We humans can’t really see themselves
Psychotherapists listen to our hit lists and wish lists—then note our sorry habits and verbal skills. Architects ask us to describe our dream house—then watch how we really use our space. Interior designers ask us whose lifestyle we envy—then study the magazines we read. What’s this say about humans? We can’t really see ourselves; we don’t often know what’s good for us or see our best qualities. And according to these professionals, we all yearn to have a life that’s memorable so that we’ll be memorable.
Not only have these professionals seen it all but they offer something priceless: the professional distance to see our lives with 20-20 hindsight. When they encourage us to talk about our hopes and dreams, they allow us to reinvent ourselves. With their moodboards and reflecting back what they’ve learned about us, they nudge us towards falling in love with who are and the heroic life we’ve led so far.
Get Thee To A Memory Artist
Just as there’s a professional for sprucing up our personal space, wardrobe, and our choice in life partners, there’s also a professional for refreshing our memory storage. This professional is called a Memory Artist: someone who shapes your good and good enough memories to create a custom alternate reality that counters regrets, guilt and envy.
Sit down with me for a photo review and I will ask you all sorts of provocative questions about your secret dreams, wishes and longings for yourself, and others. Then I will turn all those unproductive and sometimes corrosive musings into a meaning-laden work of photo-based art. The memory you need, rather than the memory you have.
As a professional with dark humor in my arsenal, I employ irony, symbolism, exaggeration — anything that will move you from darkness to light. A place where you can begin to laugh at yourself.
So here’s something to think about. If there was something you could change about your life, what would it be?
- Did you wish you had taken Grandpa to the casino, when he’d asked?
- Are you sorry you couldn’t finance a honeymoon in Tahiti for your son and his bride?
- Do you still believe your spouse deserved the Congressional Medal of Honor?
- Are you pining for peace in the family?
- Are you still suffering the loss of a loved one, and feel like a piece of you is missing?
If you want to feel brand new without cosmetic surgery, relocation, a new wardrobe or a renovated kitchen, talk to this memory artist. I’ll repurpose your existing personal photos to say something entirely new about you, adding backdrops and meaningful objects from my own photography. With a new and improved reality (in the form of a custom digital photo collage), you’ll get a new lease on life every time you take a peek.