Play Today

“Art is the gateway to knowing yourself. So let the creative process reveal all your intrinsic, bizarre, beautiful, varied, and idiosyncratic ways. Enjoy this process of honing your style and playing with expression. Finding your voice and experimenting with the way you create is a form of play. So get messy, and have fun. ”
— Aime McNee, We Need Your Art

I have found there are unexpected benefits from knowing myself through creative work. The big surprise is that by really knowing myself, I began to feel grounded, as though I’d finally found my feet and felt the earth beneath them in some solid way. Another sweet surprise: the more completely I became myself, without pretense or apology, the more everyone around me felt safe to be themselves. I still have moments of self-consciousness, periods of anxiety, patterns of avoidance . . . but more and more, I am comfortable being completely myself, and I credit this creative work, the simple and regular practice of making something, for that shift.

Conversation Pieces

I’m thinking I might like to work on a project that focuses on how the vintage oil paintings I’ve collected inform and interact with my photography.

At this point, it’s just an idea, a seed that hasn’t taken root, but is worth nurturing.

I’d like to see where this might lead. I am noticing that many of the oil paintings have common themes: natural elements (trees and bodies of water), soft geometry with curves and movement (think winding paths and picket fences), open spaces with places for the eyes to rest, seasonal elements, and above all, a sense of quiet peacefulness. Rest.

Let Me Count The Ways

. . . I love you. And other corny professions of love.

Honestly, I prefer love that I can count on. Not flowery or showy or grand. Give me steadfast and reliable and I’m good to go. We realized recently that we have been using the same handheld calculators to do our daily budgeting (yes, we balance our account every day) for nearly 40 years. Our calculators are now considered vintage—and so are we.

Daily Work-Out

I love seeing the world through a 40mm pancake lens attached to my faithful Canon 5D Mark iii camera. With the slim, lightweight lens, the camera feels like an extension of my hand, a path for my vision, and a soft landing for my heart. These photographs are field notes, a simple dairy of days lived well. They are my favorite way to work-out.