DEBBIE CARLOS

Debbie Carlos, independent photographer. A nice conversation about her creativity.

«I live in Chicago, in the U.S. This is a great city. 

Having lived in L.A., Manila, and in the Boston area, I think Chicago is the first city I’ve lived in that I’ve really felt a connection with. 

There is such a great sense of history that you can feel everywhere. You get the cultural happenings, the hustle and bustle of a large city, but there is also a really nice Midwestern relaxed attitude. 

You will also find a different set of neighborhoods surrounding downtown, and I think these communities make the city really interesting.  Also, the eating is pretty excellent.

I think I make my most interesting pictures when I travel or when I’m in nature. I love to look at art, especially self-taught art. 

I also draw unlimited amounts of inspiration from my friends.

Most of my imagery plays on a feeling or a mood: I try to document moments of everyday life that have a dreamlike, strange, or surreal quality. 

The images show events that happen in my life, but they are also not about me. I am absent, so that the viewer draws their own meaning from the image. My work aims to be universal.

I shoot both film and digital, but I have always loved film the best. The quality of film is so much weightier than digital. 

Digital can produce a great image and the process is a lot easier, but film will always have a certain look that produces a feeling that suits my work especially. 

I do also use re-purposed materials for my sewing projects. I love going to thrift stores and sifting through the pillowcases, bedsheets, oversized clothing to find materials and inspiration.

Having a camera on me at all times is the most helpful part of the creative process: sometimes there is nothing to take a picture of, but sometimes there is.

I make sure to take a lot of photos, even if I don’t feel very strongly about the shot, because I like to leave room to be surprised later.

I think the best thing is to always be open to the idea that anything can happen, at any time. 

Ideas, excitement, energy, a willingness to learn new things. This is creativity for me».

HONEY TREE_ Fine Art, Vintage Inspired and Nature Photography Decor

Sonoma County, California .

It is mostly rural, lots of fields with Oak trees and vineyards and the Pacific ocean just down the road. 

Life is at a pretty slow pace here, it is quite amazing right now with all the flowers of spring blooming.

Lupen Grainne, founder and photographer for Honey Tree, lives here.

Nature is her main source of inspiration, from all the little tiny changes of the seasons to the wide open spaces . 

After traveling in Europe a couple years ago, now she's living near San Francisco, also getting more inspired by the beauty and details in urban setting too.

She just likes revealing the beauty and magic in everyday things and places.

She wanted a name with honey in it, since it has a nice sweet comforting feeling.

And she seems to be drawn to taking lots of pictures of trees, a theme sort of for me, so it just came together.

All really starts with "I wonder what I can go out and find today" with some parameters, like going to the fields when the mustard is blooming, or going out on a foggy morning. 

Having a day or half a day to go out shooting is pure joy for HER.

What is creativity inside you?

"It is pursuing the pull I feel inside me to pursue beauty and things that speak to me".

www.lupengrainne.com

LUNA SOLIS CLOTHING_ Bohemian/gypsy/vintage style limited edition & one-off handmade clothing and accessories

Australia. Zyanya Walker, founder and designer for Luna Solis Clothing, lives  about one hour drive north of Sydney in a place called the Central Coast.

She has her own house which she bought recently with her boyfriend. They love it here. There is a nature reserve behind them, so there is always a lot of beautiful birds singing all day. Also they are very close to the beach.

Her biggest source of inspiration is anything vintage. 

Zyanya loves the 1920s, 30s and 40s so much. She said "I wish I could have lived in those decades."

Everything seemed so much more refined back then, the houses, the cars, the jewelery, the clothing were so beautiful.

People put a lot of thought into what they created. 

She is also very inspired by the gypsy life, living as a nomadic free spirit. 

She tries to incorporate these things into what she creates. 

But also the sacred geometry, trees, water, nature in general, 1930s freak shows, old fashioned circus life, fortune tellers, the subconsciousness, eloping, memory, time travel, magic, things that are sacred and treasured, sleeping and dreaming, the unknown.

All garments and accessories are handmade. 

Where possible, she uses recycled fabrics, buttons, lace, zippers etc. 

This keeps the garments affordable and is kind to our beautiful earth. 

If their fabrics are not recycled or vintage, they come from places that are selling liquidated stock. Everything she creates is extremely unique and limited. She thinks it is nice for people to own special accessories and clothing that no one else owns.

Her creative process is still being discovered. She's still so new at creating a range of clothing and accessories that she is learning what best works for her. 

Generally she keeps her eyes open all the time for inspiration through blogs, magazines and people on the street. 

She sketches her ideas and go from there. There is always a lot of change happening with her ideas, always an ongoing ever moving process.

"Creativity to me is my life force". 

Without it she thinks she would shrivell up and dry out! 

Everyone needs it, and everyone has it, just not everyone realizes it which is a shame. 

Zyanya loves to be able to teach people that creativity is inside all of us, it just comes in many different forms. 

Life is about creating our own perfect existence. 

Being creative makes happy, whenever she is feeling down. 

Creativity isn't just about art or craft or cooking. 

It's about inventing new ways of doing things, constantly improving ourselves.

Zyanya Walker is also a photographer: when she likes how light falls on something, she photographs it, right away. Thoughts, Creations and inspiration. Follow her blog!

GEORGINA CAMPBELL_ Go out and shoot!

Georgina Campbell is an indie photographer, who lives in Whitechapel, east London. 

A multi-ethnic and multicultural place, where Georgina perceived stimulus and new sensations.

Inspired by art and science, and how they weave themselves. 

But also steampunk, vintage photographs, old objects and situations, the strange and mysterious side of the past.

Random inspiration. Each work comes from a different idea. Fragments of memories or dreams, portraits to inspire the viewer.
As if they were 'nonsense to hang on the wall'. A sort of porthole to another world.
The creative process? Go out and shoot! 

Georgina always creates sculpture, crochet and knit.
The photography, however, is its primary expression: Holga camera, lenses, plastic and vintage analog process.

LE PETIT FOYER_ Art & Jewelry Creativity

"Painting my dreams"

"Absence"

"Dreams in the mirror"

I left my heart in Paris, necklace

Innocence, Necklace

Geisha, necklace

Stephania Dapolla, photographer and designer for Le Petit Foyer.
She is an artist, painting and restoring helps her to love memory and old things.

"Photography is for me a way to express moods and emotions using images from the world around.
I love to relate poetry and images and to create my own dreamy, nostalgic and often melancholic visions. I use textures to recreate reality and my favourite subjects are all kinds of forgotten and decayed buildings, streets or objects.
I show my work in a small gallery in my city and also display part of it in my etsy shop since last January.

Jewellery design is something totally new for me. As in painting and photography, I am fascinated by old styles and materials and the possibility to use them in a new personal concept.
I try to discover little treasuries in old stocks with vintage items and mix them in a way that can match to the modern aesthetic needs. I also love to combine diverse metals, such as silver and brass which I find extremely attractive when they are oxidised by the patina of time.
My most recent project is to create hand painted miniatures adjusted into pendants, a kind of jewellery collage.
I love to create moods, express emotions and tell little stories through each one of my creations.

In my art, as in my life, I rarely plan my next step but leave my intuition guide me.
As a person I prefer to keep a low profile and let my work speak instead of me. My life is quiet but never boring, as I feel that I would need more than 24 hours every day in order to achieve what I have in mind.
My day starts with a long walk at the local park with my dogs. Then I open my little shop which I share with my family and start working. My local and online shops keep me busy for most of the day.
Late in the evening, my dogs remind me that the day has gone and we have to go out again for some walking.

I also love to travel when I have the chance. My country, Greece, offers many opportunities for short relaxing breaks and photographic expeditions.
At this time, I am mostly concentrated in building and promoting "Le Petit Foyer", my new online jewelry shop on etsy. For me, selling online is a great opportunity for sharing and communication with people far beyond the limits of my local society. I love to feel a citizen of the world and art is my best reminder".

SELENA VALLEJO_ ME AND MY VISIONS

Selena Vallejo: a mother, a wife, a gardener, but, above all, a freelance photographer in Chicago.
Specializing in still life and portrait, she works in studio and on location.
On Etsy you can find her boutique, showing her fine art, the artistic movement of perfect synthesis between quality and technique, aesthetic purposes, not for utility.

A store  for her creative projects and ideas, much more than a passion. 
Her source of inspiration is the environment that surrounds her, like the photography stops any images, any time and any place. Her experiences are the way to express her thoughts, her fears, her happiness, her story.
Analog and digital. First, she used the darkroom and black and white, now she love the color: Love the surprise, trying to convey the life and soul in those films, creating a story or emotion. Photography is the tool to capture every time. Life, music, light, all sources of ideas. Photography is her vision, the way to see her life around, waiting for the change.