Last week I had the opportunity to listen to Sally Mann give a lecture in the city. I walked away amazed at the stories and the images from her life that she shared with us.
What struck me was how her work, her art, and her life, are as tangled as the roots of a tree below the surface. They grew out, intertwined as one, and you cannot separate them from each other now.
As I have been wrestling with what it means to be an artist , she taught me that it doesn’t have to be complicated or abstract. It is as simple as documenting the daily things and the people we love that make up a life.
Sally Mann’s body of work grew out of where she came from. The farm where she grew up and eventually raised her children was the place that she created all of her most famous images.
She had to be intentional about capturing these images of their daily lives together, but she didn’t have a grand concept. She let her love instruct her art.
I want to create from that place. To capture what I love simply because I love it, and not get caught up in what I am trying to say. My voice will emerge, and I have to trust that.
I tend to put a lot of pressure on myself to do amazing things, maybe instead I can do things with amazing love and let it be what it will be. The rest will come from there.
Here is an image from last summer at my grandparent’s summer cottage in Canada.
Taken with love. From a place and a family that has helped shape me into who I am becoming each day.
xoxo,
Em
Oh, I loved seeing her exhibit at the VMFA last year. It was strange, I had such a hard time looking at the pictures of her children, I felt like I was intruding on some sort of intimate moment, while I had no issues looking that the body farm images. So weird! Love her!
Beautiful message and resolve.
love.
Lovely, Em.