While reading That Unreliable Girl’s blog today, I came across a couple pictures that sent me back to childhood, back when all I did was explore the woods of Indiana. It really goes to show how strong a picture or painting really can be. Just by looking at these images, I want to throw my cellphone away, get off the grid, and stop and realize the beauty in life again. Maybe I’ll print one of these and put it in my car like Jamie Foxx in Collateral to remind me to slow down a little.

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I’m lying on my dad’s bed. His waifish and frail body is next to me, barely disrupting the bedding above him. At our feet is the tv and on it runs a slideshow of family portraits I’ve assembled for him with the Ken Burns effect giving my family history the focused and sober look of a polished documentary film.

My dad’s body is being taken over by cancer and he is spending his final days at home with the people important to him. All week people parade through the house to share in the experience. At first we are alone, then my brother comes in and joins us. Then my stepmom, my cousin, uncle, mom, and soon everyone is there crowding around the bed watching the show.

There are only 300 or so images and we’ve all seen them many times over now. But seeing them in that context, in that spontaneous moment of assembly, we shared something that is incredibly difficult to manufacture.

What a moment. This is what we do… what it’s all about… doing something that creates a response, thereby creating something that’s bigger. I’m pretty sure that’s what we strive to do as artists…. and to be there when people are responding is such sweet nectar. I wanted to share that, because it’s not often that we get to experience that as artists. We do the work because we have to, and we put it out there because we need to share. …but to be there for and to take part in the evolution from creative expression to something bigger is truly magical and not to be missed.

-Alexx

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