Allowing each emotion to be fully felt and then released, we move closer to our original nature of steady awareness, inner knowing, and unconditional love.
That’s the subject line I would add; it’s my best attempt to summarize my thoughts after creating and reflecting on this one.
Creating The Image
For this one, I started with the portrait. I liked the dappled light and the way her arm rests.
For the background image, I wanted to experiment with lighting in unexpected ways. I have been playing around with The Portrait Lab, a new app created by photographer Sam Hurd, which lets you ‘relight’ images (read more here). I searched through my work for a background image, one that was odd to add dappled light to but I wanted to see what Portrait Lab would do.
I tried several different lighting options, starting with ‘dappled light’. This app is not intended for landscapes, more for portraits and recently interiors, but I was curious what it could do. The one I was most interested in was the loop light.
I considered exporting this and incorporating pieces of it into my original images, but I ran into export issues. Instead, I used this as inspiration and added some similar light using another app, Lens Distortions. Then I added some painterly textures using the Paint Can app, Procreate, and layering in my own painting.
Exploring The Image
After sitting with this one for a little while, I started exploring the different pieces or elements and what meaning they might hold. Then I considered any patterns or repeating themes among the elements. It’s not a strict process, just what I have noticed when I pay attention to how I think about the images I create.
The waterfall:
water rushing over me, washed by the water. Washed by the Water, NEEDTOBREATHE came to mind, then especially that part “won’t fall, won’t fall, won’t fall as long as you’re around me”. Water represents emotions, a wave or rush of emotions. Water serves as a metaphor for purifying the soul, releasing emotional burdens, and experiencing healing. Taking refuge through the intensity and enormity here. Or maybe ‘can’t see past’ this experience.
Dappled light:
It is often used to describe the coexistence of joy and sorrow, the beauty of imperfection. She embodies this.
Added light:
Light entering the heart. Hopeful but also possibly uncomfortable. It’s pointed, not a gentle washing over. My daughter saw it as piercing her heart. She saw it as more violent, with the water rushing down. I see it as guiding her, guiding her out of that same emotional experience and up to the top of the cliff. Where she can experience a wider perspective.
Adding More To The Story
Considering this image in these ways, I immediately thought of another recent image and some of the words I used when exploring it.
She is no longer carrying the weight of other people’s emotions. Releasing that helps ease her journey. Transmute the energy by letting it pass through you. A powerful trusting. Making an agreement with myself, honoring myself and my intuition.
I was struck by some similarities in these images. Both portray a waterfall but from different perspectives.
A few reflections on this pairing:
When she let her heart guide her through the uncertainty, without knowing fully what was in front of her, she made her way through the turbulence to a more peaceful state. Younger child in first image, grown woman in second, illustrates growth over time. It could exemplify someone’s personal journey over time. A move from Innocence to Agency. This could be me trying to show my daughter the way, by example. This could be a depiction of being guided by your Higher Self.
The Power of Art
Paying careful attention to the details in an artwork, and putting words to those details, is a way to explore underlying feelings. When exploring art in this way, you can speak of ideas as possibilities, not as truth or fact. Speaking them can help you to understand, and sometimes experience in your body, what resonates as true for you in that moment and what does not. Don’t be afraid to look closely and put voice to what you see.
