Picturing Wellness
This video was made for the Art With Impact contest.
Over 700 pictures were taken in order to create a stop motion video. The poem/narrative was written and voiced by me and explores the topic of depression. Background music is the instrumental from Sia’s “Breathe Me”.
Picturing Wellness
By: Craig Kung
Some snapshots of my life are better left evaporated.
But rain is part of a cycle
And time ebbs and flows
In such a way that waves of the past
Crash into the cliffs of the present.
Memories flood my head
Polaroids that slowly fade into focus
Capturing periods when
I was held beneath the silver surface
Cornered by the walls of my darkroom.
Life was to be framed,
Picture perfect, with all the right settings.
The timer on, the flash goes off.
Yet worth a thousand words,
It cannot hide the red window to my soul.
Overexposed, I am vulnerable.
Sometimes life just sucks.
And there are times when
I really don’t give a
Thought or a care
Because those are times I feel nothing.
What’s the point? The matter?
When each waking moment becomes a struggle to feel.
When it seems pointless to respond to “What’s the matter?”
As they try to connect
Because the points just never connect.
And so, I drift away.
Out of orbit, I become alien.
It’s lonely out here.
A black hole swallows what little colour is left.
Greyscaled, I am ever negative.
Time slows down
Cruel, as it lengthens the escape,
Pulling me slowly towards darkness.
But gravity is a force that affects us all.
It brings us closer together, even if we don’t connect.
And it was at rock bottom
That I realized
There was life there too.
I was not alone.
You are not alone.
The red eye may blemish
But it burns like the sun,
Drying out tears.
And it will rise again,
Because there are thousands more to take.
The bell has rung, it’s time to talk.
There is more beyond the frame.
Still life? No, it moves
Becoming a film,
Picturing our wellness.
But it’ll take time to develop.
Discuss