I Hide Away

A little bit of raw emotion here.

It's one of those days. I'm not looking for a pity party or anything but I am definitely going through a period of time right now where I am questioning my own work. We all go through this from time to time, and this certainly isn't my first round of wondering, "what does it all mean!!?"

I think artists can be particularly sensitive to this kind of emotion in no small part because the act of creating something is a deeply inward and internal experience.  If we are creating things, then by default we are crawling around  our own emotional insides, both dark places and happy places. Sure, we might share the finished product with the general public, but the process of creating is very much something we do alone.

As such, it is no small surprise that we tend to get lost in a lot of self doubt. This isn't necessarily a bad thing mind you. An artist who is aware of their own internal questions and limitions will probably do a much better job of self editing and self editing is absolutely key to showing a bit of cohesiveness in your presentation. At the same time, if you take it too far it can stop you from making new work at all. 

I think every artist should be asking the questions...what does my work mean? Does anyone care? What am I trying to say? However, we shouldn't let those questions stop us from making work at all.

Though I am certainly guilty of doing that too sometimes. 

Camera: Sony Alpha A850
Model: St. Merrique
Location: Portland, OR