Burning Love

As a card collector and lover of cards in general, this image makes me feel a great sadness:

One because, "oh god no, the beautiful cards!!!" <img src="e.deviantart.net/emoticons/r/r…" width="15" height="15" alt="" title=" (Razz)"/>

Two because for me, cards symbolise companionship. They can take away loneliness or connect you to another human being when you play with them. You can play cards with anybody, you don't have to know them, but they create a unison between people effortlessly. They can also create wonder and excitement with the performing of tricks. A deck of cards can be quite an evocative object in the medium of memory.

Here, the act of burning the cards is almost sacrilegious, like the burner is cutting off all their ties with others and leaving themself to be alone. In other words they are isolating themselves. It's a sad act and this image really does cunjour up that sadness for me.

Your technique is what really brings out that emotion. The sepia colouring reminds one of old faded memories in a photo album along with the grungy textured look of the concrete beneath them symbolising deterioration. I'm instantly drawn to the speck of colour on the Queen's chest - a tiny area of yellow and red that is perfectly placed within the rule of thirds. The cropping is tight and gives the viewer no place to look but at the disaster of the burnt cards. The flames go out of shot and become unimportant - what IS important is the effect of the flames; the burnt, charred remains of the cards. I'm forced to look at them and forced to feel the sadness that i do. It's brilliantly executed.

I'm currently writing a research paper on the link between memory and objects and your work is exactly what i needed to keep getting inspiration. The human connection to objects is even more intense when you think of the act of burning something. It's symbolic to burn something and i can't think of anything more symbolic than burning cards!

If you haven't already guessed(!) i LOVE this piece. You asked for critique but i can't think of anything to critique other than a personal pet peeve of mine -large distracting watermarks. The more i look at this piece though, the more i can ignore the watermark and get lost in the textures of the burnt cards.

Brilliant job! Sorry i waffled on for so long, i've been writing a lot today and once i pop i usually can't stop!