I wish to be free
I wish to be free
I wish to be free
I wish to be free
I wish to be free
I wish to be free

I wish to be free

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From the outset I had always intended to create a scene that was similar to the original Mermaid pieces from previous releases that featured the iconic Genie rising from the lamp and for it to be a vivid and quirky piece. However as this latest body of work has developed I have come at it from a different angle.

So many of the new pieces focus on the character through their silhouetted form and the embodiment of hope that resonates from them and I therefore became increasingly drawn to creating a piece that focused on Robin Williams rather than the Genie. I am sure many of us will agree that the Genie makes the Disney film and that was down to Robin Williams’ array of voices and personalities that he gave to the character.

So this piece, entitled ‘I Wish To Be Free’ is connected to Aladdin through the figure that rises upwards from the lamp that rests on the coral bed, a slight deviation to the film where the shackled Prince was cast into the ocean before being set free. However in this case the figure rising up to the surface, to the light is actually in human form.

This piece focuses on this brilliant actor’s death that was as a result of his demons growing so tall behind him that their shadows obscured the whitest of walls. The question so many had was ‘why?’. Why could someone so loved and with such a star-filled film career choose to end their life? It became apparent that Robin was deeply troubled and depressed and battling so much more than anyone knew, slowly becoming trapped within his own body and mind through paranoia and form of dementia that his wife described ad “the terrorist inside my husband’s brain”.

The pressure to perform for the benefit of others is so similar to his role as the Genie, living with such constraints only to have to grant wishes on demand before regressing back into the darkness. So I guess for Robin and sadly for so many others he had sunk to such a depth within his mind that the darkness and his demons erased the sunrise, they clouded the clear to the point where he only had one wish and one way to be free.

This image, I hope you will agree, is beautiful and honest and with the above in mind terribly sad whilst offering a calming sense of comfort through hope, seeing how the darkness falls away and all that surrounds the character is good. For me personally when you create a piece with a genuine meaning and when you strive to capture and portray a sense of emotion and feeling there is a point in each of them when it shines through, when what you see in front of you gives off everything that you hoped you could inject and it is quite something. In this instance it really was overwhelming, not just that I am confident that I have created a piece of art that does true justice to a wonderful human-being as Robin but something that will resonate to many for so many reasons.

Mental health is such a huge issue and looks to finally be starting to be tackled and talked about because the implications for not are terrifying. It is so easy to dismiss and to try and paper over the cracks for someone who is troubled, to genuinely try to do good through pointing out all of the good things that they do and all of the people that surround them. A line that resonates with me and is one that makes you work harder to understand a troubled persons state of mind and to not think that a positive talk will suffice is simply this, ‘how do you see the stars from so far down?’

It doesn’t matter how many stars shine and how bright, if you are that far down then you simply can’t see them. I also think that the line could offer comfort to someone who is battling to understand a persons’ decision, albeit sadly using a different tense it forms a gentle and silent acceptance of that persons mental state and ultimately their final wish.