The Connection to Being Passionate about Your Art.

Music | On the Low by Hope Sandoval & The Warm Inventions

Upon recently shooting film, then processing it to make my negs, the very thing I used to do on a regular basis back in the day, I've come to realize that I not only love that process because of nostalgia, but the fact that senses are involved. Everything about processing film is about technique, some set skills, hand eye coordination. I hate to compare brush and paint to canvas, but there are skills involved that the dilettante will just not pick up. I guess this is why I am also passionate about Wet Plate Collodion.

It is important to me to be physical with my art. Not only the creation of the actual piece, but the tools to make those pieces. Often, I have built them with my own hands, with much time and sweat used up in the process. The connection between creation and final piece is all the more profound. Aroma, touch become the subtle nuances that are just as important to the visuals. I am in constant motion, agitating the film as it develops and fixes, pouring the collodion onto my plate with somewhat precision, best of all the placing the plate into the fix to watch negative abstract turn into a positive of my intentions... Motion and creation become hand and hand...

Ultimately, what makes me passionate about what I do is that if I don't do it, my sense of being centered moves to an extreme, more so in a negative and volatile direction. The beauty of what I do is that I pretty much know that if I become lost in my world, the sense of zen returns. I do what I do, because I love what I do and have no choice...

I am a lucky man...