Sunday, December 13, 2015

How can a tragedy become an opportunity to create beauty?

Fiery destruction becomes winter wonderland
How can a tragedy become an opportunity to create beauty?   I have explored this question on an artistic and personal level.  As part of my art, I have taken photographs in two areas that were devastated by fires. The first was around a reservoir where I was riding my bike. From the trail, you could see a row of blackened trees and grass with the water in the background. I took a picture and  imagined ice instead of fire. With a simple adjustment, I was able to reverse the appearance of black and white in the photograph to create a magical winter scene.  This photograph became the cover art on my website’s home page.

Out of the ashes, there is hope
I did a photo shoot with a male model in an older burn area that had some vegetation regrowth.  There was a gully where a number of trees had fallen across it. In the bottom right hand side of the image, there was a single sunflower, which was taken as a sign of hope. This landscape became the inspiration for the narrative of my photography/poetry book, Male Nude: Hero Myth of the Masculine Journey. The antagonist in this story is a sun demon burning villages throughout the countryside. 

On a personal level, my community has undergone numerous tragedies. I know people who have started non profits, ran support groups and engaged in the political process for the first time in response to them.   While we may never fully understand why these horrific events happen, we can bring honor to the people and things we have lost by our response to them.  The beauty comes when we choose to reach out and see difficult circumstances as opportunities to help others.  The alternative is to do nothing and become lost in hopelessness and despair. How will we choose to respond?


If you like discussions like this, you can follow us on Google + by clicking the follow link on the upper right hand side of the blog.  You can then add to this discussion by commenting below.

No comments:

Post a Comment