Successful Definitions

Michéla Griffith

My images combine an early love of drawing and painting with a long-standing passion for photographing the landscape. An important part of my portfolio continues to be about the interaction between water and light in, but I’m also experimenting with movement on land and even my own progress on foot through the landscape. Facebook Flickr

michelagriffith.com

Success is a concept that I struggle with. It’s always been important to me that whatever I do, I do well (or at least to the best of my ability). But that doesn’t make me naturally competitive, and I’ve never thought of myself as ambitious. I’m just not that hungry.

I did, I think, my job (24 years working as a Chartered Landscape Architect) quite well. Well enough for my last line manager to say in his farewell speech that I was possibly the most thorough person he had come across. I’ve never been sure if that was/is a good thing – there’s a fine dividing line between being a perfectionist and a control freak. As my energy ebbed and I moved on to other things, I found my drive diminished. I still had (and have) the self-imposed need to be doing something, but in the absence of hurdles (exams, degree, professional qualification) and deadlines (submissions, project deadlines, end of financial year) I began to find that finishing things were less important to me and ideas and explorations more diverting.