developing an idea

Go Baby Go, 2026

I made Go Baby Go a couple of months ago, but the idea started with a dream I had in 2022. Here is an excerpt from a blog post in 2024 that I wrote about the original image...Ride the Gator.

Ride the Gator started with a dream I had in 2022.  I had been diagnosed with lung cancer, a real shocker as I had never smoked. They found the cancer quite by accident, and I was waiting for surgery. The dream was so vivid, I wrote in down in my workbook the next morning:

After my surgery and recuperation, the idea of creating a "riding the alligator" image never left me. However, my artistic drive seemed to leave me for quite some time and I felt unable to work with photographs. The idea transferred to my 2023 workbook, then my 2024 workbook, and finally came to fruition in February 2024.

Ride the Gator, 2024

Same theme, different look. I was very happy with the original image...for me, it captured a dream like quality that I was striving for. But looking back at it, I wasn't convinced that it conveyed the sense of exhilaration I wanted to portray.

I should add that this year I have been concentrating on making images that tell a story of overcoming adversity. 

So...back to the drawing board...or, in my case, computer...and I set the scene in a circus tent (life is a circus, isn't it?) and added many more balloons. I tried different animals and birds but decided to keep the crow I used in 2024. And the gator? Instead of a photo of a plastic toy, the gator is real in Go Baby Go. I took a photo of this guy on a trip to Florida in early 2025. Unfortunately (or maybe fortunately for me) this gator was in a cage at a gator zoo. It actually made me feel quite upset to see these majestic reptiles locked up and I had to leave. Perhaps an idea for another image.

(disclaimer....I replaced the eye of the real gator with the eye from the toy alligator!) 

Go Baby Go, 2026