In front of the camera…

Well I did it – I got in front of the camera instead of behind it. Actually, I did the “holding the camera at arm’s length” thing! I took about 30 photos using the digital and then chose a couple I could cope with. Not too many chins, not too much of a frown…

I printed a photo onto textured paper then painted a canvas and added layers of paper, stickers, metal etc. The cat is in the top left corner because there is usually at least one animal keeping me company while I work.

The painted hand is pointing to my head because my hands get covered in paint while I work, and a lot of my work comes straight from my head. The words say “I love freedom” (freedom to paint, create, work hard, just be me) and “I love 2 create”.

I also did a canvas using a copy of my first birthday photo. Dad took a photo of Mum giving me my first taste of lime fizzy drink – I pulled a face and they both laughed.

I used the image of the baby wearing a crown because I didn’t want the overall effect to be too cutesy.

I started to do some work using photos of Dad and I – but all it did was make me cry. It’s 15 years last week since Dad died and I guess the anniversary is more emotional than I had realised. In some ways it feels like yesterday, in other ways like forever. One of my mother’s friends said to me once that it is “selfish to mourn too long” but I’m happy to go on missing him for the rest of my life.