Art Work: On the creative life by Sally Mann
2025
Sally Mann is an American photographer who calls herself an artist. She is a Guggenheim Fellow and three time recipient of the National Endowment of the Arts Fellowship.
She finds she gets too many questions when she says she is a photographer. She also does not want to be roped into taking photos of weddings or babies. I could not agree with her more on this front.
She says, “And why not? Being an artist is not such a big deal. When you get right down to it, art is a job a profession not unlike being an insurance adjuster or a sportscaster. And it’s not all that hard either. The writer Nell Zink once asserted that. You could take the winos off the sidewalk in front of a drug store and teach them to be poets in half an hour. And I had a friend who quipped that he could strap his iPhone on his cat and have a series of masterpieces by the end of the day. In a similar vein, Veronica Geng once wrote a mordant New Yorker piece in which several hostages play ‘Lifeboat’ to pass the time. Whom do you throw off: the nun, the pregnant woman, the majorette, or the artist Helen Frankenthaler? ‘Throw off Frankenthaler,” one of them says. “What’s art anyway? Somebody making some little something.”
So like the drowned woman, I an just somebody making some little something. Many little somethings. A lot of the time. And how many little somethings I have made over a long, long time perhaps qualifies me to write this book.” (from the Prologue)
Throughout the book she shares some of her photos, her journal entries, her little drawings and doodles. She makes lists. She does some bits of poetry.
I am really drawn to this book and can’t wait to get into it further. How many of us do these exact little things? Photos on our phones or cameras. Journalling, sketching, making lists to get through a day.
I think I’m going to enjoy dipping into and out of this book and hopefully get some inspiration for my own photography, making lists, journalling little poems or illustrations.
I think when the world is so crazy or we go through health or home problems we need to step back and immerse ourselves in something that is creative, calming and often just makes us laugh. My drawings always make me laugh. I’ve been told by children in the past that I am good at drawing. Just like a five year old!!
Question: What do you do to escape the world of stress to calm yourself. Photograph? Draw? Paint? Journal? Read? Walk? I’d like to hear about it very much.
Travellin' Penguin 
It is so enjoyable. In fact, I am going to brew one right now !
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What do I do when I am feeling overwhelmed by life? I write and if nothing comes to mind, I will sit quietly in the garden, observing, often while sipping a cup of tea. Therapeutic in many ways. The writing itself tends to be cathartic at these times.
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I agree with the writing and a cup of tea. It has the ability to transport a person to another level.
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That book sounds really good!
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I’m enjoying getting into it more. She has a memoir out that I ordered too.
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This sounds fascinating, Pam! My reading is often the thing which helps me switch off from the horrors of the world, but I do like collage and paint and craft and journaling too!!
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Collage is a lot of fun.
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Well, I agree that it’s great when people have the confidence to try anything… but I’m a little wary of being reductive about art. There is great art, and we all know it when we see it, and we know that it takes dedication and skill to achieve it.
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Read, listen to music, enjoy nature … wish I could draw. Sometimes I have a hankering to put pencil in hand but I still draw like a five year old, and not one with a good eye!
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I like to draw though I’m not good at it. I just don’t show it to anyone. Haha
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Well, I’m here so obviously what I do is write. Is it art? Probably. But is it good art? That’s a question Mann doesn’t seem to ask. But yes, why shouldn’t we all be artists.
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I agree. I never care if anyone likes what I do with creative endeavours. I’m too old to care. It is enough to enjoy it.
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Ah, I see Penguin is left-flippered! Or is he ambiflipstrous? I must look at other pictures of him.
My relaxation activities are to go birdwatching and photographing them, listening to music, and reading. I am currently trying to get away from reading and listening to so much about what is happening in the US, and doing more of the aforementioned.
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I could not agree more. I am in a complete (almost) media blackout. I love spending days with my camera and books.
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That’s what I need. The trouble is that I have family and friends over there, and I feel I need to understand something of what they are going through.
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I spent the first 38 yrs of my life in the USA and still have dual citizenship, mainly so I can vote there. My whole family is there. I feel despair iver what America has become. Happy to now be a Tasmanian. 🌻😉🌻
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I can well believe both the despair and the pleasure of being a Tasmanian!
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I scribble. Sometimes (often!), I forget where I’ve scribbled. Then I scribble some more.
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Hahaha that sounds a lot of what I do. I am a good scribler.
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