This presentation was meant to be a discussion about my early work as an artist, but it went in a completely different direction and I am so glad it did!
Being an artist is about opening up and letting the world see you in a different way, typically through your art. However, your art is also an extension of you so for anyone to truly be able to connect with your work, an understanding of who you are is critical to help make that connection.
Today, well, you’ll find out a lot more about who I am 🙂
This was a fantastic live event. Thanks for having the replay up for us so quickly too.
Thanks, Brian 🙂
This had to be one of the most inspiring videos I’ve every watched. Thank you for baring your soul so that we can see the evolution of art, so to speak. I’m totally on board with your closing comments…there are no accidents in this life, being a member of f64 included.
Wow, Kim! Thanks so much. I am glad it all came out. I wasn’t sure how it would be received, but I am pleased with the response. I agree 1000% everything happens for a reason 🙂
OMG, WoW, you are a brave soul! Im reflecting on and digesting what you shared today…WOW.
Thanks, Aniko, so glad you liked this event. It is not easy to share your testimony, but we can only grow as artists, and humans in general, when we share them with others.
An inspiring presentation. Thank you for being so courageous and open. I try to let my photography be a metaphor for what I am experiencing. Your talk makes me want to be even more open and honest in my creativity.
Dig deep! It’s fun… sometimes… lol
Thanks for taking the time to watch it, I am glad you were able to get some value from my musings.
Hey Blake! Just got the replay after missing the 05.00am start here in Australia. Your mate Jim recently got me to make a “Resonant Map”. In recent years I am lucky to say that you both now feature. Your generosity enriches us all. Peace brother!
My pleasure! I’ll have to look into those Resonance Maps. Never heard of it.
Thanks for sharing, Blake. This reminded me of this quote:
“Art is what we call…the thing an artist does.
It’s not the medium or the oil or the price or whether it hangs on a wall or you eat it. What matters, what makes it art, is that the person who made it overcame the resistance, ignored the voice of doubt and made something worth making. Something risky. Something human.
Art is not in the …eye of the beholder. It’s in the soul of the artist.”
― Seth Godin
So true! A huge part of creation is doing it, regardless of what gets in the way, the challenges, the voices, the doubt. Just gotta do it!
That was awesome Blake! I wonder if our paths ever crossed in the Air Force!
They may have! I worked a lot with Pararescue Units all over the world from ARC, ANG, and Active Duty. In Saint Joseph, I haven’t done much traveling, definitely not as active as I was with Pararescue.
Pretty deep, but much appreciated. And I was thinking that you were just a parachute rigger. I don’t mean that in a derogatory way. My son was a rigger in the USMC until he cross trained into EOD. It’s almost like saying that I was just the guy who read the parachute inspection record before flying, determined never to have to use the thing. I like the thing about letting your emotions come out and play. Being quite typical for a pilot, the emotions are there, but they aren’t allowed to come out and play. Nothing would be more boring than to see a drama on stage where all the actors are pilots in their day jobs. I’ve always seen my photography as an avenue to release the safety valve that holds all that stuff in. Thanks for posting this (I wasn’t available for the live feed). I think others, like me, will find this very helpful.
That’s awesome! Your son must have had some awesome experiences as a USMC Rigger! They are pretty hardcore 🙂
I like your analogy there and I also like that you use your art as a safe place to go with your emotions. That is actually a pretty advanced tactic and well suited with your day job.
Thank you for sharing your history and what makes and made you the artist you are. I have some strange old art works that I did too. Most were destroyed.
I love some of the prints you made.
Thanks! Some of that stuff, mainly the sculptures, are all but memories and pictures. I wish I would have documented more of them.
Can’t even explain what an impact you made on me today. I very much appreciate what you have been through and how you have grown. As in your one piece “Food for Thought”, you served a great meal.
I am glad you liked it. It was much different than anything else I’ve shared and quite honestly, I did not imagine it would go so well, but I am grateful it did!
Many go through rough patches of varying magnitude. A few succomb while a few pull through to exhibit positive emotions and inspire others. You are an example showing us where the silver line in that cloud is.
Love to read all those comments of like-minded souls 🙂 Just what we needed – wonderful, thank you, Blake!
Your piece of agony that you were told to throw away needs much more respect.
Yes, it was not pretty, but it is/was a stunning piece of art. How dare they tell you to get rid of it?
You were not in a good place, but you dug deep and truly expressed what you were going through. That is what you are telling us to do.
It is not the job of the artist to make us happy or comfortable. It is to communicate something of themselves to us so that we can have a relationship with the artist, and with the work of art.
You were practising what you now preach, and it deserves deep respect as a truly fine piece of communication.
I am a very happy person, but I do not want to just be shown happy things. I want to live on a broader canvas.
I hope you kept it!.
And thanks.
I agree with you for sure about art. But, I was pretty close with this professor who I think was looking out for me. She knew some of the stuff I was going through and I think it was her way of “tough love” to help steer me in a better direction, it worked, I needed that.