This creative prompt is somewhat vague – darkness. It may sound difficult at first, but this vagueness gives you a lot of creative freedom. Sometimes we have freedoms that we don’t even know we have. 🙂 Darkness has many cultural and connotative meanings that can be explored or you could attempt it more literally with a low key (dark) image. Remember that visually, darkness is the only way that we are able to perceive light – the whole yin and yang of realities.
In my darkness image, called “hide”, I am expressing all sorts of frustrations. Recent events have included an inconceivable amount of death, hate, destruction, repression, and deceit. I have felt this weigh heavily in my heart. I have also felt “in the dark” in regard to what is truly happening and unable to fully grasp the whole situation due to its complexity and the withholding by some of vital information. And finally, I have on many days felt the desire to simply hide. Unable to process the impact of everything that is happening leaves me wanting to shut off for a while. This image represents all three of these interpretations of darkness – deep sadness, secrecy, and refuge in addition to literally being dark.
On the technical side, despite the intense meaning in the image, the making of it was rather comical. The fabric over me is a single panel of blackout curtain so I could not see a thing and it kept slipping off to one side or the other. Of course, I knew in my mind exactly how much hands and feet needed to show so it took maaaaannnnyyyyy attempts to get it just right. Also on the humorous side, the alt text generated for this image was “A person wearing a suit and tie sitting in a dark room”.
If you would like to participate in this creative prompt, you can do so here: https://www.facebook.com/athena.carey/posts/10221828997308036
