Hello, hello...yes, I am still here! I know it's been awhile, but I needed a little blogosphere break. Easing into the fall schedule hasn't been as easy as I had anticipated (I think my brain is still in summer). Plus, it feels like my visual mind is in sleep mode because all I want to do is think. Just think. Normally I'm like a sponge soaking up the visual world, but for the last couple of weeks all I've wanted to do is just be with my thoughts. Call it a visual vacation...call it musing...call it doing nothing. Either way, I needed the break. I've always been big on contemplation, but I found that after my Mom passed away is was easier to turn on the TV or get lost in something else instead of facing my thoughts. I'm slowly realizing it's important to embrace and be with those thoughts (good or bad) than to set them aside. It's painful, terrifying and empowering at the same time. How do you face your thoughts?
Let's start back with more inspiring and thought provoking work by my new favorite artist, Ali Naschke-Messing. I gushed over her Threadworks and continue to be in awe over how powerful her work is through simple notions like shells, cloth and thread.
Link - Ali Naschke-Messing
Friday, September 24, 2010
Just Think
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6 comments:
I have to admit I did the same thing after my mom passed. I now refer to it as the lost year. I also found that I required a lot of thinking time before I started making art again. The most important part is not making yourself feel guilty about taking that time. For yourself. I'm sorry for your loss. Best of luck, and welcome back.
It takes a year of sad anniversaries and holidays for the anniversary of her passing to be made real - your memories are going to be on random repeat, even when you try to ignore them.
Thinking is good, and keep your camera handy. My brother and I have photographs of pecan groves and rock formations in the desert, to remind us of the week-end just after our mother died. Nearly every photo I took that next year remind me of my mother, somehow.
I think what you have been going through is healthy and you were wise to let yourself take that visual break and go inward. Losing a parent is a journey of it's own, and almost 8 years after my father passing, I still go through those introspective periods.
Turning inward is a good thing. I get that way every few months. I always have. Sometimes my thoughts are easier to deal with than others. I agree that it is terrifying at times but it is always empowering.
Couldn't agree with you more. It's lovely to have to here, but it's even better to spend time with those around you :)
I can't tell you how much I understand what you're going through. One of my best friends past away in an accident two weeks ago & it brought back so many memories of my mama's death four years prior that I had pushed out of my head. so I was telling my husband just the other day that I feel it's easier this time around to deal with my friends passing because I allowed myself to grieve & to remember all the amazing memories, & all the sad ones, & look at photos, & cry my heart out whenever the wave came over me, & I called friends to talk about memories. I feel like I'm dealing with it still in cycles, but so much better letting yourself remember, otherwise you process in your dreams, or at work, or in the middle of a strange moment where you don't feel comfortable feeling sad. So don't worry about taking time to do that, you are doing the right thing & you will feel better! There is no wrong way to process!
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