Sweet Chaos

I was driving my kids to church on Mother’s Day when I pulled up behind a motorcyclist at a stoplight. I was immediately filled with so much joy as I noticed in their sidecar was a dog with goggles. I enthusiastically shouted to my daughter “Look! It’s a dog on a motorcycle!” WE both looked and giggled. 

They turned a corner at the next light. As they left our view, I told my daughter how I love little moments like that because it makes me happy. She wondered why. I went on to explain that when you see something like that you can’t help but smile and be happy. If I was sad and having a bad day, seeing something like that just makes it all go away. It’s the little things that spark happiness in a moment that makes joy linger.

I’m reminded of this today as I sat on the balcony with my toddler daughter. I had my camera in hand and was capturing her toddler antics as a little story unfolded before me. 

A mix of sweet and chaos, heart and humor. 

That’s my style of storytelling in a nutshell. It's what I gravitate to. I love to find beauty and humor in the mundane. A little bit of chaos popping in for a surprise where you least expect it. There are so many of these kinds of moments in life all around us. I live for sitting back to observe and discover the chaotic joy hiding in everyday life. 

If you navigate to my comic pages I think you can find a bit of that there. Enjoying the everyday small moments. I gravitated towards elevating small joys in life after having my first daughter, documenting our humorous moments in mom comics. As she grew I found joy in watching her have new experiences. The two comics “Jelly” and “Plant” were inspired by her love of the moon jellies at the Long Beach Aquarium and her love of a fern she took in almost like a pet.

It makes sense I’m gravitating back that way in this current season of the unknown. I’m getting a sense that there is something more here for me to explore to help define my creativity and show you all what I have to offer. 

Without further ado, here is the moment captured today. I find it very sweet and absolutely hilarious. This is how I view life. This is me. 

Yes I used a wide lens on purpose because I kind of like the distorted view. It feels more illustrative/animated to me, like incorporating my storyboarding techniques in using composition and lines to help with the storytelling and feeling of shot. That's my justification for a critique no one gave me but I'm assuming I'm getting because I'm newer at photography so someone's gotta mansplain something to me right?

I don't know why I default to assuming someone being critical of my work. Must be the industry training. 

​-Katya Bowser