Painters Paint, Photographers Photograph — Blog Every Day Challenge, Year 4
It’s September 1st (how did we get here so quickly?) and it’s time for my blog every day challenge! This is the 4th year I am doing this challenge of blogging for a month straight, and the impetus of doing the challenge this month came earlier today because of a video I keep thinking about.
I was in the garden cutting flowers for my office, and a phrase from the video I saw recently kept swirling in my mind. “Painter’s paint.” An artist was saying that during university he was feeling particularly down and out of alignment with what he was studying and how he was spending his days. All his loved ones were giving him advice, but it was his dad’s words that changed not only his feeling of despair but the trajectory of his life. His dad, after listening to his rant, asked him when last he painted. He hadn’t painted in two weeks, and his dad said, “Well of course you are depressed. Painter’s paint, so get to work!” This was a phrase his dad often told him, but he never viewed himself as an artist. He brushed off the suggestion, but he still made time to paint that day. The session was beautiful. The time flowed. He saw the value in what he was creating, and he felt better. From that moment he started to heed his dad’s words, pushing against the resistance and painting every day. He is now a thriving artist and credits his dad’s words as the reason he hasn’t wasted a lot of time and effort following something that wasn’t his actual path.
The dad’s words really stuck with me, and I altered it for myself. I’ve been repeating, “A photographer takes photos.” 2026 was supposed to be a year when I would return to my work: photographing more, talking about my work, sharing my work, selling my art prints, and exhibiting! So far this year, I haven’t been doing this. Instead, I have been filling my time with other pursuits that help put some money in my account, but aren’t necessarily focused enough on my creativity.
As I was putting the flowers in their respective vases, I was thinking of the different ways I could immerse myself in my creative expression and work on my photography every day. That’s when I remembered my blogging every day challenge! In the past, the challenge has made me zone in on some aspect of my work or creativity as I had to produce something to share every day. I stepped back and looked at the flowers. I had placed them back on the top of the bookshelf in my office. I grabbed my camera and started to photograph them. As I rearranged the vases, composing the shot, I thought that while I can still post about my other interests like wellness and self-care, this challenge can focus more on posting my photography this month!
I am looking forward to realigning with my work during the month of September, and I hope you will follow along.
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