one of my contacts, azurebumble, placed this quote in a group he started here on flickr... it struck a chord with me...

"It is better to fail in originality than to succeed in imitation." Herman Melville

visualisarium posted this quote in a group he administers...

"A sensible man will remember that the eyes may be confused in two ways -

by a change from light to darkness or from darkness to light; and he will recognize that the same thing happens to the soul." Plato

and below are some other favourite quotes of mine...

"You cannot depend upon your eyes when your imagination is out of focus." Mark Twain

"Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results." Albert Einstein

"When you are content to be simply yourself and don't compare or compete, everybody will respect you." Lao-Tzu

A person will stand for a long time with their mouth open before a roast duck flies into it. Chinese Proverb.

we may learn to write the alphabet, but that doesn't make us novelists;

we may learn to read music, but that doesn't make us composers;

and we may learn to operate a camera, but that doesn't make us artists.

art - writing, music, painting, sculpture, photography - what ever your medium is, comes from within us, from our own context. we just have to set it free. looking externally for your ideas and inspiration will set you on a hard road to discover your path. look within and you will find it was there all the time, just waiting to be found.

A book about my work is now available. Please flickrmail me to enquire or visit www.louisemann.com ...

lastly...

if you visit my stream and fave an image or leave a comment, but you have nothing available to me for viewing or no content in your profile, I will block you. no hard feelings, but one can't be too careful in these times...