Tuesday 2 October 2012

Showing Me How To Fly.

In the latest of a series of strange coincidences and revealing insights, my eldest daughter came in this morning to tell me that she had had a dream last night where she was given wings.  She was somewhere she did not recognise and was given the wings by an unknown girl who then showed her how to fly.  She said it was a lovely dream.

This was remarkable to me for a number of reasons.  I'm been working on a series of photographs entitled 'Flight' which are to do with ideas of freedom, escape, yearning to be in another state and wanting what seems impossible.  It also relates to the fact that children do actually believe, for a while, that they can physically fly if only they could learn how.  As you become older, you realise that, in fact, it is possible - in an allegorical way of course.

Last week I had two separate lovely and lengthy conversations with friends.  Being made to question what is behind my images and re-visiting certain points in my childhood, showed me how the impetus to create and to create in the way that I do goes far deeper than I had previously supposed.  I had a troubled childhood and it has taken astute and perceptive comments and questions to make me realise that part of what I am trying to achieve is a kind of cleansing.  I'm not yet sure if this is some kind of Nietzschean art as redemption thing or whether it's a different kind of beast altogether.  For the moment, I am happy to have gained some insight and will see where it all leads.