rose 38, photograph
“And so you make your place in the world by making part of it – by contributing some new part to the set… Each new piece of your art enlarges our reality. The world is not yet done.”
David Bayles and Ted Orland, Art & Fear
Many years ago I studied philosophy, actually got my college degree in that discipline. At some point I came to feel that something essential was missing from this pursuit – it was too involved with analyzing the world and too little with being in it.
My odd life trajectory next found me writing software for a living and, for the first time, I felt that I was making part of the world. I had to sit in front of a (metaphorical) blank piece of paper and compose. This felt better, I was more involved.
Then I moved into management and, oops, found myself once again more involved in talking about doing rather than actually doing. I learned again how empty that could be, so I walked away.
Then I became a photographer. Now I get to add my individual parts to the set, and each day I am reminded that the world is not yet done. Makes you want to get up each day, knowing there’s work to be done.
Bob Cornelis' Art Blog 
Beautiful image. I haven’t done much with flowers, this makes me think I should look at them more.
Also interesting that I’m following the same path. Started out hands-on in the software industry, then management, and now I find photography to be my favorite thing. Not sure I can make a living at it, but it definitely makes me happy.
Hi Bob, glad to see you are posting again. I, on the other hand, have slowed to a crawl. But since the world is not yet done, I guess all phases have their place…
a beautiful image to accompany such lovely thoughts…the soft abstract notion of the flower complements your words nicely
Oh MY!!! This is a yummy, yummy image. WOW! Breathtaking….
You have your passion and it certainly shows in your work. This image just screams “crafted” to me. The effort and care is obvious. Nicely done!
Well put, Bob! I too found myself in an ‘odd trajectory’ in my life path. I went to school initially to be a teacher, then got a summer job at Hewlett Packard, stayed on, (for the money and the fact that I wasn’t sure teaching degree was my true future) got into programming and felt like I was building, creating something in the world, albeit code for marketing electronics. Then I moved into management – oops! for me too! But when I left HP to be a pro photographer, I found myself back in the space of creating, contributing in a new way, to the world. It’s ironic how we move along a path, your story is great and I hadn’t know that about you before. 🙂 Thanks for sharing it with us – and great image by the way!
I have found myself in similar situations where I end up getting too involved in something that robs the creative time, and then find myself getting increasingly frustrated and irritable! I think that situation is a given for most artists, which makes me think being an artist isn’t so much a choice as it is a necessary requirement.