Making art is making your life
Posted by Tim Gruber | Filed under career, inspiration
A commencment speech by Sean Kernan.
Just remember what Sean says:
Making your art is making your life. It is identical to the process through which you continually become yourself. When your Art emerges from your consciousness, its bigger than your consciousness. It’s smarter and deeper than you.
Go looking for that anxious moment of not knowing where you’re going, and the thrill of getting there. Think of that moment in the cartoon when the coyote chases the roadrunner off the edge of the cliff, and runs out onto the air. That’s it, that’s your moment. Don’t look down. Keep running.
Always take photos for yourself. Enjoy the journey. Savor it. Hate it. Love it. Live it.
Don’t shoot for editors.
Don’t shoot for awards.
Shoot for who matters most. You and your subjects.
Ben at the Golden Gate from our on-going American Tourist project.
August 1st, 2008 at 1:35 pm
Hoorah devildog! Tim, read the document I’m sending to you in a minute. I read it about once every couple months to remind me of why it is I got into photography. It wasn’t necessarily to “do” photography. Like Jim Natchwey said at the Look festival, “I’m not interested in photography.” I’m interested in finding out things, freshly seeing, and exploring new worlds. Photography just happens to be a medium that I’m able to this, at times, effectively. Some day it might be painting, video, film, cave drawings, smoke signals, or maybe I’ll become a Peacecorp volunteer and take a vacation from the “creative” world and explore the lives of those who know the true meaning of sustaining life. We’ll see.
Keep up the good work and the thinking.
Cheers,
Jimmy “The Finn” Korpi
August 5th, 2008 at 5:50 pm
I like the way you’re speaking and thinking Tim.
Hope to see you in five years, both of us scraping by with books of photos telling stories we are happy with. The Journey IS the destination and keeping your soul intact is worth more than any $$.
Good luck with it all buddy.
August 10th, 2008 at 7:26 am
Wise words, that I think a lot of us tend to forget along the way. Stick to your passions and the rest will come.
Keep shooting those great pictures.