Art and Vision: 20/20 in 2020

Art and Vision: 20/20 in 2020

In the 4th grade, Mrs Roberts noticed me squinting at the blackboard. She suggested that I have my eyes checked, and lo and behold, she was right: I needed glasses. By the time I was in my 20s, I wore glasses as thick as Coke bottles; without them, I could only focus within 8 inches of my face.

And then I had surgery. Within a couple of weeks, I had 20/20 vision for the first time in memory. No more glasses. Nothing to break or smudge. Nothing to get in the way of my camera. I was so happy.

Over the years, the 20/20 vision faded as my eyes changed. I had to start wearing glasses again. I became both nearsighted and farsighted at the same time. I got new glasses annually, and each time everything came into focus once again.

Like my eyesight, my artistic vision also continues to shift with time. Maybe it does for you as well. We keep working, adapting, trying something new, sometimes in fits and starts. We have a vision; we get distracted and derailed. We're artists, but somehow life (kids, bills, health, aging...) get in the way. We try again, and again.

Perhaps TS Eliot said it best:

And so each ventureIs a new beginning, a raid on the inarticulate,With shabby equipment always deteriorating…

There is only the fight to recover what has been lostAnd found and lost again and again: and now, under conditionsThat seem unpropitious. But perhaps neither gain nor loss.For us, there is only the trying. The rest is not our business.

“For us, there is only the trying.” And you know what? I’m ready to celebrate the trying. It’s a new year, a new decade, and I have some new work on my plate. Even if my vision isn’t 20/20, the year is, and I’m going to work with that.

In the year ahead, I’m going to be focusing more on sharing my personal fine art photography projects. I’m shifting my Instagram feed to focus more on sharing my personal work and processes with you. I’m going to teach some exciting photography workshops. And I want more of my friends to have my artwork in their homes, rather than storing it in my closet.

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