The last few weeks since my show have represented a state of flux for me. Inevitably when you have something as exhilarating as I did, there’s the inevitable “return to earth” feeling when you decrescendo. Sometimes it’s a natural, gradual process and sometimes it’s a meteoric descent. I think mine was more towards the latter. Nothing really catastrophic, but I had outside events kind of bring me down faster than I would have liked, coupled with the general physical fatigue . Since then, I’ve been trying to think of the next move.
I think I was putting a lot of pressure on myself to leap into the next venture because I felt like I had to take advantage of the momentum shift. Doing so, added to the pressure and fatigue and it wasn’t long before I felt like doing nothing at all. I even lost my appetite for taking photographs.
So of course, it does leave me with the inevitable question of, what’s next?
Artistically, I still have projects in the pipeline that I want to get done. While I’ve pondered the idea of going back to painting, the inspiration for doing so hasn’t quite hit me so I’m going to let that come as it should. In the meantime, I’ve been making a point of checking out art shows and exhibits to soak up inspiration. As for photography, I was inspired by Gordon Parks’ exhibit at the Schomburg to do work that has a political bent to it. With all the insanity going on with the elections, I would really like to use art as a way of using my voice in what has becoming an increasingly hostile political and social climate. Seeing Gordon’s works as an indictment of racial inequality in this country reawakened something in me.
On another front, I also have plans to develop an e-book soon, which will give me a chance to flex my writing muscles beyond my blog. I’m looking forward to dusting off the old “research” cobwebs and getting into it. I’ll be sharing more of that soon.
In the meantime, I’m in somewhat of recovery mode this week, as I have been putting in very long hours at the day job and my eyes feel like they are going to fall out of my head. And with that savory image, I shall sign off for now.
Stay tuned.