New work for me

I had a beautiful comment from ODD IMAGINATION whose work I really admire. So I'm posting some of the paintings I've been doing to help relieve the stress I've been under over the last few weeks. Just wildly slapping on paint without a care about the outcome has been a great relief from the more intricate work I've done in the last ten years. I've always been one to carefully put the pieces together (see the mosaics in an earlier post) or more recently in my silverwork. So this period has freed me up to throw materials around and enjoy the process. So here goes...........

Not the best photos but I only have a camera on my phone at the moment and couldn't control the glare etc..





I'm going to try to get some photos of the brooches I've been making lately too. Recycled materials including shopping bags, old lace and feathers!!





My creative life has really kept me sane over the last couple of months while my daughter and I dealt with this.........
Sorry if you've got a weak stomach, this is my daughters femur and the rod is opening the gap in her bone that you can see on the xray. Amazing technology. And as I said before we have lengthened that gap to 5cm (2.5 inches) in about 38 days. But the worst is over and she should be walking within a month. Relief. So this friday I'm off for a massage followed by a facial and a few other grooming indulgences before a big night out with 800 or so friends (and strangers!!) What a treat.

Busy busy

This last 7-8 weeks has been a challenge and a blessing in disguise. Over this time my daughter, me, the doctors at the Children's Hospital and all the staff out there have managed to correct her leg defect and increase it's length by 5cms. It has involved a lot of pain, a lot of drugs, a lot of tears and some very big tantrums. That's been the challenge.





The blessing is that my daughter and I have grown so close. She trusts me implicitly to look after her best interests (even when I've had to be the one inflicting the pain!!) As a result I think we are so much closer than we would have been ordinarily. Some other blessings have been to watch her conquer something that would be challenging to most adults and still carry herself beautifully. Through all this she has still been a caring friend to her mates and shown concern for me as I struggled with caring for her, work and my life.





The personal blessings for me have been innumerable. Feeling the love of my close friends, especially Lou. Realising I had strengths I didn't think I had. A breakthrough in the way I've used my creative life to deal with the stress and the resulting work I've produced. A renewed sense of self. The list goes on and on.

I've included a pair of shoe inserts I painted before all this kerfuffle happened. I'm hoping to upload some other work I've done since in the next day or so I have a record of the change in my practices.

In the last weeks I've also been sewing clothes, making brooches, making stuffed toys (or softies as I've found out they are now called!!) and renewing some old clothes that needed changing. That's all happened between tears and exhaustion.

Life is definitely interesting!!