Every human is an artist. The dream of your life is to make beautiful art. - Miguel Angel Ruiz
*Warning* - I
apologize now for the long post you are about to read
I have always loved art. Even as a child I loved to do just
about anything you can think of that would classify as art. Painting,
photography, drawing, clay, the list could go on and on. As I got older I took
many classes, especially in high school. I loved anything that would let me
create. As I entered college reality, unfortunately, came as a priority. I had
always wanted to be a teacher, even more than making art, for as long as I can
remember. I have this vivid memory of acting out being a teacher and my
grandmother was my student when she came up to watch me when my sister was
born. My ideal situation was to be an art teacher, but with the job market
already so difficult I decide to head toward elementary and special education.
Not that I don’t love teaching, but I have really missed just making art. In
the last few months I’ve really been devoted to following those creative
pursuits in my free time, but somewhere deep down I have this voice that nags
me about making art. I struggle with the doubt in believing that I can actually
be an artist. I’ve always believed that an artist sees things differently and
has this special gift to make others feel emotions through their art. I know I
have some abilities, but I struggle with believing I am actually making
something meaningful.
This brings me to my photography. Thanks to a coworker who
shared this video on her Facebook feed, I’ve had a lot more confidence and
motivation to continue my work. It may look like crap at first, but that’s just
part of the journey. I think out of all the areas of art, the one that spoke
most to me was photography. My dad was my biggest role model. He was (and still
is) a fantastic amateur photographer. Most of my memories of him when I was a
child involved him and his camera. It seemed like he always had it with him and
boy do we have the boxes upon boxes of photographs and negatives to prove it.
Now that I am older, I find it interesting how similar we are. Not only do we
share the loves of photography, but my dad has been a teacher since before I
was born.
Now that I have the time to start pursuing my interests
again, I have never been so excited to learn something new again. So this
Christmas, my amazing dad bought me my first DSLR camera. I have played with a
variety of cameras in my life, but my favorite was an old film Nikon my dad let
me borrow for my photography class. I love my new camera, but I have to admit
it was intimidating to try and remember all my old lessons from taking
photography in high school.
In the last month I’ve been slowly working on trying to remember
how to change all the settings to achieve the pictures I want. My goal was to
finally be able to take some great pictures using Manual. I am excited to say
that, that day is here! I wanted to share some recent pictures I’ve been
taking, and yes they are all me!
My journey is far from over and I will always be learning,
but it feels good to be making some major accomplishments. I also wanted to use
this post to show what we’ve been up to lately. As you can see from some of the
outdoor photos, we’ve gotten a bunch of snow recently. I love being set back in
a more wooded area, but man is our driveway a pain-in-the-neck to maintain.
Thank goodness for my awesome guy and a working snow blower.
As I mentioned in an earlier post, this time of the year is crazy
for me. I literally feel like I’m drowning in typing and paperwork. I think my
keyboard may soon become a part of my fingers. I sometimes find it hard to
blog, just because I don’t want to look at the computer screen anymore. I’ve
been trying to make a conscious effort to get out and do something relaxing
such as taking pictures and painting.
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