REPAIR RESET: tiny shelter • tiny wonders
When the pandemic struck in 2020, the world shut down and daily living routines changed overnight. Lives altered. Dreams interrupted. And that meant the artist’s relationship to their creative process and studio routines changed too.
Luckily as a digital artist I could stay in touch with friends and family via the computer. I could continue to create artwork and exhibit digitally. But even with these technological advantages ... something was missing.
What I originally considered “home”, became a self-imposed shelter. No longer was it a place to return to from the outside world, but an entire world in itself. To adjust I needed to engage with my home-turf in a more “mindfully creative” way.
So I decided to take four photos a day with my cell phone as a reminder that my world (even if very small) is still a place of wonder. I thought perhaps by capturing the details of my surroundings I could find a way to connect to the world at large.
And so it began … my daily practice of taking four photos every day to see what I could discover.
The photo didn’t have to be perfect or in focus, just an honest recording of something observed. What intrigued more was a chance to study something up-close for its colors, patterns, or shapes that I would normally miss in my former busy pre-pandemic life.
At first I wasn’t sure if this creative practice could sustain itself. How many pictures of the vase on the coffee-table can one take? But after photographing for 18 months, I discovered a limitless world of wonder right in front of me. Tiny didn’t mean empty. Nor unrelated. With each photo taken I began to realize that, “yes, a photo tells a story” ... but it also tells “a collective story “ once combined with others. ... which in itself becomes a community.
The resulting artworks contained complex relationships stemming from a single moment of mindful observation … the capture of a tiny over-looked detail that revealed a hidden world of wonder.
Luckily as a digital artist I could stay in touch with friends and family via the computer. I could continue to create artwork and exhibit digitally. But even with these technological advantages ... something was missing.
What I originally considered “home”, became a self-imposed shelter. No longer was it a place to return to from the outside world, but an entire world in itself. To adjust I needed to engage with my home-turf in a more “mindfully creative” way.
So I decided to take four photos a day with my cell phone as a reminder that my world (even if very small) is still a place of wonder. I thought perhaps by capturing the details of my surroundings I could find a way to connect to the world at large.
And so it began … my daily practice of taking four photos every day to see what I could discover.
The photo didn’t have to be perfect or in focus, just an honest recording of something observed. What intrigued more was a chance to study something up-close for its colors, patterns, or shapes that I would normally miss in my former busy pre-pandemic life.
At first I wasn’t sure if this creative practice could sustain itself. How many pictures of the vase on the coffee-table can one take? But after photographing for 18 months, I discovered a limitless world of wonder right in front of me. Tiny didn’t mean empty. Nor unrelated. With each photo taken I began to realize that, “yes, a photo tells a story” ... but it also tells “a collective story “ once combined with others. ... which in itself becomes a community.
The resulting artworks contained complex relationships stemming from a single moment of mindful observation … the capture of a tiny over-looked detail that revealed a hidden world of wonder.