I’ve been busy for the past couple weeks as an official photographer for the Capital Fringe Festival. It’s been a great experience, giving me the chance to use my new camera, the Canon Rebel T2i, and the opportunity to take pictures of performers, which I really enjoy.

And I’ve gotten to see a lot of theater in tiny spaces, where you’re inches away from the actors – that’s part of what makes Fringe so special. From women in passionate embrace to remixed Shakespeare, it’s an intimate experience that can be uncomfortable, strange or delightful, depending on the performance. Sometimes you just can’t look away, try as you might.

But Fringe is more than just theater. It aims to create community in DC, striving to be a citywide celebration of the arts. Fringe wants everyone to be involved.

For people interested in creativity, it’s hard not to be drawn into the Fringe orbit. For example, I attended a discussion on Does Art Matter as a photographer but ended up writing about the workshop for the Pink Line Project.

The Capital Fringe Festival runs until July 25 in Washington, DC.

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Kerry Skarbakka, Window, 2009. C-Print. 50 X 60 in.

Check out my Pink Line Project review of Kerry Skarbakka, The Struggle to Right Oneself: A Survey. The photos really have a dark humor to them that I really enjoyed. They’re big prints of absurd scenes – like a man in a suit leaping through fire – that tell a story, of people surviving unexpected catastrophe.

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I’m going to be writing for the Pink Line Project.  What’s Pink Line?  Describing itself as “a catalyst for the culturally curious”, the site is a guide to DC’s art and cultural scene.  If you’re looking to attend fun art parties in Washington, and learn more about the arts, it’s a great site to check out.

From watching rollergirls arm-wrestle to dodging skateboarders at a photo exhibit, I’ve enjoyed the Pink Line events immensely.  It’s an unexpected side of stuffy Washington that’s much more interesting than some boring Capitol Hill cocktail party.

I’m also really interested in creativity and risk-taking.  Creating something – a book, a painting, a photo, a dance – is a courageous act.  You’re investing your time and putting your ego on the line.  What makes someone decide to create?  What separates the person who thinks about doing something from the person who actually gets their hands dirty in the messy and uncertain world of creation?

I really started thinking about this subject after I wrote my book, Murder in Ocean Hall.  A friend of mine said that she knew a lot of people who talked about writing a novel but I was the only person who had gone off and done it.  I quit my job and took six months off to write the book.  Six months without an income, spending days by myself, alone, writing away in coffeeshops – a crazy act, for sure, but it was something that I absolutely had to do.

I think that creativity is something that’s in everyone.  There’s no such thing as someone who’s not creative.  Perhaps it comes up in unlikely ways, like packing their kid’s lunch or designing the perfect spreadsheet.  Or maybe they dream of taking paint to canvas one day.

For the Pink Line Project, I’m going to be writing profiles of local artists, filmmakers, photographers and other creative types.  I’ll be interviewing them about how they got started and why they felt they had to make art.  From these profiles, I hope to encourage others to think about their own creative dreams.

The first interview I did is with Jon Gann, founder of the DC Shorts Film Festival.  Check it out to discover how his impulsive nature and desire for community lead him to create a hugely successful film festival.

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