Ghost of Me

Posted on October 28, 2010 by Ruth Weal

Well this isn’t really a Halloween post, but the title does have a Ghost in it

Ghost of Me is the self portrait below that I tripped out in Photoshop to get a very different feel. It was one of the first times that I played with selective re-colouring and I purposefully chose larger than life colours to convey a sense of unreality to the picture. It’s me, but it’s not me, almost only an echo, or ghost if you will, hence the title. I used the same base self portrait for another photo, “Fade Me Not“, which has an altogether more challenging attitude about it. It’s amazing what a little tinkering can do to change the mood of a picture, if only life were as simple!

The poem “As My Destiny Wends” started to take shape in my mind as I was editing the picture. For some time I’d been toying with the idea of having a poem that was just made up of a series of seemingly unanswerable and self referencing questions. The look in my eyes in Ghost of Me seemed to have an imploring, questing sense to them once I’d added the blue re-colour. The eyes invited that sort of poem to work with them and who was I to argue. So the questions just poured forth and a rather esoteric little introspection of the workings of the Wealie mind at that time was born!

Here’s hoping we all find our feet on the path where our destinies wend!

Wealie x

Ghost of Me - Copyright R.Weal 2007

AS MY DESTINY WENDS

How do we find truth when light obscures the door?
Where do we find answers when the questions are never more?
Who then will be my guide when the path is never set?
Why then should I trust the word of those I have not met?
Wherein lies the truth if the lie is at my feet?
How then will you recognise which face of mine to greet?
Who then can tell me how this calamity will end?
Will I ever know where my destiny will wend?