It’s been a while in between the last article… over a year actually.
In that time I’ve found myself struggling with the demand of the creative process, even though the jobs I choose to take onboard and the brands that I work with are super soul-aligning; there was a creative struggle to ‘produce’. Partly from limiting beliefs & self-doubt of my work, & an innate yearning to slow down, to simplify. We can get caught up in the hustle & grind of trying to make a living, and when you’re a creative- whether that be a musician, artist, photographer, writer, etc- the demand to create something authentic and from your soul becomes obsolete when you know you have to make the rent that week.
Covid-19 and being restricted to Western Australia (where you’d previously only find me here a few weeks of the year) has taught me so much about my creative process, why I shoot & do what I do, and how to integrate my authentic self into my work.
I first fell in love with photography in Nepal & shooting friends in the surf on a lil Canon G1X.
I realised that I could combine this passion to travel, surf & meet new people. This is what it has always been about for me. Tick those three boxes and I’m a very happy gal.
So when it came down to staying put for a while, it’s no wonder I eventually struggled with the reality of a ‘normal life’- stationary. This is coming from a very privileged reality- WA has had so much freedom over the years with this global pandemic, and I feel super grateful to be where I am, knowing that others over east & around the world are going through some immensely tough physical & emotional trauma.
Vision boards. Have you ever made one?
Quantum physics shows that our thoughts are ultimately our reality- so what think, what we feed our mind, has a direct correlation with our external environment & how our life unfolds. Listen to Zeitgeist by Babe Rainbow- those boys know what’s up in a beautifully weird, trippy way. By visually laying out in front of you a mood board- inspiration for your dream home, career, relationship etc, it automatically fast-tracks you to manifesting anything you bloody want really. It just takes a bit of time & a whole lot of self-work!
Over the past year I’ve constantly been adding to my Pinterest vision boards…
A great platform to get started on & inspired by. Within 6 months I had moved into my dream house & had a creative studio 30 seconds down the road. I was so blown away by the accuracy & minute detail of the images in my vision board that featured in my new house. Literally down to the same two Canadian style pines outside the full-length window wall. I was living in a wooden cabin loft in the heart of Freo- how is that even possible haha? When you dream something up you bring it into consciousness, and if your vision or dream is strong enough it materializes. Don’t worry about how it might happen or how to reach that point, there are infinite possibilities in the quantum realm- this is a science after all. The universe just finds a way to make it all happen, so go with it & be open to new opportunities.
So I spent 5 months in this little sanctuary. Riding down to the studio to organize shoots, package NU GEN books, set up the old school camera & surf books collection, get inspired from other creatives & just have a space where I could THINK. It’s amazing when you have a dedicated space to create how many ideas start flowing through your mind. Most of those ideas I didn’t pursue to the end but hey we’re only human. SO, I literally had the dream setup. Living in Freo, in my dream home & with an epic creative space just down the road.
But guess what… I found myself still dreaming & vision-boarding half-way through.
Are we ever content? Can we ever just sit still & appreciate what we’ve got? This was a big realization for me. Gypsy at heart, I’ve always been on the move, so it was a challenge to commit to staying in one place for a while, even though the previous year helped me so much in being content in stillness- I don’t like being stationary (half the time I was away assisting on outdoor ed camps & road tripping to Broome anyway haha).
As much as I had the dream life setup, I was yearning for something more. Simplicity. To narrow my visual field to only the most beautiful aesthetics; glistening water, the silhouette of a surfer jumping off of the rocks to a beautiful left hand point break, sunlight shining through the trees, through the forest, wholesome home-cooked meals on a rock, & good friends. Simplicity. A life outdoors basically. Trick is you’ve got to make all these things happen, step outside & put your vision into action.
It wasn’t until after an outdoor ed camp down in Margaret River where a week after was spent surfing nine hours a day, cooking up meals on the fire with a beautiful crew, waking up to the surf, making breakfast out the back of the van & then naturally falling into a carpark jam, was when I was like FUCK it. I’m moving. Hahahahahaha.
Call me crazy? I think we all deeply yearn to drop everything and just retreat into natures arms. I’m grateful that I’m in a situation where I can do that, where I’m not bound by a 9-5 job or stuck in the mindset of pursuing societies version of success.
The day I got back I told my housemates I was moving out, they weren’t too surprised, and honestly a bit stoked to have some stability come back through the house haha. Within 2 weeks I had sold a large majority of all my belongings, found someone to move into my room, transformed the van to fit only the essentials and was ready to go live in the bush ha. A property had fallen into a friend & mines lap a few weeks earlier, so everything kind of worked out perfectly. When everything flows & you’re not trying to push up against a wall, you know you’re on the right path.
And so here we are. Living it up in the south west. Content in the dirt. Still freelancing. Surfing. Meeting new people every day. Life is good baby. Never be scared to re-shape your dreams & who you think you are- or who you have to be. As Morning of the Earth filmmaker Albe Falzon stated in NU GEN… “When you follow your heart, the world opens - everything you could possibly have wished for emerges with the least amount of effort. Almost like there’s an almighty eye in the sky watching over you, and a hand guiding you…”
