Cold and wet, rain all day long, overcast and dark, what a lovely day to be in the garden. Creativity for me is a solitary pursuit. I seldom go out to take photos in nature with someone tagging along. I want to be alone with the living  muse. A cold and rainy garden provides the perfect setting.

Although I am alone, I am not alone. Every piece of artwork I have ever seen walks with me. Monet, let me look through your eyes. Come walk with me. Your garden is not just in France it's everywhere you walk, where you see.

All visual art begins with seeing. If you cannot see art when you look then you cannot create art. You might be very skilled technically but unless you can see art, your photographs may be very good but they will not be art. 

Some years back I helped juror an art show. Two photographs didn't make it. One was badly out of focus, very blurred. The other was very well focused but had no focus. Is it in focus, and what is the focus are two basic elements for me when it comes to photography. You can take an excellent picture of a banana duct-taped to the wall. What's the point? Is it art?   

Which brings me back to the old joke of when the devil first saw Eden. "Yes, it is beautiful. But is it art?"

I am art creating art. Do I create the art or does art create me to create art? What say you, Plato, of the eternal forms dancing and shifting here like the shadows on the wall of a cave? Am I the art or the artist? Am I both?