08.19.10

I have been painting and working on some very personal pieces that I don't want to share here just yet. Maybe never? I don't know. Sometimes paintings for those grieving feel so personal, and I feel protective of the subjects and the people receiving them. But I have been painting. Everyday. I feel much more confident in my stroke. I love the feeling of confidence in myself. It is such a fleeting feeling some weeks, but this week is here.

For some reason, today, I kind of want to share some of my inspiration here. This picture is of the wall behind my drawing table. For some reason, when I look at any one of these pieces, it makes me feel something, which is why it ended up on my wall.

 I will start at the top left corner, which is a photograph called The Mummer by Thomas Dodd. He is an amazing photographer. I live outside of Philadelphia, and we have a Mummer's parade every New Year's Day and for some reason, I was drawn to the creepy ethereal quality of this piece. Is this a child? A woman? A man? An adult? I don't know. Magic. The next piece going clockwise is a picture my daughter drew. Beatrice is three years old. 3.4 as I like to say.  Three years and four months, and for the last few months, her painting and drawing abilities have really exploded. I have been hanging her work on the wall behind my drawing table. She explained this piece like this, "This is a chef. A mean chef. No one will come to his restaurant. That is why he is so grumpy." The next piece is hers too. It is explained this way, "This is a picture of the rain and a picture of me grumpy because I don't like the rain. And I am in my house and there is the rain spout outside our window." The next piece was a poster I ordered off of Etsy by Please Be Still Jen. I actually exchanged some emails with her when I ordered it because I blogged about it. I had just found out I was pregnant after my second daughter's death and was so friggin' anxious, and I ordered it and move it around my house to the room I use most. I also took some photographs of myself with this poster. I put it below. Alright going around in a circle. My daughter's painting of a pink alien, which is about the cutest alien ever. The next piece she did too. She traced her hand, then drew a picture of her face smiling and saying Hi. I love that she came up with the idea to do this all by herself. I thought it was quite clever. The next piece came in Please Be Still Jen's package with the poster and it is a postcard that simply says, "You are Lovely." To which I reply every morning when I sit down, "Why, thank you." And about that is a beautiful postcard that Rachel made for me of my daughter's Lucia's name. It just brings her into this space and Rachel made this out of the blue for me, which touched me beyond words. And the last piece I ordered off of Red Bubble from Mother Henna's site. It is just so beautiful and I love her. Kara is an inspiration and so is her little geisha.

So, what are your inspirations? I would love to see your inspirational pieces in your art creation spaces. Link below.