What if we just Honor the Struggle?

What can you do really?

Just go and adjust your expectations I say to myself. And I have become so much aware of the struggle as ever present.  Life.  Like weathering a storm.  And how shortsighted it is to look at others as if they have been blessed with none.  Everyone has a story.

I guess about 3-4" of snow that accumulated through yesterday. 16 degrees this morning. It won't last. But then again we might say that about everything.

This is , again, such a good exercise...

Design Mending, intentional or not, which in fact for me is part of just going.

is that fac too big?

a stray April Self

And this paper, it distorts too much with the wetness of watercolor.  And so I know now, that's helpful.

Sun's out.

the tail

Birds are singing.

 

by on
Categories: design mending, Joodle HIll, just going, PAPER WORK, Season, Stray Selves Series, weathering a stormTags: , ,
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42 comments

  1. Susan

    I love the dress. The color and the dots look like easy spring to me with the green background. Slowly getting to spring. The feather and the feet are awesome too.

  2. Judith

    Sometimes you just have to keep that tail tucked in.
    I’m finding the older I get the more accepting I am of myself. No longer the perfectionist. Probably because my body isn’t capable of perfectionism anymore and that’s ok.

  3. Mary S

    Jude, my life would be so much lonelier without your offerings. I love your images & words – hover over them to get the fullness of possibility contained in a few letters. Yes we all struggle (not a good day today) & lurch but are here still, sharing. Love the image & the feather & the tail. Bless you for being here with me in my heart.

  4. Louise

    Oh Jude, I know that paper well! I had a small sketchbook that was made of it and I hated it. It sort of resisted the ink I was using, but then would suddenly absorb the moisture and look patchy and horrible. I persevered for a whole and then decided life was too short and used a nicer sketchbook😄. Love the colours of your image. Great idea to use the acrylic.

  5. Janice P

    Brilliant drawing Jude!
    The eyes are very powerful- wanting express something beyond the pages of an open heart. The face understands the eyes’ struggle for words and hints to communicate with a vague peace symbol and muted clock face possibly suggesting time for peace?
    And then there’s the peaceful slippered feet. It’s time.

  6. Judy

    I so your thought processes, they’re as compelling for me as the fabric work. She’s adorable and her feet are indeed perfect as are Soul-o’s toes.

  7. Pam S.

    Love how your stray self paintings have so much life in them! Makes me happy to see them, and thankful you share your thoughts 💙

  8. My mom was an excellent gardener. Master class without any credentials, but she was also a bit of an annoying pollyanna. Not necessarily an optimist, she turned a blind eye to a lot of stuff that drove us mad (much like her yellow lab Sandy who always closed her eyes when we were yelling at her). That said, sometimes Alice’s philosophy worked, like when we had a spring snow, after we were quite over the business of winter and sick of it. She would chipperly pipe up that it was a sap snow, the most important snow for minerals in the earth blah blah blah. It helps to look at it that way and even today I don’t begrudge an April snow. I know it is no comparison to the amount you got, but I had popped a lot of houseplants outside during our very recent 70 -80 degree weather. They had gotten ants and I was happy to put them in the flower bed. Last night it went down to 28 so everybody, ants and all, had to come back inside. Quite annoying… and no real sap snow to appreciate either. Just a cold drizzle. Today is it supposed to warm up considerably maybe 60.

    Funny how the weather matches the dynamics in the US lately first its wayyyy up then waaaay down. No wonder we all have a fricken headache.

    But it does make for ideal studio time. Love these new works you are making. Like the sap snow, maybe all this yo-yoing is good for something.

    PS Love the feet!

  9. Tina

    This post really speaks to me. I get it about the fear factor, and I also remember a past post where you mentioned something like losing interest sometimes and maybe this is a new beginning an excitement of a different kind? I applaud your perserverance.

    Its hard to dampen our inner critic sometimes and when I look at this watercolor I see beauty, finesse and meaning. It is fabulous.

  10. Barbara West

    The paper may be problematic, but the painting is marvelous. I especially like the blowing hair and the slight pigeon-toeing of her feet.

  11. Jude~ Good morning 🙂 That is some snow! The tail and the lil nails! lol
    What I noticed was that in re-drawing, the placement of the face and its expression changed and that changed the mood of the being so much (for me). But, for whatever reason, what really grabbed me was those lil feet in their mummy like shoes. Toes pointed in slightly, reflects a certain vulnerability to me. Lastly, your learning process is interesting to hear.

  12. debbie

    Jude, you are brilliant. Thank you for sharing your thoughts on this one. Until I listened, I did not get the idea of opening a book to find a heart. I had immediately captioned it as “I’ll show you my heart if you show me yours” as if you were opening up to expose your deeper self. You know, like super(wo)man opening her street clothes to show her true identity.

  13. Oh I love that painting so much! 🙂 Wise words too. Birds singing here too, heavy frost and 30 degrees but it is going to be gloriously sunny. Planning on sitting outside this afternoon, maybe a tiny bit of pruning. Just going…

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