Sisterhood

The richness of your life determines the richness of your art. You can imagine your art into being, but when you live your art into being, it gains depth, texture, a deeper soul. Deep presence in your moments is the fertile soil of your creativity. If you imagine a meadow, you can paint a beautiful meadow. If you experience a meadow, with open heart and senses, now you can paint the many souls of that meadow. Your imagination has no limits. Your living of life creates the mystic sparks of your imagination. -Jaiya John

The original image was taken at a friend’s wedding. It was an in between moment, another friend’s daughters on the swing. When she asked me to photograph her wedding she said, “I only want a few photos”. But what I felt her say was, “take whatever your heart wants. Whatever you give, it is more than enough here. It is a gift. Just make sure you are a part of all of it.”

I set aside this image while editing her collection, I knew I wanted to do something with it. I wanted to isolate the felt connection here.

A little about the creation

The green background would be more challenging to completely remove, so I searched for a background image to use that had these green tones and started there.

I removed the subject from a recent session. I loved this one, how the reflection adds a little bit of magic. Then I flipped the background image upside down and added the girls. And this is what I started seeing. So I worked on blending these two images together. Next, ran the image through Paint Can app to create a digitally painted version. Blended those together and layered in one of my favorite cold wax paintings.

A little about my thoughts

This one feels a little extra magical to me.

To me, it’s about the lived experience of sisterhood. Of growing up together. All the stories we share, and the ways we understand because we were there through it. Present in each other’s lives. Of watching our children grow, together. Of witnessing each other grow. This is an image of my friend’s daughters. But it is also one of my daughters. And us as kids. And us as mothers. And us as friends. It’s what we mean to each other. Taking turns giving and receiving. Dreaming and supporting, in turn and all at once.