WHAT IS CREATIVE NOWHERE LAND?
‘What is Creative Nowhere Land?’ I hear you ask! Well, if you’re into art and creativity or you’ve ever suffered from a bit of a creative block and you can’t seem to get inspired then Creative Nowhere Land might be just the place for you! A place where there’s no rules or constraints creatively! A place where anything goes and a place to explore not only my own creativity and processes in the work that I produce but also the ideas, processes, and creativity of the people, artists and things that inspire me! Sharing the journey and planting signposts along the way throughout Creative Nowhere Land to keep, not only, myself inspired but also for you to explore and, hopefully, get inspired by in some way too! But, what does any of that really mean? I feel like you need some background info right? Who the hell am I? Why does Creative Nowhere Land exist? And where do we go from here?
WISH YOU WERE HERE! - SELF PORTRAIT FROM ‘THE SELFIE TWAT’ PROJECT
WHO AM I?
Let’s start at the beginning, who am I? My name is Matt Wilson and for the last 20 years, I’ve worked in the photography industry as a commercial photographer (https://www.mattwilsonphoto.co.uk/). Photography is my passion and I love what I do but it’s also my job and how I pay the bills and keep a roof over my head. I’d hit a bit of a creative wall and was struggling to find the balance between my commercial and my personal, more creative work. It was always about the next job and I realised I hadn’t been creating anything at all to my own brief in a long time and that was contributing massively to my creative inertia!
It happens to us all I’m sure! Every now and then, in any creatives life, we all experience that ‘creative block’! It’s just not flowing, you feel uninspired or you’ve lost some of that passion that you once had! I’m sure you can relate in some way right? Well, that’s where I found myself! In ‘Creative Nowhere Land’ as I call it and I needed to do something about it!
WHY DOES CREATIVE NOWHERE LAND EXIST?
Now, I’m normally pretty good at inspiring myself and over the years have come up with numerous creative, personal photography projects to give me a creative kick up the arse I’ve needed as it were. This time though I wanted to do something a little different and, in very uncool fashion, I decided to start a blog on my photography website in 2019. It was something completely new for me and everyone told me that blogs were dead but so what, I decided to do it anyway! And, I decided to call the blog… wait for it… that’s right, you guessed it, ‘Creative Nowhere Land’! It’s catchy right haha? ( https://www.mattwilsonphoto.co.uk/blog )
I found a new love of writing again and the blog became somewhere to explore and share lots of creative ideas, thoughts and images related to my photography work. Also, it was somewhere to hold myself accountable for my own creativity because I’d set myself the ambitious target of doing 1 blog post every week for a year! Setting myself that goal meant that I had to find or create things to write about and share which meant I had to stay creative every week!
Through exploring and sharing these new topics, different aspects of my photography work and my creativity as a whole, things started to evolve. I realised that I wanted to push myself much further creatively and as an artist. Creating a place to create, share and discover all sorts of different creative work not limited to solely photography or in fact only to work created by me. And that’s where we find ourselves today. Creative Nowhere Land evolving into something bigger and with its own shiny new website where there are no rules or constraints!
Stick with me! I know it’s a lot to take in but I’ve included a few useful links to blog posts from my photography website for you to check out that will hopefully help fill in some of the blanks. I’m sure reading the blog posts will help you understand how we’ve got here, to Creative Nowhere Land in much more detail…
How many of you scrolled straight down and skipped reading any of the blog posts above? Be honest! There’s no judgement here haha! We’re all busy people these days and I understand that there’s a hell of a lot of information to take in. But I’ve got to set the scene for you though right?
Ok, here’s the summary of all of that to get you up to speed if you didn’t fancy reading the blogs…
I’VE BEEN A COMMERCIAL PHOTOGRAPHER FOR 20 YEARS
FOUND MYSELF IN CREATIVE NOWHERE LAND (I HAD A CREATIVE BLOCK)
I STARTED A BLOG ON MY PHOTOGRAPHY WEBSITE
FOUND A LOVE OF WRITING AGAIN
EXPLORED DIFFERENT ASPECTS OF MY CREATIVITY AND INSPIRATIONS
MET AND SPOKE WITH OTHER CREATIVE AND INSPIRING PEOPLE
GOT REINSPIRED AND, HOPEFULLY, INSPIRED SOME PEOPLE ALONG THE WAY
BEGAN EXPERIMENTING, CREATING AND THINKING DIFFERENTLY
REALISED THAT CREATIVE NOWHERE LAND HAD EVOLVED INTO SOMETHING MUCH BIGGER
REALISED THAT I HAD EVOLVED AS AN ARTIST AND CREATIVE
CREATED THIS SHINY NEW WEBSITE
NOW WE’RE HERE AND THERE ARE NO RULES! ANYTHING GOES CREATIVELY
WHERE DO WE GO FROM HERE?
So, that’s who I am and how Creative Nowhere Land has come to exist but what does that mean from here? Well, it means no rules so who knows haha! That’s not strictly true! There’s a method to my madness I swear and I do have a plan but it’s often better to see how these things evolve, don’t you think? More fun that way!
What I do know is that now Creative Nowhere Land exists it means that I have a place to really explore all aspects of my creativity and inspirations much further. There are so many different ways of creating these days and I’m excited to explore different mediums other than just photography. But it doesn’t really matter what the medium might be, it’s about finding the freedom to create and explore! It’s about getting, and staying inspired and about producing art to my own briefs!
Think of Creative Nowhere Land as a visual scrapbook for me documenting my journey as an artist and creative but also a place that you can visit and, hopefully, find something that inspires you or that can help you on your journey whatever that might be? There is so much planned and in the pipeline! Everything from art giveaways, interviews, guest bloggers, a possible podcast as well as so much more! So, I hope you’ll find something of interest every time you visit Creative Nowhere Land and stick with me on the journey to see where it goes!
So let’s get on with it! It’s time to explore, get inspired and create!