I cut up the group of 2"x2" drawings (see Dec. 18 blog entry) and handed them out as gifts to a group of art friends. While I was personally influenced by the Big Sur fire when I was drawing them, I also thought about this group of women and how we all go through difficult times in our lives, and the tools we use to keep from sinking into dysfunction or worse.
My husband read me a quote about how our country doesn't really know how to do grief. We expect our family, friends, neighbors to bounce back unharmed by traumatic change, and we are surprised and disappointed when it isn't so easy to achieve this cork behavior ourselves. These drawings describe thought/behavior tools that can help with buoyancy.
Francine Survilo wrote to me her thoughts about the drawing she received.
"I like the little ladder picture because of the idea of getting different air. I remember a time when my mom was having a terrible, upsetting time with her landlady trying to make her get rid of all her flowers and I was trying to help. We would both get so upset and then one day I drove us a couple of miles east
to the Baylands where we sat on a bench. After 2 or 3 minutes we both felt so much better - just light and free like our old selves. That's what I thought of when you talked about the different air up on the ladder."
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