There are many levels of healing that we must go through to bring ourselves to a state of equilibrium and wellness. Throughout these past four years, I’ve created imagery around my healing. I am able to see the connection between the spirit and the body by allowing the unconscious to guide me.
Years ago in Mexico I found an old image of a group of women posed together in their beautiful Mexican dresses. I’m not one to work much on portraits but I was compelled at this time to bring them into the project.
For years I’ve worked with Shamans and other healers and discovered that I was handed down from my mothers lineage, the burden of releasing them from their oppressed and abused history. I did not personally share their experiences in this life, yet I knew I was carrying it for them. I felt this task had been given to me to help them be set free and, in that process, I would set myself free.
After a difficult few weeks of unsuccessfully trying to navigate a proper presentation for these women, I inserted a random image of a wall in an old schoolhouse with a splatter of blue paint on it. Using various blending modes, the story then revealed itself.
The women in the background were now surrounding a blue table. The dining table has always been a symbol of many things: the place where we nourish ourselves, where we come together, celebrate important milestones, share experiences, and create new understandings. Blue represents the color of depth, trust, loyalty, sincerity, wisdom, confidence, faith, heaven, and intelligence. To me these woman had finally let go of the cords that tied them to expectations and behaviors that never belonged to them, and now find themselves in a place of independence and freedom. They had become Anarchist.
To me anarchy is about freedom, freedom from power and domination. Anarchy is absolute freedom of the individual. Today we have been set free.
