invention

Curiosity Breeds Invention

Above is an image from the day my curiosity led me to the multiple exposures setting in my camera. It was while enjoying a Las Vegas buffet at the Wicked Spoon with friends. The subjects were glasses and spoons, and empty plates. My friends ignored my particular obsession and seemingly nonsensical images.

I was exploring.

I was playing.

I was discovering.

I was looking for a new direction for my photography.

I didn’t know it yet, but I soon realized that I was looking for a new way of seeing.

As the Cubists challenged vantage point perspective and the multi perspectives of physical viewing by which we describe any object in the physical world, I was looking at how we acquired data by proximity and formed that into a visual image or memory of our experience: a way of seeing by memory recall. After all, our seeing is not static and rewrites with every flick of the eye the scene that came before and is retained in our short-term memory to create a dimensional image in which we can ‘exist’ and engage. And then, some of those memories combined with meaningful moments are kept in our long-term memory and can be revisited, sometimes quite vividly.

This moment of exploration was the beginning of something new for me. What started that day, 3/19/2016 has continued, and here we are at the start of 2023, almost seven years later.

Curiosity bred invention that became quite the creative journey for me through several tributaries, art products, and themes, as well as a developing understanding of human perception.

Creative curiosity can often seem aimless but does occasionally lead to new insights. Play is vital to creativity. It is essential to allow oneself the time to wander into the creative aether despite the looming fiscal impracticality of it at the time.