My World Is One Big Painting

A Note Behind the Shot:

My World Is One Big Painting is my personal favorite, and, in my opinion, my most successful piece. This is one of the only shots that I conceptualized and thought completely through technically. It incorporates all of my photographic focuses: color, texture, and meaning/symbolism.

All of the colors you see were achieved using my camera, lenses and other equipment. They were not achieved through photoshop, which I am incredibly proud of.

The best explanation that I've come up with to describe the style of this shot is:

"A modern painting that Monet would have done if he had suffered from OCD, and tidied up his paintings a bit. Of course all being done while tripping on LSD... Or just a Georgia O'Keefe."

I thought it was funny, but maybe I'm just crazy haha.

But, in all seriousness, this piece holds, like, a sumo-sized amount of meaning for me.
I see this shot as a symbol of my life, and myself.
I've struggled with chronic depression my whole life, and I'm constantly down about myself.

And one day, a boy very close to my heart told me,
"Katherine, the thing is, you're wrong. It's not that you know how "awful" you are, and that the rest of the world is wrong about you. It's that the rest of the world sees you, and all the beauty that you are, and you're the one who can't see it. One day, I know, you won't be blind anymore. You'll see who I see. You'll see the greatness. The beauty. You'll finally see why I've fallen in love with you. It just might take a little time, and that's okay."

I looked at this shot, thought about what he said, and saw it as myself.
The "me" that he, and so many others see.
The "me" I'm not quite capable of seeing yet.

Maybe I'm a little messy. A little hectic.
Maybe I don't have it all figured out yet.

But I think, I hope, I'm fairly sure, that one day I won't be blind anymore.
One day I'll be every single thing I can be.

Updated 10/31/09
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Critiquing Requests:

I'm a truly novice photographer. I've never taken any art or photography classes, so besides my eye, I have nothing to go on. I'm trying to get a feel for what is a technically strong piece, and what makes one work more successful than another.
I'd love feedback on technical elements of this piece, like composition, balance, color and "the rules," because I have no idea what even the most basic art rules/guidelines are.
I'd also love interpretation of the piece. Does it make you feel a certain way? Does it succeed in sending a message, having a theme or symbolism? What does my piece mean to you, if anything?
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