As an opener, I’d like to say that deconstructing the piece felt much better than putting it together. The three images I used in this animation symbolized the themes of life, desire, and death. The sun peeking over the horizon represented life to me, as the outward expansion of the colors felt like a blooming or growth. The fence was actually cut from a photo I took from the other side of a graveyard at night (Washington Cemetery in Brooklyn, if you’re interested), so it represents death. The slow obscuring of the sunlight by the fence was intentional.

The ocean spray that is slowly expanded and laid over the image of life obscured by death represents the desire to be free from the bars and taste the wonders of nature and life once more. The desire fades first, leaving a broken dream, so all seems lost, but then the fences become corrupted and fade away, leaving only the remnants of life that fade away as well, symbolizing the “final death.”

The piece: