On a spring trip to London in 2011, my dear friend Tracy and I traveled through Cornwall, England. Having been a photographer since the early 1970’s, it was the first time I decided to only use my iPhone. In St. Ives we went to the home and gallery of Barbara Hepworth, known for her sculptures and bronzes. Ms. Hepworth was a brilliant artist, always searching for sculpture forms to express her thoughts about humanity, landscape and art. The photo I took of her outdoor bedroom was bright and, as you can see, only big enough for a small single bed. I wondered about all that may have happened in that space. “The room was a gift, perhaps from the artist herself, but that was not important. What’s important is that my mind exploded with stories just waiting to appear. It was a beginning.” KD I have filled the room with stories of imaginative adventures. This tiny room became the inspiration for the series “Strange Things Are Happening In Barbara Hepworth’s Bed”, a metaphor of my life experiences. I graciously thank Ms. Hepworth for this inspiration.
Strange Things on Her Bed: In this first image I simply wanted to introduce a figure lying on this lovely bed. It’s a woman’s face (from a structure in town), but in a man’s clothing representing both her feminine and masculine parts. On her head is a “hat” from the wheel of life Ferris Wheel, representing that connection to all things both tangible and intangible. Covering the window like a curtain is a young man in a field looking up (a photo from the signpost of a nearby pub), both characters are a bit dreamy.
Strange Things Prepares for the Day: She is sitting upright now, fully dressed as the morning light is coming in from the window behind. Beside her left elbow is a statue of a saint, perhaps a guardian angel. The wheel of life looks now like a bow with ribbons reaching down and connecting the dots. The letter in her hand is something she just wrote…“It is difficult to describe in words the meaning of forms because it is precisely this emotion which is conveyed by Sculpture alone…” Barbara Hepworth.
Each week I’ll post more of the book. All the images are from my iPhone and composited in the only app that allowed for two images at a time, Juxtaposer. So decisions of placement of various parts had to be based on intuition since I was not sure what was going to show up. My work is not conceptual. I didn’t decide ahead of time what would show up in that bedroom.
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