The Rose Period

photographed by: caro ramirez (website | blog | flickr); inspiration: pablo picasso's rose period (1904-1906)

“Art washes away from the soul the dust of everyday life.” – Pablo Picasso

These photographs are taken from my predecessor blog; I had to publish them here, because this is one of my favorite photo shoot collaborations with Caro. When I first started the girl from hk, ldn & sf, the intention was to document my style and journalize my musings and philosophical ramblings and relate them to the outfit. As time went by, my style and voice evolved and matured and the style of photography became more symbolic and metaphorical. In October 2011, I rediscovered my love for Picasso and I did two outfit shoots in tribute to his Blue Period and Rose Period.

These two artistic periods were symbolic to Picasso and reflected upon his life. Picasso started painting with a blue palette when he learned of his friend Casagemas's death. His Rose Period commenced during his happy relationship with Fernande Olivier; his relationship has been suggested as one of the possible reasons of his change of color palette and style of painting. In October 2010, I thought I was in a Rose Period. I thought everything was happy again and I was back in a state of delirium. But things have a funny way of deteriorating in front of your eyes slowly without your control. Things started to unravel after October and slowly began to dissipate into thin air. I won't go into further detail, but I relapsed back into a state of forlorn, my blue period.

It sounds a little dramatic, but I think my blue period lasted for four days at most and then I slapped myself in the face and made myself realize I am happy and I deserve to be happy. No one can be in a rose period all the time and if anything, happiness is a choice as Randy from Monk said. I sincerely believe that happiness is a choice, it is a mental state and I choose happiness.

I know that life can be quite a daunting responsibility and experience, but I choose to be optimistic. From a pessimistic point of view, life is a routine: you grow up, go to school five days a week, then you go to college to get a degree, so you can find a job and earn a living and pay taxes, you meet someone, get your heart broken, meet someone else until you finally realize you love that person and that person loves you back, get married, have children and the cycle begins for them, grow old, retire and then sit and wait for death. I guess I could look at life from that perspective, but I choose to look at life as an adventure, a chance to live, an opportunity to give back. I choose to be in a rose period.

Art has a mysterious, spiritual and sometimes simplistic way of inspiring people, whether it is consciously or subconsciously. I try to educate myself as much as possible and find all these inspiration to help me motivate myself to be a more creative human being. I loved studying art history, I love studying about the technique, the history of the time and most of all, the background of the artist. So many artists had and have such rich backgrounds. Stories that are relatable and stories that break my heart. Arshile Gorky had a tragic life and I will never forget his story. When he was ten, he held his dying mother in his hands during the Armenian genocide, which scarred him for life. His final years were filled with immense pain and heartbreak. His studio barn burned down, he underwent colostomy for cancer, his neck was broken and his painting arm was temporarily paralyzed in a car accident, his wife of seven years cheated on him and left him taking their children with her. He hanged himself in 1948 at the age of 44.

When I hear and read about such tragic stories of real people, I remember how lucky I am and how grateful I am to be alive. I have my moments of sadness, but then I forget about that sadness and remember why I am here. I know I can't force myself to be happy or content, but right now, I'm feeling a huge wave of gratitude and happiness and no one can take it away from me. I hope this wave continues on for a while and throughout my job hunting period, because I will need it. I realize that I will need all the mental strength during this period and I hope my perseverance will help me find a job. I will be proactive, I will work hard, I will succeed.

“Action is the foundational key to all success.” - Pablo Picasso