Thursday is the Spring or Vernal Equinox - this is a time associated with "The Greenman" and above is a picture that I did some years ago.
The original drawing was based on my middle son, when he was a teenager, and this son has also been on my mind these past few weeks, as his wedding takes place over the Easter weekend.
The original drawing was based on my middle son, when he was a teenager, and this son has also been on my mind these past few weeks, as his wedding takes place over the Easter weekend.
I think that part of my reluctance to be in the studio this past month is to do with my feelings around my sons wedding.
Or let me re-phrase that my feelings around becoming a "Mother in Law"!
Two of my sons are getting married this year. For the past month - I have not set foot in the studio - but I have been tending my garden like there is no tomorrow.
I love my two new daughter-in-laws-to-be. I am overjoyed that my sons are getting married and I am just so proud of all my children and their partners.
Yet somehow these imminent weddings have affected me more than I knew.
I thought I had embraced my age and in some ways I have - apart from the occasional moan about the fact that various parts of my body seem to be hurtling towards the ground - Gravity has a strange effect on the over 50's!
However at another level - I know these weddings are also a milestone in my life, and for the past month I have been in the grey time, the liminal phase of neither here nor there. Somehow, not the same mother I was - and - not yet the Mother in Law I will become.
Tending the garden has been my metaphorical rite of passage - cultivating the soil, pulling the weeds and moving stones. A way of separating from the Mother I was, actively nurturing my children (Although in truth - I have not had to do this for a few years) and moving towards the Mother I will become.
Now - I send them joyfully into this new and exciting phase of their lives, while I take my new place as the "Mother in Law"
Or let me re-phrase that my feelings around becoming a "Mother in Law"!
Two of my sons are getting married this year. For the past month - I have not set foot in the studio - but I have been tending my garden like there is no tomorrow.
I love my two new daughter-in-laws-to-be. I am overjoyed that my sons are getting married and I am just so proud of all my children and their partners.
Yet somehow these imminent weddings have affected me more than I knew.
I thought I had embraced my age and in some ways I have - apart from the occasional moan about the fact that various parts of my body seem to be hurtling towards the ground - Gravity has a strange effect on the over 50's!
However at another level - I know these weddings are also a milestone in my life, and for the past month I have been in the grey time, the liminal phase of neither here nor there. Somehow, not the same mother I was - and - not yet the Mother in Law I will become.
Tending the garden has been my metaphorical rite of passage - cultivating the soil, pulling the weeds and moving stones. A way of separating from the Mother I was, actively nurturing my children (Although in truth - I have not had to do this for a few years) and moving towards the Mother I will become.
Now - I send them joyfully into this new and exciting phase of their lives, while I take my new place as the "Mother in Law"
This is work in progress that I started to-day. It is going to be composed of fragments. Fragments that I have saved over the years - from pieces that didn't work out, experiments, bits that I liked - but never got around to working into a picture.
Perhaps another metaphor for where I am just now.
