A new life

This is a new life for me.  I don’t just mean I’m trying new things.  I am literally starting over.  My divorce was final in April.  I left my job at ‘her’ family business, a job that had frustrated me for years.  So I packed all my worldly possessions, what was left, and headed west.  Western Colorado to be exact.  I am back where I grew up.  The place I have always loved and doing the work I have always loved.

Starting over in life is hard.  Especially at 55.  It sounds so wonderful to say it.  Hell, everyone has that gnawing voice in the back of there consciousness screaming to get out…leave it all and start over.  Fresh.  Knowing what you know now.

But people my age are typically in a very different mind set.  The final stretch to retirement.  Playing with, or looking forward to, grandkids.  Travel.  Buying a Harley.

I am starting over.  New home, new business, new friends, new relationships.  It seems a rather daunting task.  One designed for the young.  But I guess when you are still 22 or 23 in your heart and mind, you’re still young, right?  (Tell it to the knees in the morning…every morning).

My first move was to find housing.  I did.  I have a tent in the desert.  I mean, where else would a would be artist find his art, to jump start his creative vision?  Is there really a better place to confront your demons, the ones that have been haunting you for a really long time.  What better place to get over heartache.  The loss of love, of companionship and of the security of a wife and house with a mortgage.

Well, it sounds good anyway.  So I’ll walk in the path cleared by so many great artists of the past.

Besides, it’s cheap.

This blog will not be a personal diary.  I would not presume to bore any followers with my self pity and self discovery, no matter how epic they may be.  No, this will be about the creative journey.  I am a photographer.  My world is about light.  I hope to share observations, projects and photos.

To start, I have found, in my experience over the years, that creativity needs challenge.  Creativity need rules and obstacles.  With out the challenge, creativity doesn’t really flourish.  My first project needed that challenge, those obstacles that really make one think, “how the hell do I do that?”

I’m alone in the desert.  So, I came up with “Aphone in the Desert.”  Photos with the iPhone.  I know, big friction’ deal, EVERYONE takes pictures with an iPhone.

Well, I don’t.  I am a professional photographer, with lots of experience, education, really nice, really expensive gear.  I hate iPhone pictures.  That’s why.  That’s my challenge, that’s my obstacle.  So I will be posting photos and my silly musings about the images I collect, the light, the creative power in us all and any other world-changing observations I come up with.

Please join me in this journey.  I’m in a tent.  In the desert.  It’s lonely.