This series was inspired by the music video of Lana Del Rey's song Blue Jeans. To me, this story is about unconditional love between two souls. I feel like its also about honoring and validating the magic that happens when you connect with someone, even briefly, and how impactful that person can be to you. I think it also honors another unpopular view that regardless of how deep and special love is, the most important thing is to invest in your own path, chase your dreams even when it hurts, even when it's not easy. As Lana vows, true love, unconditional love, will still be waiting, until the end of time.
Grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change,
Courage to change the things I can,
And wisdom to know the difference.
And wisdom to know the difference.
The quote above is tattooed on my models' ribs and a phoenix rising from the ashes is represented on her back. Both were the perfect symbols of endurance that I was seeking to tell in this story of unconditional love (it wasn't planned at all but just one of life and art's happy surprises). The crocodile represents, to me, learning to love the darker elements in life and in our self, learning to understand that they raise you up just as much, if not more then the light times. In this story our heroine embraces and finds the beauty in pain and heart break. Along the way she also learns how to love herself, her journey and to give thanks for the sweet as well as the sour.
I cherished creating these images. So much so I could not stop tweeking them, they were more then nine months in the making, a true labor of love. I hope you enjoy them and my little soap box moment on the topic of true love. ~Love Always, Sylvia
“Love can never be a means towards something else. True love has to be aimless and pointless to keep its beauty, its fragrance and its joy. When there's a destination in mind, the journey loses its value. Love can have no conditions.” –Mateo Sol
Unconditional love can seem to be elusive and rare because
more often than not we cut it out of our life before it has a chance to plant
roots in your heart. Unconditional love
often begins with questions of one’s own sanity.
This is crazy, this is stupid, this is volatile. Unconditional love is what romance movies are
made of, it is Romeo and his fair Juliette.
It is real and valuable even if it doesn’t bring happily ever
after. Most of us choose the safe path
away from the intensity that such a love can bring, because unconditional love
tends to bring equal measures of joy and heartbreak.
Unconditional love can come in many relationship forms,
mother and child, lover or friend; it is not confined by traditional
relationship statuses and definitions.
It is because of its unconventionality that it is often belittled and
viewed as less than. In reality though,
unconditional love is the only love that continues to exist beyond the
requirement of the physical presence of the loved one, it is timeless,
boundless, and limitless.
Unconditional love is not exclusive or measurable. It comes to you like the first day of spring
comes to you, out of the blue and for no particular reason other than the
planet is spinning like it always has.
Just like the first day of spring, you may accidentally miss out on it
if you are preoccupied with life’s other commitments. If you don’t make the time and effort to go
out and choose to bask in the unexpected burst of Spring sunshine you can’t
expect it to break down your cubicle walls and seek you out.
Unconditional love is falling in love with a terminally sick
lover, knowing that the end will be premature and painful and understanding
that one day of unconditional love makes it all worthwhile. Not many of us are brave enough to make that
choice to love in circumstances like that but the gift of unconditional love is
so rewarding that once you know it you will follow it regardless of the crazy,
rocky, painful path that unconditional love asks you to take. Unconditional love can last a day or a
lifetime but neither is more worthy or valuable because unconditional love exists
above the concepts of time. Within unconditional love you will find
the freedom to be your truest self and to have that self be loved. And that is
the greatest gift on the planet.
Unconditional love exists one day at a time, with no promise
of tomorrow.
Unconditional is not selfish it is selfless.