I like to think of myself as mostly being in the traveler category. But I am also a tourist and go to tourist spots, especially when I am new to a location and I like that. They are popular spots for a reason and I want to see them just like most other people. What puts me primarily in the traveler category isn’t where I go as much as it is how I am looking at the places I go. I look with the artistic eye I have always had and I think that makes the difference.
Doing the Act
As an artist I am doing two things when I travel that others may not be doing. One, I am actually creating my art. Both times I have gone to Europe (and other places) I have spent each morning up early at a cafe drawing. My wife and daughters were sleeping still and I used the time to observe and create. I drew at other times as well, when going from one place to another. I have drawn in trains, planes, and automobiles.
Observation of the Juxtaposition
The other thing I do is look for the artistic moment according to my aesthetic and artistic inclination. This of course is different with each person, artist or not. I tend to see that artistic moment when I see a juxtaposition between two or more things. I don’t see it so much in a depiction of one thing, like the Eiffel Tower, though an image of that can be pretty. I instead will be looking primarily for the Eiffel Tower in relationship to a person. Someone at the Tower. Not posing, but being and acting. I have my eye and my camera ready when I am in a place like that to find that moment.
The Relationship
The drawing above illustrates that idea. I would be the one seeing the Eiffel Tower tattoo on the back of the woman looking at the Eiffel Tower and wanting to capture that. It’s not that I don’t like pictures of the Eiffel Tower, I tried to get a number of classic shots. It’s just that the really compelling images, the ones I truly love and am excited to have captured, show more than a place. It shows a relationship between that place and someone or something else.
The Difference
Here are two photos I took during my recent trip to Europe. Both are good in my estimation, but the second one is the one that moves me. It’s the one that makes me feel like I really captured the essence of the Eiffel Tower in it’s affect on a real person.
Tourist Eiffel
This one is all about the tower. It’s pretty. It might be a postcard or a stock photo. It tells someone it is a beautiful site. It’s me as a tourist trying to get a great photo of an iconic site.
Traveler Eiffel
This is about the affect the tower has on someone. It is telling the hint of a story and that draws me to her and what she is thinking and feeling. It’s the one that stays with me. It’s me as a traveler finding out about the people of the world.
Which are you?
What do you all think? How are you a tourist and/or a traveler when you go some place new? What do you see that you think others may miss when they are in a new place?
Have you ever dealt with someone in the middle of addiction? You will probably hear them admit that the solution is for them to stop drinking, gambling, etc. long before they will accurately admit the problem. How can that be? Ask them what the problem is and see what they say. They might say it’s stress, or maybe family, finances, parents, spouses, where they live, their job, health, kids, responsibilities, boss, environment or politics.
But they will do everything in their power to avoid seeing the real problem because the real problem is them. They will offer all sorts of solutions for how to change all those things, but they won’t ever get to and succeed at implementing the real solution until they admit the real problem.
If you pay too much attention to everyone else’s problems and how to solve them you might just be avoiding your own.
Are you bored with life? Don’t know what to do, where to go? Guess what? It’s YOUR fault. It’s not where you live, who you are with, what your job is, what your leisure is. It’s not the fault of those things. It’s YOUR fault. It’s a fault within you.
Am I being too harsh to say it’s a fault? I don’t think so. A fault is something that diminishes, detracts, debilitates, and can even destroy a person. Not being interested in the world, even a small part of it, leads to a small and atrophied life. Not having enthusiasm, curiosity, open-mindedness about what is happening in the world around you keeps you bored and boring.
Go get a magnifying glass of your own making and look deeper at the world around you. It is fun, interesting, exhilarating and fulfilling. If you let it be.
Actually, I have always had pretty good luck with neighbors. We did have one crotchety, cranky old man a few doors down when our kids were little. He yelled at them for walking on his lawn and ‘climbing’ his chain link fence. By ‘climbing’ I mean touching and holding onto it. I think I chewed him out one time. His name was Mr. Wilson. Really.
But this quote isn’t just talking about real neighbors, it’s talking about people you are familiar with, maybe even were/are friends with. I mean, when you think about it, how many of us have ever had an enemy who was a stranger? All the vast numbers of celebrities who read my blog, I understand you can have stalkers and angry people who you don’t know, but for all us non-celebrities, it’s a good chance the enemy is our ‘neighbor’.
How to love them when they are so annoying, that’s the question! How do you do it?
Throughout history up until the present day, why do so many people talk, argue, hate and kill over theology, doctrine, creed, denominations, interpretations, canons, divinity, hagiography, dogma, faith, communion, baptism, history, piety, revelation, orthodoxy, sacraments, sacredness, ritual, liturgy, relics, veneration, saints, martyrdom, and history?
Why is the world obsessed with the most shallow of pursuits as seen in popular culture?
Is there any real difference between the first two questions?
I have the same answer to both the first and second questions.
Because it’s easier than loving your neighbor.
That answer gives me the answer to my third question.
No
What are your answers and why?
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Drawing and questions by Marty Coleman of The Napkin Dad Daily
Quote by G. K. Chesterton, 1874-1936, English Writer
When you get right down to it, it’s about security. A person or an institution, when they are secure and at peace about who they are, can be made fun of, and can make fun of themselves.
When one is insecure and feel that their beliefs aren’t ‘water proof’ then they tend to get defensive and very serious, without a lot of tolerance for even mild ribbing (or questioning).
When much is invested in a complex belief system, and the consequences of that system being weakened threaten you and your position in the world, it is hard to allow it to be made fun of.
What that tells me is that the belief system is more important to you than the actual belief. That is not a good religious faith if you ask me.
Drawing and commentary by Marty Coleman of The Napkin Dad Daily
Quote by G. K. Chesterton, 1874-1936, English writer
Simple enough. What is the difference between the two? Your attitude. And it is your willingness to admit that it is your brain, your thoughts, that define the events you go through. They don’t have one definition that is set it stone. They have a definition set in your skull. Redefine what it is that is happening to and around you and that really is what is happening to and around you.
When you believe that, and practice it again and again, then you will have such incredible adventures, such joyously unexpected fun, you will just have to dance with happy feet.
“Coincidences Are Spiritual Puns.” – G. K . Chesterton
But they make me smile more than verbal puns.
By the way, the best explanation for coincidences ever rendered by the mind of man is found in the movie ‘Repo Man’. Check out the ‘Plate of Shrimp’ scene to be taught by the master.
If you watch the scene, remember from here on out you will be compelled to use the phrase ‘plate of shrimp’ whenever such a thing happens.
You are now being returned to your broadcast channel…
“Art, Like Morality, Consists Of Drawing The Line Somewhere.” G. K. Chesterton
The question in art, as in morality, is WHERE to draw that line. Artists of different eras and styles draw the line in different places, handling the pencil differently, drawing in different studios and lighting, heat and cold. Isn’t our morality similarly drawn? Could even the most conservative of people really live the moral code of the middle ages if they were plopped down in the middle of a peasant home?
