Letting Go of the Bay Leaf: Easter

Showing posts with label Easter. Show all posts

Sunday, April 17, 2022

Mosaic Monday #174: Daily Drawing Challenge for Lent

Happy Easter, everyone! Lent has drawn to a close, and for me and #1 Daughter, that is a literal statement. You see, we took on a daily drawing challenge for Lent! A period of time when Christians focus on spiritual purification, meditation and penance, Lent typically lasts 40 days, not including Sundays, based on the 40 days Jesus fasted in the desert before starting his ministry. I asked #1 Daughter to consider something we could do together during Lent, and she came up with the idea of the drawing challenge. We settled on 45 days, and she pulled from several Pinterest sources to compile the prompts. And off we went!

These 45 days have brought laughter, amazement, and learning. I asked #1 Daughter to make some observations, and she knew full well I would share them here!

I can commit to something daily, if I really put my mind to it. This honestly surprised me. I thought I would struggle to find the time each day to sit down and draw (and trust me, there were days that I did struggle or got swept up and completely forgot). On those days, I felt horrible, but had to give myself grace and tell myself it was okay. I have always been afraid to do something like bullet journaling because it requires daily sitting down to journal. I always believed I wouldn't have time for that.

It has been wonderful knowing that I will hear from her every single day. But it's fascinating how that expectation can make a Mom worry. We agreed that we would not send each other photos of our drawings until both of us were done. No copying, or influence, allowed! Given that #1 Daughter works full-time, and lives in an Eastern Time Zone, I knew that I would typically finish first, and would hear from her in the early evening. This pattern was well-established after a week or so, when one evening came and went without a text, I worried!!!

#1 Daughter is a natural artist; me? Not so much. (She drew "Milkshake", "Garden Tools" and "Sea Monster". I think you can figure out the rest of her work from here.) Where did she get this talent? Even when I look at a real object, I struggle to recreate it. We agreed (with a few pre-approved exceptions) that we would draw from memory. It was amazing to me how often I could not conjure an image in my mind of objects that I have seen thousands of times. As I read somewhere lately, you have to see it to draw it! I also had to work on my competitive nature -- it would have been easy to be jealous of her skills! (Most of the time) I focused on improving my abilities! We both agreed that there are prompts we would like to re-do when the challenge is over.

My Mom is SO creative and her drawing has improved SO much since she first started.

Some words/phrases prompted immediate ideas, but I tried to go beyond the obvious. One example is Overgrown; my favorite is Evening Drink.

It was amusing that one time, we drew almost the same picture! (The prompt was "Exhausted".)

I also found that I tend to "see" scenes rather than just the object that is represented by the prompt. Or maybe this is just my way of hiding my inability to draw a certain object by giving the viewer lots of distractions!

For the drawing itself, I'm a very literal person. I don't often stray from the drawing prompt or draw additional items. You want a plant? I'll draw you a plant. Nothing more, nothing less. Even on some of my more creative drawings (ie. "Rain" prompt - rain coming from under an umbrella with clouds on it), I still almost always started with the item in the prompt or something closely related to it. I find the times I have the most fun doing it were on weekends when I had a whole day to take my time and enjoy it. To me, this is very apparent in the "Summer Fair" prompt. It started with the Woodstock sign, then the trees, then the guitar and then the posters on the tree. Because I had time to build it and stare at it and let my creativity flow with ideas.

One of the things I have learned from my daughter in the last 45 days is the value of sketching. I tend to try and draw perfectly from the first line - and how often does that happen? But even after I am done sketching, I like to convert that pencil drawing into something permanent. I use markers of various widths to create emphasis, as needed. I like to use color in my pictures, but sometimes I think the simplicity of the black and white is part of the message.

Many of my drawings are in pencil. Sometimes this was intentional, sometimes I was too lazy to color it in, sometimes I just fell in love with how the drawing looked in pencil only, sometimes I was afraid coloring it in would ruin it. I think this is due to my limited color pencil collection and I have taken a vow to change that. Aside from pencil and colored pencils, my other medium was gel pens. I loved using a simple black outline to make a drawing pop (the "Music" and "Architecture" prompts are favorites of mine, you can also see my first attempts at this in the "Overgrown" and "Camera" prompts where a thin sharpie didn't quite cut it), but I also loved the crisp clean sticker-like feeling the gel pens gave me. The "Lantern", "Rain", and "Freedom" prompts are good examples of this.

The drawing journey also brought home the joy of shared experiences. More than once, we each drew an object/scene that we knew would have meaning for the other. At times it was amusing, even eliciting a full belly laugh. Some drawings documented family memories, and I was touched to know that my daughter still finds them meaningful.

But the best of all was to hear this from her:

I love my mom. She makes people feel loved through her drawings.

A fitting summary for Lent: it is all about Love. #1 Daughter - thanks for the idea of the drawing challenge, and bringing a new element to this period of meditation and renewal. I love you so much!

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I am taking a break next week; please come back for Mosaic Monday on May 1.

Mosaic Monday

Welcome to Mosaic Monday, a weekly meme where we get together to share our photo mosaics and collages.

Please include at least one photo mosaic/collage in your post.

The link will be open from 1 p.m. Sunday until 11 p.m. Tuesday (U.S. Mountain time).

Remember to add the link to your Mosaic Monday post and not the one to your blog.

Please link back to this post so that your readers will be able to visit and enjoy more wonderful mosaics; taking the MM blog button from my sidebar is an easy way to link back.

As host I will visit every participant and leave a comment so that you know I stopped by.

Please try and visit as many other blogs as you can, especially those that join in later, so that everyone's creativity can be appreciated fully.

Thank you for joining in today and sharing your mosaics with us.

Sunday, May 2, 2021

Mosaic Monday #129: Under the Weather

I need a distraction. I had my second COVID shot yesterday, and I am racked with chills, a headache and a tight feeling across my chest. I have no appetite, much less a desire to write a blog post right now. Also, it has been a tough week for other reasons that I am not prepared to write about at this moment. But maybe focusing on something other than my symptoms would be beneficial. This might be a short post, or maybe I will get a second wind.

Don't get me wrong - I am glad that I got the shots; Spousal Unit and I have already invited a group of vaccinated friends over for a dinner party in May, just a couple days after the two-week mark. Life might just be getting closer to normal.

Not only can we resume social activities, but we can also return to church. While I have enjoyed the flexibility of "attending" Mass at several different churches for the last year, it is not the same as being present with the faith community and receiving Communion. During April, I helped with decorating the church for Easter. I love these arrangements.

It's a rare post of mine that doesn't have food photos, and I think Debbie only reads my posts for the food! Head Chef frequently makes stir fry, and he is always trying it new ways, such as this recipe with the fried egg rolled and sliced on top. So good!!!

In an effort to give Head Chef a break from the kitchen, I have been cooking once a week. In the throes of the preparation, I don't always remember to take pictures!

Thanks to Jan for the Mushroom and Leek Casserole recipe. (We added chicken.)

My Dear Neighbor Friend gave me a recipe for Cheeseburger Soup. I made it for movie night; tastes just like a cheeseburger! This time of year at the farm is all about new life. If you need a top up on your cuteness meter, just spend some time around baby chicks and baby goats (I also wrote about this in my last post). Since then, DNF took some pictures of me with the goats. Awww ....

As Spring asserts itself with dominance, it seems odd to think that we were still skiing three weeks ago. April 12 was Employee Ski Day at Whitefish Mountain Resort; for many of us, who played a role as mask enforcers throughout the season, it was a delight just to let it rip and have fun!

Easter seems eons ago; it was fun to have #1 Son search for plastic eggs around the house! We both strongly embrace our inner child!

And if you needed more proof, here is #1 Son with one of his birthday presents -- he still loves to construct Legos!

My older brother also celebrated a birthday this month, and I sent him this hand-made card. The hot air balloon theme reflects his love for all forms of flying (refer to this post for more info.)

As I wrap up this post, it is 24 hours since I began, and I am feeling much better. I might even have the energy to get out in the garden a bit today. So, I will leave you with some wildflower photos that were taken on a recent walk with Dear Neighbor Friend. I hope all is well in your world!