Tea Kettles & Paper Cranes

Sometimes I expect tea kettles to morph into floaty paper cranes and then am annoyed when they don't. People change through experience and epiphany, not because I see a simple solution but because they come to it on their own. Living this lesson this weekend.

visit Samantha Byrnes' gallery online...

Shouldn't I be more stressed???

As I'm sitting here prepping for the first of two art shows over the couple weekends I find myself watching me from the outside, surprised that I'm not more stressed, more frazzled about the whole thing.

Looking back it seems that for every show prior to this the lead-up was fraught with frantic preparation from a place not-center, scrambling to get everything done.  Interestingly someone on the outside would logically think I'd be more stressed this time around with this being my first show as a single gal.  Gone is the support system of the live-in boyfriend to build booths, load and unload inventory, and help wire frames.  Instead I find myself flowing through prep work with a sense of balance and peace.  It makes me wonder if all of the frantic energy the last couple shows was solely my doing...  Or perhaps I've just changed that much over the past year.  The bar has definitely been raised on "what stress is..."  Stress isn't an art show; its a firewall implementation, an AD infrastructure stand-up, a phone system swap, a 17k square foot office build out, or the dissolving a six year relationship.  By comparison an art show is no big deal.

Well that and my organization skills have improved immeasurably.  Currently my main source of annoyance is that all my work from two years ago isn't signed, serial numbered, and in my inventory spreadsheet.  Well and that I'm out of mat board.  <shrugs> 

visit Samantha Byrnes' gallery online...

The Art of Being Present

Photography is the art of being present.  More so than any of the other art forms, than painting and sketching, photography is, in a way, the art of luck.  Of noticing the right thing, at the right time, and having the presence of mind to take a picture.  Yes, some photographers go to great lengths to stage their scene, with backdrops and lighting and effects.  But in the end its a question of capturing the perfect moment as it flits by on its way to forever.

The photo on the left is of the Quan Yin statue on my house shrine.  I happened to glance up while cutting 108 mats for my upcoming shows to see her face lit by the last rays of evening sun, reflecting from the neighbors' windows across the street.  It was a perfect moment.

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Because

This is my "because..."

When people ask me why I work a day job that demands so much of my time...

When people raise an eyebrow at my buying dahlias and peanut butter...

When people shake their heads at the explosion of plant-ness in my kitchen...

When people want to know what's up with my obsession with light angles and the weather...

And my return question is "Who would you be if no one could see?"  and then "what are you waiting for?"

The lenses through which we view the world influence so much of what we think we see, what we focus on.  And oftentimes we let the lenses through which other people view us shape our lives in ways both good and bad. 


Heard someone speak a couple weeks back, a Michael Dearing, who said that throughout our lives, we're all continually striving to succeed as a coping mechanism to childhood rejections, constantly seeking "authority"'s approval.  Here's a revolutionary idea people...  Be your own authority and become that which makes you happy.

visit Samantha Byrnes' gallery online...