Has this happened to you? You see a face in the crowd and are inspired. Something about them gets your immediate attention… An expression, the quality of light showing off fine features… something intangible. Meet Jadice– who was once a beautiful stranger to me with just such a face. Chris and I went to a movie premier yesterday and on our way out I saw this beautiful girl doing a selfie with a friend. Though I walked out of the theatre I had to quickly double back and introduce myself. Moments later we were outside in good light and with my iPhone in hand to do a few quick pictures! So here is the artistic fruit of an impromptu photo session with a beautiful and unexpected model. Shot with an iPhone, turned into art using an iPad, three different apps and four different pictures combined to create this art piece.
Why it wasn’t done traditionally? You may wonder why I didn’t use my big pro Canon SLR camera and Adobe Photoshop program and technique on my computer instead of my iPad. Jadice was there, I had an iPhone, there was the urgency of inspiration. It’s the same reason Lincoln wrote down his most famous speech – the Gettysburg Address– on an envelope. It was handy. And the reason JK Rowling jotted down her first ideas for the Harry Potter books on a napkin while she was riding a train. OK, I am NOT comparing my iPad art to some of the greatest minds! The point is ideas happen, they happen fast. It happens to us all at one time or another…
INSPIRATION HAPPENS! It’s fleeting, it goes so fast and we must capture it while it’s there. Even on an envelope, a napkin or an iPhone. There may be traditionalists lurking out there but notice lately just how much a mainstream art expression our cell phones have become simply by looking at Instagram with all of it’s built in filters and ways of making pictures look extra groovy! AND iPhone pictures get published in some of the biggest newspapers in the country! Here’s an example slide show link with wonderful iPhone pictures by photojournalist Michael Williamson— two time Pulitzer Prize winner. Slide Show: The Washington Post, Michael Williamson.
Whatever world of self expression you’re living or working in what really matters is getting it, capturing the moment, allowing the flow and letting art happen. Feeling it, expressing it and not worrying about how to do it– just reach for the first available thing and get the idea down, the image captured. You can go back later and refine till your hearts content. I happen to like refining on my iPad in the toned down quiet of a late night. It has a very different feel from sitting at the workstation in a more business mind mode. It’s more relaxed attitude and the plethora of interesting apps allows a different kind of creative exploration. Not better, not freer, just different.
There’s a place for all of it and we, The Creatively Insatiable, appreciate that!
Be sure to sign up for my mailing list– upper right. You’ll get free original art and you’ll be the first to know when my summer workshops are scheduled! I’ll be teaching an App Art class too and you won’t want to miss it!
