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?
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