My Personal Lens, An Art Blog
The philosophy of using our art to calm down, relax and heal, can make our art better.
My Name is Phyllis Shenny and I’ve been an artist all my life. I graduated from Parsons School of Design in the old days when we drew everything, and then worked as an art director, graphic designer and branding professional for many years. In 2006 picked up my own camera and started my personal lens journey. This began my adventure into mobile photography and editing and what I call ‘Accidental Art’.
What is Accidental Art? Accidental Art is creating without really having the end result totally planned out. It is the practice of “playing” with your tools and changing and experimenting with the media for the journey and the view. My work is completely digital but I believe you can do this with other media also.
Why is this relevant? I used to be an Art Director. The first step in any job was concept and design. I loved that stage. But the production in many cases wasn’t as simple as I may have planned, resources not always available and deadlines challenging. It was stressful. Even in your own art, the finished product may fall short of what was originally planned, or maybe you didn’t have the tools or skill to get exactly where you aimed. Don’t get me wrong, planning your art and working to a goal is very important and most artists work this way. But I don’t anymore. I work for the pleasure of the work. I enjoy the experiments and trying new tools or combining old tools. As a result, I spend more time on my art than I would if I were stressing about something that was difficult. Again, I do things that are difficult, but I don’t stress about them since it doesn’t matter if that doesn’t work, I go another way. (somehow I am always learning new tools) From the beginning the results weren’t planned. I was just playing. But the work progressed, and people liked it, so I started exhibiting and getting into juried shows and then winning awards. It seemed to come easier than I would’ve thought. But it finally dawned on me that the reason for my success was I was putting in my hours to develop my skill and it seemed like no time at all.
I read an article that said doing 45 minutes of artwork can lower your cortisol levels and I found this true. As a breast cancer survivor this was important to me. I was happy and calm when I was creating. I didn’t have to ‘get myself’ to do it. I just would start creating. I realized while doing this I would forget about everything else. And I wanted to share this with others who were going through a healing journey. I started teaching what I do in the Cancer Support Community and have done so since 2017.
All the work you see on my site and on my IG page and everywhere else was improvised and created on the fly. Some take very little time, but most take some indulgence and attention. A few were revisited a number of times over months or even years.
There are two kinds of artists. Those that keep their secrets to themselves so no one copies them and those who want to share with others and help others achieve also. I am of the latter and if you are too, please follow me. I will share various images I’ve created and how I did them, including both the best and the not so best of the same image. I will share some of the journeys I take from a photograph to an abstract and other transitions. I will also share some of my students’ art they created as a result of my class.
Don’t worry about sounding professional. Sound like you. There are over 1.5 billion websites out there, but your story is what’s going to separate this one from the rest. If you read the words back and don’t hear your own voice in your head, that’s a good sign you still have more work to do.
Be clear, be confident and don’t overthink it. The beauty of your story is that it’s going to continue to evolve and your site can evolve with it. Your goal should be to make it feel right for right now. Later will take care of itself. It always does.