through their lens

by liz lamoreaux

Lately, I have been thinking about how solitary creating can be at times. When sewing in my studio, The Little Room, or writing at my laptop or taking photos, I am so often alone. I steal moments to create when I can and try so hard to balance it all. I honor this time I spend alone in my creative world and the joy it gives me, but sometimes I would love to invite someone else in. I do not just want to have company in my studio; rather, I have been thinking about how someone else’s perspective could bring some really good things. This is especially true because my own perspective can sometimes be tightly focused and I miss all the possibility around me.

For the last few years, I have used the five senses plus a sixth sense of “know” as a jumping off point for a creative exercise. Some of these exercises have become part of a series of senses posts on my blog. At first, this began as a writing exercise to capture a moment or a memory or a day, but somewhere along the way, it became a photo “artist date” series (the idea of artist dates are inspired by the author Julia Cameron). I find that this exercise recharges my creative well as I get out of my space, even if this just means to the backyard, and capture the world around me with my lens. Sometimes I think about each specific sense when I am taking photographs, but more often I try to hold the intention of the senses as I click away. Then I find the senses within the photos after I look at them later that day.

On Sunday, I invited my husband Jon to join me on a senses artist date. We grabbed our cameras and headed to a town south of us that we hadn’t explored much. We found a park on a hill above Puget Sound and each wandered taking photos. Then we discovered a rocky beach along the water and had fun taking photos there. Each of us were lost in our own thoughts and our own experience for most of the time as we explored in different directions, sometimes crossing paths, other times losing sight of one another for a bit. Yet, for me, the afternoon never felt solitary but instead more like being a student in a yoga class (deeply in my own body while feeling part of a community).

Later, we each looked through our photos alone and pulled out those that represented the senses to us. I created diptychs so we could see them side by side. It was fun for each of us to see how the other person interpreted the senses and to see that person’s visual perspective of this shared experience. For us, the exercise was not about the quality of the photos or a contest to see who interpreted the senses in the most inventive way. It was, instead, an opportunity to connect creatively while exploring and recharging.

Today, I challenge you to invite a friend or partner or child to experience some shared creative time. Perhaps you will invite this person on a senses artist date like this one. Or perhaps, like Kelly Rae and Mati Rose, you will collaborate on a few paintings. Maybe you will visit a farmer’s market and each wander with $10 and then come together for a picnic of what you each purchased. Maybe you will pull out some art supplies and simply get messy. Whatever you decide to do, give yourself permission to let go of the expectations for a specific experience or outcome. Instead, let yourself play and see the world through another’s lens.

To see all the senses diptychs from Liz and Jon’s artist date, visit their flickr set.