The collective unconscious, connection, creativity… a dream about dreams…
“Whispers” Conceptual Photo Art, March 2024
“there’s a song still hanging in the atmosphere
i’m gonna bring it down
can you hold the ladder
will you help me dear
will you help me out?”
Words hide out on the tip of the tongue…
Sometimes I feel ideas buzzing on the tip of my mind, their presence felt, but not solid enough to hold onto, not clear enough to pull down to earth.
I think ideas choose who to visit, testing each vessel like Goldilocks, looking for that just-right formula of openness and skill. Our capacity to embrace each idea informed by the culmination of our life experience and circumstance… when a faint melody whispers, how much mental clarity can we offer it to become louder? How much time can we devote to its development?
These things determine whether that idea will make itself fully known to us or move on to an artist better suited to its manifestation. You may see it pop up in the algorithm a month or so later… maybe with a twinge of regret. “Ah, but I’m glad they found someone. Maybe next lifetime.”
They remind us that the time is always now. The moment is ripe. Use what you have. Fly with broken wings if you must… and bring it down.
i’m gonna bring it down
can you hold the ladder
will you help me dear
will you help me out?”
Words hide out on the tip of the tongue…
Sometimes I feel ideas buzzing on the tip of my mind, their presence felt, but not solid enough to hold onto, not clear enough to pull down to earth.
I think ideas choose who to visit, testing each vessel like Goldilocks, looking for that just-right formula of openness and skill. Our capacity to embrace each idea informed by the culmination of our life experience and circumstance… when a faint melody whispers, how much mental clarity can we offer it to become louder? How much time can we devote to its development?
These things determine whether that idea will make itself fully known to us or move on to an artist better suited to its manifestation. You may see it pop up in the algorithm a month or so later… maybe with a twinge of regret. “Ah, but I’m glad they found someone. Maybe next lifetime.”
They remind us that the time is always now. The moment is ripe. Use what you have. Fly with broken wings if you must… and bring it down.
“Iterations” Conceptual Photo Art, March 2024
How many iterations of you exist inside your mind?
How many versions of what you wish to express roll around up there unspoken, unmanifest, held close or held back?
And which version is the most true?
Are the pieces of us we choose to share the ones that really count or is it the most precious and sacred, those reserved for ourselves only or maybe a select few?
And what about the parts we don’t even know about or understand, those mysteries yet to be revealed… discoveries about ourselves we haven’t yet made but remain there just the same, driving our choices, shaping our behavior. She lies in wait for that future moment to finally make her way from the unconscious to the conscious and shed a whole new light on the events of the past. She was there all along….
How many versions of what you wish to express roll around up there unspoken, unmanifest, held close or held back?
And which version is the most true?
Are the pieces of us we choose to share the ones that really count or is it the most precious and sacred, those reserved for ourselves only or maybe a select few?
And what about the parts we don’t even know about or understand, those mysteries yet to be revealed… discoveries about ourselves we haven’t yet made but remain there just the same, driving our choices, shaping our behavior. She lies in wait for that future moment to finally make her way from the unconscious to the conscious and shed a whole new light on the events of the past. She was there all along….
“The Pedestal” Conceptual Photo Art, June 2024
The view from atop the ivory tower is grand and will almost always leave you breathless. But not for the reason you think.
Compassion and community are oxygen for the lungs and the soul. Connection thrives when we can look one another in the eye, on even ground, and know we are the same.
The ego may kick and scream, denying that very sameness that would soothe its ailing, wailing, lonely heart. Sameness is not a shame. It doesn’t banish you to the pits of mediocrity, but raises you to the heavens of generations of earthly greatness. What an honor to be the same as the greatest creators, creatures, the wise women, the ocean and the trees.
Or you can stay up there, on the pedestal where they put you. Perfect and untouchable. Beautiful and suffocating.
“End of the Line”
Conceptual Photo Art, April 2024
Some ideas may find another outlet to plug into and find expression. Some may die with you.
It’s easy to feel like our words and work don’t matter. Image and information over-saturation… everything has already been said, already been made, and better than we ever could. Why add to the noise?
I’m a fairly quiet person. I hang back in group social settings, never beg for attention that’s not freely given. Yet I feel consistently compelled to create and share the beauty I find that makes my life worth living. There will never be a moment like this again, and I am the only one witnessing it from this particular point in space and time.
Your unique perspective lives and dies with you, and it may just be the lifeline for someone else.
“Swimming in the Subconscious”
Conceptual Photo Art, March 2024
Others exist for us through the lens of our own subjectivity, there is no way around this. To see them as they are, and not as we are… a noble endeavor, but seemingly impossible.
But then maybe objectivity isn’t the point. Maybe this isn’t a flaw but an essential element of the human condition that we have yet to fully embrace. We’ve spent so long striving for a state of emotionless intellectualism that we have failed to notice how much we can learn through feeling.
When we think of others as ourselves, we get into all kinds of trouble… ignoring the important differences in our life experiences, neuro types, preferences, etc.
…but feeling others as ourselves, seeking to understand them as we would seek to understand a new limb of our own body: how it moves, what it needs, how we can work together… this might be the key to a new level of connection with each other. Thinking we already know the other is a mistake. Forcing them into a preconceived notion that upholds our false concept of Self is oppressive. Feeling into the mystery is a gift.
…but feeling others as ourselves, seeking to understand them as we would seek to understand a new limb of our own body: how it moves, what it needs, how we can work together… this might be the key to a new level of connection with each other. Thinking we already know the other is a mistake. Forcing them into a preconceived notion that upholds our false concept of Self is oppressive. Feeling into the mystery is a gift.
“Know yourself as nothing. Feel yourself as everything.” -Alan Watts
“Into the Mystery”
Conceptual Photo Art, March 2024
A fascination with the unseen elements of existence has led me down more than a few dead-end paths. False gurus, self-obsessed feedback loops, pseudo-spiritual white-washed entitlement abounds, and I’m their target market. I’ve fallen prey. And I’m still learning…
But even as my discernment improves, my fascination remains. I’m not buying the law of attraction, but I know the power of synchronicity… and it doesn’t lead to more wealth, prosperity, and power. It leads to more connection: with nature, to others and to deeper layers of my own being. Feeling more connected may make my work in the world more valuable, but that will never be fulfilling without more connection. Anything that interrupts that stream is taking me further from my potency.
I feel the power of synchronicity, but I don’t understand it. I respect the wisdom of my dreams, notice the symbols when they appear, cry happy tears when I see the confirmation Ive needed… but I don’t pretend to begin to comprehend how such a thing is possible or whether it’s “all in my head.” I follow the clues to more connection and let my heart open a little more each time.
“Solar Center”
Conceptual Photo Art, March 2024
Our inherent interconnected nature, now externalized through a World Wide Web, is bringing us closer to the singularity of information and intelligence. We are throttling towards a paradigm which levels the playing field and no longer gives an elite few the power to control our collective narrative and mythology.
Trying to stop the revolution now is like trying to put a cat back in a bag except the cat is millions of feral human beings unwilling to accept anything less than our full power and birth right: the right to peace, freedom and full autonomy.
We have everything on this planet to create heaven on earth. Those who would rather create violence and war to build their own wealth will be exposed for what they are: small, sad, weak little creatures who lack the heart and imagination to build a world based on mutual curiosity and respect rather than hierarchy and subjugation.
Sometimes it feels like I can lift my head up beyond the surface of this current story to see a new one unfolding. We can’t give up now.
“Fear of Lucidity”
March 2024, Conceptual Photo Art
Dreaming lets us walk around the contents of our mind, to engage with thought-forms as entities, to ask them questions, touch them, hug them, observe their movements, and play out potential futures.
Went on a sleepwalk with a friend.
We took pictures around church hill at night.
It felt like a dream. It probably was. Our waking world may just operate the same as dreams- showing us externalized landscapes that reflect our inner ones, symbols of our repressed, unaddressed aspects of the psyche, there for our engagement to better understand who and what we are.
We took pictures around church hill at night.
It felt like a dream. It probably was. Our waking world may just operate the same as dreams- showing us externalized landscapes that reflect our inner ones, symbols of our repressed, unaddressed aspects of the psyche, there for our engagement to better understand who and what we are.
That’s how I see it anyway. Everything is symbolic, every happening reveals more of the mystery. It doesn’t happen for a reason, it happens like a dream, to play out the possibilities, to explore the self through the senses.
“Cat’s Cradle”
Conceptual Photo Art, March 2024
Creative collaboration is magic. When multiple minds turn their attention and intention to bringing down a singular expression of the unseen, their spirits become entwined on new levels. It sends a message to the subconscious: we’re together in this.
Even after the ritual, when each creator goes their own way, the spirits of the others remain, offering a little push here and a little pull there, forever woven into the tapestry of one another’s process.
Witnessing these 3 creator beings stitch and weave in and out of each other’s creative work is a special sight to behold… stunning photographers and models all, shining new light on one another through celebration of their uniqueness. To be seen and uplifted by them is to be granted a superpower. What an honor.
“Unified Field”
Conceptual Photo Art, March 2024
There are days I sit here contemplating how to share my chaotic visual inner world in words and it feels like digging through thick mud to find them. I don’t think in words most of the time. I think in movies and flashing images, incoherent and non-linear. Forcing the information into a narrative stream to share with others is arduous.
This is partly why my collaborative relationships with other creatives are so special to me. The work provides a bridge for us to meet halfway. There are some words, but they become less important. Abstract concepts, visual through-lines, conscious and unconscious symbolism all come through to communicate on various levels for the purpose of expressing something shared and transcendent between us. We stretch up as our roots reach down into the same soil, our bodies a bridge between seen and the unseen.
As I spent many years studying dance, I became acutely aware of the hive mind that can be achieved between collaborators who spend significant time together in this bridge-space. Locked in to synchronized step, I witnessed a form of what I would describe as telepathy emerge. We would anticipate each other’s next move, next thought… full conversations taking place without words, understanding the unspoken “why” of each creative choice. Riding the same wave, collecting rain from the same cloud.
Having felt this myself, I love seeing it in others. These types of relationships are some of the most soul-nourishing and I wish for every person to find this at least once in their life. To keep finding it in mine is what keeps me hopeful that no matter what happens, no matter what kind of destruction and atrocity befalls this planet, there will always be magic in little corners of creative community. Keep carving these spaces and making these moments. Forever.