My dear friend and frequent collaborator Katie Johnson has recently started a new video series which profiles the artists she works with frequently. I was honored to be featured in the first of her videos! She put a great piece together which includes an interview with me and lots of behind-the-scenes peeks into how we work.
Take a look!
I often think of lines from the song the princess sings in Peter S. Beagle’s legendary work The Last Unicorn:
“Oh, I am a king’s daughter
And I grow old within
The prison of my person
The shackles of my skin
And I would run away
And beg from door to door
Just to see your shadow
Just once and nevermore”
“The prison of my person, the shackles of my skin” perfectly describes how I feel about my physical body most days. Though I doubt Mr. Beagle had ME in mind when he wrote it, it resonates so strongly with me. And I’m sure people with other chronic illnesses will be able to identify with it; it’s a pretty universal problem across the chronically ill spectrum.
Feeling so trapped has always made me instantly know something of what Amalthea felt at finding herself in human form. I imagine it was even harder for her though. The disharmony we chronically ill feel with our body was something I’d wanted to express in my Enchanted Sleep series for quite a while and I was glad to finally bring the image to life!
There’s something more visceral about images than you often can’t replicate with words. Words are powerful, they can build and tear down mountains, but the visual world offers the same information in a different form. One that, if used well, can strike like a snake and bring instantaneous understanding. That’s my hope with this series; to illustrate the life of a person with myalgic encephalomyelitis in a way that reaches where words cannot.
I will admit… I’d beg from door to door just to catch a glimpse of a unicorn’s shadow too 🙂
Here’s a look at the final image from our shoot:
And a detail shot:
I didn’t realize you had a blog! I’ll definitely be tuning in to read your creative words of wisdom! I must admit as a kid a I was kind of OBSESSED with the Last Unicorn. We recorded it off TV at some point, with cheesy 90’s commercials and all 🙂
Oh, well, thank you! Glad to hear you’re pleased about your discovery 🙂 I’ve been enjoying going through your stream on Flickr! I’m terribly behind, but trying to catch up this week.
Oh yes, i grew up watching The Last Unicorn too! We had it recorded for a long time before eventually upgrading to a VHS 🙂 Have you ever read the TLU novel? I adore the movie, but the book is even a million times better, and not super long either. If you enjoy the story, it’s definitely worth picking up! There’s something completely undefinable about Peter’s writing that I can only describe as pure magic. He will break your heart every time, but he hands it back to you bigger and more whole than it was before 🙂
OH man! I’m all over it, never read the book before, but I’m totally sold!! Thanks for the Flickr love 🙂 I must admit I was a little “star stuck” and totally excited that you commented on some of my work. I’ve been a fan for a while. I just love you work, and how clearly meaningful it is to you. There really is something special about when an artist puts so much of themselves into their art.
I think I first read the book when I was maybe 11 or so? Reading was big in my house, so I read a LOT (which is why I still read a LOT! :)) I’m big on re-reading books I really love, and TLU was one I kept coming back to over the years. One of the truly amazing things about it is how it grows up *with* you. When you’re 11, you read it and go “yay, unicorns!” but as you get older, you pull more and more out of it each time. Very remarkable! And even now, I still get new things out of each time I read it… I’m just astonished at the skill it takes to write a book that can be appreciated so much by kids, teens and adults all at the same time!
Do you know there’s a short story sequel to it? 🙂 It’s in a short story compilation of Beagle’s called The Line Between; the story is called Two Hearts. You will SOB reading it, I promise you, but it will be wonderful. But you can’t read it until you’ve read the TLU book or you won’t enjoy it nearly so much 😉 If you find you enjoy reading Beagle’s stuff (which I think you will!) let me know and I can recommend some titles for you!
Haha, it’s funny for me to think of anyone being “star-struck” by me! That’s very kind of you to say 🙂 Thank you so much! Everything I create is always really personal to me, and I have to always have at least one kind of artistic outlet in my life at a time (but preferably several, much to the dismay of my long-suffering husband who finds my crap cluttering every single corner of the house, lol). Eventually I will catch up to the more recent sections of your stream so I’m sure there will be more comments to leave! I’ve really been enjoying your work, it’s very inspiring to me! You seem quite deft at Photoshop; have you been shooting/editing for a long time?
If you would prefer, you can email me at sarah@sarahallegra.com instead of replying here; either way will get to me, but you might not want to answer questions publicly, so it’s up to you 🙂
Thank you again for your very kind words!
YAY!!! I can SEE and HEAR you!
We should skype some time. Even though skype is super awkward.
Also, the eyeball pic is amazing. so 3-D.
more later… A
Date: Wed, 12 Feb 2014 23:04:07 +0000 To: killtommy@hotmail.com
If you want to see just how painfully awkward I can be social, then Skype it is! 🙂 I’m certainly willing to try, but consider yourself warned. And thank you! Having my computer gone all last week really threw me off, but I’ll send you an email soon!