Motivation

Monica: Some days, there's no time. I get up and go. There are people to meet with and things to clean up and questions to answer and reservations to confirm and meals to prepare...by the time I get home, it's late and I'm exhausted. The only motivation to turn on my camera and press my eye to the viewfinder is knowing that my sister is depending on me to get it done. There's no financial reward or throngs of followers who anxiously await the next post to propel me forward. It's simply my sister, whose voice I hear urging me on, encouraging my creativity even when I feel I have none. Sometimes I'm surprised by the results of my halfhearted photos. I catch things by accident that I never noticed in the moment, like tiny flecks of pollen dusting the petals of a fuchsia-colored flower.

Evelyn: It isn't always easy finding motivation to do the things I am expected to do, or even the things I LOVE to do. I would think that doing the things I most love, with that intrinsic murmur of content, would move me along... however it always seems there are more pressing things to cover, more calls to return, more papers to grade. Today I finally had the opportunity to finish a piece of artwork, motivated by a wooden bowl of fresh water for washing my brushes, and the whirlwind of 9 other souls exploring their own creativity under the salient encouragement of paint, ModPodge, magazines, tape, brushes, rubber stamps, and blender pens.