Tuesday, October 21

The Art of Life and Inspiration




On a recent blog post the photographer Zoe Strauss wrote an homage to William Eggleston one of her inspirations. She has created many photo in his honor and created creative copies of his work. Not least of all the beautiful photo she took of a red motel ceiling.

Zoe Strauss writes:

I don't work in a vacuum, no artist does, and I look to always pay homage to works that have had a significant impact on my life... and by default, my work.

I am a huge William Eggleston fan. Man, I could look at his photos all day, every day. He is a quintessential American photographer, who's impacted American photography from both sides of the camera... he changed the way many make photos and changed the way people look at America.

On this point I want to take a moment to talk about the Art of Life. Some moments you will catch a glimpse of someone totally lost in their work. They are so absorbed in what they are doing that they forget where they are and they don't have a goal in site. It is often about opening yourself and your heart to the materials you are working wit the process of using them. Matisse the great turn of the century master was found of saying that when he was painting he would ask the paintbrush what strokes it wanted to make. The great writer Virgina Wolf said she would get so lost in her writing that if a tornado where to come hit the house she would still have to finish the sentence she was working on before fleeing.

Today in the blueline Jackson stop subway I saw a wonderful singer-- if he was on American Idol he would be a finalist for sure. Go see for yourself and let me know what you think. When I came onto the platform he was in the middle of a conversation with himself on a old telephone that didn't work--but as soon as he 'hung-up' the telephone he broke into Barry White's " I can't Get enough of Your Love Babe".

And I can't get enough of how great his voice was, it still resounds in my ears. His song might have been an homage to Barry White, but he was so lost in singing the song that it became truly his own. Here is to inspiration, where ever you find it.