The Angel in the Witch — the healing power of a photograph

by John Todaro
“Witch-Hobble” by John Todaro

This photo is an oxymoron. A “good witch,” or as the title says, “the angel in the witch.”

Long ago people claimed the witch-hobble growing around one’s home would protect them from witches because they could not walk through it. Anyone who tried to walk through a witch-hobble thicket, would thenceforth be endowed with powers of a witch. (According to Ellen Rathbone, an environmentalist and naturalist.)

My focus, however, is on photographer, John Todaro’s brilliant composition of two witch-hobble leaves and what their power has done for me. I’ve been in a creative doldrum for several months because of personal reasons. Upon seeing this photograph, I was creatively lifted to a place where I could again appreciate pristine aesthetics.

Initially, I saw refined design in this composition—a balance of tonality, rhythm, repetition, variation of form, and simplicity. I especially like the apex on the left leaf duplicated in reverse by the convergence of the two leaves above their overlap.

The dual vertical light spheres directly above the leaves’ convergence, coupled with the overlap (or “lens” shape) atop a triangle represents to me, a beautiful totem composition.

But what did I see beyond the pleasing composition?

I saw an angel with a halo, spreading her wings. That’s probably what I needed to see and feel, for afterward, I felt rejuvenated and got right back to attending my creative spirit. My doldrums have dissolved, thanks to a conscientious, well crafted black-and-white photograph by my friend and fellow photographer, John Todaro.

4 thoughts on “The Angel in the Witch — the healing power of a photograph”

  1. John Todaro’s marvelous photograph in its Zen-like simplicity and your assessment of the enlightenment and power it held for you is so meaningful. John. Its “message”” of deliverance, enabling you to resurrect your creative spirit and return to the “business” of creating art is a testament to the healing powers of art and of the creative process. Those “messages” may come from various and unsuspecting directions.

    Viewing art and creating art truly does something for the spirit and perhaps the body as well. I have often used the saying, ” That if you have a job you love, you never work a day in your life.” . . . well most days.
     
    There is no question that the creative process, related to whatever activity, turns off the noise around you. You lose track of time; you are completely in the moment, for nothing else seems to matter when you turn yourself over to this kind of activity; it seems to celebrate and affirm your life and living. In the making of art, the emerging composition of the artwork is intuitive and has little or nothing to do with words or numbers, or related logical cognitive skills. Sometimes you get the feeling as if the artwork is doing itself.
     
    There is much written about the mind, spirit, body connection . . . that if much of your life is in sync and on balance, that one tends to be more physically healthy, or at the very least, one manages what physical dysfunction one has much better. Immersion of yourself into the creative process is very much a form of meditation and part of balancing the “whole self.” Like visiting the masters at some of the great museums, a work of art like John Today’s has the power to recharge your “battery”.
     

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