by Marli Thibodeau
Isn’t it the way a good metaphor shows up ~ you’re doing one thing when somewhere along the way you realize it has become something else entirely. But of course, when the metaphor strikes, it’s just a mirror, a reflection of what is really going on right now.
The air that afternoon at Elmer’s Barn was charged with a wild sense of freedom, for both my subject and myself. She was finally out of that dark overstuffed barn. And I was finally making art. We had both been set free.
I realize I’m a lot like the dress, or the dress is a lot like me. I’ve kept my artist cooped up in some place much like Elmer’s barn, based on the belief that I’m not really that great of an artist. At 17 years old I was on my way to Art School but when faced with the tuition costs, I chose a more practical path and joined the Navy instead and, for years, believed this was the best decision I had ever made. Was that true? The price I paid for that belief – that I could never be an artist – had settled itself deep in my psyche and banished in the same way as those items were on the shelf in Elmer’s Barn.
I experienced a sense of freedom while on this assignment. The dress seemed to take on a life of it’s own, as did my sense of freedom to be an artist making art.
This is the first post in a new series about finding a metaphors in your art, metaphors about Being Set Free. More information for those interested in participating will be posted next week.
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