Violet Mangoes

PHOTOS AND WORDS BY ARIELLE BOBB-WILLIS
In which we gave carte blanche and 12 pages of the latest issue of Gossamer to a creative we admire, thanks to the generous support of our presenting partner, oHHo, a cannabis and botanicals wellness company dedicated to bringing you Plants with Benefits™.

 

I’m motivated by healing and the release of fear. A big theme in my work is finding healthy ways to be yourself. Freedom is important to me. Working on getting to know myself allowed me to find the confidence to create whatever I want without the imaginary limits I had once accepted in my life. It took a long time for me to give myself permission to be who I am. People will project their fears onto you and my work is a physical representation of what it means to reject that in every way.

Through depression, what I see around me can be very under-stimulating … very muddy, very dull. Photography allows me to control my environment and create the world I’d like to live and thrive in. It’s therapeutic and it’s a place where I can completely be myself … there’s no judgement, no rules. That tension of recognizing your past mistakes while pushing to be better is something I keep returning to in my work ... learning to embrace who I am over and over again. There’s always something sweet in that uncomfortable feeling, if you are looking for it.

There’s immense power in sensitivity, vulnerability, and imagination.