Transparent Series + Artist Statement
The purpose of this series was to illustrate the progressive stages of my internal growth "ignited" by a moment of awakening and realization and finalized by a moment of understanding and acceptance. As with other aspects of life, this internal growth is a repetitive cycle that has neither a definite beginning or end, such that my beginning is someone else's end.
To emphasize the idea of internal growth, I placed various photographs inside a mask created by the form of my body and hair from a side view. To aid in this method of "transparency", I play on the viewer's emotions by using colors with commonly associated emotional responses (e.g. red=intense, passionate). By pairing a particular photograph with a particular color, I was able to arrange the series based on the viewer's response to the illusionistic transparency and overall "feel" of the composition.