Lycan
by Robin Rivers
14x18” Mixed media photography on wood
Origin Story:
I’d gone out just after a massive morning downpour, wanting to photograph the 1000-year-old stone pond with the lavender grey rainclouds still in tact.
This pond is amazing. It literally transforms with the weather. If you are paying attention, it tells its own stories loud and definitively. At that moment, the upper floors of the château appeared like dark, looming shadows in the reflection of the water. Everything had taken on the violet of the clouds and burgundy of the lily pads. The trees, still naked and spiny, dominated in the reflections in the lens of my camera. I even tested out some homemade filters to get a milky light over the top of the dark castle. Like a gothic horror scene come to life.
Suddenly, I remembered a novel I wrote years ago. Gothic. Dark. Set in France of course, where a woman discovers the truth about the Beast of Gevaudan. It was in the early stages of me sorting out long-form writing and very raw in terms of quality. I finished it, but knew it wasn’t ready. So, it sat for 11 years in a digital file, waiting. At that moment, the creature seemed to have risen for me right there not too far from its original French habitat.
More than a month later, as the collage came together, the gothic scene emerged again. I tried a bunch of configurations, wanted a sci-fi element, so Ken brought up fractals. Perfect with the trees. I laid the yellow lichen down the middle. The name bubbled up - Lycan (werewolf).
I love this piece. It layers the same medieval stained glass patterns I’ve been working with alongside literary allusions (Poe’s Fall of the House of Usher), gothic symbolism and the science of fractals. Every photo in it is from that single photo session in March.
Water as witness to the transformation. Quiet, inevitable.