This is the last of the Rose 4. editions coming off production at the light box manufacturers. I am so pleased with the quality of both the print and the frames ( which are hand made in metal and welded together so that no mitres or screws exist on the corners) as truely bespoke creations. Each light box has an individual remote so that you can turn the light right up or right down for a different ambience in different situations.
As a teenager all I wanted to do was go to art school and my parents persuaded me to go to university instead to train for a sensible career. Well mum and dad here I am in my not so sensible career and loving it.
It has been an amazing journey getting to this place and to have the love and support for my images. The incredible light that the light boxes emit literally mimics the sunshine that I was able to feel through these images when I photographed them in the Parnell Rose Garden.
I feel blessed that I was able to capture nature at it’s best and invite it inside to heal not only me from the grief of loosing my mother, but also for others who have seen and bought these works and feel the energy and comfort that the natural world has for us.
Those who know the back story of my mum being blind and in a wheel chair in her later years and me taking her to the Rose Gardens to ‘smell the roses” might appreciate why I dedicated this series to her. It was also synchronicity when I was back visiting the gardens with my father and sister Stephanie a couple of years after her death, that this series was created. The day was very sunny and certainly not ideal for flower photography, so it had me become inventive as to how I could capture the essence of the roses in the bright sunshine.
But the challenge became the hero as I lay on the ground and found some roses that were looking down rather than up to photograph through the flowers with the back lighting behind. When I got home that night and looked at the images on my computer, I knew that the magic of nature, and in fact the soul of life itself, was what I was seeing hence the name of this series.
All the roses in this exhibition were photographed in situ at the Parnell Rose Gardens so it was fitting that when our ground floor space at our building diagonally opposite came available that I would exhibit them here.
What surprised me was how the light boxes are an ideal medium to show the work mimicking the suns rays and perfectly show the images as I shot them in camera. So at night the light boxes come into their own and light up in all nature’s magnificence as little jewels. I find having them at home is the most warming and comforting feeling when I came home to them on. I know that these images literally healed the enormous grief I have had for the loss of my mother just as nature intended.
Thank you for all those that have purchased the series and for those who came to support me and encourage me on this incredible journey.
