Day 18 "One Perfect Moment"

Where does inspiration come from?

What drives anyone to document their lives in the ways that they do?

From the author who releases their demons and desires on to the page, to the painter who colors their passion on a blank canvas, to the photographer who stops time completely.

Why are we all so afraid of leaving nothing behind?

Creativity has been a way of life for me, in fact the only constant thing that I know.

What is an artist?

Is it someone that creates works of great importance? Or someone who can speak poetry that can level even the most protected of hearts?

Is it the architect that builds empires to tower over other empires?

Is not an artist a mother in the kitchen who makes meals that fill you with pride, love, and comfort? Or a father that creates a solid path and foundation for you to strengthen your resolve upon?

Is it a stranger in need, who sells his cardboard street art for next to nothing in order to get by another day in this ever challenging world?

Truth is, everyone is an artist. Everyone creates something of value, something that effects someone else on a profound level, and even creating a smile in attempt to bring forth a smile in someone else can be art; and if the timing is right, it can be as profound as any of the great works that we grew up admiring.

Truly everyone is an artist, creating happiness and sadness alike, creating dreams and bringing down temples in great synchronicity.

Is it art to fight for something that you want?

Does it make you an artist to lay out the plan to create the ending that you desire?

Can you be an artist if what you create is by chance more than self appointed precision?

Can one gain the title "artist" by accident? Or do we have to call it out in the air before the project hits the ground for all to see?

It would seem to me that everyone is an artist, and everyone creates something of value; a smile, a fist, a middle finger, an embrace, a dream, a vision, a tear, a painting, a story, a photograph, a question, an answer...a hope.

Maybe we are not afraid to leave nothing behind at all?

Maybe we just want to feel alive and share that with others?

Maybe we just want to know that we didn't waste this life on coasting through it disconnected?

Who can really know why anyone would create anything, or why I as a photographer feel the need to stop time in its tracks, and why I feel the need to keep something to remind me that I had something; a moment, a reason to live.

I don't even know myself why I share my soul with everyone, why I share the deepest parts of it with a certain someone?

All I know is that deep down inside me I have always heard the call, to bring forth the angels and demons of my spirit to light. To honor this life for its love and hate, its pain and its pleasure, its pure lightness and void-like darkness.

I create because it feels like the proper response to honoring this life, to honoring myself, and to honoring anyone that I can effect with these fragments of my soul.

At the end of days I want to know that I affected someone, that I reached through to someone...that I stopped time for one moment.

Just one perfect moment.