Melanie Blyth, Labyrinth (Art)

I created Labyrinth because I need to escape. I have two passions in photography. Family portraits where my work is focussed on family bonds and the beauty of children being children. I use Labyrinth to escape from myself and a world that can be hurtful. My anxiety can affect me to a point where I can no longer leave the house, I cannot sleep, noise and mess can make me irrational and my brain will not stop thinking that worse case scenarios are inevitable. When I started photography I could distract myself and regain control of my thoughts by directing them into creating my own world. I have always had anxiety but with my second pregnancy and the birth of my son it became unbearable. So I escape my anxiety by parting the mists of this world to escape to another. Colours are as important to my work as the story. In our natural world bright colours often indicate danger. The bright stripes on a snake, or colourful markings on a fish or even the vibrant frog who has enough poison to kill 10 men. As to my characters, like Keats, I borrow from a world full of ancient gods and great heroes. I am a proud feminist and the women in my work are not pretty ornaments. So come through the mists with me, the Labyrinth is beautiful, colourful and sometimes dark but I promise to hold your hand xo.

Images have been resized for web display, which may cause some loss of image quality. Note: Original high-resolution images are used for judging.