Art As A Pathway To Self – Rebecca Tolk

Art As A Pathway To Self, Rebecca Tolk‘s 2021 Playful Creative Summit conversation with David Chislett, appealed to me on many levels. The dialogue was free-flowing. Tolk notes, for example, that she spends a good part of her time on inartistic efforts, such as her marketing, which can have a dispiriting effect on her creativity. Her defense is to maintain her spontaneity as much as possible – she doesn’t scout the locations for her photoshoots, she goes for walks in nature. Structure is necessarily balanced in that as well, as when she books appointments.  And she explores fun in her work, experimenting with different cameras, unusual filters, software enhancements. Even more bravely, Tolk learned remote portraiture photography as a coping and empowering tool against COVID isolation. She notes that mood can be a powerful influence: when she’s in a darker place, her motivation is overwhelmed, but when she emerges from that depression, she’s ready for new efforts.

I’m summarizing in this instance, but my lesson from her words: listen to yourself, discover both what you need and what you can accomplish, your satisfaction in your life will be profound.