Who is Meredith?
Woman, mother, writer, photographer. I am many things that I haven’t
even realized yet.
As an artist, what are your favorite ways to express yourself?
I say that I am mostly a writer having a love affair with photography.
And it’s true. I write to get the words out. I write because I can’t
not write. I write because somewhere along the way I signed a contract
with the universe to let my insides spill out through words. And so I
oblige with pen and paper.
I lose myself in photography because it’s a freedom of expression
compatible to writing. Writing is strangely painful for me (and
practically involuntary.) Photography is the essence of joy and
spontaneity. Images move me to words, as does music. Looking through
the viewfinder helps me focus on light and beauty, capturing it in my
everyday life. That is a gift the universe gives me. My job is simply
to document it as I see it. And so I carry a camera.
What is your creative process?
Life happens.
Every single day there is at least one moment you can document. I feel
it through joy or sadness based on the situation, the moon, our
season, and my blood sugar levels. I sit with those feelings as long
as I need. Minutes or hours.
It is either day or night.
If it is day and I find myself in the car, thoughts match the feelings
and pour out onto the open road. I beg for red lights so I can write a
few things down on scraps of paper so as not to lose the words
forever. If it is night, I lie in bed tossing and turning until I
reach for my pen at the bedside. Typically I cannot fall asleep until
I write the words out of my head.
Always with words, I jot down what comes in that moment. Then I sit on
those scraps of paper (the unedited sentences) until something stirs
inside and I need more release.
I always begin the process on paper. It’s mandatory to have fast pens!
Typically a song or a photograph triggers more thoughts that get
dumped onto my laptop. It mostly seems like an involuntary process.
Like breathing, it’s not something I can succeed at withholding for a
long amount of time. I read and sometimes edit my own words again and
again. Usually late at night, in the dark, I hold my breath and hit
publish.
Then the process begins again.
What are you moved to express in your writing, art, photography the most?
How do handle an interruption in the flow of imagination or writer’s block?
I have an interesting relationship with writing. My muse tests my
determination by showing up at the most inopportune times. She winks
and whispers, getting me out of bed in the dark to write notes to
myself. Forcing me to pull over to the side of the road when the words
won’t stop flowing like notes across sheet music. What I experience is
not your typical writer’s block. When words stop it is usually because
I am consciously (or subconsciously) tuning them out. I’ve just come
to realize that I do this in times of self-denial. I’ve learned to
embrace these quiet times, when I need to ignore the words. This is
typically when I pick up my camera. When my mind feels this silence, I
find myself seeing more with my camera lens. Often sitting with the
quiet leads me in directions of finding a spark. And so the cycle
begins again. The give and take, push and pull of writing and
releasing.
What brings you joy, contentment, happiness?
Laughter, tears, feeling human, getting small behind my camera lens,
and walking slowly to enjoy the world with my son.
What do the words ‘yes’ and ‘possibility’ mean to you personally?
Empowerment and belief in oneself. Saying ‘yes’ can often conjure up
self-doubt, in that nervous way of putting your toes to the edge of
possibility. It’s the feeling of truly knowing (and accepting) your
worth and feeling strong enough to shout it to the world. It’s a very
exciting thing. It’s something I practice accomplishing every day.
How has saying ‘yes’ in your life changed the trajectory of your life?
In too many ways to describe. Saying ‘yes’ is thinking from the heart
and making choices intuitively. I believe it is what has brought me to
where I am now, on the cusp of something beautiful.
What holds you back?
The inner voices that shout in the dark: the self doubts that creep in
my mind, hitching a ride off the tongues of past critics. Accepting
other people’s negativity is a big something that holds me back.
Turning towards the light is the only release, surrounding yourself
with positivity will never hold you back.
Who are your creative role models? What books, art, music inspire and ignite you?
At any given time my role models change, depending on my focus. I
spend a good majority of my time at the library, so I am always knee
deep in a good book. Books vary based on what I need out of life at
that time. Right now, writing motivation and feeling connected to the
human experience comes through a variety of books like Bird By Bird by
Anne Lamott, Peace Like a River by Leif Enger, The Last Boy by Robert
Leiberman, Everyone is Beautiful by Katherine Center, The Middle Place
by Kelly Corrigan, and my most recent favorite novel The Art of Racing
in the Rain by Garth Stein.
Of course poetry trumps all with the likes of Mary Oliver, Kahlil
Gibran, Pablo Neruda, Ralph Waldo Emerson, and Rainer Maria Rilke to
name a few.
Music has very much been a big part of my life and it continues to be
a major source of inspiration. It is typically the melody of a song
that stirs the creative juices for me. Often times a few lines of a
song will stay with me and let me form my own words and thoughts
around them. Specifically? It’s always the words of Bob Dylan (he is
my favorite storyteller.) His manner of stringing words together has a
major influence on my writing style. Lately, musicians like Sufjan
Stevens, Sam Beam, and Andrew Bird always seem to put words in my head
with their symphony of sounds. And favorites like Patty Griffin, Eliza
Gilkyson, Yael Naim, and Priscilla Ahn also lead me to find beauty in
just about anything.
What do you give yourself unconditionally in life to?
Where has love taken you?
If there were absolutely no obstacles whatsoever what would you do tomorrow?
Move to the coast. Build snowmen. Learn to play the piano. Live by the
beach and walk on sand everyday. Swallow up this big beautiful world
and learn how to best express how I feel it. Find the time, sit down,
and write a book.
Where is your creative space/corner of the world?
There is not one photo of my creative space, it follows me wherever I
go. If I were to pin it to a desk or workspace it would cease to
exist. My corner of the world is very much my mind and daily life
experiences. It’s the world around me: taking a walk, driving my car,
watching a hurricane out the window, listening to lyrics, and seeing
my son dance.
Take a photo of a place you go to reground and root yourself when life gets a bit overwhelming and if you like tell us why it is so meaningful to you
When I was twenty years old I packed up my belongings and moved myself
across the country. I have been landlocked ever since. When life gets
overwhelming I dream of the coast (I fear I won’t be happy until I
find a home there.) For many years, I lived remotely in the mountains
of Colorado, very close to nature. Today I live in the capital city of
Texas. I am nomadic by nature. When I feel unsure of my place, or
myself … I seek out space. I am endlessly trying to recreate that
sensation of the coast: feeling small in a vast world. I have a strong
need for Mother Earth to put me in my place. There’s nothing quite as
comforting as that. When the beach is not near, I create the next best
thing. An open field, a canopy of trees, a mountaintop, or the blooms
in a garden. I can get lost and find myself anywhere as long as I have
the optical illusion of space.
can you tell us about your first ‘artistic awakening’ ?
I spent the better part of a decade being surrounded by music. As a
symphony clarinetist I learned to tap into this energy like static
electricity that flows around us. Being on stage I learned to
accommodate my shyness with expression. It’s a delicate balance. I
wrote my own books as a child, bound with yarn. I pretended to be a
writer. Later I carried a camera and pretended to be a photographer.
Now I pretend to be a grown up. But one thing I’ve learned is that I
am all that I pretend to be.
famous last words?
Meredith Winn’s writing has been published in HipMama, Mamazine,
Motherverse, Literary Mama, and Midwifery Today Magazine.
Meredith is a contributing photographer to Getty Images and is also a
contributor to Shutter Sisters. Her photography has been published by
JPG Magazine, Emprise Review and has won contests through Mama Focus,
Clean Well Moments, JPG Magazine, and Mindful Mama Magazine.
Meredith can be found online through her photography website:
She blogs at the~spirit~of~the~river
and can also be found at Shutter Sisters
