Just doing my thing.
I’m often asked what I’m up to; what things I’m working on, what projects are happening , where my words are published and where my photographs are showing. For the last couple of years I’ve taken to not discussing this generally and instead, just doing it. In the beginning I found it important to voice everything I did – part pride, part disbelief, part reassurance. But then I decided I didn’t need to do this and that the pressure to “perform” or “prove myself” had become too much and unnecessary.
So instead of sharing every detail of my work, I quietly went about my own business and let it flourish without the spotlight. Chances are if you’ve picked up a major travel magazine or read the travel section of any US or Canadian newspaper you’ve seen my work. My photographs have been in galleries from London to Vancouver and my artwork has been in stores and on book covers. I’ve been working on major movie sets doing everything from stand-in work to production coordination. Despite being quiet on the web, I’ve been living loudly, happily, and successfully. In fact, I’ve been more productive, more creative and more successful since becoming private about my work – probably due to the fact that instead of taking time to write about it, question it and over think it with a blog-thought, I was just all action.
A couple of years ago I stopped reading artists blogs, books, websites, creative ideas and trying to validate everything. I just did what I wanted and what worked and let everything fall as it may. Although one can find inspiration from others and their work, I think it’s more important to just do the work you’re capable of without judging it or comparing it to where others are. You shouldn’t be keeping a scorecard or trying to prove something to an audience.
Art is about expressing what’s in you without judgment and ego. For me, that means to do anything and everything that pops into my head, continue making a great living at it, enjoying all the great bits and messy ones but never having to explain what it is I do. That freedom is what allows me to keep moving forward and working every step of the way.