It is so critical to regularly view the work of other artists.  In this month’s Art Journaling, Ingrid Dijkers (whose work I have also long admired in 1000 Artist Journal Pages) features a pair of red-hot hands one each with polka dots and vining scrolls. The work is brilliantly done as a popping foreground and I wanted to try taking the hand with which I create art and recessing it a bit against the beauty of a classic auburned mom & baby.  

I’m working on a series about mothers, motherhood, and all that means for an upcoming art submission call in July or August for a women’s collaborative.  This is my first real attempt on the subject and it features three very cool personalized components:  a) an antique, vintage (reproduction) birth announcement from 1912 called “cradle roll”; b) my artist initials carefully embedded in the middle finger; and c) the phrase “Hands that held me have let go my hennaed heart” with my birth year and various important family dates on the left border.

When I began the piece, I had intended to make a statement about the Arab world, the Middle Eastern bride, and the establishment of the Arabian family.  I was going to dedicate it with a phrase that read something like, “For this I got married” — I’ve got another work you’ll be seeing shortly that has a fantastic image matching this phrase and I can’t seem to shake it from my consciousness.  It’s funny as you’re working along – especially when trying something new, how here and there it can an unexpected turn that is much more meaningful in the end.  

Thanks to Ingrid.  Next up is the feet!!  :)