When my friend D's baby was born he made a collage of the first pictures he took because he felt no one image would adequately capture the full essence of his newborn child (I found this incredibly moving, I might add).
At thirty, it felt a bit vain to be putting together a collage of myself, to be honest. However, I owed my aunt a hard copy of a photo from my blog thanks to her entry in my pop quiz, and she requested the picture of me waking up on the train. That picture had very poor lighting, and so instead of just using it alone, I decided to make a collage with that photo as the background (I also knew my aunt liked collages)-- but I restricted myself to photos taken in the last five months.
It turned out to be an interesting self-assignment. Somewhere along the way the feelings of shame and vanity gave way to a sense of love, and pride. I've had an amazing six months of being thirty so far.
Looking at these pictures has made me think about myself, and all the different aspects of who I am. I'm still trying to fit these pieces together; it's a puzzle I expect to be working on the rest of my life. When I look at this collage, I see first and foremost my love of wild birds, blue jays and pileated woodpeckers in particular. It is a lifelong love, as I have written previously. Then I see my love of domestic animals, muscle dogs to brown tabby kittens. And also my love of my friends and family, for many of these photos were taken with them, although I cut out all other people for the purpose of the collage.
I think it might be instructive for me to make a collage of myself every year. I can see where I'm at, and what that tells me about where I want to be going.
This collage is certainly fresh in my mind as I return to California and face some big decisions about the future of my life and career.
2 comments:
That was a real good idea. I think doing it every year is a fantastic idea
Of course, considering that I did most of the collage when I was laid over in airports for four to eight hours at a stretch, it might be challenging to find the time to do it every year if I'm not traveling that much... All the better reason to go with my sister to China next summer!
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