Promoting Passion Week 68: Try, Fail, Repeat

Promoting Passion Week 68: Try, Fail, Repeat

I have been working myself so hard lately that I decided this past weekend was solely dedicated to creating. I went out on Saturday to a lake and did a shoot I had been planning for ages, but it just didn’t work out. It looked beautiful thanks to the mostly-diffused sun behind the storm clouds, but when it came time to edit, the pieces just weren’t coming together. From crunched shadows to awkward composition, I just wasn’t feeling it. So I began to create something else the next day. I decided that in my bedroom I would create a magical little world.

This is the original sketch I drew:

But then, after I shot myself laying down on the floor, I got some ideas. What if I did _______, or what if _________ was more like ________. And so the shoot spiraled from what it was supposed to be to what it could be, and I loved that process of experimentation. When it came time to edit, I was excited to start piecing everything together. But the problem was I had shot it so fast that I didn’t give myself time to think it through. In the end, the pieces simply didn’t match for me. The nude figure with the shadow on the wall seemed not to go together. The hole in the wall worked better, but still, the nude form wasn’t the message I was trying to send.

And so, I reverted back to my original idea anyway. However, I learned so much about myself by trying something new and failing that it was completely worth it. I was able to recognize why it wasn’t working for me and how to fix it. I might still use those images and concepts that I temporarily put on the shelf, but not in this picture, and not today. Because what I learned this weekend was to have faith in my message, and that I have control over how I put it out into the world.

What is the message you’re trying to send with what you create?
Share a piece that you feel represents that!

 

8 thoughts on “Promoting Passion Week 68: Try, Fail, Repeat

  1. So, as a writer, I sit in in the same boat. Yet on a different spectrum for my words are images to weave however I choose. I am a poet under the guise as a writer. My mission is to enchant. Given the same tools as everyone in the universe. Yet I posses something they do not have, my life. My perspective. In that I can bring the reader into my reality, my imagination, worlds upon worlds. I want them to feel the pain I feel looking upon the faces of those suffering in the world. So I paint a picture, a lesson from my inner being. I sounds surreal, but if it resonates it must be real. Attention is far to spread so I write in symbols, parables, the way the poets and orators of old used to. The viewer will get what they want from anything, my job is to paint that picture. I understand my message but once I give it away, it is for them to decide.

    Love your work by the way,

    P.S. we should collaborate, I will give my imagination to you readily ~*~

    V.English

  2. love your photo and i really enjoy how you show us all that went into it until it was just right to you. i love watching you work!
    i try to find fantasy in my work as not just a way to escape reality but also as a way to really show what’s underneath things. i am pretty bubbly person but i do suffer from depression and i try to use my art to express what i am feeling since i am not good with words to explain myself. i need to express the heartache of infertility because i can’t explain to anyone how it destroys me. i guess i feel i need to be understood and i can only do that through storytelling in my pictures.
    i think “fake it till you make it” https://www.flickr.com/photos/robinspaldingphoto/12469911193/
    is one that represents me and my message. that things aren’t right but i am trying through difficulty to get through it.

  3. I really loved seeing the different variations of your image Brooke… The different stories looked fascinating and I hope you pursue them further in the future – when the time is right.

    My new image “Disconnected” I reshot 3 times to get right – something I have never done before. But the message was so strong and haunted me, that I kept at it. The piece has great meaning to me as I disconnect from people and experiences that have hurt me or made me feel unworthy… because disconnecting and letting them go is how I can welcome my future and my dreams and the new path I am choosing to follow <3

    You can read my recent blog post on this here: http://www.margheritaintrona.com/#!Disconnected/c20iz/553a3c4a0cf2adc1ace6249c
    And view my image "Disconnected" here: https://www.facebook.com/MargheritaIntronaPhotography/photos/a.165320056962586.1073741828.165302450297680/423196007841655/?type=1&theater

    Love & Light
    Margherita

  4. I really enjoyed seeing the evolution of your creative process. It was a pleasure to meet and shoot with you at WPPI. I like that you work on one element at a time in photoshop. And when you feel like something wasn’t working you adjust it without removing everything or starting over from scratch. That is how I paint. You could walk by my canvas and see mountains and then 5 mins later walk by again and see something totally different like an abstract flower. I probably paint 3-5 “paintings” before I decide my painting is finished, haha.

  5. Brooke, it means so much to me (and I’m sure all the other artists that follow your work) that you show us the failures and the things that don’t work and the mistakes and that you can spin those into something positive. It’s so easy to see another artist’s finish product and think, “Wow, they’re so perfect. I’ll never be that good” and we get disconnected from the process because we don’t see all the hurdles it took for that artist to make that work. It’s at this point that so many people stop creating because they set their goals based on someone else’s journey. Every artist’s journey is different, every artist’s journey has high and lows, fails and successes. We need more artists like you showing that it’s okay to talk about our failures, that failures aren’t inherently negative, that we can use them as a stepping stone to future success.

    I’m still not sure what I’m saying with my art. Honestly, it just feels good to create and when I don’t do it, I’m sad. Whether it’s through writing or photography. I think I’m still scared to say “here’s what I want to accomplish with my art” because if people don’t see it, it will make me feel like a failure. I’m trying to get over that. It’s the same reason that I shy away from advanced compositing like you do. To have all those pieces and then to not have it work out in the end would be devestating. But thanks to you showing this video, I see that it’s not so bad 🙂 That those parts can go toward something else. Maybe it’s time to step out of that comfort zone.

    I know what I want my art to look like. This photo is my most favorite: https://www.flickr.com/photos/slpugsley/12939975444/ I want my entire body of work to feel like this eventually – like a fairy tale that’s not quite right, like a mystery that won’t let you sleep because there’s too many things to think about, a pull between dark and light, that moment when you cross the line between letting fear hold you back and starting an adventure. Not sure how that all works together though. I guess I’ll keep creating until I figure it out 🙂

  6. Thanks for all Brooke! (and sorry for my english). When I create an image, I try to send what I learn recently because de situations of my life. You are an inspiration for me!! Love you!

  7. Another great job! Another great picture! Another great message! Loved to see this video and the changes you made, until you feel that was right. By chance, I’m going through a phase where I can not reach that point. The point at which we say, that’s it. I’m a bit lost in my new job and that in some way has to do with it! What I drew, and at the time I thought it would be so, now that I am editing, I do not feel that conveys the message that I want. I’m actually thinking of recreating and shoot again. My problem is that sometimes I get stuck to the original work and cannot take off this creation. Better days will come with a lot of inspiration and creation to done! 😉 Stay well my dear friend.*

  8. I just want to feel connected to the world, and other people. I try to tell stories that reflect the beauty in the broken, because I know that’s the truth. Everyone is a little bit broken, but that’s what makes us human. And that’s okay.

    I’ve never felt more alive and happy then when sharing with other people passionate about the same things I am. And sometimes I really struggle to feel connected to anything at all. There are days when I could just sit there and stare at a wall all day and feel like I’m just not there. So that joy i free with photography, it makws me feel grounded. That feeling is so important to me.

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