It’s something we all experience at one point or another.  You’re sitting down to write your next great novel, paint your next masterpiece, work out the chords to your next hit single, or (in my case) just try and get some creative idea on paper.  Before the pen even hits the paper, you hear a familiar voice in your head.  “That’s not a very good idea.  Try something else…. maybe you should just give it a break, or not try at all… you’re no artist, what’s the point?”

On December 15th, National Geographic announced the winners of it’s 2010 Photography Contest, with the Grand Prize going to Aaron Lim Boon Tech for his image “Eruption of Gunung Rinjani.” His photo was chosen from over 16,000 submissions, and he will receive a $10,000 prize, along with a chance to participate in the annual National Geographic Photography seminar in Washington, D.C.

You can browse the other winners, and runner ups on the Photography Contest page.

“This is the way the world ends
Not with a bang but a whimper.”

–T.S. Eliot / The Hollow Men

This is the way my blog begins, not with grand ambitions, but the smallest of intentions… to find a way to be creative in the midst of a life that has become anything but.

This is a cover of Pink Floy’ds “Nobody Home.” I posted this video on YouTube just about three years ago, and it’s been my inspiration for returning to the web, and for starting a blog about Creative Process.  I don’t know what leads people to find this video, but it now has more than 20,000 hits.  In the grand scheme of YouTube, this is nothing, but for someone who has been a basement musician dabbler, it’s the closest thing I’ve had to exposure.

The commenters have been kind, the people that I’ve been in touch with through this page have been an inspiration to keep playing, and it leaves me wanting more. 

On a side note, I recently got to see Roger Water’s perform this in Kansas City, part of his 2010 Wall Tour.  Simply amazing…