Refer to our first post to see what I look like, and you will know that the beauty above is not me. I am, however, going to speak a moment about myself. I am your typical creative type: emotional, quirky, mismatched, busy, pensive, and melancholy. I am different, but I belong to a network of "different" people who are really all the same. We are mostly OK with being abnormal, struggling with a balance between pride and complete self-loathing. We are enigmas to those who aren't us, but totally figured out by others.
Here in Augusta, the "peculiar" are easily sussed out. Like ants who have diverged from formation, we wander around trying to find our place, hoping that people will ask us to do something that we like best (holding heavy things, painting, looking cool, building sets, etc.).
I say all of this in conjunction with the image of the pretty girl above as I have been privy to a metamorphosis of sorts in the 3 to 4 years I have known her. I officially met Brooke at a women's retreat my church conducts every year; and as next weekend is my fourth, we will say that I met her "4 retreats ago."
Brooke was an athlete then: the type of girl who looks like she has come straight from the gym (or shower) nearly all of the time. She was effervescent and young (polite for "loud"), and I really don't remember much else about her. Only one retreat later did we first see some of her art (in the form of a set design and photography), and in the years following we have seen more and more of this aesthetic. Call it growing up, call it having a paycheck and with it the ability to buy nice clothes; but I call it the thoughtful, cultured, splendor of art revealing itself. Still athletic, but perhaps even more of an enigma that the usual weird girl (aka "me"). All of the grandeur, and still with joy and warmth.
So here is Brooke: fellow photographer, artist, athlete, and friend.
