Recent changes at Stuck in Plastic have made it clear to me that I have choose to go my own way. I have taken time off to think about this crossroads and I have come to a decision.
My decision is that I will leave Stuckinplastic, and the reasons is that I don’t want to lose myself, and I fear that I will do that if I follow the road that Stuck in plastic is going down. My time blogging here on Stuck in plastic has been short and sweet. I’ve learned so much through conversations and interaction with you all in this amazing community. Thank you for that. Thank you for all the great meetings, thoughts and all your support.
I’ll metaphorically be around the corner. You can find me on Instagram (occasionally), Facebook, Flickr or on my own webpage.
Kristina
During the spring I’ll be a guest-writer on Stuck in Plastic continuing with the photo-challenges. I’ll start off as a guest-writer by kicking off the next challenge later this week.
I enjoyed your posts and will miss you, but understand the need to pursue your own projects. Thank you for sharing your time with us!
Thanks Lyn. It has been such a nice time to be part of this blog, and I know that you have been a great part of that.
Thank you Kristina for all you’ve done for the blog and this community for the past six months. You’re energy, your thoughtfulness and your amazing photographs will be missed. Of course i’m more than grateful that you’ll continue to face these photo challenges with me, at least for the short term. 🙂
You’re an amazing woman, a talented photographer and I’m lucky to count you as my friend.
xo
dito!
That’s a sad news.
You are a talented photographer and your works are awesome; I hope that you will share other amazing photos on Instagram.
See you there!
We missed you. 🙁
Yes we’ll see one another on Instagram 🙂
Well, I would have to start by admitting I don’t know you terribly well, but I see the objectivity that you seek out in your writing here (this was especially apparent in your recent ‘Why I do this’ post ) and I see the subjectivity of your photographs and I can only wonder as to how those meet within you. It’s not surprising you’ve reached this decision, but it is still with sadness to see you go. I feel fortunate to have met you here as I know how to keep track of your work now.
As I think about my own ‘why I do this’ post I can only marvel at how everybody seemingly has a why. Why do we have a why? Why do we need one? (Because we don’t really.) Are we all making up our why just because someone asked?
And when our audience looks at our photos and then needs a ‘why’ to understand them, have we really even set out to do what we intended?
I’m looking forward to your future work, should you choose to share it. I’m excited to see what you create ‘free from why.’
I overexposed my first photograph just a few days ago in an attempt to emulate the softness that is so prevalent in your work. It will serve as lingering reminder of your influence! Cheers and good luck!
AliceinCleveland I know you wrote this to Kristina but I can’t help but jump in. I came from the fine arts world, not the social media free-for-all that is Instagram. When you’re an artist you have to be able to express yourself as an artist, to be able to talk about your work, to know who your influences are and to know what you’re trying to say. This blog has always been about helping the core members (and anyone else) pursue a path beyond the social media popularity game and to have a more in-depth discussion of toy photography than what you will find anywhere else. One way to do that is to know who we are and why we do what we’re doing. For me, my “why?” post is simply called an “Audience of One.” Your’s might be called something similar or something completely different. But only when we take a moment to be introspective can we know why we do what we do. Once that happens its easier to move in a positive and focused direction. There’s nothing worse than being an artist AND stuck. (and I don’t mean in plastic)
Plus it’s a damn hard assignment and I like to keep the bar high, it keeps life interesting.
Shelly, I’m always glad for you or anybody else to jump in. Didn’t you tell me recently that the blog is your “why I do this” post? If you aren’t jumping in, you aren’t writing your post. : )
As I think about “Why” I cannot help but section it off into 2 pieces. The “why” that I must answer to (which I believe is what you are talking about here) and the “WHY” that other people (other people being the masses more than other individuals I should say) demand from us. (The lowercase “why” is internal, the uppercase “WHY” is external.) The “Why” is a combination of “why” and “WHY” though I fear it is not always easy to separate the two.
Here at Stuck in Plastic you are fostering the “why,” but it appears to me that several community members have recently experienced an overwhelming rush of “WHY.” The variety of reactions has been interesting to watch. It is definitely something that was brewing long before I was here, or even stopped to think about it. The fond remembrances to a different time, the discussions on violence, the decisions to leave… I see these all as the building of magma in a volcanic chamber, building the pressure that precedes the eruption of response to “WHY.” It’s all connected.
And after the response to “WHY” the magma cools and helps us to find a response to “why.” That’s how I interpreted Kristina’s decisions.
As I battle with my own “Why” post (because you are right it is damn hard) I am striving to answer “why” and not “WHY.” In the process I find myself moving further away from certain social media sites I associate with “WHY” and towards sites (or no sites) I associate with “why.”
It’s difficult and rewarding and sad at times and manic at others and harmonious and dischord and seeker and fracture and ode and outlets and good and wild and a million other words at once. It’s why we photograph and share or photograph and don’t or photograph and do something in between.
(volcano emoji)
I’m the lucky one – because without this blog I would never have found you, and in you meet a person that thinks in other path – not like everybody else I meet. You always get me to think twice when I read you thought, look at your pictures and get amazed by how much thought there is behind you work.
we’ll see what work comes after this… Right know I have no idea, but it will probably be all about my inner landscape. You are truly amazing Alice, thank you for letting me be part of your internet./kristina
Thank you for your time here, both words and photos. I’ll hope you find what you are looking for.
Stefan – you are the best of the best! I’m the one that should say thank you. Your tender words, thoughts and eyes are a true inspiration. I’m so happy I have gotten to know you through SIP
Kristina, don’t know what to say. You made me cry with your so very kind words, they touched my soul. Lost for words right now, all I can say is thank You <3
Kristina, so sorry to see you go, but go you must… to other adventures in your journey. Loved to see the challenges you presented and get a better insight into the artist behind those lovely trooper life series I’ve followed for years 🙂
Best of luck!
Thank you Margret – I’ll keep up the challenges during the spring. And I’ll try to give some insight to how I work and think.
I’m so happy I got to meet you through this blog 🙂
I’d love to hear more details on ‘why’ the new direction doesn’t jive with you. We’re all sad to see you go, but, why? It could be my bad – I could be behind on the details or something! (chanting) One more post! One more post!
-Paul
@bricksailboat
Paul. One more post… about the details… but I don’t think there is so much details to share about the why…. I hope you understand, and I’ll think your request over and see what I can do.
Kristina
I’m so sorry to see you leave and I’ve always enjoyed your posts. But I’m happy to hear that I’ll still see your beautiful photos on Flickr 🙂
Lynn
Thank you Lynn 🙂