What could pull me from financial security to uncertainty? (Influences and inspirations.)
How in the world am I supposed to know what will happen tomorrow? Should I call a fortune-teller? Maybe I can end up in one of those cool movie scenarios where a traumatic brain injury gives me some sort of ESP. On second thought, probably should wear my helmet. I just don’t know of any good way to do it. The only option left really is to buy insurance, make a lot of money so I can deal with what comes. But even then, what if there’s like another Y2K but for real this time? There always seems to be something popping up that I didn’t plan for. Alright, I’ve got it, I’ll stay home in my bunker, order everything I need and have it delivered through an air-lock system. No, that’s not it either. Is there anything stronger than the fear of an unknowable future? What could make me risk everything to get out there and challenge my fate? This is my question for today. Let’s see if we can illuminate it a bit. Here we go.
The intro got a bit philosophical on me, thanks for bearing with that. My goal for today is to help you understand some of my inspirations. The people, places, and things that motivate me to take this major step in my life. Of course quitting my stable job and making such big changes can be terrifying, so it’s hard to not get a bit thoughtful. Anyway, thanks to these influences, I can clearly see the rewards of the lifestyle I’m trying to live. It’s a simple equation really. The reward is greater than the risk, at least that’s the way I see it. With any luck, by the end you won’t think I’m completely nuts.
First I want to talk about my photographic guides.
Before the Luminous Journey was conceived, I just wanted to take some amazing photos. One of the first light painters I came across was Denis Smith. He’s best known for his balls of light. When I saw his photos, my only thought was something ilke, “What the…?” I had no idea how he was creating those images, but they were just so beautiful and surprising I had to know. In researching his work, I was turned on to the larger world of long exposure photography. The term “Bulb Mode” entered my vocabulary, and I started the process of building a bag of tools. That also led me to the work of some of the original light painters like Vicki DaSilva.
She showed me that this is an art form that can be meaningful as well as beautiful. It’s also from her influence that I first choose the place I want to shoot, and then let it speak to me so I can discover how I want to paint it. DaSilva’s work nicely led me to some of the powerful and creative women in visual arts, outside of light painting. One of my favorites is Judy Chicago.
Her work with smoke bombs is gorgeous, and her strong dedication to the cause of women’s empowerment thrills me. The scale and power of her work is something that I hope to achieve some day, and I love the way she has freely shared the budgets and planning required to complete such work. Speaking of scale, another category of art that gets my heart beating is land art. The sun tunnels of Nancy Holt, the spiral jetty of Robert Smithson. It’s impossible not to feel a sense of awe when looking at something like this. The idea of a bleak, empty landscape, transformed by the industry of an artist to become something transcendent, is something I try to emulate whenever I can. Wish me luck, they spent decades perfecting their craft, and weeks or months on a single piece of art.
Perhaps a slightly more controversial influence is Pop Art. I say this because many view it as a less serious form of art. But for me, I don’t really care as long as the look is interesting. The whimsical feel, bright colors, and social commentary of these works are immediately attractive. Color is a massive draw for me. Of course, all art contains color, but what I want are vibrant, almost neon, strong colors. I want to bring un-natural colors to natural environments, to turn classical landscape art into pop art in a way. So when I see for example how Alex Dodge takes a simple model, and transforms it using texture and color, I see possibilities. The wonderful and surprising colors that Hisahiro Fukasawa uses to create those amazing flowers and landscapes shows me what that brightness and light can do to the emotions. These are just a few of the artists I’ve come to admire. They all show me that with dedication to my work, and respectful consideration of the people who will view it, I can succeed at changing people, even if just a little, which is saying a lot.
Now it’s time to move on from people, to places.
I’m sure you’ve all had a similar experience. You find yourself staring around, mouth slightly open, not really thinking anything specific. It’s not, “wow, the line of that tree forms a perfect angle with the lake, and the reflection is perfectly translucent, and the color of the sky is the perfect 463 nanometers that I love.” No, it’s just “Wow”. Your brain sort of empties so that you can absorb the little details of the scene, even though it doesn’t happen consciously. I’ve described to you in a previous post my reaction to the stunning landscapes of the United States, but I want to get a bit more specific. For me, I would say that most any desert landscape is a source of inspiration, in particular Death Valley.
Death Valley National Park, California ©theluminouseye
It’s something about the emptiness that just screams to me to be filled. It’s the scale of the place that excites me, the harshness, that can be set against something soft and beautiful.
In the same part of the country is Joshua Tree National Park.
Joshua Tree National Park, California ©theluminouseye
There, it’s the other-worldly nature of the rock formations and colors that pique my interest. Along with the somewhat alien looks of the trees themselves, the place has a vibe. Another landscape that feels a bit un-earthly is Lassen Volcanic National Park in Northern California. With lava tubes like this one, waterfalls, geothermal activity, the crazy cinder-cone, and of course Mt. Lassen in the background, there are phenomenal locations for all you landscape photographers out there. Seeing all these places just makes me hunger to see more.
Lessen Volcanic National Park, California ©theluminouseye
As fascinating as those landscapes are, they’re not ideal for lightpainting, they’re just too large. So the places that are even more interesting to me are smaller in scale, and have already been shaped by human activity. One of the first locations that really got me going was Rhyolite, a ghost town in Nevada. In particular, the Goldwell Open Air Museum.
Goldwell Open Air Museum, Nevada ©theluminouseye
It’s beautiful, unique, and lends itself perfectly to the type of art I love. The sculptures there are beautiful and haunting, and were so much fun to play with. Sculpture parks in general get my creative juices flowing. There’s one on the campus of Stanford University that I really enjoyed. That’s the Papua New Guinea garden, not the Rodin garden. Then there are the installations at Anza Borrego State Park. The epic nature of the works there is exactly the sort of thing that excites me. Something about the time and effort that someone took to create this art, then plop it down in essentially the middle of nowhere, to me just screams to be noticed.
The task for this week is a pretty easy one: What inspires you? What gets you out of bed at 5:00 to get ready for work? What pushes you to get that workout in, or to study at night after you get home from work so you can get that degree? Be it a person, place, or thing, share those inspos, I look forward to hearing about them.
I’m going to wrap this up with something that you might find a bit corny, but which I feel deeply and truly. The thing that inspires me most in this world are the people closest to me. Their reactions to me and my work, their constant encouragement and support, mean the world to me. Without the love and attention I get from them, I would not be doing any of this, and my world would be a dark place. Their joy and companionship is what drives me to bring light to that darkness. I want to show them all how beautiful this world can be, if we just take the time to make it so.
Thanks again for joining me today. Next week’s episode will be an exciting one for me, I’ll be taking you inside my light painting bag for a look at the equipment I use to make all these photos happen. As always, big love to all my passengers, and if you haven’t found all those happy Youtube buttons yet, make sure you do so I can see you next week.
Watch this on Youtube by clicking HERE.
