“Hey, youDon’t tell me there’s no hope at allTogether we stand, divided we fall”
Pink Floyd – Hey You
Anyone who knows me knows that I’ve been searching for a creative community for a long time.
Over the years, I’ve been part of a few. One of the first was the NEPA Photography Club. This was a fairly decent group that met monthly, had several juried exhibits a year, a typical meeting usually drew around thirty or forty members. It was awesome for a few years. But as the saying goes, it only takes one bad apple. When a new president was voted in, meetings quickly turned into arguments, disagreements, bickering and an dictatorial attitude. The energy shifted, and before long, the joy was gone.
Now, I’ve always loved exploring old, abandoned buildings and the quiet unknown of places left behind. When they tried to tell me I couldn’t photograph the old Sterling Hotel in Wilkes-Barre Pa well, let’s just say that didn’t sit well with me. Imagine someone telling you where you can or can’t create!
As that club started to crumble, I gathered a few like-minded photographers and formed a smaller, more personal group. We met every other week—at Panera, Wegmans, Borders Bookstore, even a friend’s office. Sometimes it was a book club; other times, we held critique sessions or planned photo outings. We shared resources, took online classes, and inspired each other. It wasn’t fancy, but it was real. It was ours.
Then the pandemic hit. We kept it alive over Zoom—and for a while, it worked. But when the lockdown lifted, the club never quite captured the same spark as those in-person evenings filled with laughter, images, and good people.
Since then, I’ve wandered on my own for a bit. And honestly, that’s had its own kind of magic. The solitude gave me space to explore new directions and expand my creative language. These days, my creative bag includes not just photography, but encaustic, mixed media, and collage. I’m currently enrolled in three different programs—with a fourth starting in January 2026—and each one has added something meaningful to my creative journey.
If you’re curious, here they are:
- Art of Flow
- Studioworks Academy
- Fodder School
- Starting in 2026: Everything Art
I know I won’t finish every single assignment and that’s perfectly fine. My focus now is on building a steady creative practice that weaves all of this back into my photography.
And while these courses are wonderful, there’s one more I want to tell you about. It’s something a little different—a space designed for creatives of all kinds. It feels like my creative path might have finally brought me to a community that I’ve been searching for.
I’ll tell you more about that in my next post.