creative process, lisa lillibridge, south dakota, identity, vermont, midlife, psychology, creativity, south dakota photographyLISA LILLIBRIDGE

In 2013 I titled this blog Spark & Muse. Today I looked back at 2022 to see what provided my spark and muse.

Creatively I’m all over the place right now. I tend to create, photograph, and forget. I really want to land on a project and see it through in 2023. I think I need a deadline. That always helps me. #stickwithanyprojectin2023lisa

A few things are clearer to me now after researching me.

I like to shoot flowers as they fade, they are far more compelling to me than perfection.
I see that I shoot images of things that are somehow out of place.
I collect and catalog my beach finds.
I prefer images with negative space.
Our cat Karen gets photographed a lot.
I like taking photographs of fog and rainy windows.
I shoot a lot of pictures when I’m eating raw oysters.
I like to photograph men I meet on the beach.
Color and motion are a spark to me.

Art is never finished, only abandoned. —Leonardo Da Vinci.

In May we gathered to celebrate with lots of treats the life of Renay Mandel Corren—RIP Renay. We listened to the live-streamed memorial service from a bowling alley in Fayetteville, NC. None of us knew her, but her obituary was one of my true delights of 2022. Reading it will make your day. https://www.fayobserver.com/obituaries/m0028451

Everyone has a creative impulse, and has the right to create, and should. —Patti Smith

More sparks…

I barely have words for what Jeff and I witnessed at the Newport Folk Festival in July. Surprise guests, Paul Simon and Joni Mitchell—one of the absolute privileges of my lifetime. Crying with 10,000 music lovers still gives me goosebumps.

Cheers to whatever provides spark and muse to you!

PS I mean it, read Renay’s obituary, here’s the link again.

https://www.fayobserver.com/obituaries/m0028451

Because she was my mother, the death of zaftig good-time gal Renay Corren at the impossible old age of 84 is newsworthy to me, and I treat it with the same respect and reverence she had for, well, nothing. A more disrespectful, trash-reading, talking and watching woman in NC, FL or TX was not to be found.

I often have a flood of ideas while walking the beach about what I want to create, write, transform, design and so on. Then I get home and the idea’s intensity subsides. I used to feel quite defeated by this. I don’t anymore.

I can’t possibly create all that I imagine…and there’s some sadness that sometimes accompanies that understanding. However, in this middle school stage of life (I’ll be 55 in October) I finally appreciate (accept maybe) the inevitable ebbing and flowing of my inner creative life, and stop fighting the tide so much.

Here are a few ideas that actually did come to life this week: