The official definition of sorrow is a feeling of deep distress caused by loss, disappointment, or other misfortune suffered by oneself or others. For me, sorrow feels like a deep, heavy pit within my stomach, and it almost feels like that pit is a vacuum sucking out all of the air from my lungs. Sorrow makes me feel as if I am suffocating. I am not much of an artist, but I tried to draw what I felt sorrow looked like.
I think, ultimately, that sorrow is really the difference between light vs dark. The light side of the drawing represents life, joy, and being content. The dark represents depression, suffocation, and isolation. Sorrow can be such an overpowering feeling because of the weight of the darkness. As you can see by the torn paper in my drawing, there is also a bit a frustration and anger within sorrow. It almost feels as if that darkness is creeping into and starting to overpower the light.
The best photo that represents how I believe sorrow can make someone feel is above. It looks as if she is drowning under water and there is thin ice or glass preventing her from coming up for air. To be quite honest, I know the feeling of sorrow and depression all too well, and I try really hard to move through these emotions as quickly as possible. It is far too easy to get stuck within that darkness and suffocation.
As many others do, I like to use art as a way to help move through my sorrow. My go-to for achieving catharsis used to be dance. I am honestly trying to figure out how to achieve catharsis through lighting design. I think the most difficult thing is the availability of lighting design, especially now when everything is shut down. My brain is telling me that it isn't that easy to create a lighting design outside of a theatre. I suppose there is photography and filmmaking, but I don't feel I know enough to actually achieve catharsis through those mediums.
I mostly enjoy lighting design for the escapism. I can create the feeling of deep sorrow and isolation with lighting far easier than I can draw it. What is even better, is I do not have to sit in the sorrow that I created with lighting. I can just keep moving through it.
Very nice post and connection to how you could represent it in light. I, personally feel that lighting expresses our feelings more than other design disciplines but I am biased :) We will get there and you will be able to take all of this bottled up art and express it through light. In the meantime, learning new mediums will only make you a better lighting designer.
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