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

I was going to skinny dip this morning then the fog suddenly lifted as did my courage and cover. I waded in…the cool water medicine for my sore knees.

Most mornings the chatter of sea birds and bellows of the seals is a lively soundtrack to my beach clean-up. Today they were as calm as Cape Cod Bay.

The sea, once it casts its spell, holds one in its net of wonder forever.

—Jacques Yves Cousteau

I must be a mermaid, Rango.

I have no fear of depths and a great fear of shallow living.

―Anais Nin

My soul is full of longing
for the secret of the sea,
and the heart of the great ocean
sends a thrilling pulse through me.

―Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

There is one spectacle grander than the sea, that is the sky; there is one spectacle grander than the sky, that is the interior of the soul.

―Victor Hugo, Les Misérables

The sea is a desert of waves,
A wilderness of water.

―Langston Hughes, Selected Poems

For whatever we lose (like a you or a me),
It’s always our self we find in the sea.”
―e.e. cummings, 100 Selected Poems

Photography takes an instant out of time, altering life by holding it still.

—Dorothea Lange

I spent most mornings last summer photographing and then picking up trash on Town Neck Beach in Sandwich, Massachusetts. I created these plates with my Cape Cod photos after thinking about the amount of garbage floating in the world’s oceans.

I didn’t photograph the paper plates with ketchup/mustard smeared on them for obvious aesthetic reasons. Trust me, there were a lot of them almost every day. I provided a link below to one of my beach garbage posts from last summer.

I want to be more deliberate (not radical, just mindful) about garbage and the packaging I choose. Using these plates for a long time instead of plastic seems like an easy switch.