For years, I helped artists, designers, and photographers create their artist statements. It was always something they hated to do. Now a page has turned for me and I found myself creating my own artist statement. I share it with you.

My journey into photography literally started because one day I announced that “I’d like to give it a try.” In the past, I was the gal who when taking photos at family vacations would cut off the heads of my children, or compose a picture so that people appeared teeny tiny amidst a background of confusion. Not knowing of my past debacles with photography, my editor encouraged me to take the foray into digital imagery. Due to three blizzards in the winter of 2011, I found myself house bound and snow bound with two old cameras. Things seemed to work out pretty well and people responded to my photos in amazing and supportive ways which I never imagined.

I love what I discover through the lens of my new Canon. My sensibilities are drawn toward color, texture, line, light and shadow… always light, but sometimes also the lack of light and how that can effect the subject. I attempt to design my photos within the lens and usually do very little work in post production. I can’t explain how I went from being that gal who would cut off the heads of my loved ones to someone who is able to capture a moment, or a surprise in time, and share it with a community. It must be love.

About a week ago, a young artist, Chris Cane, came to my house to gather information and advice on marketing his art. Chris is having his very first art exhibition at the age of 19 years old. His work will be on display at Simply Pearls Gallery at Water’s Edge Resort in Westbrook, Connecticut thru May 5, 2011. When I asked Chris if he was excited about his opening, he answered yes . . . but there is a much bigger mission that excites Christopher Cane. He wants to take his art and his creativity and go to Thailand. In his own words, here are his thoughts:

I believe that like learning a language, a certain gap in one’s young life provides a significantly greater chance for the youngster to grasp concepts of the creative process, which can prove useful down the road whether the child become a mathematician, a scientist, or an artist. When a child is given a certain amount of freedom, with the right materials, he or she can reach a state of engulfment in the creative process which I attempt to recreate. This state of mind inspires my paintings as I create new variables of freedom in color scheme, pattern, medium, frame material, methods of application, style, etc.

Who is Ed Bartlett? Marine. Football fan. Music lover and social media advocate. He carves pumpkins with a chainsaw and is a guy who described being laid off as “perfect timing.” If you live along the Connecticut shoreline you may know his name because in just over one year, Bartlett has made it his job to pull together the people, artists, bands, and businesses of Connecticut.

Laid off from Linquist Builders Supply in March 2009, Bartlett wasn’t upset about it. His career had been successful and made him a good living, but it wasn’t until he started a Facebook page called Shoreline Out and About that he found his mission.

I was shattered. The editor had sliced and diced my copy into something unrecognizable. The article was to be an important piece for me. Of course, I know editors have a job to do, but the heartbreak came because I had not been consulted nor was the copy returned to me for correction prior to my seeing it in its published form. The real horror was that the editor had carved out chunks of text so that even the quotes from my interviewees were incomplete and connections between sentences were oddly missing. There were entire paragraphs that didn’t make sense. Yet, there it was in all its misery, published, engraved in stone . . . with my name attached to it.

Love. It’s what makes your heart sing. It’s rapturous moments of complete joy where everything seems perfect and the stars are all aligned. If we are creatives, we yearn to design, write, draw or paint with love too . . . but in the course of our days, the creative juju can get lost. We run our businesses, find ourselves more involved with paperwork, administrative tasks and a never-ending stream of meetings. We forget what it’s like to be deeply involved in the process of creation just for the love of it.

Sharing design love is the mission of founder, Troy Monroe, who along with founding members Rich Hollant, Constanza Gowen-Segovia and Brian Grabell created Design is Love.  With a gorgeous site design and welcoming language, Design is Love invites you to help share and shape a unique creative community with heart. But DIL isn’t just a meeting place for designers. If you are a non-profit, Design is Love can help you too by matching your needs and goals with a creative who believes in what you do.

I’ve watched this video several times in the past, but it’s something I keep returning to watch.  It speaks to the power of design and I wanted to share with you. Presented by TED – Ideas Worth Spreading.

AIGA Connecticut is doing it again and is presenting what promises to be another extraordinary workshop.  On March 10, 2010, award winning photographer and writer, Sean Kernan, will talk about real creativity.  This is not the creativity we learned in school or at work, but the stuff we knew from the start. The workshop will explore how our basic creative impulses affect our lives and our work and how new thinking can open our eyes to the wonderment of what might be an enhanced creative lifestyle.

According to AIGA CT, this workshop will not help you get work, fall in love or make you healthy, but it might just get you back in touch with those creative ideas that you perhaps might have had as a free thinking child.

Sean Kernan

Sean Kernan  lives and works on the Connecticut coast. His photographs have been shown in museums around the world, including the Bibliotheca Alexandrina, the Museum of Photography in Greece, and the Whitney Museum in the United States.  Mr. Kernan has also appeared in The New York Times Magazine, Communication Arts, Graphis, and the Atlantic Monthly. He is the author of Among Trees (Published by Artisan Books, May 2003) and The Secret Books, with Jorge Luis Borges.

This event is $40 for AIGA members and $50 for non-members. If you sign up to become an AIGA member at this event, the event is FREE!
To purchase tickets, visit AIGA CT Online

I’d love to get to know you.  Please drop me a comment and introduce yourself. Don’t be shy.