Welcome summer ! I know that I promised myself and my fellow followers that I would post every Thursday and as beautiful as the intention was, Thursdays sometimes slip by on the river of summer livin’ and workin’.
And life is GOOD these days. I’m teaching full time at an art school that I absolutely love! Teaching seems to keep me from my photography and art but instead of trying to do it all (teaching, making art, traveling) I’m learning that I’m fulfilled and content with a few things and not all things. THIS is most definitely a slow learning process when you’re the type of person that I am. Taking on everything. Not wanting to pass up opportunities. Thinking that busyness equals being fulfilled and happy. It actually just makes me scatterbrained and crazy.
I’m learning to be happy by just taking on teaching right now…(oh and learning to swim.) I’ve made it a ritual to wake up early in the morning so I can read some pages of my book and finding moments to sit down, sleep more and listen to music more.
When the time comes, the art making will return.
Yet, in the back of my mind I still think of ideas. Instead of acting on them I write them down in a small notebook. I have a book that I’ve started to collect ideas and images in for myself. I have written down photographers and artists that inspire me. I’m discovering artists who are making art that I connect to on a level I don’t completely understand. Why do I like this artist? Why do I like this piece of art work? Why does it speak to me? I guess, if it clicks, it clicks. Sometimes it doesn’t have to make sense but it’s fun to examine reasons and ask the questions.
So, I thought I would share some of my visual inspiration with y’all.
My first artist inspiration is Isa Marcelli. Isa is a french photographer. She has a small website of work and has images on flickr. There is not a lot of information about her or what her work means to her so all of her work is left up to interpretation.
Reading “Wabi Sabi for Artists, Designers, Poets and Philosophers” by Leonard Koren I’ve been thinking more on the Japanese aesthetic of impermanence, nature themes and imperfect beauty. Isa has a series called “impermenance” and to me it speaks to these same ideals.
It’s so lovely to come across artists who focus on the same ideas, subject matter and concepts. Isa and I seem to share a love of hands and using hands in photography. I think that is one of my main reasons I connect with her work. It’s personal, the hands are her own. It seems she is trying better to understand herself through her work. I can understand that. She is a visual writer. When words fail, she and I turn to photography to create and make space for our poetry and stories.
It’s understated, quiet and intimate. She is not shouting from the rooftops. She is neatly and quietly presenting to us pieces of her life, her vision and her story.
Her photographs are poems. Read them, sit with them and roll them around in your mind.
Visit her artist website. It is full of beautiful images.
From the series ‘Les adventices’ from http://www.isamarcelli.com
From the series ‘Impermanence’ from http://www.isamarcelli.com
From the series “Hiver” by Isa Marcelli http://www.isamarcelli.com
From the series ‘Mécanisme de l’oubli’ by Isa Marcelli http://www.isamarcelli.com
Telado Photography 
