New Year’s resolutions are made to be broken, it seems. I, for one, am well accomplished at failing to fulfill my intentions as planned at the onset of each annual calendar flip. Mrs. Muse and I have already discussed this dangerous business for the imminent next year and among my desired outcomes (no longer committed resolutions – know thyself) are to watch [much] less TV (broken in the previous three years), walk [meaningfully] every day (broken in the previous two years), and eat well (broken for the last twenty or so years). Less television could potentially equate to several additional hours per day for more meaningful pursuit. Thus my single, really meaningful desired objective for 2011 is to increase my artistic creativity. This is, after all, the stuff that truly feeds my soul. And makes me happy. Jefferson was really big on the pursuit of Happiness thing – and as he is my philosophical hero this would seem to make sense from multiple perspectives.
I read somewhere several times (probably in blogs about making resolutions), that making a public statement of one’s commitment increases the probability of success. Exactly how much isn’t clear, but given my record of past failures any increase in the odds can’t be a bad thing. So this shall then be my public commitment. But first the protective retreat and rationalization…
Photography and music are not my primary vocations. I am a fairly busy health professional working in the field of clinical research ethics and regulation. I travel for a week or more out of the month, and am thoroughly committed to the good things that we do for the right reasons (I work in a non-profit organization devoted to children’s health). This can be intense, rewarding, time consuming, frustrating, stimulating and challenging. That said, I believe that my creative passions contribute to my professional success, and my professional discipline contributes to my artistic success. The photography and music are also my creative refuge – a fortress to keep the stress at bay. And so I annually develop my professional objectives to keep my focus on what must be done in that most important of my worlds, and now also the creative objectives – to primarily keep me sane, gratified and invigorated – and secondarily to vitalize my professional contribution.
So the first commitment is to finish the 1,000 Doors Project – the recording of my music that was begun more than a year ago. We’re closing in on that one. The second is to turn that spare bedroom into a combined music room and homemade photography studio. Not the kind of studio that one brings clients in for family portrait sittings, but truly a place to “study” the art of photography – a small space to learn and practice. To visualize and invent. To improvise and experiment. I want to learn to create art, not to take pictures – to create the extraordinary from the ordinary. Or not.
I’ll share the successes and failures with you here – sonic and visual – and at the end of 2011 we’ll find out if I managed to succeed to some degree, or develop the art of procrastination to yet another barely achievable height. Stick around….
