I am a writer by night, a painter by early morning, an editor for both the journal and for Great River Learning by day, and a half exhausted pigeon by mid-evening. But nonetheless I like to use art as a writer to become inspired. Writing is a form of art, yes, very true, but all art in my opinion has its own unique beauty and value to it. I paint on canvas, one of my many hobbies. I like to paint with acrylics and create abstract forms to see where my mind and creative hand lead me. It honestly, and quite frankly, usually leads to something horrible. A second grader could do much better than I. Yet all art, and writing, only take a little bit of talent and imagination, but also lots of practice and hard work.
Moving on from painting, what we receive is mainly photography submissions, which is great! Since we receive so many photography submission, I would like to provide one tip for photographers that will help give their art a higher chance of acceptance. I recently just bought a Fujifilm Instant Camera, with the old style Polaroid film. As soon as you take the picture, with a click and a crackle slides out the blank white slice of film and you can watch the picture appear without a black light. The first photo I took was of my beautiful curvy pug and made me realize the lighting, her position, and the background.
I notice the background in photos probably the most. When I can view a photo from several angles of zooming in or out and side to side that is what makes a photo successfully and gives it a really high change of getting selected to get published by this journal. Why is setting the scene and utilizing angles the most important tip you might ask? My philosophy is that art should be viewed and used to put in front of people’s eyes so that they can’t miss the beauty of the photographer’s eye that can capture a stunning moment like a child at the end of a dark tunnel bathed in sunlight, or a bush of roses. These two photos had the light, position, and background to make one gaze upon the images with wonder.
Art is fun, so be creative, be open minded, and look for what catches your eye because everyone interprets art a little different.
