Metamorphosis (change of form) the result of motion:

Dictionary: "The rapid transformation of a larva into an adult that occurs between tadpole and frog or between chrysalis and butterfly as via Latin from Greek: transformation, from Meta (change) plus morphē (form)."

Simply put: moth lays egg, worm emerges, worm eats leaves, worm spins itself into pupa inside cocoon, changes into moth, bores hole through cocoon, fly free into real air, lays .... Etc etc The eternal cycle of changing/moving/transforming:

"What is the theme that drives your life?"

So read the blurb promoting a writing workshop by Dr Dawn Garisch at Cape Town Summer School in 2010. Only recently, 2024-ish the penny dropped. In stages.

Shortly after the Summer School workshop, I found myself unconscious on the pavement of a Cape Town street. That happened to me not long after my escape from "dangerous" Johannesburg to live in "safe" Cape Town. My assailant approached from behind, as I was pausing for a moment to admire the mountain and blue blue sky. I had reached the top of a small staircase connecting Waterkant with Strand Street. I sensed someone up close and half turned with a smile, which froze as two elbows pinned my arms tightly to my sides while an experienced finger on my throat, blocked breathing. As my knees gave way, I knew I was dying, but still appreciated the gentle care with which my body was laid out horizontally on the ground. When I came too, gazing in wonderment at the cloudless, Gauteng-like blue sky above. What am I doing lying here?! Memory hoisted me onto my feet. No backpack! My purse?! Unable to produce more than a scratchy,"Help!", I staggered down the few steps to see a commotion of security guards on walkie talkies shouting running. A woman recognized my bewildered look as the victim of the attack, put her arm round me. "Don't worry, my husband has joined the chase by car ... ! Ah, he dropped the bag. He got away. Your bag will be back. here.

Thanking the runners with warm hugs, I wrote down their names and promised to thank them on Facebook. The response from that posting was overwhelming.

"You have to seek therapy!"

"No, Im' fine, I don't feel anything,"

"That's exactly why you need therapy... so THAT you can FEEL and DEAL with the shock, repressing a huge shock comes back to you as a monster ..."

Therapy came to me in a strangely, serendipitous way. The synchronicity of it, still fills me with more than a sense of wonder. Similar to the syncing of different events that lead to my changing my career from arts writer to maker of art after I had landed in my new home in Cape Town, from Johannesburg (see About Bettie on this website: https://bettieclphotography.com)

At the time of the attack, I had just started my first course in conceptual photography, and was about to begin searching for willing models for an assignment, not long after the writing workshop with Dawn. The night before the attack I had reached the chapter in her memoir dealing with trauma-therapy, more specifically Creative kind of therapy, in stead of hours in a psychologists chair. That's where I put my place marker before switching off the light. Then the attack.

I called Dawn

"Dance it", she said.

So why not combine my creative photographic assignment with trauma-therapy? Clumsy attempts with my camera (before the days of Selfies with a mobile phone) did nothing to plunge me into my sub-conscious where the shock and horror of the attack was hiding.

I called Dawn again. She is not only a medical doctor but also a writer of novels and a prize-winning poet.

"Please help me my assignment which may also be my way of applying your Creative Trauma-therapy method I had read about in your memoir.

What about You dance one of your poems for my camera? A specifically sad one.

"I have never done something like that before! But why not?!

Through my lens, I identified with the pain expressed in Dawn's movements. It brought me to tears and I had to stop weeping. The result of this collaborative experiment I handed in as my assignment in the form of a self-published book, Dance IT.

Recently I read The Light You Cannot See, by Anthony Doerr. It pricked the memory of my collaborative project with Dawn so many years ago, and prompted an immersion into my, by now, quite extensive photo-archive.

Spending time re-looking at one's own work, you notice a theme emerge.

I recognized the focus on Motion, on Change on Distortion of shape. Whether this happens through using slow shutter-speed on my camera (which shows movement and distortion of shape) or through the way different lighting conditions transform an object or a landscape into something surreal. Constantly new to the eye, as dark moves into light and colours change. Metamorphosis.

Thank you Universe for supplying a traumatic event at the right time.

I have discovered the answer to: WHAT IS THE THEME/CONCEPT THAT DRIVES YOUR LIFE?

Quotes from Doerr:

"Sublimity is when one thing is about to become something else..."

 And :"A real diamond is never perfect."

Quote from Martinus Nijhoff:

"Lees maar, er staat niet wat er staat"