Thursday 16 August 2012

nude with selachophobia


This is a fortuitous theme for me, because I have an out-of-town guest for a week, and so won't be able to make a new collage.  This is one I made a couple of years ago.

There's a bit of a story to go with it. I think all good phobias should come with a story. I'm afraid of spiders: that's my only true phobia. My relationship with sharks is rather more complicated...You have to understand: I love sharks. They are sleek, beautiful, ancient, misunderstood animals who are endangered by fishing all over the world. I founded the mailing list SHARK-L; I'm an activist for shark conservation; I even built a website devoted to all things sharky.

But... (here's the complicated part) I grew up with a large, angry, irrational, all-consuming mother, so ever since early childhood, I've been afraid of being eaten alive. I have this fear that I will be quietly minding my own business--like Pierre Bonnard's wife putting on her cologne, from the gorgeous "Nude Against Daylight"--and this monster will swoop in from nowhere, open her horrendous maw, chomp me into chunks, and eat me up! (I sure hope my mother never reads this... =laugh=)

5 comments:

  1. Mothers can be monsters that is for sure, beautifully illustrated!

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  2. Whoa Fi...what a fear and what a great illustration of it!

    (Reading this reminded me that when I saw the movie Jurassic Park and experienced the towering and terrorizing T-Rex I was reminded of my feelings towards my father...a reaction not unlike yours.)

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  3. Well, Fi and CC, must say I'm feeling a little blessed about my parentage...great collage, tho, something about the contrast between the frilly, feminine background and the Great White makes it for me!

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  4. Thanks for the great comments, y'all!

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