the Three Great Stimulants

the Three Great Stimulants

This one had a long journey, not in the sense of time taken to get here, but from where it started to where it ended up. Originally, this shot was of a man in a grassy field with a wind farm in the distance. The color palette was warm tones of orange, and three wires were connected to his head from off camera.

What did any of that mean?

I didn't know then, and still don't, so I started it over. I then had him on a rock wall with the field still in the distance, this time with no wind farm and no wires. I had a soft, pastel purplish palette this time, and though I loved the colors, I still didn't know what this man was there for. I started to add all sorts of things coming from the top of his head - the pose seemed to demand something there, if anything was to be conceptual about this piece. At one point a camera was coming out, a tree, a projector, a light beam, smoke - none of it was doing much for me. I then decided to try dragon heads. A few months ago I bought a miniature Viking longship for another image called "the Passing of Kings." Viking ships sometimes had dragon heads carved into the bow and stern of the ship, so this was the bow of the miniature. I added two, and I immediately liked it. Not only did the colors match really well, but it gave the model shot all sorts of connotations: Viking, Greek myths…I had my object.

At this point in a process like this, where an idea forms by trial and error, I usually stop and go do some research. What about the dragons - what could any of this mean? For me, it's not enough to like something visually - that's just making pretty pictures - I need it to at least imply something thought out or meaningful, if only to me. After reading up on dragon lore, I decided that a more common and significant number of dragon heads would be three. Three is a magic number anyway, and I have referenced it often. Searching for Three Headed Dragon, I found a wealth of information.

Besides many myths about multi-headed creatures, there is also a reference to addiction recovery, with addiction being referred to as a "three headed dragon": a physical component, a mental component, and a spiritual one as well. My model seemed to be struggling or in pain, so this was encouraging. There is also, in drug culture, urban slang for a combination of three stimulants: crack, ecstasy and cocaine, I believe, that will allegedly give you the best 32 seconds of your life, but also they will be your last - it's usually fatal.

The idea of struggling with addiction, the three headed dragon both referencing the addiction itself and a notorious drug cocktail, seemed to be the way to go with this piece. But, that meant more revisions. Why would this person struggling with addiction be in a grass field - a pastoral setting with soft pastel hues and black birds fluttering about? The setting just did not seem to fit anymore, despite how much I liked it. Given that my dragons came from a model Viking boat, I decided to create an ocean setting and this felt better to me. There is a vastness, even a loneliness to the sea and for this man to be utterly alone struggling with his addictions, well, this seemed a good place to put him.

I then spent hours adding additional things: birds, lanterns, architectural features, but all of them ruined the mood. No, this man needed to be alone, and compositionally, it seemed a better call to keep the distractions down to a minimum and let him have center stage. It is a hard thing for me, to be minimal. I worry about the boringness of a minimal piece - is it enough? I try to add things to reinforce the concept, but in this case the solitary figure against the vast sea, alone and in pain, seemed to be all it wanted. Out went the birds, the trees, the city I briefly put into the distance. The lines of the piece, the dragons - they would have to do all the talking. I also got rid of the pastel palette and went with a more "nautical" blue scheme, for lack of a better term. As I normally favor a nearly monochromatic wash of color, I was eager to step away from that, so this one would be slightly more natural in color and variation.

All that remained now was a title. Three Headed Dragon is a little blunt and obvious, plus, apparently there is another urban use for the phrase having to do with a three person sexual position, so I did not want that connection to be here. That led me to a Joni Mitchell song called "the Three Great Stimulants. I thought this was a great title, and since the word stimulant is used, there is the connection to the drug reference and even one to the addiction reference. In the song however, the three stimulants in question are: artifice, brutality and innocence. Either way, I still had a great title that worked, and even a lot of open space for interpretation, always assuming these images will be seen without the accompanying notes like these.

A long journey indeed - perhaps twenty hours to complete over the last six days, but longer still was the journey from a confused, directionless picture to one that, again, at least to me, means something.

Model: Ben

A Before and After version of this image will be available on my Facebook page and my website:

www.facebook.com/MichaelBilottaPhotography
www.michaelbilotta.com