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IT IS SOMEWHAT COINCIDENTAL THAT AFTER POSTING AN entry about creativity that, today, I was told that I have a wonderfully creative idea. To wit…
…2 entiries back, I mentioned that I had assembled a collection of my photographs of my home town-made after the first The Forks ~ there’s no place like home gallery exhibition. I had done so “in anticipation of a gallery exhibition titled, The Forks ~ it really is a small town.” Well, as it turns out that, today, after presenting the idea to the Tahawus Cultural Center gallery director, the only anticipation in play is the anticipation associated with selecting the exhibition opening date.
Quite obviously (or should be), it was the gallery director who mentioned “the wonderfully creative” idea. He thought that the idea of exhibiting small prints-INSTAX prints in 8x10 black metal gallery frame-of a small town in a small gallery-the small gallery is the ground floor, tiny store front* of the cultural center-was both creative and somewhat subversive. But what he especially liked was my interactive idea to, during the opening, print out Instax prints for individual gallery goer requests (for specific pictures) for $1.00US per print. Of course, framed prints and a companion book will be for sale at more conventional price points.
All of the above written, since I recently addressed the topic, you might be wondering where this idea came from, aka: the source of my creativity…
…truth be written, there was no single source of inspiration. Although, it could be reasonably argued that my acquisition of the INSTAX Mini Link Printer-and my subsequent infatuation with the prints-was what ignited the whole endeavour. It started a chain reaction which went something like this….
….buy the printer and start making some “test’ prints of existing pictures on my iPhone library…one of which was a picture of my hometown and, I liked what I saw…a picture which got me to thinking that I have a fair number of pictures made of my hometown since the original 2010 THE FORKS exhibition…so, I culled out another 35 hometown pictures and started making some prints…the more I made, the more I liked them…the more I liked them, the more I began to think about a possible exhibition…which got me to thinking about a title for the work…hmmmm, small prints? hey! it’s a small town, and, guess what? there’s a really small gallery in town…of course there has to be a book…and then the thought occurred to me that, since I don’t need to make any money from the exhibition, why not sell, for next to nothing, INSTAX prints made on the spot?…bada bing, bada boom…a few short weeks later, I’m scheduling an exhibition date.
FYI, I have never bought into the idea that, if you are in need of a spark to get the creative juices flowing, get a new piece of gear-camera, lens, etc. An idea, that, iMo, is right up there with the-if ya wanna make better pictures, get a better camera-nonsense.
I also believe, or at least know (in my case), that while I have always had a reputation of being a creative type-after all, I was a Creative Director at one time-I can honestly write that I never had a sudden, spontaneous, out-of-the-blue moment of creative inspiration. For me, creativity was a result of rather mundane, sorta plodding along, moment to moment / day to day immersion over the course of letting an idea germinate and seeing where it goes. That, and begining each thought with “what if….?”
That’s cuz I believe it ain’t what you eat, it’s the why how you chew it.
*she wanted to have the exhibition in the large 2nd floor gallery but I insisted that it had to be in the small store front gallery.