Dealing with Disappointment

I am writing this blog following a brief spell of professional disappointment. Yes, I want to be honest with you, it does still happen. But, this set-back instead of overpowering me and rendering me helpless for a few days, like it would have in the past, has instead highlighted something. And that is how I have grown personally over the past few years…See growing older does have its merits!

I can now see that life is very much like being a photographer. We hold the lens and the zoom. We can turn our backs and block out what doesn’t serve us or make us grow and we can zoom in on that which nourishes and strengthens us. Where you focus your lens is what increases. Yes the set-back hurts and it sucks, but don’t focus on it. Look to the future.

Paradoxically (because I depend on it for a lot of business) Facebook and I are falling out. It does not give a realistic projection of what is really happening. People tend not to post saying how rubbish they are feeling, how they are going through a tough time or how they’re feeling insecure. If you are not careful it tends to give a thwarted image of other people’s lives and this in turn can make you look at your own and believe you are not matching up to theirs. What you are seeing on Facebook isn’t real. It’s an image. Hence I have reverted back to an ‘old school’ style of friendship. I choose to physically spend time with my friends and they get to see me, warts and all! Facebook IS great and it IS good for keeping in touch, but be careful  when you are mindlessly scrolling through the endless news feed what you are allowing through your filter. Remember what you are seeing isn’t real, it’s a projection.

And this leads me on to my subject matter for painting. I am aware there is darkness in the world. There was a time when I was just starting out as an artist and was in a much more negative mind-set. I started focusing on the debris and the poison that was around me and was photographing it with the intention of creating a series of paintings based on it. Luckily, that idea lasted about a month and I grew out of it, thankfully! But now I can see what I was doing and what my lens was focused on. The photos say it all!

 

 

 

 

 

Nowadays I am in control of my camera. I consciously point it at the beauty and the light in the world. It is that I wish to see magnified and increased. I am not delusional; I am merely pointing my lens towards the light.