Creative space has always been important for me. I was lucky enough to grow up above my mother's antique shop business and have an art teacher father who's art rooms I still love to visit.My bedroom served as my artistic space and I would remove wallpaper and re arrange the furniture at a whim much to my parent's horror.
It is no surprise that I have a passion for interiors these days. I collect Elle Decoration by subscription and keep most supplements for their interiors articles. I have spent too much time in charity shops and suchlike hoarding bric a brac and sometimes quite covet-able furniture. I still like to re arrange and make things look as aesthetically pleasing as possible which is an increasingly difficult challenge with babies and their accouterments.
I see this skill as having been honed over years of rearranging and being slightly OCD (not so much these days) and it is a skill which has lent itself well to my more recent passion of photography. I am able to see a good shot which is naturally well balanced or arrange something for a fashion shoot from scratch.
My favorite workspace has to be Barbera Hepworth's house and garden in St Ives, I admire the serenity and the scale of work which was achieved there and have been there a number of times.
At times I have not felt creative but I didn't worry too much, it was usually during a period of stress or during pregnancy! However, if I felt under whelmed I would just go to BMAG or to the Ikon, it wasn't so much the art work on display that would help me, more often the journey itself and the physical spaces. Just feeling that I had achieved something non materialistic and vaguely cultural was enough. Now I do not feel devoid of creativity and can take inspiration from almost anything but I do feel it is important to fill your home and mind with constant sources of imagery and information other wise one risks feeling bemused and un involved with the world, which is a dangerous thing.
In Principle 3 restating problems we are talking about tackling problems from a different angle/perspective.
I can relate to this to some extent and will try to think at about it more often with my work.
I have been impressed and inspired by photographers such as Nan Goldin who have depicted their own lives and those around them so graphically and I felt this would be an approach most suited my feelings about certain issues in my own life, I wanted to be able to depict things as they occurred almost like a movie. I think this was a reaction to stress and feeling that I needed to document continuously to be creative. This could not continue and is very difficult at times as the scenario can be too uncomfortable or distressing to pick up  your camera. I have since researched this photographic area for discussion and tend to be of the opinion that the reality is more important if your attention is required ie someone is going to get harmed or you are upsetting someone by your photographing them. So, as I am still interested in this issue which happens to be alcoholism, I stopped to think of other ways I could tackle this rather difficult topic. So far I have tried to arrange a meeting with Aquarius and have looked at other photographers who have dealt with sensitive social issues. Paul Wenham Clarke's work and talk recently were very interesting and helpful to me. I am now thinking about how else an alcoholic might be able to put across their feelings. I can't imagine many people being willing to have their picture taken. I think it might be a more realistic approach to ask sufferers to write down their feelings and experiences/ memories for me to photograph. This may lead to more of a comfortable relationship between myself and the subject and then perhaps some portraits. It also occurred to me at  this point that people who are recovering alcoholics might be much more willing to sit for this project and that a campaign highlighting the issue might garner better support than my own interest and feelings.