How symbolic this can be interpreted as! Looking on from the shadows of life... lost in the embrace of life's darkness, looking on for the light... through the turbulent waves life's obstacles are.... Hoping to one day bask in that light, free of the clouds that darken the shadowy days, liberated from the problems.

I always thought that this picture had immensely beautiful imagery... and could be interpreted in many ways... my father took this picture of me when i was somewhere between the ages of 7 and 10... it was at least 9 years ago

In taking this picture, your father found a treasure.

Ahh.... I feel weird, something strange in my mind. This somehow feels so familliar to me, i have seen or experienced this before... somewhere... a dream? and at that age... too.

my father was an artist, he has lost his way, and i'm sure he knew what he was doing... he is a rather good photographer... but it is funny, because i have always been surrounded by art my whole life, yet... i'm not very artistic... i have some way with words, but i am nothing compared to what I came from... i am (somewhat unfortunately) an engineer (which means my creativity lacks)... i've often had those moments where i've felt dejavu... whether it be from a dream or reality... those moments can often be really weird

Wow, it's the opposite for me, Ducky. NO ONE knows any art in my family, they can express themselves and what not, but no art. By the way, according to my observations you do have what your father does. You capture and immortalize this world's beauty, wonders, and mysteries also, though not in art, but rather in words.

You see, I write essays in my spare time on the human mind and reality, and while analyzing expression, I realized that art is not merely drawing, photography, or painting - no. It's writing also, being capable of manifesting your thoughts in the real world and allowing others to be enveloped by them, for THIS is the reason I'm an artist, expressing the passions of my soul. I'm both a writer and an artist, and I realize also, that I love music. I picked up a guitar some years ago, and people say I'm quite good. Why? Because it's the same thing as words, or 'art,' I put emotions, feel, and thoughts into my thing, my audience is the human psyche, and I use certain elements in all these fields to stimulate it. It's all about expression.

If you're a good writer, then you're a good artist, or have the potential to be it, that's one of my theories... and if you're a good artist, well, you have what it takes to be a composer or musician. I believe you have it in you, maybe you just haven't tapped into it fully!

BTW I sucked major di- you know when I started drawing at 4. I didn't actually get decent until two or three years ago.... lol. You see you can't really judge yourself according to your skill.... Because art, writing, and music, is more of an aptitude rather than a skill. You are constantly learning and realizing new ways and different manners to express what you want in. By observation you can realize your errors, and learn from the styles of others or how they do. You pile that up on what you have, and then work on that more... then pile up more.... then work on that more.... It's like experience!

I know that writing is an art, and I love to write lyrics... I have never, however, put those lyrics to music. I used to be a fairly good pianist; my teachers all said that I had excellent potential, if only I would practice (I never did). In that way, I suppose, I could be an artist, but I can't even draw a straight line to save my life so in that respect I am not an artist, I am a writer (in some ways) which just so happens to be an art form. I never look at it as I am an artist, even though writing is a form of art. When I write, it is usually to expel some emotion and release anxiety, it is therapeutic if you will.

Haha, Ducky... I STILL can't draw straight lines.

Yep, same reason for which I draw.

LOL... well i'm glad i'm not all alone in the sad world of curvy lines ... actually is there really such a thing as a truly straight line in anything other than mathematics or is it all just perception and how much the human eye can catch

Nothing's straight. Not even light travels in a fully straight line... it zig-zags. Imagine what the speed of light would be if it didn't do that and just went fully straight.