Self-portrait with flowers

[vaneramos]

Comments

[leafshimmer.livejournal.com]

Boy, those are some trippy flowers you've got there!

dig the slowness...

[rsc.livejournal.com]

If you hadn't captioned this, I might well have missed the human figure, and I almost certainly wouldn't have realized that it was you.

[missprune.livejournal.com]

Seems to me your photography is getting ever more imaginative and daring. Way to go!

[vaneramos.livejournal.com]

They're metal sculpture in front of an art and photography studio half a block from my place.

[vaneramos.livejournal.com]

I know, I was getting a little abstract with this. I have taken pictures with better reflections at the same spot, but I like my ghostliness in this shot.

[vaneramos.livejournal.com]

I'm having a lot of fun with them. I'm just worried that it's going to turn out that I should have been a visual artist instead of a writer.

[rsc.livejournal.com]

Oh, I like it too... I was just making an observation.

[rsc.livejournal.com]

Why can't you be both?

[vaneramos.livejournal.com]

I seem to have trouble dividing my energy that way. When I did a lot of drawing, my writing suffered and I had to stop drawing in order to establish a consistent writing practice. I did a handful of drawings last winter while I was recovering from surgery, but I haven't done any since the spring. I'm as satisfied now as I has ever been with my writing habits. Maybe once I'm more established and confident in the self-discipline I'll feel more comfortable setting aside an afternoon each week to draw.

Now the photography is another story. I never dreamed I would enjoy it as much as I have been doing the past few months. I'm taking several dozen photographs practically every day. So it's great practice. It's just that I've never really taken it seriously except as part of my journalism career. I don't know what to do with it.

Part of the problem is I don't have an extensive education in any of these disciplines. I have a degree in biology and a diploma in journalism. I took three univeristy credits in fine art and design, and two college courses in photojournalism. I didn't study literature past high school, and this often feels like a handicap. I don't feel like I have sufficient knowledge or mastery of any of these fields to start dividing myself. I have so much to learn.