I heard someone say that photography was therapy and I believe that it is the same for me.
I use my art of self portraits to go inside, discover and learn about myself. My art is an attempt to bring feelings to the outside, assuaging or intensifying them, but in the end always serving as a tangible transition from emotion to growth.
In some respects, my art serves as a companion and/or a guide; an ever-evolving emotional, spiritual and physical reminder of where I am now, where I’ve been and a key to where I will go.
Melanie Ann
In the pain after loss there is nowhere to go.
And where I want to go doesn’t help. I want to hurt myself, berate myself. I want to overthink, underwork, overeat and overwork. I want to sit in a state of paralysis.
I want to make myself suffer. I can’t do that, but I’m used to it.
I’m trying to learn a new way.
And what is that?
My ugliness inside – am I to please others and abandon myself for it? Is it for others to have and to keep?
I don’t know myself then.