Looking off into the distance, a happy boy smiles while rays of sunshine illuminate the sky.(Dean Oros Photo + Design)
Imagination is more important than knowledge. For knowledge is limited to all we now know and understand, while imagination embraces the entire world, and all there ever will be to know and understand. - Albert Einstein

Right brain hemisphere. Left brain hemisphere. Creative versus logical. Albert Einstein was right when he said:

“Imagination is more important than knowledge. For knowledge is limited to all we now know and understand, while imagination embraces the entire world, and all there ever will be to know and understand.”

I read an interesting article this morning via Harvard Business Review on how to think creatively. I’ve never consciously worked at it in such a way; I like the mystery of being inherently creative. Perhaps it’s because I love the process, so I don’t think of it as work. But as I start to deconstruct it, demystify it, yep – it feels like work. Creating images to sustain a career is hard work. It’s the difference between something being a hobby vs. a profession, perhaps.

I think the challenge, to get back to my original point, is producing something that grows from imagination and creativity, such as the professional dancer that spends her entire life training in the art of ballet, building her body, form and skill to the point of expression that is art as well as a profession. But only because of her own conviction, not because her parents co-erced her into it during childhood, and as a young adult she felt she had no other choice but to follow through (Have you read Andre Agassi’s auto-biography? One of tennis’ superstars; he hated tennis).

The thing is, as history has shown time and time again, the arts are elusive and appreciated in different forms at different times. How many artists became famous years after they passed away. How many are famous in the now?

I remember years ago I learned there is a difference between creating and being creative. It’s been said anybody can learn to be creative, and anybody can create. I disagree. I think, however, that is a topic for a different day. If I allow myself to follow through on the creative flow that is starting to take place as I write, I’ll lose track of time and will write thousands of words, when all I intended was to share a photograph of a wonderful boy I photographed. I’m working on, or should I say “creating” wall art that will be displayed in my client’s home.

As I do for many of my consumer clients, I make an image or two from our session available for licensing. Who knows, maybe the above image may end up in a parenting or schooling publication, and be a launching pad for, well… who knows. When I look at the boy’s image, I see an entire lifetime to look forward to.

“My friends, love is better than anger. Hope is better than fear. Optimism is better than despair. So let us be loving, hopeful and optimistic. And we’ll change the world.” – Jack Layton

Universal words for anyone, no matter your political affiliation. Jack Gilbert Layton 1950 – 2011.

Art Gallery of Ontario. Left: Frank Gehry Staircase. Right: Galleria Italia. (© Dean Oros Photo + Design)

It was pouring rain and foggy this morning when I drove to the Art Gallery of Ontario to view the Abstract Expressionist New York exhibit.

Featured are artists from the Museum of Modern Art Collection: Arshile Gorky, Willem de Kooning, Franz Kline, Joan Mitchell, Jackson Pollack, Mark Rothko and Barnett Newman.

What did I think of it? In one word: Fantastic.

While there, I learned of Philip Guston. He was a Montreal-born painter and printer. His family moved to Los Angeles when he was a child. He was influential in Abstract Expression, and studied with Jackson Pollack under Frederick John de St. Vrain Schwankovsky.

I read a great quote by Guston:

“I should like to paint like a man who has never seen a painting”.

I often feel like that when it comes to photography. Imagine having a completely blank canvas in your mind when viewing and photographing the world, unencumbered by the influences of others or by circumstances.

That state of mind can never exist. But if it were possible, I imagine it might be beautiful and ethereal.

“Unless commitment is made, there are only promises and hopes… but no plans.”
~ Peter F. Drucker

I wanted to share this quote with our newlyweds-to-be. It simply provides a different perspective on building a life together. Basically it means “Walk the walk”. Don’t just “Talk the talk”.

“Being deeply loved by someone gives you strength, while loving someone deeply gives you courage”.

Do you think it has withstood the test of time? Written 600 BC-531 BC in his book “Tao Te Ching” (also “The Book of the Way”).

Louis de Bernières

Love is a temporary madness, it erupts like volcanoes and then subsides. And when it subsides you have to make a decision. You have to work out whether your roots have so entwined together that it is inconceivable that you should ever part.

Because this is what love is.

Love is not breathlessness, it is not excitement, it is not the promulgation of eternal passion. That is just being “in love” which any fool can do. Love itself is what is left over when being in love has burned away, and this is both an art and a fortunate accident.

Those that truly love, have roots that grow towards each other underground, and when all the pretty blossom have fallen from their branches, they find that they are one tree and not two. ~ Louis de Bernières