One Singular Sensation

Cheers

Be the first to cheer this project!

One Singular Sensation

Our challenge was to do a layout about our “inner diva”.I had fun looking for a photo that would suit the theme, and decided on this photo from Niagara Falls, with some playing in Photoshop first to pump the hue up to max, and then to crop and strip all the color out. I used the crowns and “ooo la la” (it got cut off in my photo) to suggest beauty pageants, and the suns and sun quote for being open and brave and confident, as well as for the song “Walking On Sunshine” that is mentioned in my journalling.The journalling reads: Lounging poolside with The Miss Universe Beauty Book, watching entranced as pageant contestants paraded down a flight of stairs to the strains of Walking On Sunshine – I admit it, my girlhood fantasies were, in fact, a bit fantastical. I actually find those memories rather surprising, when I consider my lasting preference for comfort over fashion, my satisfaction with wearing a school uniform that eliminated the need for choices in the mornings, and the harassment I endured from classmates for my disinterest in makeup. But I think the pageant dreams actually suggest an underlying resilience and self-confidence that I was, in fact, beautiful. I know that as an adult, I am physically a lot closer to a Cabbage Patch Kid than Barbie, and no one is going to be putting a pageant crown on my head any time soon. But my inner diva remains intact, if a little battered: aware of my value as a human being, as a wife, as a daughter, a sister and now a mother, and as a child of God. I am smart, witty, creative, educated, skilled and accomplished in many areas. I see beauty and show it to others, and bring a deeper understanding of the world through my work as a journalist. And while this photo-op in Niagara Falls is the closest I’ll ever get to being immortalized in a wax museum, I am proud to be who I am. - July 10, 2010