stillmotion

For those interested in the history of the christmas tree, visit http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christmas_tree.

one of the most frequent comments we get is related to our eye for things. how we see things differently and seem to go the extra mile to discover things that others would normally disregard.

the other day i was at the fedex station with patrick as he was filling out paper work to send out a package. i was waiting, tinkering around on my iphone, when i thought “we should really go and get our christmas tree soon”.

i grew up in a home where every year we had christmas traditions – the fish jello, the caviar, the smoked mussels (yes, i’m polish). but most exciting of all was the christmas tree. every year we’d decorate it together and i would cherish it as a symbol of our family life together. last year our tree stayed up until april – i was that attached to it…

so when i was at fedex, it would have been more natural for me to think what i thought and go about my business normally. but i didn’t. i realized how strange a concept it is to…

cut down a tree outside
bring it inside
hang a bunch of glittery stuff on it
put boxes under it
let it die
dispose of it

…and so i started reading. and i was intrigued.

and it got me thinking about what we do as artists. for us, it’s not just “thinking outside the box”. these days, “thinking outside the box” is such a trendy term that it’s been shoved into a new box altogether.

what we’re about is finding extraordinary things. but this takes work. this takes commitment. this takes a shift in everyday thought processes that may have come to be a comfortable way of living.

because photography and cinematography are difficult things to master, when something is obviously extraordinary, it’s hard enough to capture that. but then there’s capturing the extraordinary ordinary…

-amina