Iridescent

My photomontage project is a direct result of experimentation and conceptual thinking. 

Last year, I created a print-making project of three dragonflies flying above a river with the impression of a rainbow in the background. These dragonfies are meant to represent myself, my sister, and my mother. Our family has a very strained relationship--my mom kicked me out of her house a few years back. The memories of my childhood, though, are colorful, bright, and warm. My mom casually collected some dragonfly decorations around our house when I was younger. She loved dragonflies, particularly how their colors shift and reflect in the sunlight. As a baby, I had a dragonlfy mobile hanging above my crib, slowly spinning and sparkling overtop of me. That mobile remained hanging in my room until I moved out a few years ago. Dragonflies for me are associated with times of calm, serenity, ignorance, and innocence--my childhood and my mom. For my photomontage, I wanted to display the loss of my childhood in the progressive sense of distortion and confusion. The colors I used are meant to represent the iridescency of dragonflies' bodies and wings, highlighting the metaphorical passing of time as the polyptych goes on. Moving from each panel to the next from the left to the right, viewers can see the progressive distortion and chaos as the image of the print continues to liquify, melting together into something that is entirely indecipherable. Additionally, the colors begin as a soft, warm, lightness that turns slowly into abstraction, cool colors, and clutter. 

This piece is a visual representation of my maturing, growing up and losing sight of the dragonflies that once surrounded me in my home. My life right now is much better represented by the right most image at this point, as I struggle with the idea of growing up even more than I already have had to.