Poking around in other genres of art helps me find clarification for my art thoughts. This week it’s writing and John Steinbeck is the author of today’s Photo/Art quote… “In art the subject upon which you concentrate is unimportant; it is the quality of your concentration that counts.”
Think about it. What makes you go ‘WOW!’ when you see an image? Often it doesn’t even matter what the subject is. But the lighting or angle or treatment that makes us see the it in a new way. This was brought to light when I was speaking in Grand Rapids to a photo group and threw myself a challenge… Take a found object and turn it into a piece of art. I found a paper clip and informed the class of my objective and received looks that ranged from “He’s out of his mind!’ to “There ain’t no frickin’ way!”
About a third of the way into the exercise I was getting ready to believe the nay-sayers and give up. Perseverance won the day and the paper clip turned into what you see here in this link.
My challenge to you today is to take something simple, whether it be a scene, an object or a person and through your skills concentrate and work it until you have an image that makes people either see it in a new way or go “WOW!!” Good luck.
