Thinking inside the box?

There comes a time in every artist's life to venture outside their medium/comfort zone and step into another artist's shoes. Today was that day. Since 2004 I have been known for and branded as a "photographer". This is not to say that is not my title or main medium because indeed it is. However, it didn't always start out that way nor do I believe I will end up as such.I am more than just a camera.
When I was young I grew up in quite a creative, energetic household. My father liked to draw and used to make us puppets and cutouts to play with as kids. My mother loved music and could be found singing in church or to get us to sleep. My brother became heavily involved in cartoons and with all that said and done in many ways I followed in all of their footsteps.
To this day I love music, play bass guitar and sing. I love to draw, sketch and even sometimes indulge in a painting or two. However, as I got older my grandfather introduced me into my love for cameras and photography. Skip ahead to today and I am still passionate as ever about photography, yet sometimes yearn for an escape from the medium that has become my "job" and "career". There are days were I just want to take ideas from my head that may not corrolate well through photography and put them into something else.
Thus, began my journey today. I started out working on more photo to wood coaster transfers; finally making some progress. And from that got the idea to start making my own hand made puzzles from photographs. (a little labor intensive, yet rewarding!) All this is exciting and positive for me personally and professionally. Then the dreaded moment came; i noticed a handful of materials laying on my desk and for one split second they took on a life of their own. And as the cogs in my brain turned, these lovely shapes into a bizarre yet satisying art piece, in my mind I am saying to myself "now how do I incorporate photography into this so people will get that I made it." And that is the moment I stepped back and said "wait what?". I don't need to add a photograh or make it collaborate with my other projects. It is okay for me to step out of my field; out of comfort zone and out of my mind to create. I don't need to justify mysef or this piece to anyone. I just need to create. And the most important lesson I took from today was just that, sometimes as artist we don't need to think... we just need to create and be okay.

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