I spend summer and fall immersed in the life of a lake. Each day I sit on a dock and dive into the water, regardless of weather, temperature, mood. Beneath the surface I find an entirely new realm of colour, movement, and relation, so I abandon my pen for a basic underwater camera.
Submerged plants dance as their reflections ripple in the glassy mirror of the water’s surface. Sunlight weaves through the water, illuminating, and often disrupting, the conventional lines of a photographic frame. Breath, motion, angles, and bubbles, change the colour and shape of the lake. The only constant I count on is that the plants will grow ever more skeletal when fall’s cool promise courts the summer air.
I swim through the shifting seasons, my photographs a daily prayer, as I watch leaves sway — joyous? — in their cyclic decay.
Everything is sacred when seen in the right light.
Sacred Decay - Artist Statement
As part of my artistic practice online I have embedded fragments of poetry in the images. These hidden fragments are drawn from the writing of Robert Bringhurst and Jan Zwicky. They usually do not accompany the printed images in exhibition — although they might… <!>
Feel free to reach out if you’re a poet who would like to collaborate and add fragments to any of the photos. Or if you are a person who would like to commission a photo that is text-specific!
Also note that Sacred Decay images have been reduced in size and quality for this website. Exhibition images and prints are produced with high quality resolution and fidelity.
A POETIC NOTE ON WEBSITE IMAGES
ABOUT JANALEE
JanaLee is a multimedia artist, writer, and facilitator, who witnesses worlds as they are, and dreams communities as they might be.
She is a scholar and changemaker who works and experiments across the humanities, social sciences, and the field of social impact.
JanaLee is a proud graduate from the University of Saskatchewan (BA High Honours) and has a DPhil (PHD) in from the University of Oxford (UK). She has held various teaching appointments at the University of Oxford, New York University, and Bard College, has designed character service and leadership programming for Rhodes Scholars in Oxford, and ethical leadership workshops for Schwarzman Scholars in China.
Contact janalee
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