In the final piece of my “Autumn Leaves Dress,” I’m sharing why I decided to name the dress “Ariya” and an amazing testimony about how things come full circle
Self-Portraits Series by Armenyl
Two years ago, in April, I wrote the story of Ariya: A young girl who struggled with appreciating her gifts and talents because at first, and in comparison to others, her gifts did not look like they would ever amount to anything. It was a story about believing in yourself and pushing even when it feels like nothing is changing:
“Be filled with passion for what is yours, be relentless and determined to see it out to what it can become.” — Let it Grow, Ariya
I can relate to this story because it was, in fact, the story of my life and even though I wrote it with a glorious ending I was in fact in the very beginning stages of Ariya’s struggles. The story was as a result written in anticipation. A hopeful but very predictive piece. I wrote it to encourage all who were working through the same challenges to believe in themselves and keep persevering. Today, even though I’m not all the way at the glorious ending of Ariya, I can say I’ve seen what it is like to see a seed of hope grow! When I created the dress that you see in these photos a year later, it was a just little dream that fell into my lap on one month and was created through perseverance the month after. I didn’t think it was possible to singlehandedly bring a dream like that to life: to create a dress right out of my imagination and photograph myself in it in a park full of people or even make a film from it, all by myself, in a matter of one week!
It just so happened to be that the dress I created was designed after a tree (the trees in the fall foliage) and in the story of Ariya (read here) her gift was also represented by a tree. I did not connect the two worlds until I started searching for a name for the dress and realized their parallelism; Not only in the symbolism of the tree but also in the manifestation of tapping into one’s gifts, being relentless and filled with passion to bring a dream to life! (read about the making of the dress here)
Today, one of the images from the self-portrait shoot hangs in a gallery representing creative artists in Baltimore! And while I’m still on the topic of connecting the dots, it feels amazing to share that I wrote Ariya’s story two weeks after attending a gallery event hosted by the same team of people who have now selected my work to be part of the 2019 gallery! I remember attending the event by myself, not knowing a single soul, but excited to connect with the creative voices in Baltimore and explore the city even better.
This is a celebration of Ariya’s story and a reminder to keep pushing and never give up! I can’t thank God enough for being the fire behind my perseverance and for making all this possible. He is the King I speak of in Ariya’s story and the answers He gives Ariya when she struggles are the very answers I’ve received from Him when I’ve wanted to give up!
I also want to say a very special thank you again to all of you for the kind feedback you’ve shared with me on this project! It means the world to me! If you haven’t seen it already I shared the film on my IGTV, and I’m working on creating a YouTube version to upload here soon!