Things that have influenced my work as an artist since the day I picked up a camera:
cinema
music
my mental health
And writing
My whole life I have been enthralled with movies and music. Those were two things I knew I could watch or listen and feel seen. Feel like finally someone gets it. The first time I heard Florence + the Machine’s Never Let Me Go I sat on the floor and sobbed because finally someone put to words what was inside my head. Not a lot of people know why Florence is such an important part of my life. But I have loved her since I was 14 because then and now she gives me that feeling of “yes finally someone gets it”.
Writing, despite thinking I’m not very good at it, has been a part of my life since I can remember. Started as writing short stories as a child to now jotting down my thoughts into the notes app of my phone. Now I find writing how I feel much easier than speaking it. As a matter of fact I prefer it.
My mental health. The big elephant in the room and a constant in my work since I ever picked up a camera. My camera was an outlet to something I didn’t understand. It was my first therapist and continues to allow me to work through the cogs in my brain that don’t quite fire correctly. It is the oil in the rusty machine. It’s the match that starts the fire. My camera allowed not only myself, but others to be seen. It allowed someone to feel the same way I felt, “finally someone gets it.”
I’ve been creating “Thoughts from the notes app” for probably a year now. Trying to figure out what it’s supposed to look like. Feel like. And I think this is close. A feeling of this could a still from a film. A feeling of this could be a lyric from a song.
