Happy Sunday Morning and Welcome to Day 21… I usually wake up and start reading to try and some inspiration for the daily blog, get limbered up for the daily exercise and prepare my heart for the daily torture… Since it is Sunday and three weeks into this long and arduous challenge I have come to a couple of conclusions this morning. This week I will wake up at the regular time Monday through Friday and back off a little on the weekend. Not sure about the time yet, but sleeping in is a pleasure that I have not only missed, not doing it has taken some fundamental pleasure out of my life as well as a toll on my overall health. Sleep is important, challenges are not set in stone and I can adjust.
I didn’t have a topic this morning and I sat down here with a cup of coffee and the first thing I saw was my Windows background… That’s as far as I needed to go. Decode it, ingest it, and digest… I understand that not everyone has the balls to call themselves a creator but for those of you out there who have that fire in your heart this one is for you.
This morning I want to share that desktop with you. It’s been my desktop background at home for so long, I don’t remember what was before it. It is called the “Rules of a Creator’s Life” and it goes straight to the point…
There is criticism of the modern internet that it gives a platform for those who should not have access. So many people think that they are poets, writers, film directors and content creators that it dilutes the field so much and makes it difficult to find justifiable talent. I would say, not so… In, fact, I would say that if you are sitting back and critiquing others you really need to show me your credentials first. It’s easy to say, “His blog sucks” or “taking a picture of a shadow of a chair doesn’t make you a photographer” when you don’t write or photograph things.
Ask yourself this question… If a child brought you a picture that they had drawn for you, would you tell them that they suck as an artist and they should stop before they embarrass themselves? Would you tell that child that they shouldn’t be doing that? No, you wouldn’t. You would praise the child because of their effort and if you were honest, you might be able to see burgeoning talent and encourage them to keep practicing their art craft. Now, take that child and make it a 50 year old adult and try to figure out why you would criticize their effort. It makes no sense that you would spare the child and attack the adult. The creative mind is a miracle whether it is a 4 year old drawing their dog with crayons or that 50 year old posting a portfolio of their pictures online. It takes courage to throw yourself out there because there are so many assholes to criticize you. It’s ironic how creative they get in attacking someone else’s creativity.
I won’t go through all of it but I want to talk about what part of this desktop photo speaks to me. “Don’t Fucking Procrastinate.” caught my attention a couple years ago when I found this and continues to resonate on a daily basis. When we think back to those watershed moments in our lives, this is one for me. As I have explained before, I made running lists in my head that I never checked anything off until procrastination made it necessary. Put something off long enough and eventually it will do one of two things, it will age out or it will become necessary. Reading a book you are interested in may age out but change the oil in your car will eventually become compulsory. In either case, you lose. You lose interest in a book that might have changed the game for you and you lose your vehicle. Procrastination causes loss either way.
So for this day remember this…
You don’t have to be great to get started but you do have to get started in order to be great… If you get anything from this short blog this morning, understand this about yourself…
Humans lead with belief. Belief has to come first, there is no other way. There is belief, then action because once you believe you can do it, then and only then do you find the things you need to work on to do it. If you don’t believe you can become a photographer, why would you look into types of cameras, aperture, and lens speed or exposure times? When you believe that becoming a photographer is possible, you get a book and you research what you need to do in order to become what you think you can. The problem is that most people think that they need to do something extraordinary in order to believe in themselves. They could not be further from the truth.
You are what you think you are. Try this… You don’t have to speak it out loud, since you may be a room with other people and blurting affirmations are odd and may lead to suspicion of your sanity. Then again, most creative people get a pass because we are odd… Anyway… I wasted years of my life wanting to be the things I already was. I dreamed of being an artist and a writer and a philosopher… “Someday” was my mantra. I didn’t want to stick my neck out and tell anyone I was an artist because the immediate questions were, “have you had a show?” as if that was the indicator for a successful claim of being an artist. Vincent van Gogh and Edgar Allen Poe died in obscurity and poverty but I think we can call them giants of art culture. There is the possibility that the work you are creating out of simple love for the craft will change the way people think about art long after you are gone. Who knows, in the year 2160 you will have classes taught about your style and books will be written so that others can study your techniques.
So listen, your first set of photographs won’t be Annie Leibovitz and unless you are real lucky, probably won’t win any awards, but it will do one thing… Your first set will lead to the second and the second may lead to a lifelong love of photography as art…
In the 1981 book Danse Macabre author Stephen King discusses how people who meet him inevitably say “I always wanted to write…” King simply says that if you truly want to write, sit down with some tools that are designed for writing and uh, write… In my experience as an artist, I often hear people say the same. Whenever I hear “I always wanted to draw…” I simply say, “then draw…” On one level I understand, the pictures in my head are not always the thing that ends up on paper and that is frustrating and even after drawing for years, I still crumple shit up and toss it… The thing is, King is right about writing and I am right about drawing… You will NEVER get good at what you do not practice. Imaging a best seller does not write a best seller and imaging your drawing style does nothing for your technique… Go to the store, buy a cheap set of pencils and a sketch book and get started. So what if the drawing you produce look like fourth grader, we all drew shitty cartoons at that age. Draw every day and you will notice improvement.
If you truly have the interest, you can foster the talent.
I think that "I always wanted to draw" means "I always wanted to draw as well as you..." Or I always wanted to play guitar" means "I always wanted to play as well as you..." We want instant success, instant talent and instant gratification... For the decades I wasted saying "I want to play guitar" I could have been practicing but instead I simply wanted my fingers to do what a talented guitar player's fingers did but I wanted it without the gargantuan effort and sacrifice of time that it takes for a good player to become good.
Knock yourselves out… But please two things before you start; be honest with yourself about the effort it will entail and most importantly, believe that you can achieve whatever goal you are undertaking…
Have a day…
Love you all, totally fucking mean it.
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