For Those Who Fall Overboard at Mid-Life

That's you in the ship.

The first ship.  

Poor sap.  

You've been sailing along the surface of life
for decades

not knowing what is churning below the waterline.

What needs your attention.
What needs to be fed.
What needs to be healed.

You're going down my friend.

The old you is going to die.


Not everyone seems to have a mid-life crisis 
but I certainly did.  I felt as if I was shattering
into large chunks. And to my embarrassment 
dropping them everywhere I went.
Like Humpty Dumpty I couldn't put myself
together again.

Eventually the chaos did clear somewhat 
and I've found the second half of life to be 
a fertile, creative and spiritual country full 
of endless possibilities. 

And wrinkles.  :)

Women's Travelling Art Journal II

 I decided today would be the day I prepared the paper.

First the India ink.

Next came the gel.  

I've found if I put this down I can actually erase if I make a mistake. I sketch whatever I'm doing with a neutral coloured oil pastel so the pictures are usually big - I'm already wondering how I'm going to work so SMALL.

eek

After the glaze it was time to measure - and that's when I found this!

Messages!  

Secret letters from one woman to the next.  I can't look at them now as my hands are all mucky but I can't wait.  Notes of encouragement and good will I'm sure!  

Ana this is a marvelous experience, can't thank you enough for being the one to set it n motion!

My new canvas is sitting on the left next to a picture I have been working on off and on for awhile.  

Quite a difference in size.

eek (again)

Four more days.

This will be interesting!

Bee Cause

This picture started out full of symbols of creativity.

I was thinking of calling it "Birthing Instructions for the Post Menopausal Woman." 

But then I heard more bad news about the bees and my picture started to change.  The tiny passage to the womb closed - you can see it in the bottom right.

Three bees became impaled on the spikes that protrude from the fish. 

Mother is suffering.


I've seen one honey bee this summer.


***

Feed Me! Feed Me! Feed Me!

I'm being held captive by the image of a lactating serpent.

Not only is It lactating, It is producing more milk than the three bird-headed Venus figures can swallow.

And the serpent is aggressively protecting Its nest.


I have the feeling that I'm looking in a mirror.

The Insane and the Dead

Since I posted the image of myself with a blind fish on my head I've been wanting to revisit the idea.

I mean I knew it was on my head - but not 100% sure what its job was.

Now that I've had a chance to get another look at the image I can see that it appears on the heads of other people, too.

Who knew!

These three 'fools' think they are free.

But the blind fish, which cannot see or feel, is what keeps them bound to the conventions of their social group.  

It is born of fear.

Its job is to suck up truly creative thoughts, digest them and shit them out as something palatable to society (or their particular sub-culture in society).

Sometimes it seems the only people truly free to explore their creativity are the insane and the dead.