{"id":174,"date":"2015-07-16T23:21:35","date_gmt":"2015-07-17T03:21:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/johnellsworth.com\/imagetalk\/?p=174"},"modified":"2021-07-17T15:49:16","modified_gmt":"2021-07-17T19:49:16","slug":"the-angel-and-the-witch","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/johnellsworth.com\/imagetalk\/the-angel-and-the-witch\/","title":{"rendered":"The Angel in the Witch \u2014 the healing power of a photograph"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"by<\/a>
“Witch-Hobble” by John Todaro<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

This photo is an oxymoron. A “good witch,” or as the title says, “the angel in the witch.”<\/p>\n

Long ago people claimed the witch-hobble<\/a> growing around one\u2019s 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<\/a>, an environmentalist and naturalist.)<\/em><\/p>\n

My focus, however, is on photographer, John Todaro<\/a>\u2019s brilliant composition of two witch-hobble leaves and what their power has done for me. I\u2019ve 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.<\/p>\n

Initially, I saw refined design in this composition\u2014a 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.<\/p>\n

The dual vertical light spheres directly above the leaves’ convergence, coupled with the overlap (or \u201clens\u201d shape) atop a triangle represents to me, a beautiful totem composition.<\/p>\n

But what did I see beyond the pleasing composition?<\/p>\n

I saw an angel with a halo, spreading her wings. That\u2019s 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<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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\u2019s 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 … Continue reading “The Angel in the Witch \u2014 the healing power of a photograph”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":175,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[82,29,41],"tags":[84,21,86,87,85,7,83],"class_list":["post-174","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-flora","category-image-critique","category-image-interpretation","tag-angel","tag-composition","tag-design","tag-john-todaro","tag-oxymoron","tag-photography","tag-witch"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/johnellsworth.com\/imagetalk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/07\/witch-hobble-e1437103565124.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p5bW7P-2O","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/johnellsworth.com\/imagetalk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/174","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/johnellsworth.com\/imagetalk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/johnellsworth.com\/imagetalk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/johnellsworth.com\/imagetalk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/johnellsworth.com\/imagetalk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=174"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/johnellsworth.com\/imagetalk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/174\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":185,"href":"https:\/\/johnellsworth.com\/imagetalk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/174\/revisions\/185"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/johnellsworth.com\/imagetalk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/175"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/johnellsworth.com\/imagetalk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=174"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/johnellsworth.com\/imagetalk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=174"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/johnellsworth.com\/imagetalk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=174"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}