I Think I Can
So I thought I'd start a series of semi-regular blogs where I talk about individual images; why I took them, how/where I took them, what they mean, what I think about them and so on. I thought it might give people a bit of an insight into the work. I hope you enjoy them.
I'm starting with this image I call "I Think I Can". I took this shot about 10 years ago in the garden of my old house in Hawthorn. The tree trunk belongs to a weeping Mulberry which for reasons best known to itself grew at this rakish angle. It was a gorgeous tree, providing a lovely canopy of shade in the summer and some fabulously twsited and tortured branches for the cats to climb in. Because of the shade the only thing that would grow beneath it was the self-sown native violet, which are the leaves you can see.
The little Forget-Me-Not you see there is also self-sown. It originated from one I had planted elsewhere in the garden to mark the little grave of my beloved siamese cat. As Forget-Me-Nots will, it ended up everywhere! I didn't mind as it was not only pretty but it always reminded me of my beautiful boy.
As is often the case with me, the photograph I think I'm taking is very often not the one I end up with! In this case, I was originally just trying to make an interesting composition out of the wacky angle and the lovely texture of the tree, I hadn't really even noticed the little Forget-Me-Not. It was only later in the processing of the images that I noticed it and realised that, in fact, it was the little, wee flower that was the true subject of the shot. I loved it, it looked like it was trying to grow up big and stong just like the big old Mulberry. Hence the title, "I Think I Can", just like the little engine who could.
I still enjoy looking at this picture as it holds memories of my lovely old garden, my dear old cat and my very first exhibition. I also enjoy it because it always says 'hope' to me and it makes me smile.
Tiff xxx
