Inertia

A few days back I mentioned that I was reading a layman's book about quantum mechanics called "In Search of Schrödinger's Cat: Quantum Physics and Reality"and that it was mind boggling, fascinating stuff.  Well, of course, in a book like that you can't help but review some classical physics.  And so I re-learned that 'an object at rest tends to stay at rest.......'.  And a corollary of that is that 'an artist at rest tends to stay at rest......".  And that is the problem that I am in right now. Having finished my Carrie Furnace folio, I have, naturally, come to an endpoint.....a rest.  A few days break is natural, I would think.  But now that rest should be up and yet I am having trouble going from being at rest to being in motion.  What comes next, photographically speaking?  That is the tough part. 

It is difficult to dive into a new project not knowing for sure what that project may be and risking failure once a decision is made to move ahead.  And I suspect it will be a project that I have already accumulated some images for, as I have various groupings of photos that I have been thinking about.  But that is also a problem.  When you have just the kernel of an idea and pull up a significant number of images that might start the project off, it is difficult to jump in and start making seemingly final choices.  It seems more difficult than deciding on a subject, taking pictures one by one, and choosing what works along the way.  Of course I am hardly citing a new problem, as this sort of issue has been discussed in a book that is a favorite of mine and one that I think every artist in any medium owes it to themselves to read: Art & Fear: Observations On the Perils (and Rewards) of Artmaking.

I am hoping that the mere writing of this gets me moving and willing to take artistic risk.