From a Distance: Perspective in Life and Creativity

I am sorry for yelling at my son from across the lake. We would kayak and often he would drift off to himself and I would be the worried dad insisting he doesn't stray too far. I regret those moments because my fear of loss truly caused me to ruin a wonderful afternoon kayaking.

With some time and perspective, those moments made our relationship stronger, definitely more memorable and absolutely allowed him and I both to laugh now about it, with a bit of distance.

I did have concerns, I had family voices shouting in my ear, fears of not doing well enough, of dropping the ball. I had never been a single dad before, I was in uncharted waters.

For poetry and words on Past and Present-see blog post

for more kayak art

This fear of failure, of coming up short, of not succeeding often stops the creative person from moving forward with a project. I have recently drifted off my path.

I have been painting, photographing, sketching and creating my whole life. There have always been between stages but those I consider learning periods. Just as writer's block is a growth stage in writing so is a creative slump.

Nature speaks to me, it is my job to speak its language...ArtbyGordon

The most amazing thing about coming off of being unable to create is you can see things you might not have seen before. Distance allows our instinct and creativity to catch up with knowledge and discipline we acquired.

I have always questioned just creating landscapes versus portraits or abstracts, sometimes a landscape can seem mundane. I want something to show that no one has seen before, I want them to feel something they might not feel if they were in the actual landscape.

The master painters-impressionists specifically-captured light and made it say something about the landscape that one might not have seen if it were not positioned the way the artist decides.

Strokes of color, vibrating complementary colors, angles that give depth and distance: my goal is to make something come alive in an image, a light, something vibrating that the viewer has to question where or how it is happening.

I am haunted by light and color, techniques will fill in the blank spaces but ultimately as always nature speaks to me, it is my job to speak its language.