Artist Statement:
Transformation is difficult, vulnerable but also beautiful. In my series of work, I play and I use significant objects, portrayals, and actions that exhibit the pain and hope I experienced during the times I witnessed my mother suffering through mental and physical problems. I used the basic elements of art of negative and positive space, color, and implied lines and emphasis, movement, and balance to express despair but at the same time hope for a solution.
In my photographs I took significant markers that held purpose to me and my mom such as the bible and church attire and dresses. I began with presenting her favorite dress because the times she was happy and energetic she wore it. After awhile as she kept getting sicker she rejected the dress and stayed to herself and I would try to read the bible to her because of her faith and because I remember how happy she was when I sang and did a dance during service and I pray to see that joy again, thus im in a dark room holding on to my bible praying and hoping for her spirit back. Then I also present all the pill bottles my family and I would give her, but they didn’t work as well so I redid a pose of me suffering and trying to scrap my coins to afford something else. Nevertheless, at the end I showed an image of two butterflies in the grass to show how she left us but is heading north but with the other butterfly as me trying to get to her.
f/2.0 1/60
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f/1.8 1/20
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f/1.8 1/20
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f/1.8 1/20
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f/1.8 1/20
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f/2.0 1/80
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f/9.0 1.6
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f/1.8 1/60
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