Heart Shaped Box

If there be no mercy left in the world, the doors of heaven will never be barred… ~Rabbi Shalom Shabazi

There have been a few things that I have read in the media that have provoked my desire to create these images but I will not list them as I do not want my reasoning to be misinterpreted. I do not feel that I have to answer to anyone as to how I express myself. However it is not my intention to be disrespectful or offensive to others. Furthermore I know these images will be scrutinized and possibly I will be too. Sometimes reasoning can be extended to the perception of who an individual is.

I am a First Nation’s women and from this day forward I will only identify myself as a First Nation’s woman. This is who I am racially and who I am meant to be. Spiritually I am agnostic. I identify with nature and believe that G*d lives there. These are not things that I have been taught or that I have read. I have found these things on my own… they are things that I believe to be true. I see G*d in water. When I look out at the ocean or a lake I know that G*d lives peacefully where the sun meets the water. Far enough that he is unreachable by human beings but close enough that we can see him. Water is everywhere. We are created in water as we develop in our mother’s womb. When we die the water leaves our bodies and we turn to dust.

I have felt closest to G*d when my father would take me by the hand as a child. My father believed in G*d in the traditional sense, identifying with scriptures and religious teachings… he taught me about the magnificence of nature and the necessity of faith. I remember sitting on my father’s lap, I was 6 maybe, a rainbow appeared. He said “Lisa, that is a rainbow.” I asked “What is a rainbow, Daddy?” My father responded. “It’s G*d’s promise that he will never flood the world again.” His certainty was comforting so a rainbow was G*d’s promise. I was a precocious child full of questions, my father always had an answer. As I grew up I began to question the scriptures. At times I felt I was living in a G*dless world… I know that this hurt my father deeply. As a teenager I told him that it (G*d) was all a lie. I will never forget the look on his face. He said to me in earnest “Lisa, even if it is a lie; it is the most beautiful lie ever told… believe it…” After that day we never spoke about G*d again. As I became an adult I wanted to revisit the topic of faith/G*d etc but the time was never right.

I have always felt a connection to water. I found my way to water spiritually in a biology class. I was fascinated by the chemical properties of water… kind of a mystical dance repellant and alluring.

Which brings me to the desire to create these images. I have been thinking about posing in a niqab for months but I felt that I would be stepping over a forbidden boundary… there is always a subtle persuasion in reluctance…

Tags: Burqa, Burqa Nude, Claim Your Beauty, Niqab, Sexy Niqab