Healing Powers
Sometimes the worries and stresses of life can consume and trap you. Reach out to what magic heals and gives you peace.
I am grateful for the process of creation that allows me to express myself. I have used this medium time and time again to heal when hurt and to celebrate when happy. The last few weeks have been rather emotional, haunted by memories and a tough decision to make. Creating this image was very healing for me.
The prop used here is a shark jaw that belonged to my father. It has hung in his garage for over 30 years. It now hangs across from the bed I still struggle to call my own. I have been staring at it for some time and knew I wanted to use it in an image. It stuck me though that although this jaw has been a in our family for almost my whole life, I never knew the history of it. Where did it come from? How did my father happen to have it? It saddened me that I would never be able to ask him these questions. My father had a funny way of telling stories and I am sad I will never hear this story. I asked my mother these questions and all she knew was that it was gifted to my father.
I created this image on what would have been my father’s birthday. Somehow just going through the motions of putting it together was incredibly healing. I felt a sense of peace and closeness that I am grateful for. What was also amazing is that this shark jaw still smells of the ocean and somehow I found that magical.
This image is somewhat darker and rather different than most of my work. I wanted to push myself and create in a space that was a bit different to what I usually use. It is very much inspired by the work of Brooke Shaden and her sewer series. I love the work she produces in that simple, yet perfect space. I do not have anything quite as fancy as Brooke’s sewer, but just used a tiny strip of wall outside the house. An added bonus is that the wall has a deck above it and that provides shade for most of the day for the flat light I love to work with. I already have another concept I will be creating here soon, so I am thrilled to have a simple and easy access space that I can create magic in.
As you can see from my before shot below, I had quite a bit of work to do to get to my final image. This is the base shot which I used to build my image on and contained the left skirt flick. The strip of wall is narrow and low, so I had to do quite a bit of cloning and expanding. I also had to correct the perspective a bit, which I did with the warp tool. Note my cat Bono in the window supervising matters :)
