The Big Picture - 9 October 2010

As an artist, I have a tad bit of creativity. As a person with ADHD, that creativity seems to spatter all over creation. You would think that I would have a hard time falling into patterns, or ruts, but I always do. My wife always jokes that I am borderline Obsessive Compulsive as well. When I draw, I draw a lot of the same subject matter before I tire of it and move on to something else. The same is true for my digital photography. I seem to like to take photographs of the same ideals, just in different locations. An example would be all of my baseball stadium pictures. If we go to another city, I HAVE to go see a game and I end up taking tons of photographs that, if I did not know where they were taken, blend together to the general viewer. Can you consider my picture taking a “pattern?” Yes. Do I take pictures of patterns themselves? No.

I try my best not to be closed minded when it comes to art projects and I really liked some of the pattern ideas that were presented in “Sparks of Genius,” but where would you find some of those images in the real world? Can you find a series of M.C. Escher style images/patterns to take pictures of? Would they be natural, or man-made? The different hopscotch games would be great subject matter, but what is the reality of seeing them in the real world? The thought of being able to come up with different subject matter definitely piques my interest though. It sure would break up the monotony of the same-old landscapes people take.

The second portion of the reading assignment dealt on the formation of patterns. To turn this toward digital photography, I would like to think that taking pictures of existing patterns could become pattern forming. I was in a restaurant the other day and on the wall were a series of artworks that fell in line with Punya’s “take a picture of a letter, but it cannot BE the letter” assignment. There were artworks that said, “Love,” “Faith,” “Sailing,” and “Peace.” The artist even did “Michigan” and “State,” with the first letter being each school’s logo. The rest of the letters were of everyday items, or creatively cropped and manipulated photographs that generated the visual image of the letter. Was this a pattern? Yes. Was it intentional? Yes.

I talked to my obsessive nature in taking pictures of the same subject matter over and over. There is a reason I do that (other than I like what I am doing). I repeat my processes, trying to improve on my last work sessions. If I set out to take a series of pictures that dwelt on lighthouses, I would keep doing it until I was happy with my progress (which rarely happens…I am my own worst critic). I can form patterns without even knowing that I am doing so. I just do what I like to do and try to be the best at it I can become.

What do you see?