Writing this entry forced me to consider how I see myself as a creative person. What a difficult topic, I wrote four versions of this first paragraph (only to delete them all) and I’m still unsure what to say.

You see, when it comes to creativity I call myself pragmatic. I refuse to pick up techniques that require a bunch of additional things to buy and manage. Don’t get me wrong, I appreciate the skill required to manipulate oil-based pigments or chemistry in the development of images on paper, but to learn how to do those things would mean buying canvases and a lot of paint brushes or water baths and dark room equipment. I’m interested in learning, but not at the cost of buying more stuff.

Take photography. I already have a computer, so the writing I do here has no cost. The images I take come from one of three cameras, all of them digital: my phone, a small Fuji X100V, and a Canon DSLR. I’m in love with the idea of developing film and I’ve done it enough to know the process, but damn that’s a lot work when my phone fits in my pocket and only takes one click to make an image.

I realize the trouble with how creativity fits into my life. It revolves around my philosophy. Perhaps that is why I often don’t take myself too seriously. Am I lazy for leveraging technology and painting on an iPad instead of a canvas? I often wonder.