Year-End Reflections
Year-End Reflections
Finding meaning and building a sustainable creative practice
Goals are like one-hit wonders. I first realized this 25 years ago while sitting alone in my car staring at the Hasselblad Student Showcase ad featuring my work. The excitement quickly faded. I was caught by surprise at how short-lived it was. That’s it? I remember saying to myself. The feeling disturbed me. Back then, I couldn’t question it. Society conditioned me to have goals and achieve them–period, end of the story. So, I set my feelings aside and created more: establishing a commercial photography business, getting published in magazines and newspapers, exhibiting in galleries, entering photography competitions–the list goes on.
As I approached my late 30s, I began asking myself, “Why do I even bother making goals?” Don’t get me wrong. Having goals are essential. But, focusing solely on achieving them wasn’t fulfilling anymore.
Years ago, I heard Rainn Wilson, the comedian famous for his role as Dwight Schrute on the hit TV sitcom, The Office talk about his Baha’i faith. It was one of those a-ha moments for me.
In this day and age, Baháʼu'lláh tells us that the making of art is no different than prayer. There’s no difference between lifting up a paintbrush and touching it to a canvas and bowing your head in a church. —Rainn Wilson
I grew up in the Catholic Church and prayers meant spending time with God in silence, much like meditating. The link to creating art as a form of prayer gave me clarity and a deeper sense as to why I was doing it. To me, this adds a layer of richness to living a meaningful life. It’s such a beautiful teaching!
Here is another quote:
I think that being an artist is one of the highest forms of spirituality you can do, because you are being of service to people, you are being creative, expressing creativity, you are providing entertainment, you're trying to get people to think and feel deeply on a soul level. – Rainn Wilson, Rainn Wilson Sees No Difference between Art and Spirituality
Take for example the photo above. When the world was confined in 2020, I took a class called Arise and Shine with Laura Valenti and created this image.
What truly breaks my heart during this pandemic are the stories of people dying alone or those who never had the chance to hold their loved ones before they passed away. It brings tears to my eyes. This idea came to mind when I thought of those who are grieving. May this image bring comfort in their hearts. May you be at peace. — Stella Kalaw, April 13, 2020.
It’s been a rich and soul-satisfying experience— something I want to continue for years to come.
This year, I also focused on developing a system to make collaging sustainable. Back in January, I was working for an early-tech startup for nine months when I needed to learn Canva as part of my job. I discovered by accident that my skill set with collage-making accelerated my learning curve. Unfortunately, the tech company was unable to secure funding when my contract expired in March so I decided to move on. I continued collaging using this tool and transitioned from working analog to digital.
I have 24/7 access to Canva through my iPhone, iPad, and laptop. There is no barrier to creating work. If inspiration strikes during the early hours of the morning or while I’m on the road, I take any device and play with it. I resurrected my Flickr account to search for and access images without copyright restrictions via Flickr Commons. I also discovered other online digital library collections open and accessible to the public. Tina introduced me to Eagle, a non-subscription-based design asset organizing tool, to keep track of all the image URLs and build source materials for collaging. Image research ate up a ton of time so I established a limit to creating 3-6 collages per week. Otherwise, I would never get anything else done. That’s how much fun I was having!
If all of the above were taken away in one fell swoop, making art is still possible with scrap paper and magazines, a pair of scissors, and a glue stick (or glueless!)
This is the beauty of collaging.
For this post, I was curious to know how many collages I’ve created in 2022. The tally as of this writing: 140 collages and 22 animations. My failed attempts aren’t even included here. I’m floored–I had no idea!
As I look to 2023, I anticipate that a job will open up at some point so I’ll have to adjust my process and remain committed to making art. Other than that, I will continue to follow my curiosity
and remain open to possibilities as I welcome the new year.What are your year-end thoughts? What are you looking forward to in 2023?
Elizabeth Gilbert— Choosing Curiosity Over Fear.
You’ve lived a life following your curiosity. You’ve created a life that is a very interesting thing, different from anybody else’s. And your life itself then becomes the work of art — not so much contingent upon what you produced, but about a certain spirit of being that, I think, is a lot more interesting, and also, a lot more sustainable.
They says that curiosity killed the cat but it feed the artist ! Do you mean that you created more than a hundred finished artwork this year ? That’s impressive, it’s funny to see that images (photography), no matter how you use them, are you’re thing, you’re own way of expression ! Hope that you’ll be able to keep exploring that in 2023, I’ll be there to watch !
Thanks BC! Yes, I was surprised that I reached over 100. Crazy, right? It’s probably a reaction to so many years of not being inspired to create work. Looking forward to 2023 and thanks for your support!