Art Talk Tuesday

Nettles and Lilies

 

I'm still working on improving my blog. The "bugs" are slowly getting worked out. The link to Kindle for my book Fly Me to the Moon ($1.25), now works!

 

 

I recently opened an Etsy store, Nettles and Lilies. This store features my photography. It has left me a little uneasy. My photos are neither dramatic nor technical lighting marvels.

 I like nature and I like to keep things simple.

 It seems to me that with all the advancements in photo editing, photography has turned into a manufactured manipulation. The images are beautiful but so often they are fake.

 Way off the mark of reality.

The beauty industry is criticized for distorting the image of women. The models in ads are airbrushed and edited in order to produce a perfection that is not real. Our food is being processed into concoctions with little nutritional value for the sake of convenience and cost effectiveness. Photos of nature and landscapes edited in breath taking ways that cause people to swoon over God's creation. Yet, we don't concern ourselves with the effects of our consumerism, land development, trash, and chemical pollution. We just want to see and take part in a manufactured reality.

 

Sitting at my lap top today I uploaded pictures to Etsy, Pinerest and this blog. Magically people around the world will see my photos. That is nothing short of AMAZING!

 

People like beautiful art. They buy beautiful art. Art is not required to be truthful.

As an artist I would like to sell my art and be taken off the "starving artist" list. How does an artist make art, manufacture/market their work in a world with such a tilted view of reality? I've decided to trust that people like what they like. Let's hope they like the art I produce.

 

I started out intending this post to be about my opening an Esty store and self publishing on Kindle.

Somehow it took a turn and this deep seeded question that has been sitting in my heart has surfaced. How have we as a society let untruths become acceptable and admired?

 

Once I got down from my soap box things became real clear.

 

Why do you look at the speck that is in your brothers eye

 but do not see the log that is in your own eye?  Matthew 7:3

 

I photo edit my pictures a little bit, not much. My Yard Art photos of butterflies are a lie. I often have my photos printed on metallic paper, it gives the photos a magical shimmer.

 

So what is this post about REALLY?

I put my art out into the world to be judged, excepted or rejected.

Not an easy thing to do.

 

 

Your thoughts?