My journey to a new life began a year ago.  Yes, 1 year.  I can hardly believe that it has been a year since I left my previous life to start a new one here in Colorado.  A lot has happened in that year.  New friends and reacquainting with old ones.  A new studio and new projects.  It hasn’t always gone as planned and not as I had envisioned this journey.  A lot of steps, a lot of stumbles, but that is the nature of life and the journey.

The art of photography, ‘my art,’ has evolved in a very good way.  Creative energy seems to flow more now than ever with a clarity I haven’t experienced.  Well, in at least not in a very long time.  I am seeing light and communicating ideas in a different way than I did years ago.  But that isn’t a real surprise to me.  I was expecting, hoping, (praying!), that it would happen this way.

Yes, photography is happening.  But there has been more.

Music. I love music, always have.  I am not a musical person.  Never really have been.  I can’t play any instrument.  I have the singing voice that is made for being a photographer: be silent and just watch.

I love creating images inspired by music, always have.  I have been creating art for musicians here.  Album art.  It has been a great experience.  Working with fellow artists and creating something visual to convey their story, personality and art.

But it has not just been photographing musicians.  I helped produce an album for a local artist.  A very new and exciting experience.  I have opened up the studio for musicians and bands to play, rehearse and create.  We have “Music Night at The Blaze” about once a month, an evening that we invite family and friends to come to the studio and listen to and help support local musical artist.

This intimate involvement in music was never really planned.  I didn’t foresee it when I started down the path of this journey of mine.

When I took that first step in my journey a year ago, I really didn’t know where the path would lead.  But I think that was important.  I could plan, set goals and move towards achieving those goals with a head down determination.  The problem with that is that when your head is down and you are dead set on making your plans come to fruition, you have a tendency to miss things.  I have tried really hard to keep my head up and my eyes open to recognize opportunity looming in the peripheral.  Yes, I laid plans and set out on a path, but I have learned that we have to stray from that path to live a creative life.

Ralph Waldo Emerson said it so succinctly when he wrote “Do not follow where the path may lead.  Go instead where there is no path and leave a trail.”

While I certainly make no claim to be a trailblazer, I am finding that my happiness lies off the beaten path, eyes wide open to where it may take me.  The only thing I know for sure is that the journey will end when I draw my last breath.  That and that I’m not alone.

I walk this path with my friend, Walter the Wonder Dog.