still alive

The last little bit has been uneventful which, I think, is to be expected really. Learning to live in a smaller place with less is quite odd. I came from Southern Alberta where everything closed at 6 on the weekends except for bars and the movie theatre to here where the only theatre I've seen has been closed down. I'm a big city girl, the lack of shopping, Starbucks and hair salons is a strange thing to get used to.

I finally started to unpack my belongings. Since the job didn't happen, I've resigned myself to sort of be here at least long enough that I should unpack as much as I hate the idea. A lot of the time I talk about the things that I hate here. Really, the truth is I haven't found anything I love so its not that I'm focusing on the negative, its that I've yet to find something I truly love about it.

I'm applying for some retail jobs tomorrow, I've met a few people who are kind of my age. I'm working on trying to fit in somewhere. But while I'm waiting I came up with a photo idea that I'll just copy from my Facebook note earlier this week.

What sparked this idea is the overwhelming feeling that so many people feel they need to be thin to be beautiful or whatever else it takes to be "beautiful." We've all got our own little insecurities and things we had, but the idea here is that when two images are put side by side, one featuring a part of you that you dislike and one part that you love more than anything, that no one would be able to tell what the "ugly" part is. Sure everyone can guess, but it might not be as glaringly obvious as you feel it is.

So with all the insecurities and dieting and trying to look a way that we aren't meant to look the idea to showcase beauty in a different way. Celebrating a more natural, more attainable, more real version of beauty.

The idea is to take an empty photo frame and people. Every kind of person, male or female, no matter how you feel about yourself and take two photos. One using the frame to frame a part of you that you don't like and one using the frame to frame a part of you that you love. The thing you love can be something as small as your elbow or as big as your whole face, it doesn't matter. I want to then put them together in a diptych and show them as one full image. Faces won't be shown unless that's the feature you love and want to be shown so you don't even have to worry about someone identifying you. (My original thought was to name the images with the first name of the model and where they are from. Michael from Edmonton is pretty ambiguous.)

So this is where I need your help. I need people to take photos of, so if you're comfortable with it and want to get in on the experiment let me know. If you have friends that want to model, pass this on and let me know. I'd love to have as many different people represented as possible. I know that some of you have already expressed interest (or I thought you'd be interested) in joining me on my little crusade for beauty and I'd love you guys to help me spread the word.

Who knows what could come of it, but I'd love everyone to join in this experiment with me.