I snapped this photo in a side street of Venice about 14 years ago. I almost couldn’t believe I’d witnessed this little moment! But Venice was like that. Travel is like that. We leave our ordinary worlds and see what we might walk right past in our daily lives.
I believe this is what Virginia Woolf meant about desiring something beyond the daily life. Whether it’s making art from your experiences in your “everyday” life, or traveling to a distant land, it’s about seeing in a different way. It’s about looking closer.
When I look at the picture, I wonder who left the bike there? Was it a woman, as the style of bike suggests? Or was it a boy who borrowed his sister’s bike to get home from school?
If it was a woman, what did she carry in its wire basket, if anything? Her handbag? Fresh fish, or flowers from the Rialto Market? An old book with a broken spine that her grandmother loaned her? And what would the contents—or the emptiness—of the basket reveal about her story?
Your curiosity about little moments like this are doorways into your art. Whether you use a camera lens, a paintbrush, a fountain pen, or your voice to express what you saw in that moment, you create a window into your world. Other people get to peek through that window, into a moment that is both personal and universal.
What did you notice today? What piqued your curiosity? What images, sounds, or words do you want to share with us? We want to know.