This piece is to remind you of resilience, or toughness. Life is not a straight path and there come moments when the best you can do is endure. This requires bring out the fighter within you. It may also require you to stay focused.
Look out for the following objects in the video, which carry the symbolism as described below:
Light sources (light bulbs, lanterns, etc.): ideas that could help you get through the difficult times
Switched off TV screen with headphones over it: the feeling of emptiness
Guns, glasses and the helmet: self-defense mechanisms
Male and Female characters: your body (male character) and your soul (female character)
The inspiration for this composition was a discussion with the Composer Hans Roosenschoon, during which I presented to him some of my musical works, and also had a chance to listen to some of his unpublished works. I composed the piece the next day after the discussion. It was originally intended to be only the first sketch of the composition.
This piece signifies beauty of creativity. The video shows two contrasting characters, which represent the mind and the soul in a creative process. The roses are the creation. They appear in different color, form and contexts, to signify diversity of creation. Thus, the video provides a symbolic interpretation of the process and product of creativity.
Elaboration of some of the symbolism in the video:
The bud with the sun in the background shown at the start of the video represents an idea that starts the creative process.
The rose opening up, which is repeated three times in the video, represents the anticipation of the fulfillment, the fulfillment, and the reflection on the fulfillment of the creative process.
The first character, dressed in conservative clothes, symbolizes the mind. The second character symbolizes the soul. The first character is reserved in her display of emotions as well as in her interaction with the roses. The second character is spontaneous and emotional, who interacts more intimately with the roses and displays enjoyment in such interaction. These represent the rational approach of the mind and the contrasting intuitive approach of the soul in a creative process.
The first character wears black top throughout the video. The second character wears brighter tops. The first represents the critical approach of the mind and the struggles of the creative process, while the second represents the positive approach of the soul and the joy of the creative process. The positive/critical disposition of the soul versus the mind is symbolized also in the brighter lighting background for the second character versus the first character.
For the most part of the video the character representing the mind has roses separated in bottles in the foreground. This represents the attitude of the mind to concentrate on the details in isolation from each other. The character representing the soul is, in contrast, shown with a bucket of flowers. This symbolizes the holistic approach of the soul in the creative process. The single flower that the second character appears to have isolated from the bucket symbolizes the driving idea behind the creative process.
At the end of the video, the flowers in front of the character representing the mind are no longer separated in their bottles. Instead they appear lying in a heap in front of her, with one flower from the heap in her hands. This represents the conclusion of the creative process, when the mind dismisses the details and brings them all together, leading to the emergence of the contour of the bigger picture as a detail of its own.
Just before the last scene, the character representing the soul passes the single rose she is holding towards the screen. This symbolizes disengagement of the soul at the end of the creative process. In the final scene, however, the other character remains with the roses. For the first time here, she smiles, but momentarily, while smelling the flower she is holding. This symbolizes that what remains after conclusion of the creative process is just mental image of what has been created. The excitement has subsided and there is only one emotion left, the unique positive experience of the mind in the process, which lasts only for one moment, making that moment worth the creative process: the feeling of accomplishment.