after the fall

I joked with Lehman that I wanted to create this photo simply because I had a mattress to get rid of and could therefore use it as a prop in the forest, and that whatever concept I came up with was an excuse to make me seem like a deep artist. But after working on the photo and trying to figure out what it meant (because a lot of the times the deeper meaning only comes out when I'm working on it in photoshop), I think it's a really good representation of the duality of a home, how home is wherever you make it to be, but at the same time, sometimes it's draining and painful. I'm sure people who have moved a significant amount of times know what I'm talking about and I've certainly felt that way too. When I was in New Zealand though, there was a saying in one of the museums that said, "I will never be lost, for I am a seed of this land". That's probably one of the most powerful quotes I've ever read, and something that really resonates with me. 

But onto lighter things, Lehman and I experienced the craziest stuff for this photo. We went to a fairly populated park that had a really beautiful forest area right off the path. There was one random couple making out kind of near where we wanted to go, but they were being kind of annoying anyways so we decided to just continue on. So we pulled the mattress out of the back of the car and walked past them and plopped it down in the forest! I immediately pulled out my camera and Lehman took off his shirt because #art and we started making pictures. The couple then left and we were like, "thank goodness, they were kind of annoying". Then Lehman jumped on the mattress for some silly photos and we packed up.

We're carrying the mattress back to the car and turn the corner to the parking lot and the Sheriff is sitting in his car parked right next to ours. I of course immediately start internally freaking out and I'm thinking, "Just put the mattress in the car, maybe he won't get out ... oh crap he's getting out OH MY GOSH WE ARE GOING TO JAIL".

He walks up to us and says, "So I got a complaint from a couple that a couple teenagers were carrying a mattress into the woods and the guy started taking his shirt off?" At which point I started laughing because 1. Thanks for thinking I'm still a teenager, and 2. OMG What the heck were those people idiots? So I told him we did a photoshoot and he said, "Oh I believe you, I sat in my car and watched you guys doing jumping jacks. When I got the complaint I thought, 'Could they really actually think they could get away with that? Just bringing a mattress to the woods?' Thank goodness too because this would have been a very awkward conversation between the three of us." (You know, because it wasn't awkward already.)

It was by far the weirdest experience I've had and Lehman and I laughed the whole drive home. Hopefully he'll still want to shoot with me in the future!