I am seeing work coming in from my third semester Portfolio One class, currently exploring iconic themes or archetypes of Motherhood, Fatherhood, Faith, Rites of Passage and The Land.
I am stunned and humbled by the clarity of their images and comments.
It did not come easy for many.
Most people can make the Disney or Norman Rockwell image of Motherhood or Fatherhood.
But is that what you experienced? Reflect back. What is the Father to you?
As always, I ask you to reach into that long bag you drag behind you and pull images from that.
Everyone of these amazing visual explorers I currently have the honour of working with resisted the assignment… “I have no faith…I had no rite of passage…”
But then a piece of music, an old building, a family snapshot, that line in a story or poem or a thread of conversation brings the glimmer of an idea and you realize that yes, you know the image you have to make.
This epiphany is such a release emotionally and artistically.
The tyranny of self expression can be oppressive and at times devastating but I’ve yet to meet someone who wishes they hadn’t put voice or visual to those things deep in the shadows.
peter stranks 