spring break

For my Spring Break "vacation", Zac and I went up to visit my grandparent's farm in SE Iowa. They have a quaint house on about 500 acres of land, most of which is forest. It's always been a calming place for me to go and I've always wanted to share it with someone. We spent about 3 days wandering around the woods and a few other small towns.

[notice the badass cat]

It was kind of sad traveling to these places, seeing "small town America" decaying right before my eyes. There is a solemn beauty to all of these places and one day, they may not be here to photograph any more. 

I've been trying to do more personal "studies" of form, like I did with my "shadow paintings" post. With these images, I tried to create dynamic compositions, focusing on framing and creating a focal point. I also shot a lot of textures to be used in future projects. 

I had a strange realization towards the end of the trip about how I like to create art. For me, it's not about making something completely "original" or "unique", but rather the synthesis of beautiful and interesting things I can find and meshing it together with my own philosophy. I think that's how we all make work - whether we admit it to ourselves or not. We are capturing and analyzing what exists and we've shifted, as a culture, beyond "original content". This is especially true for the Designer whose call in their work is to connect and communicate with the people - making them see something they've never experienced before. 

For the past few weeks, I've truly found my creative, passionate voice again - which I had lost. Most of all, I just feel truly grateful to see all the beauty around me that I'd been taking for granted for so long.