The Galleries of Light came into being
as a means for fulfilling these purposes:
-
To
share some images that have continued to thrill me, which led me to
feel they may have a similar impact on others.
-
To
acknowledge and "give confidence to" that potential ever
present in all of us to become aware and even consciously at-one with
what I call the Larger Life Reality, the infinite spectrum of
all-dimensional existence that includes Nature, Humanity, and what
many familiarly call Spirit -- or Consciousness or Life writ
large. The context that allows me to bring this up here concerns
a very broad avenue of interactive experience many find to this Larger
Life realization, through Nature and through Art. [See: I
Will Pour Thee Out a Blessing.]
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
On
the more mundane side, I also want to encourage people not to
be intimidated by a kind of (un)popular elitist ignorance abroad on
the internet in the name of 'professionalism' in photography; this
could be about any form of art, by the way. This is a miasma of
attitudes most of us buy into one way or another, such as individual
beliefs [and soapboxes based on] what we call "art" and what
is "good art" and what is not, and also personal feelings
about our own artistic giftedness -- or "not" -- which is
the trigger point, here.
Enjoy your artistic adventures and to heck with others'
judgments! How do YOU feel about your art? Don't let
fear and ... yadda-yadda ... of what others might feel or think get in
the way of following your heart. Whether to offer for others to
experience or not: If you do, I would like to suggest, let
them have their experience, but don't let them be your judge, unless
you use that avenue as strictly an educational device to further your
growth and understanding.
This brings up another pointy point: You know the old saying 'Love what you do' [.. and everything else will
be added--the joy of inspiring others, money, whatever starts your
tractor]. I feel when one is in flow with hir
creativity, heshe
could do a photo-shoot of a trash can and it would be an inspiration.
Let's use photography as an example: Many sites these days give the impression the only thing worth
photographing is basically anything not on the eastern coast of the
USA and that nothing less than an 8.1 mega-pixel camera [or whatever
it is this week] is the very least acceptable
qualitatively. I love those super clear and elegant 8.1 MP
pics, too, but lately I've been also discovering that 'blur' and
different qualitative grain textures dictated by different cameras
definitely have their artistic attributes. If beauty is in the
eyes of the beholder, thank God for differences. 'Different' has
always had an essential place in art. Can you imagine all artists' /
photographers' work looking essentially the same?
Not everybody can afford exotic travel and $600+ cameras. Look
around in your corner of the planet, of the 'hood -- even and
particularly on the [USA] eastern seaboard, which seems to be anathma
to some photo display sites -- let your love and excitement guide you. Enjoy the creative process,
p-l-a-y, have a grrreat
time, even if it's with a little brownie camera from 5 decades ago and
you can't go further than your front yard.
Your love and creativity will always find an appreciative
audience. Need some inspiration? Go spend some time on www.kids-with-cameras.org,
then turn loose the wild wonder of the little kid in your heart or the brilliantly intuitive
magician of your soul!
Enjoy the fun as if it's the BEST show
in town. It is, you know!