Salvaged Polaroid Experiment

I tend to get a little bit too results oriented sometimes. That’s modern life I guess. How efficient are you? Are you wasting time? How are you going to monetize that? Are you posting regularly? But honestly? I just like making stuff. I like screwing around not really knowing what the hell I’m doing and stumbling onto something that makes me giggle.

Case in point: this week I tried a new project that didn’t work out (emulsion lifts + watercolor paint), so I decided to take a break from sending out this newsletter. I’ve done a pretty decent job of keeping this thing going, but for the first time in a long time, there was nothing to send. I was kind of bummed out. The main goal is for me to have a regular place to keep track of what I’m doing, and to remind me to spend time being creative, so I shouldn’t beat myself up about it, but I kind of did.

Last night, I decided to go back over the Polaroids from the failed project (well, scans of them… the originals were destroyed in that project). I decided to play around with them digitally and things started to click. I’ve never taken something analog I’ve created and manipulated it digitally, but these were all I had left—and it worked.

I tried not to think too much about what I was doing and just followed my gut, and these 5 images are what I ended up with. It was a good reminder to let go and not be so attached to outcomes. I had a blast working on that original project—maybe that’s enough. Just the fun you have while you’re in it. This second round made me giggle though.

Thanks for looking.