I'm like a pencil;
sometimes sharp,
most days
well-rounded,
other times
dull or
occasionally
broken.
Still I write.
j.g. lewis
is a writer/photographer in Toronto.
Month: May 2021
A creative act, the art of putting your self out there, takes guts.
Allowing others to see your thoughts and passions can be disturbing, but it is required.
How can you live with all that pent-up emotion?
Creativity allows you an outlet.
Only you have what it takes to express your self.
Show us your courage.
05/16/2021 j.g.l.
Posted on May 15, 2021 by j.g.lewisLeave a comment
Is it the sunset you enjoy, or the shadows it casts? Have you stopped for a moment to
figure it out?
In reality, it is how you choose to see it.
Perception changes, and you with it. It is not the reverse. To shift your perspective
requires an influence, but despite what you hear, read or see, the viewpoint of the world
surrounding you will come from within.
Yes, we listen to others: educators, politicians, salesmen or solicitors, and whether we
are told that the world is flat, which automobile is the safest, or how a policy will dramatically reduce carbon emissions over the next decade, it is the personal processing
of this information that will determine your ultimate answe
We, all too often, rely on the words of others when trying to understand anything
around us. Explanation involves thinking outside of yourself and considering the
consequences, values and benefits. In trying to listen to the flood of information coming
at you, it is assumed knowledge that will form your opinion.
What if I told you that when watching a sunset, you are actually paying more attention
to the clouds, than you are to the actual Sun? Would you stop for a moment and wonder
what you’ve always taken in?
The Sun never changes (well, not in immediate terms); it burns, full power, 24 hours a
day. We see it more or less, depending on where we are located in relation to the time of
the year. It is us that moves and not the sun
The Sun, quite boring really, is always there. Always in the same place. It’s always
round, always bright, and generates radiation that is constant, and powerful enough to
light up this world and any other star, planet and galaxy in the universe.
As it appears to dip below the horizon at the end of each day, the Sun setting is not your focus. All those colours and the glorious view you scramble to capture on your camera or mobile device is more the result of the Sun’s light reflecting and refracting through the atmosphere, precipitation or condensation, or the puffy polluted haze of our ever expanding cities.
The view is altered, mostly by your perception. It is still the same Sun it was hours
earlier, it is still doing the same bloody thing, but somehow it is more beautifu
Perception.
The Sun glows, alters the shade of buildings, the shadows of trees, and even makes
common weeds, like dandelions, appear magical.
Perspective. It is how we see things. More importantly how we see ourselves, and how
we connect with the context.
Our greatest strength should be admitting we don’t know everything and being open to learning what we need to know. Change comes with knowledge, and challenging yourself comes with connecting to your soul, investigating your id and ego and, through the process, discovering your own mythos.
Seek answers, or self-explanation for who you are, and why you do what you do.
Discover solutions, or check your hypothesis for why something didn’t turn out the way
it was supposed to, or why success is likely, in whatever area you chose.
Context.
You can make things happen, but you need to unearth what is happening and why.
Those are answers you won’t get from teachers, lawyers or policy wonks. You may not
even find the answers within, but you will be stronger for looking.
The inner voice is an inner choice.
©2017 j.g. lewis
Posted on May 14, 2021 by j.g.lewisLeave a comment
It begins with a line.
I can’t say that’s the start of it, because there have literally been months of thinking, of planning, and conceiving. Until that first line, I have only been dreaming.
Artful study of subject matter, and colours, remaining cognizant of light and shadows, then plotting it out was only preparation.
A sketch is merely a dream on paper.
Then you make that first mark on the canvas: and then another. Line after line, so many to go; something to guide you. Intuition is not enough. Not yet.
It looks nothing like it will, or what you want it to. Art can take time.
It will evolve with the muse of the moment.
It is a work in progress.
Like myself.
Time and patience; I seem short of both, yet I will keep the pencil moving.
Line by line, by line, it will be some time before the brush touches the canvas.
The paint is waiting: it more patient that I.
Right now what matters is all I have undertaken; a responsibility to my creative self. The first line on the canvas signs my own contract with commitment.
It is happening.
Line by line.
By desire or design.
05/14/2021 j.g.l.
