Photo Art Friday - Fear

This week's theme for Photo Art Friday was to attempt something autobiographical, and I was stumped...but as I looked at this photo I took last week of an iron fence at Quantico National Cemetery, it reminded me how our fears can fence us in. I've had this struggle creatively my whole life, and have often given up trying new mediums because the idea of making "bad art" while learning was unacceptable to the perfectionist in me. I snuffed out my creativity so many times because I was afraid I wouldn't be good enough. What a shame this was, especially when my creative self was such a vital part of me and desperately wanted expression. My spirit suffered - it needed nourishment I wasn't giving it. Sometimes we starve the things that feed our soul.

Without a doubt, photography has given me more creative courage than I've ever had before. I'm not sure exactly why this is, but I won't question it! Instead, I embrace it and am overjoyed that I want to keep trying more and more. It just feels so right. For my photo art, I placed a young woman (public domain image) behind the bars of the fence, and also added some hearts to symbolize all I could express by breaking through that 'fence of fear'. I used Bonnie's "Feelings" texture at Hue/51%, and also her "Dappled Dawn" texture at Saturation/100%. A few runs through Radlab were also added for the final effect. To see more Photo Art Friday submissions, click on the button at the bottom of this post.

P.S. Creative fear has been such a theme in my life that I had written a poem about it last year, before I discovered photography. I've posted it below for anyone who would like to read it. The words of my poem guided me on how I wanted this week's photo art to look.

RECLAMATION

I gaze from afar
Outside the gates
As my muse waits
In the stillness
Of a hidden garden
Lying on a quiet bench
In her yearning dress
With love in her eyes
Hungry for me to find her
Sad that I've misplaced her
And my heart aches
So sweet, so full
Wanting to sing her
Its tender song

And still she smiles
At the knowledge
Of her presence
In my dreams
Which swell in the night
Like the sea
Washing over us in waves
Our fingers interlaced
And better yet, she's aware
That her essence
Is always there
Inside the bare bones
Of my poems
I am not alone
And her heart glows
Through my loneliness
Like the moon

And still she waits
While fear trails me
Like an evil spy
As I circle the garden's
Wrought iron fence
Wanting to slip
Through the gates
Stopping to peek
Through the bars
At her face
And our hearts beat fast
So wild, so deep
As my muse and I
Lock eyes amidst the
Quiet, gentle
Night-entangled trees.

© Sherri Brannon 2011