Viewing category: Creativity
Day twenty-two
Had a few technical issues during yesterday’s enrollments which left me tearing my hair out for the first hour they were open, but we got there in the end! Luckily I had two guardian angels watching over me as I battled with technology: the butterfly that flew in through the window and kept me company, and the painting that arrived in the post yesterday from my pal Mati Rose. Wings & feathers reminding me to stay calm. For the August break.
[me & Mati Rose last December in SF]
How to take a photograph
Our Polaroid book will be more pictures than words while my Unravelling book will be more words than pictures, but either way, I have a lot of Polaroids to shoot and scan this year. It’s not a great hardship, as I take my camera with me wherever I go, but here’s a secret: sometimes this compulsion to take photographs, to capture what I see as I walk around the world, drives me insane; I know it drives my friends and family insane when I ask them, for the millionth time to stop the car/wait for me while I take a photo. Again. And again. And again. I feel anxious if i’ve seen an image and want to catch it, like a crazed lepidopterist chasing rare butterflies. This is why, given the choice, I prefer to visit a new place on my own*.
I thought a city like Marrakesh, with all its detail and colour and bohemian splendour, would make my head explode but, interestingly, I took it all in my stride, knowing it’s impossible to miss a shot when everything you see is a shot. I had a mental checklist of the Polaroids I wanted to get – spices, doorways, faded walls and the ubiquitous tea sets – and I scored all of them and so much more.
Shooting for the books is no different from shooting for myself – i’m not letting myself be too precious about it, as I know that’s the fastest way to manifest a creative block. But I know I’m shooting with half an eye on the final usage, so I’m looking forward to playing with my iPhone in August and just snapping for the pleasure of it.
The August break has no rules, so you can shoot whatever, whenever and however you like, but I thought I’d share my best photography tip in case you wanted to use the month for some creative muscle flexing. My best tip is this: As you look through the viewfinder, or compose in the LCD screen, look for colours, shapes and diagonals. Actually, if you only look for one compositional element, look for the diagonals as they will immediately give your shot a sense of movement and interest.
Okay, here’s a bonus tip: don’t worry about composition too much in August! Be free with your camera and use it to dive deeper into the moment you’re in. If you want to give your month some discipline, how about shooting your daily shot around the same time each day? See what a month of mornings looks like…
* I also prefer to shop on my own and go to the cinema on my own. Both heavenly.
* * * * *
I’ve had a few emails from people asking when the Blogging Beautifully workshop will be ready – to be honest I am shamefully behind in so many of my projects, and a few have had to be delayed while I focus on the books… and the BB workshop is one of them. But it will be here by the autumn, i swear! I was thinking I might combine it with my plans for the Writing Beautifully workshop, as both are blog-focused. As soon as I make some progress, I’ll let you know. Pinky swear.
The first rule of Fight Club
You know, when I wrote yesterday’s blog post I wasn’t sure if anyone would want to join me, which is why i didn’t put a Mister Linky gadget on the blog to automate the blogroll sign ups – I thought it would look sad if it was sat there empty. How wrong was I?! I am SO happy so many of you want to try the experiment – I think it’s going to be fun!
For me this won’t be a month of making “amazing photos” – it’ll simply be a way to record an intensely creative month in a mindful way; there’s a very good chance I’ll end up posting 31 snaps of my laptop as that’s where I’ll be all day, but i hope to mix it up and get out the house once in a while!
Some more thoughts:
1. The first rule of Fight Club the August break is that there are NO RULES. In other words, if you want to post a few photos rather than just one, or you wish to share a few words, or write a regular post, or leave a week out altogether – great! I know I’ll be freestyling too.
2. Use whatever camera you like. I’ll probably use my iPhone most days – as all my Polaroids are being squirreled away for the book(s), I’m really enjoying the zen of using my phone. And as I want August to be all about the words, it makes sense to use the simplest camera I own.
3. On that note, if you’ll be using your iPhone too, check out these apps – Hipstamatic, PS Mobile, Best Camera, Camera +, Perfect Photo, Monochromia
4. I’m sensing our month of few words needs wordless comments too, just like we did on this post. Maybe not every day – this is a great opportunity to get to know other bloggers so comments are encouraged! – but just so you know: smiley faces as comments are very welcome here in August :D
5. I’ve started a Flickr group for our experiment, so if you’d like to add your daily photos, and chat to other participants, you can. It’s a public group so anyone can join – all you need is a Flickr account (instructions on how to set one up (it’s free) are in my FAQ)
[I slipped on my Unraveller-in-chief hat then - ha!]
6. Other mindful things to try in August: Marianne’s fabulous 30 days of yoga; Unclutterer’s Thing-A-Day challenge – deeply digging both of these.
7. And lastly, there’s no requirement to ‘join’ this bit of fun, but obviously if you’d like to be on the blogroll please do leave a comment at any time and I will add you. And don’t feel obliged to add the badge to your blog, but blog bling is fun, so it’s there if you want it.
Here’s a new version of the code, as I know some were having problems with the code I shared yesterday:
<a href=”http://www.susannahconway.com/the-august-break-2010/” target=”_blank”>
<img src=”http://www.susannahconway.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/07/august_break_flat.jpg” width=”150″ height=”150″ border=”0″ /></a>
(Samantha shared another way to get the badge on your blog in this post – thanks, love!)
Okay! We have T-minus 9 days to get all our words blogged out before we slide into a mindfully recorded August… I can’t bloody wait!
Would you like to join me?
I need to take a break. August is pencilled in for book-writing madness, and I know i won’t have many words left over for this space, so I’m thinking of trying an experiment. I’ve always been inspired by Darlene’s December Views project, where blogging participants let their photos do the talking for the whole of the month, so I’ve decided I need some of that for August.
Would you like to join me?
The (loose & very adaptable) plan would be to simply share one photo per day on your blog – Monday to Friday, or every day. Or whenever you want. Using any camera – DSLR, compact, Polaroid, Holga, iPhone (my choice), Instax, 35mm, video – with or without words – anything goes – for the whole of August. No pressure - just looking at August through your camera lens as a way to be more present this summer. And to have a little break from the pressures and expectations of regular blogging.
What do you think?
I’ve been racking my brain this morning trying to think of a suitably jazzy name for the experiment but all I can come up with is ‘the August break’ so that’s what i’m going with :) I’ve even made a badge! 
So if you’d like to play along leave a comment with your name and blog address and I’ll add your link to a blogroll of participants so we can all visit each other throughout the month.
You wanna play? Spread the word – it’ll be like a blogging summer camp!
~ Tuesday’s thoughts ~
Watching this back I realised you can see the blanket my mum made for me in the background, so there’s a case in point: we were inspired by Sandra Juto’s gorgeous crocheted blanket that we’d seen on Flickr and tried to make something similar for my home. When i shared the blanket on this blog and on Flickr, i linked to the original inspiration. Sandra very graciously left me a comment on the photo, so i was reassured that she was flattered and not annoyed.. but there is still that grey area, isn’t there. If my mum and I were to start selling those crocheted blankets, would that be wrong? Maybe it would be… maybe we’d have to substantially change the design and take it in a new direction… find our own style, our own signature. Just as when I have been inspired by photographs in the past i have absorbed the inspiration but not replicated what i’ve seen… i wanted to find a new way to see.
Anyway, blah blah blah, these are just some thoughts today. This topic could run for weeks :)
~ Scents and Sensuality ~
Two things arrived through my door yesterday that have been delighting me for the last 24 hours: my copy of Style Statement and my custom-made perfume from Etsy seller Meredith of Sweet Anthem.
Style Statement was created by Carrie McCarthy (Refined Treasure) and Danielle LaPorte (Sacred Dramatic) as a way to uncover the two words that define and inspire you and your life. i remember discovering their website a while ago and at first glance assuming it was all about style-as-fashion, but I was wrong and it took a group discussion started by Unraveller Hope last week to finally plug me into what this is all about – and I'm hooked! I spent the whole of yesterday afternoon working through the book, answering the questions – some deep, some playful – to figure out what my personal Style Statement is. They work with the 80/20 principle: the first word reflects your inner foundation, your 80%; the second word is your creative edge, your 20%.
I went into this thinking i knew what my SS was likely to be, yet what i ended up with still managed to surprise me. My Style Statement is Creative Sensual and the more i sit with this the more me it feels.
And now I have my two words? The book says: 'Your Style Statement defines your authentic self…. Knowing your Style Statement helps you make empowered decisions – from your wardrobe to your relationships and work. When the spirit and the look and feel of your life are connected to your true nature, you feel at home wherever you are. You walk taller. You think more clearly. And the world responds accordingly.' Your Style Statement can be applied to anything from the foods you eat and exercise you take to a new business card design or the way you begin your day.
What's ringing my bell in particular is that i look around my home, in my wardrobe, at my newly-made website and my style of photography and i see my Style Statement infused in all of these things – and beyond. And it tickled me that as i worked through the book i was wearing a perfume oil* I'd commissioned – creative + sensual (and such good value – Meredith is lovely).
So yes, this is the most illuminating book i've worked through in quite some time and I highly recommend it. I also feel it would be a great way to uncover additional insights for anyone Unravelling with me, either during or after the course.
If you work through the book, or already know your SS, please do share!
* ginger, nutmeg, tuberose, patchouli – fabulous!
~ E-courses & originality ~
[self portrait from 1995, aged 22]
Yesterday it was brought to my attention that someone had launched an e-course that not only had the same flavour as my own but the course plan was almost identical and, most bizarrely, the website was pretty much a carbon copy of my Unravelling site. After emailing with this person I'm happy to report that the matter has been completely resolved, the site has been taken down and i received a very sincere apology. I don't feel i need to speak any more about this, but it got me thinking about originality and how we find our own voice.
It took me a very long time to find mine and it is still a work in progress as the things i want to say with that voice, and the things that i know, change and evolve as every year passes. The most wounding accusation you could ever level at me would be that i wasn't original, that I was copying someone else. As babies we learn to speak by imitating the sounds our parents make and even into adulthood we learn by imitation. And we are all inspired by others; the internet gives us access to such a wealth of information and heck, isn’t there always someone else whose idea is the Best Thing Ever and you wish you’d thought of it? But here’s the thing: as you try to find your feet as a creative person it's natural that you'll find artists you're particularly intrigued by and will set about analysing and imitating, whether you realise you are doing it or not. Same with blogging or writing or making music – we gravitate towards our teachers, the people whose art and/or success we wish to emulate. But the aim must be to take this inspiration in a new direction, not use the same outline and fill it in with different colours – the shape is still the same.
As recently as October 2007 I found myself sitting in Christine Mason Miller's studio in LA, collaging paper and paint alongside the artist who'd been an inspiration to me. As an illustration of what a diamond friend she is, Christine didn't point out that my creations looked remarkably like hers; instead, she showed me how to apply the paint. At the time i was struggling with my path and playing with mixed-media was a great way to stretch my creative muscles in another direction; however, I would never have dreamed of trying to sell work like my friend's. Apart from humbly knowing that she is a much more talented artist when it comes to paper and paint, I so ardently want to give the world my OWN vision…My own pictures… My own words. I’ve been striving to do this from an early age.
The photo above is me in 1995, a fledgling photographer at art college, trying to figure out not only what I had to say, but who I was. Most of my self-portraits from age 20 – 24 were naked; I reasoned that my skin was surely the real me, because when I put my clothes back on, I was trying to look like someone else. There was an older girl I admired at college and I spent a lot of time trying to dress like her, reasoning it was my new look. She fascinated me and I wanted to be like her. If blogs had been around back then I would have hung on her every word; I was working out what it meant to be me by trying on another skin first.
Fast forward to London, 1998; I’m doing my journalism degree and had the incredible good fortune to get two weeks’ work experience at the Independent on Sunday newspaper. Journalist Annalisa Barbieri took me under her wing and seeing my eagerness, and recognising my writing ability, gave me several articles to write before offering me a weekly fashion column. You can imagine how ecstatic I was! At the time Annalisa had just had her first book published, and she gave me a copy with the following inscription inside the front cover:
Roughly translated she told me that ‘beautiful words are made slowly, slowly’ – it takes time to find your voice. Be patient. Let the words develop. At the time i was impatient to have a book published, be a successful journalist and live the life I’d dreamed of. Now I understand the wisdom of letting time pass, of letting your voice mature. Eleven years later, and I think I have finally found my voice.
There's nothing new about creating an e-course, or a self-awareness course, or, for that matter, a photography course. It’s been done before and it will be done again. But Unravelling is my voice, my heart, on a page. I’m offering my course to the world to share what I know, and what I have learned from four years of grief, therapy, healing, photographing, writing and being patient as the words matured inside me. I share as much as I can on my blog, in my photographs and in my teaching, and I do it to help, to inspire and also, because I am a single person who is proud to look after herself, I do it to pay my rent and bills. So if what I do inspires you that is truly fantastic – but please share your own unique voice with the world, not a differently-coloured version of mine. Deal?
For more wise words, please go read Meg’s excellent post on authenticity, over here.
~ The sky is not a line of blue ~
Isn't this camera just the sexiest thing you've ever seen? The moment I saw this photo my heart jumped out of my chest. It's no secret that I have bit of a camera fetish – i currently have *heads off to check* 14 cameras, the latest of which arrived yesterday from the United States. Number 15 will be arriving on Friday (help me! it's an addiction and I need an intervention!)
All my life I have been making pictures. I remember the day my infant school teacher explained to me that the sky wasn't a line of blue at the top of the paper, it was blue everywhere. I remember being six and getting frustrated that I couldn't draw Billy Bluehat, and how my teacher patiently drew a dotted outline for me to fill in – I remember marvelling at how clever she was. Every week throughout my grammar school years I would recover my text books with montages of images I'd cut out of magazines, always including my crush of the week, but, more tellingly, they'd be interiors shots, flowers and fashion photos too.
At art college I filled many many sketchbooks, constantly frustrated that I couldn't draw the way I wanted, couldn't create the images I had in my head. And then someone put a Yashica SLR camera in my hands and that was it – I could see. I remember how I took photos of everything and everyone, thinking up fashion stories to shoot with my sister and how I took portraits of my boyfriend and then, inevitably, turned the camera on myself. So many photos of me from back then, mostly nudes, as if my skin could tell me any more than my clothes or environment.
Even in the wilderness years as a fashion editor i kept cuttings from magazines that i collaged into my journals, still plotting and planning the photo shoots I'd occasionally carry out with friends roped in. At one point I had a whole filing cabinet of cuttings – the images were my desserts when I was on a diet of words.
And then the crash and burn in 2005, and the rebuilding, piece by piece, into a new collage of me, undertaken with pictures, words and faith.
I share all of this with you because I've been thinking about how important creativity is in our lives. The making of things, whether it's photographs or paintings, poems or recipes, fruit bowls or blankets, sweaters or songs. You could call it artful living, taking pleasure in how you arrange your mugs on the shelf, how you serve your family dinner each night, where you choose to buy your fruit & veg. There is beauty in everything around us – and by beauty i don't mean the traditional notions of Kate-Moss-designer-interiors perfection. No, I mean the way your daughter keeps her favourite toys by her bed, your lover's toothbrush next to yours and the bowl you keep your grandmother's old pearls in. It's me walking through the snow yesterday, it's you grabbing a coffee with a friend yesterday in your lunch hour, or between lessons at college or before collecting your children from school. The things that bring us pleasure and meaning, the things that have nothing to do with an economic recession or global warming. It's lovely words like gratitude and appreciation and acceptance, states i don't always achieve, but ones i strive for every day nonetheless.
Judging by the emails I've been getting from the beautiful and brave Unravellers who have joined my e-course, we're all ready for some creativity and self-reflection. We're ready to take some time out of our week for us, to look at what we love, where we're going and, most importantly, who we are. Some of the most important healing work i did while i grieved my loss was to take photos of myself again, done to share on this blog; I delurked and others joined me (and it's such a shame i lost the comments when i switched over to Typepad). When i started my blog I initially tried to keep my face and name out of it – i wanted some semblance of privacy so i could share my feelings without censoring them. It was such a vulnerable time, yet the sense of empowerment that developed through sharing with a community was incredible. Now that i'm entering a new stage of sharing with the blogging community – and world at large – i think it's time i delurk even further…
hello, my name is Susannah Conway and I'm a blogger.
ps. There's still plenty of time to sign up to the e-course! Read all about it over here
~ Romancing the stone ~
[Photo edited on this addictive site]
There's a reason why I've been in so much pain – i have a sinus infection. I also have tonsilitis, but i have to say that that is secondary to the unbelievable skull-splintering pain this infection is giving me. Being ill sucks doesn't it, there's just no way around it. I'm desperate to go out into the park and shoot some film but instead i'm lying on the sofa groaning – just as well there's no one here to witness it. I think we all want to revert back to being kids when we're sick, when we can have the day off from school and our mother takes our temperature and wraps us up in a blanket with a big bottle of Lucozade. Being ill was miserable yet somehow cosy back then – now it's just an inconvenience. Everyone in my family is ill at the moment so we're phoning each other daily to compare symptoms; hopefully the penicillin will kick in soon and I'll be able to do some proper work without feeling like my entire skull is breaking apart and my teeth are falling out. I have a new sympathy for people who are plagued by migranes.
Anyway, enough with the moaning. I want to post some January views so i'll use these days-off-from-school as an excuse to prepare some posts for the coming week. What's left of my head is full of ideas for new projects and plans for 2009; I'm excited to get underway with the e-course, and have a series of podcasts i want to make, though i'll have to wait until i have full use of my voice (although maybe I should exploit my current Kathleen Turner growl? ;)
There's an abundance of inpiration in the blogosphere right now; I'm loving Jen Lee's Portolio Project and plan to give it a go when i'm on the mend. I also recently discovered lifecoach Laura Neff's site and have been enjoying her email newsletters. Lifecoaching is something that really appeals to me and I'd love to work with a coach sometime this year; for now I'm going to snuggle up on the sofa today and work through Laura's 10 questions for the end of the year:
1. How is where you are in life today different from where you were last December?
2. How are you different today, internally, than you were a year ago?
3. Of all you've experienced in the past year, what are you the most proud of?
4. What did you shy away from in 2008 that you wish you'd gone for?
5. What did you learn about yourself this year?
6. Who impacted your life the most this past year?
7. What are the most important lessons you learned in 2008 that you want to be conscious of in 2009?
8. What are you being called to next in your personal growth?
9. If you could create three things in your life the coming year, what would they be?
10. What parts of yourself will you need to call upon to create those three things with wild success in 2009?
Favourite things
Speaking of Polaroids, I just wanted to pop in and tell you about a new project that I'm really excited about. I've long been an admirer of Alicia Bock's gorgeous photography, and could see that she's as obsessed with her SX-70 as I am, so when i suggested a Pola-collaboration, I was thrilled when she jumped at the chance. Each week we'll be posting a pola-diptych of our favourite things (photographed with our favourite cameras, naturally) – come visit us here!
In other photo news, I've listed some new postcard sets in my store this week, and for the whole of November I'm giving away a Grace set with every photograph sold. I've written about my postcard fetish before, so these are making me very happy indeed.
Okay, this was just a quick update – my workshops start tomorrow and I'm just about ready but need to put the finishing touches to the handouts and slideshow. I've got that strange calm-nervous thing going on, as if i know it'll be okay but my body still has to produce some anxiety. I know the names of my ten students/explorers, and can't wait to meet them on this journey. I've been giving some thought to perhaps putting together an e-course of Unravelling: Ways of Seeing My Self – would anyone be interested in that? Just looking for a bit of feedback…. :-)
