It's Been So Long Since A Post! Divine Diptych Week 6-Phobia!

Agoraphobia

This is  the Theme for Week 6 for The Divine Diptych Project. You can read more about this photograph and others there.

I was paired with the talented Sad and Beautiful aka Sarah for Week 6 and I just loved how our photographs ended up together.  Sarah takes amazing and daring risks in her photographs which pay her back in spades!

Sarah's photograph is on the left and mine is on the right.  She is hiding out in the open the best she can and I am trying not to let the scary outside inside.  I also have such a hard time getting out my front door.  It takes me forever most days(Sarah was just acting but for me this is a very real fear).  My phobia has more to do with a fear that I look like a monster and that I scare people.  I really do know that no one is looking at me and that I am actually a person that is pretty much becomes invisible once out.  It still doesn't stop the the fear that once I am out a bunch of folks are going to round me up and take me away for being "less than" or for being messed up,  ugly, crazy and different from everyone else.  I know it sounds nuts, but even when I show folks around here the photographs I take(or any of my art in other mediums), the first words I usually hear are, "Oh my god, you are so weird! What are these all about?".  Well, to someone who has presented the question like that, I don't really have an answer.  Everyone likes different things.  I can honestly say I am not going out of my way to shock anyone. All of this seems quite reasonable to me and I do sell art where I live.

I also took other photographs while taking these.  They are just more a chance to mix things up a bit and to create a new and mysterious character(she looks like my maternal grandmother who had long black hair, dark skin and black eyes-complete opposite of me!).  I am not sure who she is.  She came to me very quickly and naturally.  If you know who she is let me know!  Hope all is well with all of you!

Wearing my Parrish Relics Primavera Vial Necklace

Week 5 of The Divine Diptych Project-VANISHING

This is my Week 5 photograph for The Divine Diptych Project .  I was paired with the super talented Susan aka  The Melody Censory.  I was nervous because Susan has an incredible ability to transform herself into just about anything and anyone including me!  She surprised me with by doing these photographs as "Me" which blew my mind.  They can be found HERE and HERE.

For our diptych, we were given the theme of "Vanishing".  Susan painted her face white and made herself vanishing from dark to light into the background very dramatically.  I love how minimal her photograph is but how much impact it has.  I took the same theme and made myself "vanishing" into a bunch of greenery but I also wanted to add the twist of the world's sad vanishing green that we find today.  I think together, our photographs work from dark and detailed to light and stark. 

This was our Alternate.  I love how in this one I appear to be a fantastical headpiece coming from Susan's pale and vanishing face.  Check out her gorgeous blue eyes!

And, because I am famous for taking too many photos, I ended up doing a whole series on this theme which I call "Vanishing Botanical".  I will give you peek here.  It is time for me to get on with a new theme and a new diptych!  Week 6 is now!

For me, it is still hard to take these self portraits.  I wish I could fix so many things about my face, my body, blah, blah, blah.  But, the story I am trying to tell is much more important so I keep on going and use myself to tell it or the story will keep me up at night and bug me all day.  Finally, I give in and then I get some peace-until the next one starts to form...Sometimes I think that all art is like that-one has to create it because it won't leave you alone!  It is more about making it tangible and getting it out of your head so you can move on.  I hope that makes some kind of sense!