The Power of a Prompt

21 Feb The Power of a Prompt

It’s amazing to me sometimes how a simple suggestion can totally alter your train of thought. I’m pretty sure it’s a situation everyone has experienced in one way or another. A seed is planted (knowingly or unknowingly) and *bloop* up pops a sprout and before you know it, *whoosh* a giant unwieldy beanstalk twists and turns past you reaching straight up to the heavens. Creativity can work that way, especially when you least expect it.

I know how creative prompts work and how powerful they can be. I’ve spend countless hours writing them and sharing them in classes (both online and off) and have witnessed rich, fertile gardens of rich fertile soil producing these luscious vines of ideas and inspiration. It certainly shouldn’t surprise me then, when I watch that happen in my own field of creativity.

For the past few days I’ve been consumed with an invitation I got for an Art Challenge meme from a dear old college friend of mine on Facebook (FYI: my personal account is private but if you fb message me “Hey Tracey, let’s be friends”, I would certainly oblige). You’ve probably seen the meme, or one like it, prompting the participants to share 5 days of art. In this case, it’s 5 days of 3 works of art and I guess it came at the right time because I’ve been so excited about it, it’s all I can think about.

Inspired by the idea of art in general (what it all means and what it means to me specifically) I have been mulling over in my mind how I live my daily life seeking out and seeing the art of everyday. Whether it’s something Mother Nature has created (trees, leaves, skies, seas) or something from the hands of humankind (objects, trinkets, architecture, machines) I have somewhere along the way, made it my life’s work to focus on and frame the parts of any/all of these things that delight and inspire me. From the tiniest of details to the most vast of landscapes, I find glints and glimmers of art in everything.  The art is already there, I don’t create it. My passion and joy comes from using my camera, any camera, as a tool to discover and distill the art that already exists in everything.

With that, I’m excited to share my 3 “works of art” from Day 1 of 5. Image one, above and my other two, below.

What a treat it’s been to have something like this to think about, muse on and shoot. I love just being inspired, don’t you? If you would like to challenge yourself to share 3 works of art for 5 days with me, please leave a comment here and I will officially tag you. Share your online whereabouts so I can find you and I’ll tag away! Here’s to the power of a prompt.