The Wait

Shionae quietly slid behind the thin curtain separating her small sleeping quarters from the rest of the family she barely knew. The importance of privacy was second place in their small dwelling. Still, it was her engagement debut. A loud knock quickened her spirit as four women from the community stood waiting to enter.

The pomp and circumstance, in her mind, was an unnecessary ritual. Parading through the streets once decorated from one end of her body to the other was embarrassing.

The elder women's harsh scolding left tears hanging on her cheeks. Why hadn't she learned her fiance's traditions given the month of preparations?

In Shionae's opinion, she'd learn as time passed. And she knew her time in that strange land would see her death. As she also knew she'd never return across the stretch of water and set foot in her homeland. Her finance assured her of that.

This should have been a special day for her. Waiting for the past few years to be blissfully bonded to another for life. Love shared through the decades by two until that love culminated in their first child. A joyous occasion to grow old together with their offspring.

Many suitors patiently waited to ask for her hand. Her reputation and beauty spread far. But on the day she matured, the gods decided alternate plans that would shake the foundation of her dreams.

She was not to be the first. Nor second; nor third. She was to merely serve as waiter on the elder ones and sitter for the younger ones already occupying this house.

She stepped slowly from behind the cardboard divider. The oil felt packed like clay on her delicate skin, weighing her down. She looked ten years older than her youthful glow of thirteen.

For the next hour, the women worked diligently perfecting their own special magic. She had no say. Just as she had no say in her being there.

"What do you think? Proud of their work, it would have been disrespectful to voice her true feeling. So she lied.

With each lie told since arriving, she could feel her skin peeling ever so slightly. The feeling of hiding behind a feather must be buried deep.

So she knew she'd keep on lying the rest of her life. She'd keep on asking what did she do wrong to deserve this? No longer able to project herself into the future, she closed her eyes and allowed the tears to shed inwardly. She learned to perform this self-preservation in only one month.

She no longer waited for her family to change their minds and come rescue her from this bondage. She must gird up in the ways of a thirteen year old girl, now expected to be fully grown.

Shouts from outside signaling the proceeding was ready to begin, she walked slowly toward the front door.

Shionae had never wished to be rid of this life so soon. Today was the beginning as the entourage grasped her hand and guided her toward the middle of the road.

I enjoyed creating this fractal art project combining my pure fractals with a generative art program. The primary fractal resembled an accordion attached to a feather. I decided to create a mind bond that captured one's soul.

To complete this vision, I required a person. Rather than utilize an image on one of the free sites, I decided to create my own beautiful woman. I chose to create a woman whose mind would be bound by the feathered accordion. She would experience the strength needed to either break free of her bond or accept her fate and deal with the consequences. I hope the resulting generative art depicting a female with a somber look on her face satisfies this vision.

Deep Dream Generator was the generative art program I chose. I recently discovered that this program I've used for the past two years have now joined the ranks of other sophisticated stable diffusion art software.

Utilized the following text input, I was pleased with the result:

Text input:

Beautiful and surreal African American woman.*

Result:

Doesn't her expression look deep in thought? You can feel her eyes piercing you. The emotional plea just grabs you. I didn't specifically request her body be turned so her face could be seen at this angle. However, I was extremely pleased so that her mind imprisonment could be fully explored.

Finally, to add depth to my project, I included the additional pure fractals below. The veil I created earlier. I kept the fractal as I knew I'd utilize it as a background for my fractal projects to add an ethereal look but not overshadow the foreground view.

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Utilizing Canva, I was able to blend the fractals and the generative art.

Here is the final version:

Thanks for taking the time to view my post. I hope you like my fractal and generative art project.