G. Steve Journal

It Belongs

A recent issue of Photo District News included an essay on noted photographer Harry Callahan's influence on his colleague, photographer Emmet Gowin.

Apparently, Gowin shot some street photographs in the style of Callahan's earlier work. When Callahan later saw them, he remarked: "I wish I could've done all of those. There was a time I could have and now I can never go back to where I was."

"This is a very important thing for young artists to know,"Gowin said, "to be in the time and place which is appropriate.  That which is appropriate – which is to say, that which is your property.  Something is proper to me, it's right for me, it's near my core, it belongs to my emotional orientation.

 

Seasoning

From an interview with George Saunders in the Paris Review about his new book, Tenth of December:

So much of that process [ of writing] is intuitive. Just deciding minute-by-minute, over and over again, over the period during which you’re writing the story. Sort of like seasoning to taste or something like that. I think that’s one of the maybe under-discussed aspects of process ... the quality of the split-second decisions you made...I just know from experience that my instincts are better than my cerebration.

Working Rightly

Alan Watts [1915 - 1973] was, for many, the author who first introduced eastern philosophy to western readers, and in a very accessible way.  Here's an excerpt on a theme we've explored many times in this blog –– "instinct" vs. intellect.  One finds almost universal agreement among artists, poets, musicians that, when at the peak of creativity, intellect takes a back seat:

Working rightly, the brain is the highest form of “instinctual wisdom.” Thus it should work like the homing instinct of pigeons and the formation of the fetus in the womb — without verbalizing the process or knowing “how” it does it. The self-conscious brain, like the self-conscious heart, is a disorder, and manifests itself in the acute feeling of separation between “I” and my experience. The brain can only assume its proper behavior when consciousness is doing what it is designed for: not writhing and whirling to get out of present experience, but being effortlessly aware of it.

 

Something True

A reflection on writing applicable to any creative enterprise:

"... that’s what art is for—for both reader and writer to overcome their respective limitations and encounter something true. It seems miraculous, doesn’t it? That somebody can articulate something clearly and beautifully that exists inside you, something shrouded in impenetrable fog. Great art reaches through the fog, towards this secret heart—and it shows it to you, holds it before you. It’s a revelatory, incredibly moving experience when this happens. You feel understood. You feel heard. That’s why we come to art—we feel less alone. We are less alone. You see, through art, that others have felt the way you have..."

                                                            novelist Khaled Hosseini from his meditation on writing