Inspiration

            I thought I would write my next blog talking about one of my biggest inspirations.  I get a lot of questions asking me how I get my ideas for photos, and where my inspiration comes from, and this is the best answer I can think of for most of the photos that I have done.  (besides anything with animals, of course, haha!)  So, what is my biggest inspiration?


            Locations!  But not just any locations.  Just like my pictures, I like for my locations to tell a story.  I love old historic houses, abandoned factories, just about anything with the roof and floors caving in.  The older, the better.  The more abandoned, the better.  I have two major reasons why these are my favorite locations, and a few other minor reasons as well.  The first have to do with my parents, their memories, and mine.

            My parents always tell me stories about their childhood, and I love to hear about them!  My mom grew up with her mom and two sisters.  Their father left them at a young age, so they didn't have a lot of money, or a nice house, or lots of toys.  My family's obsession with abandoned places starts with my grandmother, my mom's mother.  For some odd reason that nobody knows, she has always loved to move a lot, and her favorite places to live were places that looked like places no one has lived in in a very long time!  My mom said that every time they would move to a new house, her and her two sisters would go on adventures in their backyard, their new neighborhood, or the woods nearby, to find old barns and chicken coops and sometimes abandoned houses to play in.  They would turn them into their playhouses and spend the days there making up stories and playing games, having wonderful adventures!

          My dad, on the other hand, has a big imagination as well, but he also loves logic and facts.  We grew up learning a LOT about science and history, listening to him ramble on about psychology, the ancient Egyptians, and outer space.  Some of it can be very very interesting, and my favorite science subject that my dad has taught me is Entropy.                                                                             

Entropy is a simple law in science that states that all things will eventually die, or decay, fall apart, rust, crumble, etc.  One of the most common ways to explain it is to say that entropy describes the natural tendency of the universe to fall apart into disorder.  It's intriguing to see how things can evolve so much with time.  Erosion, decomposition, death.  It's all so fascinating.  And in one picture you can see it all, if you look hard enough.


         If you didn't already know about entropy, I guarantee that your views of these photos, of abandoned places, and of the world will now change.  I love seeing nature take over it's rightful place on the earth as tree limbs break through windows, as blades of grass grow through the cracks of an old driveway, and vines wrap around an abandoned barn.  It's beautiful.  And in death and destruction, there is life.                                                                                               

Another thing that I find so fascinating about these places are the stories they have to tell.  What year were they build, and by whom?  Who all lived in these walls, who grew up learning how to walk on these floors?  Who wore the old shoes in the corner, and cooked on that stove?  There are so many questions, and so many left unanswered.  Everyone loves a great mystery; a story that you can create a dozen different ways in your own mind!  It's fun and interesting to imagine their lives there, and to wonder why they left, or what happened to them.  You never know what you're going to find, and sometimes you never will find everything you're looking for.  Maybe I'm too curious, and I don't know about you, but everything about it intrigues me.

             



You can probably already tell this from looking at a lot of my work, but I love creepy, hauntingly beautiful pieces of art.  There's something about fear that is exciting!

                                                

  This photo was taken in an abandoned house (that was built at least 100 years ago) that my sister and I turned into our 'playhouse' when we first moved into our neighborhood.  The house is still there, and we still visit from time to time.  There's old furniture, and books that date back to the 1920s and earlier!  Every day nature takes over more and more and it will eventually belong to the Earth.  But I will always have these photos to remember, to capture that beautiful moment between life and death, erosion and destruction.