what you observed? Did you turn a dragon into a princess?

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Many photographers (substitute illustrator, designer, art director, copywriter, and other creative services) are off their paths. Some were never on their paths at all. They saw what appeared to work and followed in the footsteps of their heroes hoping they would reach their goals. We must reset our own goals clearly based upon our heart’s desires. It is only then that we own them..

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Blame Leads to Victimization

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Others are easy to blame for current conditions in the industry. There are many factors contributing to the overall malaise: crowdsourcing, recession, technology, 70,000 out of work advertising people, threatening changes in copyright law, devaluation of photography, etc. Threads on professional forums are filled with complaints that villainize the people with whom we want to do business. Why would you want to do business with villains? When we have villains, we often become victims and we make everyone and everything wrong. These projections are shadowy behaviors.

We do not feel safe. The level of safety that many search for is an illusion. Creating demands change. Change entails risk. Risk requires a temporary suspension of security. Creators know they are on the wrong path when they resist change, growth and innovation.

Some wait for something to happen to them rather than making something happen.

It is no longer effective to do the same thing, or even the same thing differently. We must redirect our passions to bring something new into being.

We must take a long hard look at the road we are walking on right now.

The photography industry is grieving the road familiar. Some feel lost. Others are wandering in new woods on unbeaten paths.

The answers are inside. Yet we were taught to search for them outside of ourselves. Creators who do not approach their work wholeheartedly become heartbroken, suffer heart attacks, heartache or heart failure, face angst, despair, desolation, heartsickness, lose heart, and more.

What may be done to help manage change? Apply the same creative energy and spirit used to make images. Embrace change. For me, it has often been about redirection of my passions. Passions do not change all that much. However, it is possible to redirect them. Our industry has changed so rapidly, many have not had a chance to catch their breath. Rather than gather in places where people spend time supporting negativity, accentuate the positive.

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Redirect.

Fan the Embers.

Set Yourself on Fire!

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Notice I have used the word redirection rather than reinvention. Reinvention means that your career is wrong and that you may need to invent it all over again. Redirection is finding new places, actions and methods to place your passions.

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Calling and Talent

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Vision is a calling. A calling is an inner urge or a strong impulse, a passion, some believe a calling may be divinely inspired. How will the world be a different place as a result of your visit on the planet? What is your calling? What is it that you feel the urge and passion to bring into being no matter what?

Do you have a natural marked innate ability, for artistic accomplishment? That is a definition of talent. Talent and calling must be present to sustain a career as a professional artist.

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The Heartstorming Career Redirection Workshop

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Discover new ways to manifest and redirect your dreams.
Articulate your calling.
Explore alternative markets.
Learn how to set goals based upon your passions that
don’t end up in the back of a drawer.
Find ways to stay on your path.
Identify what you want and set priorities.
Create an action plan to do what you want
and overcome the obstacles.

I am planning a series of career redirection workshops beginning in the Fall. I know money is tight. However I believe many would benefit from redirecting their careers. So, I have come up with a plan.

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What if?

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What if we present a two day workshop? What if we charged a fee of $500 a person? What if we offered it at half price, if you were to bring one of your business friends who may wish to redirect their passions too? What if we offered the workshop for free, if you bring two others?

This will allow you to become a linchpin by linking yourself to a wide range of people from other disciplines and to make a difference in their careers and your own.

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Feedback Requested

I am searching for sponsors for these events. I would like to let them know what you think about this idea. Please respond by commenting on this post or email me at iansummers@heartstorming.com or call me at 610-393-6816. I will be happy to answer your questions and to discuss the possibillities. I am creating this workshop to meet your needs and desires.

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