Of Too Much Light, and Time: Smack Dab in the Imagination by Dia Calhoun

 

Sometimes when, for all the best reasons, we hyper-focus on a piece of writing, we can over-write it. We give it too much of the light of our attention, just as a photographic image can suffer from too much light.

Usually, I can’t see this happening until I’ve walked away from the writing for a time. That’s funny, isn’t it, because time is the common element here. Too much time in the camera lens—causes overexposure. And we need time away from the work to see it. This conjours an image of draping a sheet over a sculpture or pulling a curtain over a painting. They—like our writing—need to hide or rest in the darkness for a time before we can see them clearly. Perhaps part of being any kind of artist is understanding how time is an essential part of our work.