Cause we don't know when to quit

Sometimes I feel so inspired by music. Recently my inspirational music has been Fall Out Boy’s newest album, Save Rock and Roll. (You can now listen to the whole album streaming here). At first it was "The Phoenix," partly because I had just finished an image with phoenix. Now the song on repeat is the title track, "Save Rock and Roll." 

I need more dreams
And less life
…
You are what you love
Not who loves you
…
Oh no, we won’t go
Cause we don’t know when to quit, oh, oh    

Listening to their words, beats and chords I just get this feeling in my chest that permeates my entire being. The sensation is all about having hope and never giving up. It tells me I need to keep creating my artwork and sharing it with the world, even if “the world” right now is only a few people. Unfortunately, I often feel like giving up. But music often renews my passion for my art. And interestingly, although Save Rock and Roll and The Phoenix do this, the music does not have to be ANYTHING to do with being inspirational, metapoetry (poetry about poetry), or related to fantasy or visual art. It’s just something about their combinations of words with the music that does it. And, of course, Patrick Stump’s voice doesn’t hurt.

Even being newly inspired, I am having some issues getting back into working because I have so few photographs left to work with. Below are two images of the early process of  that I still have left, in the early stages of my process.

A screenshot of my new photo in progress

Paintings for my new photo

But really, I need to take some more photos, and like ASAP. I am thinking about doing a series of images focusing on characters performing some sort of rituals, although I’m not sure how that will take shape just yet. It's still just vague ideas bouncing around in my head. Often I find it works better for me to just get some people in costumes and shoot.  I rarely know exactly what I want to create when I start a shoot. Sometimes I know what kind of character I want to depict, but beyond that, I let the model experiment with poses and emotions while I capture what they come up with. 

I do need to take a few more photos to go with my Circus story, but I think either I (or my partner) will model for those. My story is almost done being edited. I’m still waiting for my editor-in-chief to give it back to me…but she just gave birth to her second child, so it might be a little while. Keep looking out for more updates about it!

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