Lilly Crown by Shannon Mcnicholas

I created this piece on a flatbed scanner in Morgantown, WV using foliage that I grew in my garden and my own face as subjects. My face is solemn, but the flowers are bright in my face of solemnness. I arranged the flowers so that light would appear to be bursting out of me. There is a children’s book called “When Sadness is at Your Door” by Eva Eland that captures perfectly what I am trying to say with this piece—we move through difficult feelings, in part, by embracing them. They become their own form of beauty. The difficult feelings may eventually loosen their grip. As a neurodivergent person with Bipolar, I find that when I embrace myself where I’m at, the light seems to find me. In this case, the light was a crown of lilies.

Shannon Mcnicholas is a poet and artist who resides in West Virginia with her partner, their cats, dog and garden. She tends towards lyric poetry and scanography art. During the day, Shannon is a mental health therapist. She also experiences her own mental health struggles. Her work has previously appeared in Neologism Poetry, Yellow arrow journal, and her debut chapbook was recently released through Bottlecap Press.